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Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the HaloITSM platform

Guides > Customer, Site and User Records

Customer, Site and User Records

In this guide we will cover:

- How to Navigate to the Customers area

- Creating a New Customer

- Customising which tabs show under a customer/site/user

- The Different tabs found within a Customer



Associated Administrator Guides:


The Customers area in Halo is used to store information about your customers, sites and users as well as set some customer/site/user specific settings and preferences. In this lesson we will delve into the functionality of this area. 



Navigating the Customer's area

To access the customer list we must first navigate to the customers area via the navigation bar on the left hand side, this is indicated by the person icon, shown in figure 1.

Fig 1. The Customers Area


This area is labelled 'Customers' by default (the default may vary depending on the Halo product you are using) but this can be changed. To change this head to configuration > users > general settings and enter the desired label for this area in the field 'Label for the Customer/Site/User management area'. 


Next click onto "Customers" (this will probably be the default view already) this screen provides an overview of your customer records. You can search your existing records or create new ones here:


Fig 2. The Customers List


It should be noted that you can search on the address when searching for clients/sites. Clicking into an existing customer record will take you to the screen below.

Fig 3. The Details Tab on a Customer


By default customer, sites and users are all stored under the 'Customers' module, however, if you would like them split out into their own modules enable the setting 'Split the Customers area into Customers/Sites and contacts' under configuration > users > general settings. 


Creating a New Customer 

Clicking new on the customer records screen (which is accessed by pressing new in the upper right of the inner window), takes you to a blank customer record to fill in. Here you are asked to provide details of the main site, any associated notes, their timezone and a main contact for them. 


Fig 4. New customer screen


Simply press save and you have created a new customer!


Screen Layout profiles can be configured to change what tabs show on your customers, to do this head to Configuration > Advanced Settings > Screen Layout Profiles > change entity to 'customer' > new.


Fig 5. New screen layout profile


Tabs can be dragged and dropped to change the order the tabs appear. To hide a tab edit the line and set it to 'hide'.

Fig 6. Tab layout


Editing each tab you can decide to hide tab or not


Fig 7. Show/hide tab setting


You can then go back to the advanced settings main page and select your new screen layout profile on the dropdown shown in figure 8. The profile selected here will apply to all agents, however this can be customised/overridden per agent under their agent preferences. 

Fig 8. Default screen layout profile for customers


Note: Screen layout profiles can also be customised for users and sites, just change the entity to 'user' or 'site' when creating the new screen layout profile. 


There are multiple tabs which all hold different information relating to the customer in question, we will go through what each tab is used for. 


Tabs Against customer/sites/users

Details Tab 
Delineates all the key information for that particular customer, for example their active status. This can either be displayed as it's own tab or be pinned to the right hand side of the screen. To pin this to the right hand side, head to configuration > advanced settings > see the setting 'Details screen display mode' and select 'Overview Tab as the first tab, pin Details to the right'. 
Fig 9. The Details Tab or Pinned Sidebar on a Customer

Overview Tab
This will show and 'overview' of the customer's/site's/user's activity, including the number of open tickets against the client in question. Fig 10. The Overview Tab


CRM Notes Tab
This will show you any notes held against that customer, these notes are typically created by the account manager. This is used to manage customer relations. For more information check out this guide: Using CRM Notes

Sites & Users Tab
This will show you a list of all of the customer's sites and users, from here you can also create a new site/user for that customer. You can toggle between viewing a list of the users or sites here using the toggle in the top left, shown in figure 11. Fig 11. Sites and Users View Filter


Selecting a user/site line will bring up the user/site profile. You can create a new user/site by using the 'New' button found on the top right hand side.


Hovering over the three dots in the top right corner will allow you to toggle between the views, you can choose between viewing sites/user in tile view or list view. Here, you can also toggle whether the list shows inactive sites and users.


Billing Tab
This tab will cover the customer specific billing features, along with the standard billing rules for the customer (this tab is only found against the customer). 


The first setting shown in figure 12 can be enabled to exclude this customer from accounting integrations i.e. Sage, Xero, Quickbooks Online, etc. When this is enabled information such as invoices and orders will not be pushed to the accounting integration, even if this customer has a linked account with the integration. The third party customer name will display the name of this customer as shown in the accounts integration. A default currency can be set per customer, for more information on currency settings, check out this guide on billing settings: Global Billing Settings.

Fig 12. The Default Billing Settings Found Within a Customer


The 'Tax settings' section will determine the tax rates used for this customer, this will override any product tax rates set. 


The 'PDF Templates' section allows you to choose the various PDF templates used for this customer, this will override any global settings. 


 A significant portion of the billing configuration in Halo relies on the billing rules associated to a customer, these determine how each action is billed i.e. what level of support is covered by an agreement vs what support is charged at an hourly rate on a PAYG basis. For information on how to set up billing rules check out the following: Billing Rules (Formerly Billing Plan Combinations). 

Tickets Tab

This tab shows all the tickets for this customer/site/user. The dropdown in the top left can be used to filter what tickets appear in this list. The three dots in the top right can be used to toggle the type of view used here, a custom column profile can also be configured and applied here. ]


The 'New' button can also be used to raise a new ticket for this customer. 

Fig 13. Tickets tab


When using this tab under a site or user this will only show the tickets for that site or user. 


Sales Tab

The opportunities tab is much like the tickets tab, however it only shows sales tickets. Sales tickets are defined by ticket types that have the 'Use' field set to be 'Sales'.


Appointments and Tasks Tab (Customer only)

This tab shows all the open/upcoming appointments and tasks that agents have with this customer. 

Fig 14. Appointments and Tasks tab


Selecting the appointment/task will open the appointment/task details and you will be able to edit it from here. 


Assets Tab

This tab will show all the assets under this customer/site/user, an asset can be selected to open up the asset profile in the Assets module. 


Using the three dots in the top right, the view of the asset list can be changed (between tile and table view). This list can also be exported to CSV and assets can be imported from here using a CSV file/spreadsheet. For more information on importing check out the following: Asset Import - CSV/XLS/Spreadsheet Method.

For more information on assets check out the 'Asset management' course, here is the introductory lesson: Introduction to Assets. 


Fig 15. Assets Tab


Activity Tab

This tab shows all the recent activity for this customer/site/user, this includes any new actions on tickets for this customer/site/user. The activity is sorted by time, with the most recent activity at the top of the list. Selecting an entry in the activity field will take you to that action on the associated ticket. 


Agreements Tab (customer and site only)

This tab shows all the agreements this customer/site has. New agreements can be created here using the 'New' button, site specific agreements (i.e. agreements that will be billed to this site) will need to be created under the site. For information on creating agreements see the following: Creating an Agreement/Recurring Invoice for a customer. 


Pre-Pay Tab (customer only)

Here, you can configure Pre-pay for this customer, Pre-pay is set on a per customer basis so for any customers using Pre-pay this needs to be configured here. For more information on setting up Pre-pay see the following: Pre-Pay.


Periodic History (customer only)

This shows the pre-pay history for this customer for each period (the period is determined by the 'recurring period' selected in the pre-pay tab). This includes the number of pre-pay units added, expired, used and how many remaining for each period. This area is useful in monitoring the customer's pre-pay usage, tracking patterns in usage so you can optimise their experience. For example, if the customer tends to use most of their pre-pay hours at the start of the quarter, and then none for the rest of the quarter you will know a 'Quarterly' recurring period will be more in line with their usage as opposed to monthly. 

Fig 16. Periodic History tab


Recurring Invoices (site and customer only)

Here, you can see all recurring invoices for this customer/site along with some key details on each recurring invoice. Agents who do not have permission to access invoices will not be able to see this tab. An invoice can be selected to edit it. New invoices (both standalone and recurring) can be created here using the 'New' button. For information on creating recurring invoices see the following: Recurring Invoices.


Invoices Tab (site and customer only)

Here, you can see all invoices for this customer/site, both paid and unpaid. Agents who do not have permission to access invoices will not be able to see this tab. An invoice can be selected to edit it. New invoices (both standalone and recurring) can be created here using the 'New' button. Invoices are rarely created in this way as items/labour being invoiced will almost always be linked to a ticket and are therefore created in the 'Ready for invoicing' area of the 'Invoices' module. For more information on creating invoices check out the following: Ready For Invoicing. 


Quotations Tab (customer only)

This tab will show all quotes for this customer, ordered by expiry date by default. The list can be filtered by each column by selecting the funnel in the column header, results can be sorted by a particular column by double clicking in the header for this column. 


The list can also be filtered to only show quotations assigned to you, hover over the three dots in the top right and select 'Show mine only' to do this. New quotes for this customer can also be raised here using the 'New' button but quotes are typically raised from the Quotes and Orders module or through an opportunity ticket. More information on raising quotations can be found here: Creating Quotations.


Sales Orders

This tab will show sales orders for this customer ordered by date by default. The list can be filtered by each column by selecting the funnel in the column header, results can be sorted by a particular column by double clicking in the header for this column. 


The list can also be filtered to only show sales orders assigned to you, hover over the three dots in the top right and select 'Show mine only' to do this. New sales orders for this customer can also be raised here using the 'New' button but quotes are typically raised from a quote in the Quotes and Orders module or through a ticket. More information on sales orders can be found here: Sales orders. 


Software Licences (customer and user only)

Here you can see all the software licences assigned to this customer/user as well as create new licences. Selecting a licence will allow you to edit the licence details. For more information on software licencing see the following: Software Licensing. 


Software History Tab (users only)

Here, you can see any changes made to a user's software, such as software added or removed.


Subscriptions (customer only)

Here you can see all the subscriptions assigned to this customer as well as create new subscriptions. Selecting a subscription will allow you to edit the subscription details. 


Documents Tab

Here you can manage documents for the client/site/user. For information on this see the following: Document Management for Customers, Sites and Users. 


Scheduled Tickets

Here you can see all the scheduled tickets that are due to be created for this customer.


Service Catalogue (customer and user only)

Here you can set which services this customer/user has access to. To give this customer/user access to a service add the service to the 'service access' table. 


You can also set which services this customer/user is subscribed to. To subscribe them to a service add the service to the 'Subscribed Service Catalogue' table. 


Knowledge Base Tab (customer only)

Here, you can see which knowledge base articles the users under this customer have access to. This is for reference purposes, to actually give/remove article access this will need to be done on the article itself. 


Settings Tab 

Here, you can customise the behaviour of tickets, billing and emails for each individual client. These are mostly self explanatory in their functions but we will run through a few of the key setting areas.


Popup notes - Here you can configure a pop-up note to appear for agents on this customer's/site's tickets. To do this add to the table and type the note you would like to appear in the 'Note' field. There are some additional settings against each note, such as the dates this note appears in and whether it can be dismissed permanently. 

Override Organisation details - If any of the fields are populated here, these will override the organisation level setting for this customer only. 

Email Defaults - Here you can set email defaults for this customer, these will override any global defaults set.

Knowledge Base - Here you can set FAQ lists that this customer can view. 


Under site settings you can set the domain name for a site, this should be the email domain users at this site have. This is used in conjunction with a couple of email settings such as 'Only send acknowledgements to email addresses that match a Site's domain name' (under configuration > email). In order for these settings to take effect a site domain needs to be set here.


API Access Tab (customer only)

Here, you can allow this customer access to Get and Post to your Halo API. Allowing them to create and manage tickets using your API.


Site Contacts (site only)

Here, you can assign users to be a site contact. Site contacts are used for notifications, notifications can be configured to send to the site contacts you set here, useful when you would like to only alert key users at a site to an event. For more information on setting up notifications see the following: Notifications. 


Change History Tab (users only)

Here you can see any changes made to this user's profile such as a preference or permission change. 


Preferences (user only)

Here you can set various preferences this user has, these are mostly self explanatory but we will run through some key preferences. 

Customer level notifications - This sections allows you to choose what notifications this user receives for customer level events. Useful if you would like certain users to be alerted to ticket activity for their customer.

Site level notifications - This section allows you to choose what notifications this user receives for site level events. 

Popup notes - Here you can configure a pop-up note to appear for agents on this user's tickets. To do this add to the table and type the note you would like to appear in the 'Note' field. There are some additional settings against each note, such as the dates this note appears in and whether it can be dismissed permanently. 

Approval Processes - Here you can set if this user can delegate approvals, if so who to. More information on approval delegation can be found here. 

Miscellaneous - Key setting here is 'linked agent', this is only used if this user is also an agent in your Halo. This determines the user account the agent will log in to the portal with. When creating a new agent profile they will automatically be created a user profile that is linked to their agent. This field is only used if you need to change the linked agent. An agent can be linked to multiple user profiles but will need  a unique log in for each one. 


Permissions Tab (user only)

Here you can set what they user has access to. We will run through some key permissions.

Web Access Level - This determines the tickets this user can see in the portal. If set to 'No access' the user will not be able to log into the portal. If set to 'This users tickets' they will only be able to view tickets they have raised in the portal. If set to 'Customers tickets' they will be able to see all tickets assigned to a user under the same customer as them, etc. 

Assets Access Level - This determines the assets the user can see in the portal. This works in the same way a 'web access level'. 

Service Access level - This determines the services this user can access, the user will be able to see services thathave the number chosen here, or lower, with 1 giving the highest level of access. A number will need to be assigned to each service to determine what service access level the service comes under. 

This User can partake in approvals - This does not need to be checked for a user to partake in approvals. However, when the approver in the approval process is set to be 'choose from a list of approver users...', only the users with this box checked will appear. 

This User is an important contact - When checked this user will have a star icon against their profile which will make them stand out to agents in ticket lists. 


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