The Contact Book in the CRM module is used to manage all people and companies your business interacts with, including potential customers, existing customers, suppliers, partners, and their respective contacts.

The Contact Book is divided into four main types of records:

Leads
Accounts
Contacts
Groups (for contacts)

Each type serves a different purpose in managing business relationships and sales activities.

Contact Book Structure

The relationship between these records is structured as follows:

Lead (Potential Customer)         ↓  Convert Account (Company / Organization)  ↓  Contacts (Person-in-Charge / PIC) ↓ Groups (Optional segments for contacts)

Types of Contact Book Records

1. Leads

Leads represent potential customers or prospects who have shown interest in your company’s products or services.

Leads are typically created when:

Someone submits an enquiry
A potential customer is identified during marketing activities
A salesperson finds a new prospect

Leads allow your team to track potential sales opportunities before they become actual customers.

Feature	Description
Purpose	Manage potential customers
Financial Transactions	❌ Not allowed
Typical Usage	Sales prospecting, lead tracking

Leads can store detailed information such as:

Contact details
Lead source
Lead status
Lead type

Once a lead becomes a confirmed customer, it can be converted into an Account.

2. Accounts

Accounts represent companies or organizations that your business interacts with.

These may include:

Customers
Suppliers
Partners
Distributors
Competitors

Accounts are the main entities used for financial transactions in the system.

Feature	Description
Purpose	Manage companies, organizations or customers
Financial Transactions	✅ Allowed
Typical Usage	Quotations, order acceptances, delivery orders, invoices and receipts

3. Contacts

Contacts represent individual persons associated with an Account.

These are typically Persons-in-Charge (PIC) such as:

Managers
Purchasing officers
Finance officers
Sales representatives

Each Account can have multiple Contacts.

Example:

Account	Contact
ABC Sdn Bhd	John Tan – Purchasing Manager
ABC Sdn Bhd	Sarah Lim – Finance Manager
ABC Sdn Bhd	Alex Wong – Operations Manager

Feature	Description
Purpose	Store individual contact persons
Financial Transactions	❌ Not directly
Relationship	Linked to an Account

Contacts help ensure your team communicates with the correct person within a company.

4. Groups (Optional for Contacts)

Groups are used to organize contacts within an account based on business needs.

Instead of managing each contact individually, you can group contacts for easier segmentation and communication.

Examples of how businesses can use groups:

By position: Managers, Finance Officers, Purchasing Officers
By location: HQ, Branch A, Branch B
By target audience: VIP Customers, Prospective Buyers, Newsletter Subscribers

Feature	Description
Purpose	Organize contacts into meaningful segments
Financial Transactions	❌ No (used for management only)
Typical Usage	Sending targeted communications, managing campaigns, segmenting contacts

Tip: Groups can be used for filtering, reporting, or sending bulk emails to specific segments of contacts.

Leads vs Accounts vs Contacts vs Groups

Type	Used For	Financial Transactions	Relationship
Leads	Potential customers	❌ No	Independent
Accounts	Companies or organizations	✅ Yes	Parent record
Contacts	Individual persons (PIC)	❌ No	Under an Account
Groups	Segments of contacts	❌ No	Linked to contacts

ONLINE ONBOARDING

Step 1: Global Configuration

Step 2: HRMS

Step 3: Payroll

Step 4: Accounting

Step 5: Pricebook

Step 6: CRM

Step 7: POS

Step 8: System Enhancements (Optional)

Global Configuration

HRMS

PAYROLL

CRM

ACCOUNTING

Step 9: OC Lite Beginner Certification

Contact Book Overview (Leads, Accounts and Contacts)