Contact Preferences

You can configure the settings related to the contacts module in the Contacts Preferences which is under the Settings module. There are 3 ways by which you can go to the Contacts Preferences depending on the page you’re in.

The most convenient way to go Contacts Preferences from any page is by following the steps below:

• Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner of the window.
• Select Preferences.
• Click Contacts under Preferences.

If you’re in the Contacts module, you can directly go to the Contacts Preferences by clicking the Gear button in the top bar. This will directly take you to the Contacts Preferences page.

If you’re in the Contact Details page, you can go to the Contacts Preferences by following the steps below:

• Click the Hamburger icon in the top bar of Contacts list and select Contact Preferences. You will be redirected to the Contacts Preferences.

Duplicate Contact Display Name

Once in a while, you might have customers with the same name. While saving them in the Contacts module, by default, Zoho Invoice would not allow you to save two contacts with the same Contact Display Name.

If you want to save contacts with duplicate Contact Display Names, check the Allow duplicates for contact display name option.

Address Formats

You can configure the format in which a billing and shipping address is displayed in the PDF or in the print version. You can arrange the placeholders in a particular order in which you wish to display the address in the PDF. By default, the placeholders will be arranged in the usual address format.

To configure the address format in which the Billing and Shipping address is displayed:

• Go to Contact Preferences in one of the ways mentioned above.
• Place your mouse pointer in the Customer Billing Address Format field or Customer Shipping Address Format field where you want to insert a field.
• Click the Insert Placeholders dropdown in the Customer Billing Address Format field or Customer Shipping Address Format field and select a field name that you want to insert.
• Click Save.

The following table gives you a list of the address field names and its respective placeholder strings.

Field Names	Placeholder Strings
Attention	${CONTACT.CONTACT_ATTENTION}
Street Address	${CONTACT.CONTACT_ADDRESS}
City	${CONTACT.CONTACT_CITY}
State/Province	${CONTACT.CONTACT_STATE}
Country	${CONTACT.CONTACT_COUNTRY}
ZIP / Postal Code	${CONTACT.CONTACT_CODE}
Fax Label	${CONTACT.CONTACT_FAX_LABEL}
Fax	${CONTACT.CONTACT_FAX}

The following table gives you a list of the customer field names and its respective placeholder strings.

Field Names	Placeholder Strings
Company Name	${CONTACT.CONTACT_COMPANYNAME}
Salutation	${CONTACT.CONTACT_SALUTATION}
First Name	${CONTACT.CONTACT_FIRSTNAME}
Last Name	${CONTACT.CONTACT_LASTNAME}
Contact Email	${CONTACT.CONTACT_EMAIL}
Mobile Phone	${CONTACT.CONTACT_MOBILE_PHONE}
Phone Label	${CONTACT.CONTACT_PHONE_LABEL}
Phone	${CONTACT.CONTACT_PHONE}
Website	${CONTACT.CONTACT_WEBSITE}
Department	${CONTACT.CONTACT_DEPARTMENT}
Designation	${CONTACT.CONTACT_DESIGNATION}

Custom Fields

Custom Fields are the fields that you can manually create to add more information about a customer in Zoho Invoice.

Let’s take a scenario to understand how Custom Fields come in handy when you want to add more information to a contact.

Let’s take another example:

Likewise, there are several other situations when you would need a to add a Custom Field to a contact to save an important information. You can create the Custom Fields under Contacts Preferences and they will be available in the contact creation page.

To create a Custom Field:

• Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner of the window.
• Select Preferences.
• Select the Contacts under Preferences.
• Click the Custom Fields tab on the right side.
• Click the + New Custom Field button in the top-right corner of the window.

• Enter a Label Name for the custom field that you’re creating.
• Select a Data Type from the dropdown based on the type of information you want to store.

Data Type	Description
Text	You can enter a short text of a maximum of 100 characters. The supported characters are A-Z, 0-9 and special characters.
Email	An email address can be stored using this data type.
URL	This data type allows you to enter an URL .
Phone	You can enter a contact number.
Number	You can add any positive or negative number.
Decimal	Any positive or negative number with a decimal value can be added.
Amount	You can enter any amount using this data type. It will be displayed along with the currency.
Percent	You can enter any positive number as percentage.
Date	You can select a date from the calendar.
Check Box	A checkbox can be used to confirm an action, make a choice or answer a question.
Auto-Generate Number	You can add alplabets and numbers as prefix or suffix and auto-generate serial numbers.
Dropdown	A list of options can be added and you can select from them.

• Choose if the custom field should be mandatory field or not.
• Select if this field must be displayed in the Customer Portal.

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