Time can be saved by understanding how the buttons on the Contact page work. This is easiest to understand with a worked example. For this example we have two parents called Mr John Peter Carpenter and Mrs Gillian Carpenter married to each other and living at the same address. The sequence would be:
- complete the three Name boxes with the title, forenames and surname of the father.
- click on the Use button to the right of the surname – this will complete the second Name field immediately below the first with Mr J P Carpenter.
- click on the AutofillType 1 button and the form will be auto-completed with the Address Name, Salutation and Relationship fields completed.
- now complete the mother’s forenames and click the adjacent Use button. The form should now be as in the next figure.
Alternatively, if you wished to display the mother’s details first, you would proceed as above but entering the mother’s name first, and then clicking on the Autofill 2 button.
If this is a single parent you are entering, you would enter the full name, click Use and then click Autofill 3.
Autofill 4 fills in data for 2 parents living at the same address but with different surnames. They will be shown in the salutation fields in the same order as their names are entered.
Clearly this does not allow for the various possible combinations of title, for different surnames and all the other vagaries of human relationships but it should save a little time for the majority of records.
Details of other fields are as follows:
Relationship
The value here must be picked from the drop-down list. If you wish to add extra relationships they can be added via the Relationships look-up form.
Occupation
The drop-down contains all the values currently held in this field. If the one you require is not in the list, you should enter it and it will then be available for future new records. Be careful to enter new values correctly as there is no other check.
Company
You can enter here the company the parent works for. Select a company from the dropdown or use the button to the right of the box to open the Company form to view, add or edit contact information for the Company associated with a parent or guardian.
EMail
The parent’s E-Mail address – a tick in the adjacent check box means that permission has been given to circulate it to other parents. Note: there is a separate form EmailInfo (currently available via the Divers Form) which shows all current pupils with their parents’ names and E-Mail addresses. These may be edited. This may be quicker for adding large numbers of E-Mail addresses.
Note
Use this as you wish. You may like to consider adding the note next to the contact link on the Contacts page if you wish it to be more visible, for example, the fact that someone is an emergency contact.
Address
Press the Enter key to start a new line in the address and then the Tab key to move to the Postcode. It is advisable not to use quotation marks around house names. See under Postcode for a way of saving time entering addresses.
Postcode
This is not formatted automatically so take care to enter letters in upper case. If there are similar postcodes in the database already you can enter all or part of the postcode and then click the Match button. This will give you a list of addresses in the database where the postcode matches what you have entered. For instance, if you enter E4 it will list all the postcodes beginning with E4. Select the one which is closest and then click the Use selected button. That address will be copied into the address box and the cursor positioned ready for you to make any necessary modifications. If you click on the button to the left of the postcode, a Google map of the area will open, provided you have an Internet connection.
Phones
You can add as many telephone numbers as you require. There are fields for extension number, type of number (e.g. mobile, work) and the order in which they should be tried. As with the E-Mail address there is a check box to indicate if the address may be circulated.
Sort Order
This number determines in which order contacts will appear on the Contacts Page. The value can also be used in reports and merge letters to determine which parents will be included.
Check Boxes
Above the Notes box there are six check boxes whose functions are:
- Primary - a main contact for this child (default checked). This adult will receive all communications and there may be more than one primary contact.
- Report needed - some communications will be sent to this contact e.g. a report (default checked)
- Fee payer - this contact is responsible for all or part of the fees – it is only needed where bursary information is being used from SchoolBase®(default checked)
- Allow circulation - contact details may be circulated to other parents (default unchecked)
- Custody - this contact is the legal guardian of the child – this may apply to one contact only. The default is for this box to be checked so the box needs to be unchecked for one or more contacts if there is more than one contact record. If data has been imported from another system you may find that there are a number of pupils with more than one contact having the Custody box ticked. You can check whether this is the case by using the CustodyCheck form. If you don't have it on your menu, ask your Administrator to add it.
- Admissions - details of this contact will appear on the admissions register (default checked). It is a legal requirement that adult contacts should be included but there may be exceptions.
Divorce these adults
This rather startling button allows you to create separate contact records for adults who at present share a single contact. Each will be linked to the pupil or pupils as before. You will then need to amend the address, telephone numbers, etc as appropriate. The button is not visible if there is only one parent on the contact record or if the parent names at the top have not been completed.
Deceased adults
Should you have to update records to record a deceased parent, you first need to press 'Divorce these adults' to create separate records for the deceased parent and their partner, then tick 'Adult deceased' in the deceased adult's record. This will prevent future letters from being inadvertantly sent to the deceased parent.
Admissions 
