How to change a Contact Database to a Company Database with customized fields and tabs

[Char]

Greg is there any way to bring over notes, history's and activities?

[gmartin]

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking, but..

When contacts are attached/linked to a Company, the Contact's Notes/Histories/Activities will all display under the Company tabs.  

If you want individual Notes/Histories/Activities to be assigned to the Company, you can use the 'Share With' option to permanently attach it to a Company(s).

[Char]

Greg, you have been so helpful and I really think I only have one more question. It looks like when linking fields that it only goes one way from Company to contact. In our situation we have all the information in the Contact layout and we need to link that information to the Company. is there a work around to do that? I don't see any information in the help files to accomplish that. Of course we would only need to do it once. Should I export from the Contacts fields to the Company fields via Excel?

you helped with the notes, activities and histories now I just need to get the info in the contact fields to the company fields

[gmartin]

You are correct, the linking is one way from Company to Contact fields.  There isn't an easy/one click way to create the Companies and populate them with the contact data. 

Depending on how many Companies you will be creating:

- Small number: From the Contact Detail view, you can use the "Create Company from Contact' option (click Contacts > Create Company from Contact)

- Large number: I would use your idea to export contact information to Excel and then import the data as Companies.

When importing Companies, be sure to test with a small number of Companies - if the fields don't map correctly, it will be easier to delete the imported Companies and start over.

And... always make a backup before performing imports (File > Back Up > Database).

[Char]

Greg,

I am just about finished with this project but still need your help.  I have exported everything in to excel, set up the customized fields in the Customer layout and did the customized importfrom excel.  All of the information in the customzed fields imported perfectly except the address and the city.  I did some research and found that those are some primary or default fields so I created another export with only those fields and the phone and company name.  This time when I did the import I did a typical import since that indicated the default fields.  It did bring over the Address and City the other customized fields became blank and now I have some duplicate companies with separate information.  I need to either merge the companies, or copy and paste the phone and city and delete the duplicate company or hopefully you have another suggestion.  There are 3600 original customers and now I have 4000 customers some of which are now duplicated with only partial information.   do you have any suggestions?

[gmartin]

Without being hands-on with the database, it would be hard to determine the best method for combining/merging the contact records. You can use the Tools > Scan for Duplicates option, it will combine/merge two records at time and allows for copying any information (notes/histories, etc.) from one contact to another.

Since you are importing into this database, notes/histories may not be an issue. In that case, the quickest method may just be a manual comparison with copy/paste.

Another option would be to save the current database to an Empty Copy (File > Save Copy As) and redo the imports using the Custom option to ensure field mapping is correct.