Use the Multi-Level Company Office Hierarchy

Overview

Updated 08/31/2022

What is the Multi-Level Company Office Hierarchy? Prior to the enhancement, in AviontéBOLD all customer records work as a single-level hierarchy. We have created support for Multi-Level customer records, in the form of parent-child relationships. The original BOLD hierarchy was flat. This feature enables multiple "child" offices to be created underneath a "parent" office. These allow you to define your departmental structure in detail up to five levels deep.

Topics Why did we make this change? Is this functionality automatic? Example Creating a New Office Office Details Children and Parent Offices Multi-Tier Office View Synchronization between Front and Back Office The View in Back Office Maximum Number of Offices Front Office Only Clients Searching Capability

Why did we make this change?

This is useful for customers that have many offices, and may lose track of where they are located or the relationships between them. Some clients reported that when many offices exist in a company, it becomes difficult to keep track of "sub-offices." This feature was requested by clients who have migrated from CLASSIC to BOLD. 

This functionality allows clients to manage complex customer structures while syncing to Back Office.

Is this functionality automatic? How can I get it?

For existing customers, your system will remain configured for single-level office hierarchies unless you request the upgrade. If you would like this functionality, you can request it from your Account Manager. Note: For every customer new to AviontéBOLD after the general availability of the feature (September 29, 2002), it will be enabled by default.

What if I do not want access to this functionality? Can I opt out?

Yes, if you want to formally exclude the availability of this functionality, please submit a ticket request to Customer Support.

What if I am already on AviontéBOLD and want to change some of my customers to a multi-level setup?

Please reach out to your Account Manager to discuss this request.

Can you give an example of how this would be useful?

Suppose you are placing talent at a company that does retail sales. You may already have created offices for the company for each store or location. This feature will allow you to create further distinctions within a store, for example: stocking, packaging, cashier, warehouse, custodial, etc. You can create up to five levels of these "child" offices, or departments, within a "parent" office.

Create a new parent office

Please reach out to your Account Manager regarding enabling the feature. After the feature has been enabled in your system, log in and navigate to Companies.

1. Search for and select the company you wish to work with.
2. Select the Contacts tab. The office layout for the company displays.
3. Click the Add New Office button. The Create a New Office flyout appears, with a "Parent Office" dropdown list at the top.
   
   
   
4. If "No Parent" is chosen, the new office will be a parent.
   
   For example, if you wanted to set up a new structure for Retail stores, you would create a Retail parent office, then create new individual retail stores (locations) under that parent office.
   
   
5. Fill out the rest of the form, and Submit it. The new office will be created as a parent.

Create a new child office

1. Search for and select the company you wish to work with.
2. Select the Contacts tab. The office layout for the company displays.
3. Click the Add New Office button. The Create a New Office flyout appears, with a "Parent Office" dropdown list at the top.
4. Set a parent office.
   
   
   
5. Fill out the rest of the form, and Submit it. The new office will be created under the parent that you specified.

For more information about creating offices, refer to this KB article: Create and Manage Company Offices – Avionte Bold.

Office Details

Clicking the Edit Office button for an existing office opens the Edit Office flyout. The Office Status and Office Branch are shown there.

Office Status and Office Branch are new fields in AviontéBOLD that will sync to Back Office. They should be used to update existing offices and create new ones.

Office Status maps to a Department in Back Office. When creating a new office, the Office Status will default to None. If no status is chosen, the status will be taken from the parent office.

Office Branch maps to the department branch in Back Office. If a new office is created, Office Branch defaults to the Company Branch, set in Company > Operational Information.

The Office Branch determines visibility if the user does not have access to it; in that case, they won't be able to view the hierarchy set up with the child offices. The user also has to have access to the Company where the offices are located or they won't be able to see the branch structure.

The office Default Job Branch is a pre-existing field for some clients that will control what branch new jobs will default to upon creation but does not map to Back Office. This field will be deprecated in the near future as the Office Branch also controls this with the added benefit of syncing to Back Office. Because we will be deprecating this field, we encourage clients using Default Job Branch to adopt the new Office Branch field and stop using the Default Job Branch.

If both a default job branch and office branch are set, the default job branch will take priority when creating new jobs. This was done to maintain data integrity and ensure that the transition to using Office Branch causes as little disruption as possible for clients who frequently leverage the Default Job Branch field.

 

Can I change the department "children" from one "parent" to another after it's been created?

If your environment is Front Office-only, you can delete an office and create a new child under the desired parent.

If your environment is Front and Back Office, there are data/jobs tied to the child; in this case, a request to Avionté Technical Services will be necessary, as it requires modifications to Back Office data. Please reach out to your Account Manager.

Multi-tier office view

• You can adjust the view of child offices by clicking the Collapse Children button on a parent office. 

• Clicking the button changes it to an Expand Children button, which if clicked lets you see the full child office view again. 

How does the synchronization work between the Front and Back Office?

Most elements of parent and child offices will sync to the Back Office. If a new Customer Status is used, it will automatically be created in Back Office, but would require the setup of the customer status in Back Office to be manually edited in Admin Tools > Config Choice.

For example, if you make an "Inactive - No longer client" status in Front Office, when that status gets created in Back Office, you may need to change "ImpliesActive" in Config Choice. The precise details depend on your implementation.

Here is a link to the reference article for Config Choice in Back Office: Admin Tools: Config Choice – Avionte Classic. Please consult it for more information and options. For details about your implementation, consult your Back Office administrator.

Do I need to do anything else in Back Office to support customer hierarchies? 

You do not need to make any other changes to support data syncing. However, you will want to be aware of any Invoice setup and Back Office changes, as that department-level configuration is still driven from the Back Office customer record.

How does the multi-tier office structure look in Back Office?

Back Office refers to offices as Departments. Using the customer tree, you can view the department structure for a company that was set up in BOLD.

You will need to restart Back Office when Multi-Tier is set up to refresh the display. Ensure that in Admin Tools, System > Dynamic Panel > Customer > Departments is set to IsVisible for the users required, then if necessary log off and on again for the office tree view to activate.

What happens when I have the maximum number of offices (five) set up under a Company?

The UI will shift the office buttons down to make room on the display. The display uses panels, so this assists with readability.

What happens if I attempt to create more than five offices at a company?

The system will prevent such an attempt.

How does this work if I am a front office-only client?

In this case, Offices can be moved more easily between parents, since no Back Office sync is involved. You can also delete offices using Front Office.

In this example, the environment is Front Office-only, and the "Stocking" child office is under the parent "Retail," which is under the parent "Main":

Moving Offices

• The user wants to change or delete the "Stocking Office." Clicking Edit Office for Stocking brings up a flyout on the right-hand side.

• Here the user can click the Parent Office drop-down list to choose a different parent and Submit. The Office will be moved to its' new parent.

Deleting Offices

• Alternatively, the user can Delete Office. Note that an Office needs to have Contacts associated with it before it can be deleted.
  
  
• After selecting Delete Office, a confirmation screen appears:

• The user must select an option for the contacts, either to archive them, or to transfer them to a different office. When ready, click Delete Office.
• Another confirmation screen appears. Click Delete to confirm.

The Office will be deleted.

Is there a searching capability for this?

For Office Names, an exact search is needed to get a match. To do this, follow these steps:

• In the Companies module, select the CRM Terms dropdown > Company/Office Name.

• Select the Office Name field and type the exact name of the office you are searching for.

• Click Done. The search will be shown in the search bar.

• Click the Companies button to search. The Company matching the office search result will be shown underneath.

• Click on the Company name to open it.

When searching in Back Office, check the search option With Department (on the right-hand side) and use the application function "Department Name Search" to search for Offices.

Will there be any mass apply options for things like Company Branch or Status?

No. In this case, you would need to work with Avionté Technical Services to make the mass updates desired. Please reach out to your Account Manager. There is no front-end way to mass update departments.

Note on the synchronization process and company records

• Previously if you made an edit to a root customer (the operational information section on the left), it would apply to all departments, so if you changed the branch on the root, all departments would get updated as well in Back Office. 
• With the new sync functionality, each department syncs independently, so because all clients now have Office Status and Office Branch fields, all clients on BOLD can now have departments in different branches than the root company's branch, where those changes would sync to Back Office. Changing the Branch on the Root Company in BOLD would sync to Back Office only for the root customer record.