Work with account contacts

Contacts are shoppers who perform various activities for the account.

Each contact can be associated with multiple principal accounts and sub accounts, though in the case where a contact is associated with more than one account, you can assign a default account to each contact.

When working with multiple sites in a single Commerce instance, before a contact can access a site, the contact’s account must have an associated contract.

Contacts must be created by either a Commerce administrator or another contact who is a designated administrator. Contacts cannot register on your store themselves.

The list of an account’s contacts appears in the following places:

• The My Account page seen by the account’s delegated administrators. Delegated administrators can add and manage accounts for the account from their My Account page on the storefront.
• The Contacts pane in the Commerce administration interface. Only Commerce administrators can see and work with contacts here. Delegated administrators cannot access the Commerce administration interface.

Understand account-based roles

Roles grant access permissions to account-based contacts. These roles allow you to specify the actions that each contact can perform. Note that a contact can have more than one assigned role. The following table describes the roles that you can assign to a contact:

Role	Description
Account Address Manager	Contacts that have the right to create, edit and delete account addresses. Additionally, these contacts have the ability to manage account addresses during the checkout process.
Administrator	Assigning this role lets you delegate some administrative tasks to a contact. Delegated administrators can create, and manage contacts for their accounts, including assigning and removing administrator and approver privileges for other contacts. They can also view, create, and manage addresses for their accounts, including specifying a default billing and shipping address for an account. Delegated administrators can only see and work with contacts and addresses for accounts to which they are assigned.
Approver	Assigning this role lets you delegate the task of approving orders to a contact. Approvers can view and approve any orders in their accounts that require approval, including their own orders. Approvers can only see and work with orders for accounts to which they are assigned. For further information, refer to the Use Order Approvals section.
Buyer	The default role, which allows the contact to purchase items from the account-based catalog.
Profile Address Manager	Contacts that can create, edit and delete profile addresses. Additionally, these contacts have the ability to manage profile addresses during the checkout process.

To assign roles to a contact:

1. Create a new contact, or select a contact to work with.
2. Select Accounts Membership.
3. Click the edit icon.
4. Select the Account Address Manager or Profile Address Manager Storefront Roles and click Save.

For roles for internal users, see Configure Internal User Accounts.

Create a contact

Both Commerce administrators and contacts who are delegated administrators can create new contacts. Commerce administrators can create contacts for all accounts, as well as contacts that are not associated with any accounts. Delegated administrators can create new contacts only for their own accounts.

The process of creating a contact does not include assigning a password. When a contact is associated with an account, Commerce automatically sends an email to the contact that contains a link for setting a new password. The new password must conform to the password policy you set on the Shopper Settings page. For more information, see Configure Shopper Settings.

In order for a contact to receive the email they use to create their password, your store must have an email service configured and you must customize and enable the Account Assignment Changed email template. For more information, see Configure Email Settings.

To create a contact as part of an account:

1. Navigate to the account’s Contacts page in the administration interface or on the storefront:
   • Commerce administrators in the administration interface: On the Accounts page, click the name of the account. Then click the Contacts button on the left-hand side of the screen.
   • Delegated administrators on the storefront: Click My Account, then click Contacts.
2. Click New Contact and enter the contact’s details.
3. Click Save.
4. Click the Account Memberships link.
5. Select the storefront roles for this contact.
6. Save your changes.

Edit a contact

You can edit a contact’s first name, last name, account, active status, and the values of any custom properties. You cannot edit the email address or password. Contacts who forget their passwords must click the Forgotten Password link on the store’s login page and enter their login email address. Commerce sends a link to the email address. The contact clicks the link to reset their password. If the link has expired when the contact clicks it, they see a page where they can request a new link.

To edit a contact do the following:

1. Click the Settings icon, then click Accounts.
2. Click the New Contact button.
3. Enter the information for the new contact. See the two tables that follow this procedure for information about each field.
4. Once you have made your changes, click Save.

   Refer to the Configure the password policy for information on resetting contact passwords.

The following table describes the contact’s General properties.

Property	Description
Last Name	The last name of the contact. This field is required.
First Name	The first name of the contact. This field is required.
Email Address/Login ID	The email address of the contact. The contact uses this email address to log into your store. This is also the address where Commerce sends email that the contact uses to set their password. This field is required. Note: Once the contact has been created, you cannot modify the Email Address/Login ID.
Active	Specifies whether the contact is active. Only active contacts can log into the store, see catalogs and prices associated with their accounts. Active contacts are active on all accounts they are associated with.
Additional Information	If custom properties were created for shopper profiles, they appear at the bottom of each contact’s General tab, in the Additional Information section. Custom profile properties are created with the Commerce Admin API. Once a custom profile property is created, the property is added to all shopper profiles, including any profiles that already existed before the custom property was created. For more information, see Add custom properties to a shopper type. Custom profile properties do not automatically appear on your store, for example, when a delegated administrator creates a new contact. To allow custom profile properties to be displayed and edited on your store, you must write custom widgets to retrieve the values of custom profile properties, and also set the values of any custom properties you have created. See Access custom properties using the UserViewModel for more information.

The following table describes the contact’s Account Memberships properties.

Property	Description
Default Account	The account that this contact is automatically associated with when they log into your store. Each contact can be associated with only one default account. Only Commerce administrators see this property. Delegated administrators cannot assign a new contact to a different default account.
Accounts	All accounts with which this account is associated. Only Commerce administrators see this property. Delegated administrators cannot assign a new contact to accounts.
Storefront Roles	Specifies the contact’s role for an account. You can assign different roles to a contact for each account they are associated with. Commerce administrators can assign roles to all contacts. Delegated administrators can assign storefront roles only to contacts in accounts for which they have the Administrator role. Refer to the Understand account-based roles for detailed information on each role.

Find contacts

You can search for a contact by entering first name, last name, or email address into the search field at the top of the Contacts List page.

To search by multiple criteria, including custom properties, click the advanced search icon to the right of the search field to display the Advanced Search.

1. Select a property from the drop-down list.

   You can search by first name, last name, email address or any custom short text properties that have been added to profiles.

2. Click Add Criteria to add another property to the search.

   Each search can contain up to five properties.

3. If you are searching on more than one property, select one of the following:
   • Match all: (default) Search results include the contacts that match all the search criteria. If a contact matches some of the criteria but not all, it is not returned.
   • Match any: Search results include the contacts that match any search criteria.
4. Click Search.

Deactivate a contact

You cannot delete a contact, but both Commerce administrators and delegated administrators can deactivate a contact. Contacts who are no longer active cannot log into any of the accounts to which they were assigned. See #GUID-7293FC33-A16B-4C40-A4F3-150198E9F236/TITLE_MRM_MBF_3HB for details about setting a contact’s Active property.

Commerce administrators can also remove a contact’s association with an account in the administration interface. See work-accounts.html#GUID-51A1A670-5581-42A3-8827-58FA3D97DF07__TITLE_DY4_MCZ_HHB for more information.

Allow contacts to create addresses

Business account contacts can be allowed to add or manage an account address or an individual shopper’s address during the checkout process if they have been configured with the appropriate role.

To allow a contact to create a shopper’s address when placing an order, assign that contact the Profile Address Manager Role. This role allows a contact to see, select and create a new profile address when they are working with profiles or placing an order. Note that this role is not required to see or select a profile when working with profiles or placing an order.)

A contact can also be allowed to create or edit an account address when working with a profile or placing an order. To do this, give the contact the Account Address Manager role. Note that this role is not required to see or select an account address when working within the profile or placing an order. It is possible for a contact to have both the Account Address Manager and Profile Address Manager roles. By default, the delegated administrator has both of these roles. Contacts do not have these roles by default.

When implementing this feature on the store front, you need to ensure that you have the latest version of the Managed Account Address widget, which allows contacts to manage addresses when placing an order, if they have been assigned the appropriate role. For information on the Managed Account Address Book widget, refer to the Appendix: Layout Widgets and Elements.

Additionally, you must create a vertical tab on an instance of the profile layout and ensure that you have the latest version of Account Address Book widget, which allows the contact to manage addresses in the Profile area, if they have been assigned the appropriate role. For information on creating a vertical tab, refer to the Add vertical tabs section. For information on the Account Address Book widget, refer to the Appendix: Layout Widgets and Elements.