Company settings and configuration

Article
05/15/2018
14 minutes to read

Applies To: Dynamics Marketing

Important

Microsoft Dynamics Marketing has been discontinued and is no longer available. All customer data related to this product has been permanently deleted from all Microsoft servers and is no longer available for extraction. This documentation is being provided for historical purposes only.

Companies in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing are entities that hold data that describes the company, and with which contacts, campaigns, invoices and many other types of entities are associated. They represent very important structures that exist at the center of your various marketing activities. Dynamics Marketing enables you to work with four different kinds of companies (marketing, vendor, client, and site), each of which has a different kind of relationship with your company. Although their roles are different, each company type supports nearly the same features and data, all of which are covered in this topic.

Types of companies

Dynamics Marketing supports the following types of companies:

Site company: This is the company that owns the Dynamics Marketing instance. Usually, all of the users of the site will be employees of this company.
Client company: These are companies the site company provides services to. If the site company is a marketing agency, for example, then these are the companies for whom the site company prepares campaigns and materials in return for fees. In some cases, you may allow users from clients to become users of the site.
Vendor companies: These are companies who provide services to the site company (or possibly to client companies).
Marketing companies: These are companies at which the site company is targeting campaigns and finding leads for the benefit of clients and/or the site company itself.

Important

You should use a special naming convention for your client, site, and vendor company names to ensure that marketing contacts that register for events and mailing lists by using a landing page won't enter one of those names as their own company name. The reason for this is that Dynamics Marketing will create a new marketing company each time it receives a landing page where the submitted company matches a site, client, or vendor company name.

Normally, the system correctly matches incoming marketing company names with existing marketing companies, but when the name also matches a client, site, or vendor company then you will get a new marketing company every time (with a name that includes a new record ID as a suffix).

Viewing, managing, and working with companies

To view, create, edit, delete, and interact with companies, use the various company-list and -maintenance pages. Depending on which type of company you want to work with, go to one of the following:

To work with the site company, go to Settings > My Company > Company Settings. Note that unlike other types of companies, there is only one site company, so there is no list view here.
To work with client companies, go to Marketing Execution > Clients > Client Companies.
To work with vendor companies, go to Marketing Execution > Vendors > Vendor Companies.
To work with marketing companies, go to Marketing Execution > Marketing Database > Marketing Companies.

Other than for the site company, each of the above paths will bring to you a list page for the selected type of company. This view provides most of the standard controls for sorting, searching, filtering the list and for adding and removing companies (see Learn how to work and get around in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing).

The Company maintenance page

The Company maintenance page opens whenever you choose a company name or company label, which you can do on any company list page, but also from other parts of the interface where company names are shown.

Basic company information

At the top of the Company maintenance page is shown basic data about the company, including contact information and a few other fields that can vary by company type. Available settings are described in the following table.

Setting	Description
Company graphic	If you’d like to upload a logo or other graphic for the company, click the small upload button next to the current image at the top of the page. The other buttons here enable you to revert to the generic company graphic and to make a Bing search for the current company.
Status	Assign a status for the company. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = Company Status.) Important The Status drop-down list includes a few permanent entries that cannot be removed by editing its category (though they can be renamed). Of special note is the “Deleted” status, which marks the company as deleted (so it will no longer appear in list views and other parts of Dynamics Marketing), but still keeps it in your database in case you need it later. Use the show/hide inactive button on the list-view toolbar to show or hide companies marked with a Status of “Deleted”.
Code	This is for internal use at your organization and may be helpful for matching against information in an external system and/or for categorizing, searching and sorting. Note Dynamics Marketing accepts Code values up to 70 characters in length, but if you are integrating with Microsoft Dynamics 365, then the default integration setup maps this field to a Dynamics 365 field that is limited to 20 characters, which will prevent companies with codes longer than this from syncing. If you need to use longer codes and sync companies with Dynamics 365, then see Troubleshoot your connector setup for more information and solutions for this issue.
Name	Enter a short but descriptive name. This value will identify the current record in list views, type-ahead fields, drop-down lists, and other areas of Dynamics Marketing. Choose a value that you and all other users are likely to recognize in the future. Important You should use a special naming convention for your client, site, and vendor company names to ensure that marketing contacts that register for events and mailing lists by using a landing page won't enter one of those names as their own company name. The reason for this is that Dynamics Marketing will create a new marketing company each time it receives a landing page where the submitted company matches a site, client, or vendor company name. Normally, the system correctly matches incoming marketing company names with existing marketing companies, but when the name also matches a client, site, or vendor company, then you will get a new marketing company every time (with a name that includes a new record ID as a suffix).
Street address, phone, fax, and URL	Enter contact details in these fields.
Group	Identifies which type of company this is (client, vendor, or marketing). This setting does not appear for the site company. Usually you will not change this, but you could use this setting to move companies between groups and can even assign a company to be listed as both client and vendor. Marketing companies cannot also be client or vendor companies, although you can move them to one of the other groups (but not back again).
Parent and Agency	When present, use these fields to indicate relationships between companies that reflect those companies’ business relationships. Each of these is a Type-ahead field whose value must map to a company already in the database. More information: Parent, agency, and advertiser companies Note These fields are optional and can be enabled/disabled for your site from the Site Settings page. These settings are not available for marketing companies. More information: Configure site settings
Belongs to	Only marketing companies have this setting. Enter the name of the company that the current record belongs to. The company must already exist in the database; type-ahead assistance is provided (or enter “%%” as a wildcard to scroll through all companies). The current record is only available for use with other relevant entities that are also associated with this same company. For example, a marketing message associated with the company Woodgrove Bank can only be sent to contacts belonging to Woodgrove Bank and included in campaigns associated with Woodgrove Bank.
Description	Enter a description that can help you and other users remember what this record is for and how it should be used.
Double Opt-In: Enable for Email Marketing	Select this check box to require double opt-in for all new contacts that register using a landing page that belongs to this company (site and client companies only). More information: Set up the double opt-in system

Lead Management section

The Lead Management section only appears for site and client companies. Use it to set up the automatic lead-scoring and lead-creation strategy for the current company. Details about the settings are listed in the following table. For more information about lead scoring, see Set up automatic lead scoring.

Setting	Description
Creation Strategy	Sets the level at which new leads are created, thereby establishing whether a lead represents an interest in a specific campaign, group of campaigns, or all of a company’s products. The choices are “per campaign”, “per program” and “per client/site”. For example, when using a per-campaign strategy, each lead reflects an interest in that campaign only, so new leads will be created for other campaigns; but when using a per-client/site strategy, each lead represents a combined interest in all campaigns run by that company. When a lead already exists for a given contact at the specified level, then additional contact interactions will increase the score of that lead rather than creating a new one.
Creating Scope	Controls whether leads are associated with individuals or organizations. The choices are “per prospect company” or “per prospect contact”. When using a contact scope, then each lead is associated with just one person and the score reflects actions by that individual. But when using a company scope, the lead score may be based on the combined interactions of all contacts associated with that company.
Scoring Model	Choose the scoring model to apply when using a Creation Strategy of “Per-Client/Site”. This setting has no effect if you are using one of the other creation strategies.

Creation Strategy

Sets the level at which new leads are created, thereby establishing whether a lead represents an interest in a specific campaign, group of campaigns, or all of a company’s products. The choices are “per campaign”, “per program” and “per client/site”. For example, when using a per-campaign strategy, each lead reflects an interest in that campaign only, so new leads will be created for other campaigns; but when using a per-client/site strategy, each lead represents a combined interest in all campaigns run by that company.

When a lead already exists for a given contact at the specified level, then additional contact interactions will increase the score of that lead rather than creating a new one.

Creating Scope

Controls whether leads are associated with individuals or organizations. The choices are “per prospect company” or “per prospect contact”. When using a contact scope, then each lead is associated with just one person and the score reflects actions by that individual. But when using a company scope, the lead score may be based on the combined interactions of all contacts associated with that company.

Scoring Model

Choose the scoring model to apply when using a Creation Strategy of “Per-Client/Site”. This setting has no effect if you are using one of the other creation strategies.

As with most maintenance pages, Company maintenance pages include several related-information tabs at the bottom of the page, below the dotted line. Use the drop-down list just below the line to switch between tabs. Use these to view and/or create records that are related to the current company. In most cases, the views you see here will match those found in the “main” area for that record type (e.g., contacts), but the records you see will be filtered to include only those that are associated with the current company.

For more information about a given tab, you should usually refer to the online help topic that matches that tab’s name (contacts, files, invoices, etc.). The sections below give some extra information about tabs that are either unique or especially important for companies.

Details tab

The Details tab is unique for company records. It contains miscellaneous settings and information related to the current company. Available settings are described in the following table.

Setting	Description
Category	Assign a category for the company. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = Company Category.)
Folder	Select a folder for the company.
User-defined fields	If you have enabled any user-defined fields for companies, then each of them will be listed under the General heading. The number of user-defined fields (if any), and the name, type and purpose of each of them, is unique for your organization; talk to your admin if you are not sure how to use them. For general information about how to set up user-defined fields, see Configure user defined fields
Approved Vendor	This setting is only available for vendor companies and when vendor approval is enabled for the site in Site Settings (see also Configure site settings). It tells whether the current vendor is approved for use in expense transactions. Users that have the Approve Vendors privilege are able to edit this setting—for all other users it is read-only. More information: Work with user accounts and staff contacts
Payment Hold	Select this check box if the company is on payment hold.
Terms	Choose the payment terms that apply for the current company. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = Financial Terms.)
Credit Limit	Enter a credit limit for the company. In the current release, this is only for informational purposes; it is not enforced when creating a new invoice or order for the company.
1099 Vendor	Select the appropriate 1099 vendor check box for the current company. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = 1099 Vendor.)
Tear sheet Qty	Specify the number of tear sheets this company requires.
Supplier/Tax ID	Enter the Supplier ID assigned by this company to your company or the Tax ID for this company.
Order Comments	Enter any comments you want to appear on all orders from this company.
Account	Select the default general ledger account to use with this company.
AR Account	Select the default accounts-receivable account for this company.
AP Account	Select the default accounts-payable account for this company.
AP Priority	Select the accounts-payable priority for this company. This value can be useful for sorting and filtering your records and for supporting internal processes or policies. Your admin can customize the values available here; see Create custom drop-down values and folders for details about how to customize drop-down values. (Category type = AP Priority.)
Tax Rate	Select the default tax rate for the company. The selected tax rate will automatically be added to all financial transactions for the company. For more information about setting up the tax rates available here, see Manage taxes
Discount and Surcharge	Select default discount and/or surcharge policies for this company. For more information about setting up the policies available here, see Discounts and surcharges. These settings are only shown when advanced discounting is enabled for the site in Site Settings (see also Configure site settings).
Default Subscription Center and Default Sender Address	These settings are only available for the site and client companies. Select default subscription-center and/or sender-address plug-ins to assign by default to all new marketing email messages belonging to the current company. You can change the default (if any) for individual messages as required. More information: Work with user accounts and staff contacts
Email Strategy	This setting is only available for the site and client companies. It enables you to control what will happen if more than one contact in your database shares the same email address. Choose one of the following: Send one email per contact: Turns off duplicate filtering, which means that each contact in a message (or campaign) send list will receive the message, even when some email addresses are shared between contacts. This will allow you to track the response (opens, clicks, etc.) of each contact independently, but risks annoying people that are duplicated in the database by mistake. Send one email per email ID: Filters outgoing email blasts to remove duplicate email addresses. Note that you cannot be sure which contact will be removed when duplicate emails are found, but you can be sure that just one email will be sent to each address. Note Independently of this setting, you can also configure Dynamics Marketing enforce unique email addresses for all contacts belonging to a given site/client company. That setting will also prevent duplicate emails, but also has wider ranging effects that affect duplicate detection during import and landing-page submissions. More information: Configure site settings

The Custom Contact Fields tab

Use the Custom Contact Fields tab to add additional data fields to marketing contacts that belong to the current site or client company. You might use this to add industry-specific segmentation data to each contact. See Create custom contact fields for market segmentation for complete details about this feature.

Top-level tabs: Summary and Widgets

Near the top of the Company maintenance page are two top-level tabs, which are displayed as buttons that you can click to change tabs. The text in the sections above refers mostly to the Summary tab. Go to the Widgets tab to view and add widgets for tracking information related to the current company, such as jobs, campaigns and Social Engagement. Widgets here work in the same was as they do on the home page and side dock, but you will probably set these ones up to be especially relevant for the current company. See also Learn how to work and get around in Microsoft Dynamics Marketing for more information about working with widgets.