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Address Book Overview

The Address Book is the central hub for managing companies, departments, and individuals within Dewesoft CRM. It forms the foundation of your CRM data, enabling a clear and hierarchical view of your business relationships.

This chapter outlines how the four key entity types — Accounts, Child Accounts, Departments, and Contacts — relate to each other and how they form a structured, visual account family tree.

Account

An Account represents a legal business entity registered in a national company register.

Key Attributes:

Accounts are the top-level entities in your CRM. They may have related child entities (Child Accounts, Departments, Contacts), but they themselves are standalone representations of registered companies.

Child Account

A Child Account is functionally identical to a standard Account, with the same legal attributes. The distinction lies in its relationship.

When is an Account a Child Account?

  • When it is linked as a child to another Account.

Typical use cases for Child Account(s):

  • A subsidiary

  • A spin-off company

  • A branch office within a larger account group with its own registered legal entity, billing address, and TAX number

This relationship enables grouping multiple legal entities under one parent, helping you track corporate structures and related business units.

Department

A Department is a subdivision within an Account (or Child Account). It does not exist independently and always inherits from a parent Account.

Use Cases:

  • Internal teams such as:

     

    • NVH Testing Department

    • Quality Control

    • Durability Lab

    • Etc.

     

  • Different physical locations under the same legal company

     

    • e.g., “Volkswagen Testing Center – Munich Branch”

Key Department Rules:

  • Every Department must belong to an Account or Child Account

  • Departments are used to group opportunities, activities, and contacts at a finer level

  • A Department is not a legal entity, but a logical grouping mechanism

  • You cannot set the billing address to a department, as it inherits one from its parent Account. If you need to change the billing address of a Department, you are probably working with a different Account. In this case, it's better to open a separate account and link it to your parent Account as a Child Account.

Contact

A Contact is a real individual that you interact with. The contact will be uniquely identified by Email address.

Relationship Rules:

  • A Contact may:

     

    • Belong to an Account only.

    • Belong to a Department, in which case it also automatically belongs to the parent Account.

     

  • Contacts can be linked to multiple Departments within the same or related Accounts.

This flexibility allows you to accurately model the real-world scenario of professionals who:

  • Operate across multiple teams or departments

  • Are involved in several roles within a business relationship

Account Family Tree

The CRM’s Account Family Tree visually represents hierarchical relationships between:

  • Accounts and Child Accounts

  • Departments

  • Contacts

This structure allows you to:

  • Easily navigate complex corporate hierarchies

  • Group related entities under a unified umbrella

  • Improve visibility into how different parts of an organization interact with Dewesoft

💡 You can view the Account Family Tree in the CRM to understand all relationships at a glance. A diagram will be provided in this manual to illustrate typical tree structures and linking best practices.
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