Understanding Contact Field Settings

Contact Field Settings determine how your Contact data is structured in Payreq Delivery and which values are used to identify and authenticate a customer when they subscribe for digital delivery.

Every Payreq Delivery account has two mandatory fields:

• Contact ID
• Customer name

In addition to these, Payreq Delivery supports up to 8 configurable Contact Fields. These fields allow each Mailer to define the additional customer or account information that should be stored against a Contact.

What Contact Field Settings control

Each Contact Field can be given a label and, where required, assigned a special purpose.

A Contact Field may be used as:

• an ID field uniquely identify the Contact
• an Authorisation (Auth) field which the customer must provide when subscribing for digital delivery
• an optional supporting field, such as a Notice ID or Group Account Number

Example Payreq Delivery account set up

This example uses the first 3 Contact Fields:

Contact Field #1 – Account Number

In this example, Contact Field #1 is labelled Account Number.

It is configured as the ID field. This means the account number is the primary identifier used for the Contact.

Because it is the ID field, the same value must be provided in both:

• Contact ID
• Contact Field #1

For example:

• Contact ID = 123456
• Contact Field #1 (Account Number) = 123456

This ensures the Contact can be correctly identified and matched in Payreq Delivery.

Contact Field #2 – Customer Name as on the Bill

In this example, Contact Field #2 is labelled Customer name as on the bill.

It is configured as the Authorisation (Auth) field. This means customers must enter this value when subscribing for digital delivery. Payreq verify the Subscription details entered matches the correct Contact.

This field is often similar to the mandatory Customer name field, but it does not have to be identical.

For example:

• Customer name may be recorded as Sam Smith
• Customer name as on the bill may be printed as Mr S Smith

This allows Payreq to store both:

• a general customer name for display and management purposes, and
• the exact name format printed on the bill for subscription authentication

Contact Field #3 – Notice ID

In this example, Contact Field #3 is labelled Notice ID.

This field is optional, and where a value is provided, it can be used for additional purposes such as Mailer-managed Subscriptions linked to an authorised Agent.

Why This Matters

Correct Contact Field configuration is important because it affects how:

• Contacts are created and updated
• customers subscribe for digital delivery
• Payreq authenticates subscription requests
• Mailer-managed Subscriptions are maintained

If the wrong values are supplied, customers may be unable to subscribe successfully, or records may not behave as expected.

Key Points to Remember

• Contact ID and Customer name are always mandatory
• Up to 8 Contact Fields can be configured
• A field marked as ID is used as a key identifier for the Contact
• A field marked as Auth must be entered by the customer when subscribing
• Optional fields such as Notice ID can support additional workflows, including Mailer-managed Subscriptions