Blog Archives - MRSware CRM + Sales + Commissions

File Storage Limits in File Share

6/20/2008

Question

Is there any limit or maximum to the amount of files we upload to MRSware?

Answer

There is no limit to the number of files, or the size of those files.

Your files in File Storage do count against your total storage usage. As such we recommend using File Share to store files that users need to access when outside the office, on the road, or that are worked on collaboratively (using the revision control system). What we don't generally recommend is uploading all of your files from your computer, or from a in-office network file storage device, as this will generally be lots of files that are infrequently (if ever) accessed.

Uploading a new version of a file that already exists in File Share

6/20/2008

Sometimes you want to update a file currently in File Share with a version that came from somewhere else -- perhaps it was e-mailed to you, perhaps it was generated from a different file or program (like a PDF version of another file). The previous version of the file with the same name is already in File Share, so you can't just upload the same name again. Changing the name of the file and uploading the new file is a possibility, but then you are left with different versions of the same file, which can lead to confusion (and get pretty cluttered pretty quickly). What you really want to do is update the existing file with your new version, using File Share's revision history to keep the separate versions intact.

Creating one company-wide, "master" database of contact and companies

6/16/2008

One of the typical challenges/projects we see when a new customer comes on board with MRSware is the creation of one company-wide company and contact list that everyone can use. The challenge part is that the source of this new "master list" is found in multiple, previously individually kept contact lists from various programs that the inside staff, outside field, accounting department, etc. kept. This makes many sources of the information, all of which will have different information, whether it is just names of contacts and companies spelled differently, or entirely different (or missing) address, phone numbers, e-mails, et. al.

So what do we do about all these sources and differing information? We work at it. It is going to be an iterative process of working through the lists to bring them together. Some of the tools you will use along the way include those built into your existing contact program (the source of the list), Excel, and tools we have built into MRSware.

Following is a short list of a couple of the tools and features to use, and when to use them:

Printing Journal entries

6/12/2008

Users can print Journals in Excel, PDF, and a couple of other formats through the standard reporting engine. Use the "Run Journal Printout Report" button on the button bar of the Journal entry to print it.

Fixing Incorrectly Assigned Account Numbers

6/11/2008

Sometimes you will find that an account number on a customer is incorrect. Perhaps it was caused by importing incorrect account numbers from a manufacturer. It could also be a case of wanting to change over from a previously used internal account number, or "short name", to the manufacturers' actual account number for the customer.

As part of the precautions from deleting information that is still in use, the system will not let anyone delete an Account Number that is currently in use on an invoice. The following steps will guide you through the process of reassigning invoices to a different account number -- one that you intend to keep -- so that the no longer desired account number can be removed from the system.

Generate a list of customers with contacts for a particular manufacturer

6/11/2008

Question

How do I get a list of customers for one of my manufacturers that also includes the contacts at those various customers?

Answer

You can use the Contact Export Wizard to do this:

1. Click on "File" → "Export" → "Contact Export Wizard".
2. Check the box that says "Customers" on the Search Options (first) page. Press Next.
3. Fill in the Principals name. Press Next.
4. On the Export Criteria page, make sure "Both Companies and Contacts" is selected at the top. Check the box that says "Include contacts for matching companies" near the bottom. Press Next.
5. Continue through the wizard until you get to the Export Destinations page. Enter the file name you want to create and press Finish.

This creates and opens a spreadsheet file that contains all of the companies and contacts for the selected manufacturer. You can play around with the various options in the wizard to further filter down your results as needed. For example, you might run this for a particular sales rep, or geography.

Fixing Incorrectly Assigned Sales Reps on Customers and Invoices

6/11/2008

Updating sales rep assignments in bulk is a handy thing to do, whether you are doing it because of a change in staffing, change in territory assignments, or to fix some incorrect invoices.

The steps below apply to Sales Reps incorrectly assigned to either a set of customers or a set of invoices, and can be done in either the Customer listing or Invoice Entry screens respectively.

One thing you don't want to use this for is to change all the Invoices in the system from a previous sales rep to the new sales rep for a set of accounts. While it certainly has the power to do this, what you lose is the historical accurateness of who actually was responsible for a sales, or paid a commission at a given time in history. This type of information is very important from a financial accounting perspective. Beside, the apparent gain in reporting is non-existent since Data Analysis gives the User the ability to see the sales from both the Sales Rep on Customer as well as the Sales Rep on Invoice perspectives; and Report Explorer reports allow the newly assigned sales rep to see all of the sales history.

E-mail Address Auto-complete

6/11/2008

The auto-complete feature works by typing part of the name or e-mail address into the field and then pressing the Tab key (or clicking in another field). The name will match up to contacts in your system and fill in.

Green Underline

If there are more than one possible matches, you will see a green underline on the contact name. Right-click on the green line to select the correct match.

Red Underline

If you see a red underline, it means that there was no match. This could indicate that the contact or e-mail address is not in your system, or that the name is spelled incorrectly. You can enter the contact into your system, or just type the e-mail address directly into the To field.

Contacts with Multiple E-mail Addresses

It is typical that people have more than one e-mail address. Once your contact's name auto-complete, you can right-click on his name to select the alternate e-mail address from the list of his e-mail addresses in the system.

Examples

If I type jeff gia into the To field, the name completes with Jeff Giasson and fills in his e-mail address. Jeff has both a personal and business address, his business address is set as default in his contact card, so that is what fills in first. If I want to send to his personal address instead (send those chain letters to him at his non-business address), I right-click on his name and select the other e-mail address from the list.

If I had typed jeff g instead, I would have gotten the green underline. There is both a Jeff Giasson and a Jeff Green. I right-click on the name to select the correct Jeff and his name and e-mail address fill in.

If I had typed jeff gii (darn sticky i key), I would have gotten the red underline indicating that there were no matches. In this case, I look again and see my typo, correct it, press Tab and see the auto-complete match up the name successfully.

Observation: I can see that typing a little bit more of Jeff's last name causes it to auto-complete without me having to right-click on it. This is going to be the same for other contacts too -- the more you type of the name, the less number of matches returned.

If I type j gia instead, I get Jeff's name and address to fill in on the first try. Any part of the first and last name, or just first name, or just last name will work for auto-complete.

The same also applies for company names if they have an e-mail address... Typing abc co gives me the e-mail address associated with ABC Company (or ABC Corporation, or just ABC Co.).

Files in File Share are downloaded as needed; download all files

6/10/2008

Question:

I am trying to move 2006 and 2007 files from File Share over to DVD. Some of the folders and files are missing when I view the "My MRSware Files" folder on my hard drive in Windows Explorer. I looked under the File Share folder's properties and I should be able to view it. Why is it not on my hard drive?

Answer:

File Share only downloads files to your computer as you need them. In this case you want them all downloaded so that you can copy them somewhere else. To download all the files in a folder, right-click on the File Share folder and select "Get Latest" → "From this folder" or "From this folder and all sub folders". The "all sub folders" option downloads all the files and folder structure of everything under the folder you clicked on.

When you do this you will first want to make sure you have lots of free disk space, as it may be a lot of files you are downloading. It may also take a while to download all the files, depending on how large and how many you are downloading, so make sure you leave the computer enough time to complete this operation.

Assigning Categories

6/10/2008

Categories are attributes created and assigned by you to aid in searches. In CRM you will find categories in Appointments, Companies, Contacts, Journals and Tasks. Categories may be assigned individually or in bulk. Below are the instructions to assign categories in bulk.

1. Click on Companies or Contacts in the Shortcut Bar.
You can also use the Search → Companies feature to search for a specific group of companies to assign a category to.

2. Once the list opens multi select (CTRL + left click) the Companies/Contacts for the new Category.

3. Right click on one of the selected Companies/Contacts → Bulk → Update Categories

The Bulk Edit Categories window will open.

*** If the categories are already listed in the Categories table:

4. Check all of the categories that apply to the companies you selected.

5. When finished, click "Save".

*** If the categories are not shown in the Categories table, you will have to Create your categories before you assign them.