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Recent posts by our CRM Experts
Apr 30

Dynamics 365 – Using Business Rules to Set Default Values

By CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Software

This tip is meant to save yourself a little time (every second counts, right?) when completing forms in CRM.

Sometimes fields can be filled in on forms by default if the response is typically true under X condition(s). For example–you might know that if an opportunity or lead is related to Product X or Y, it applies to Business Unit A, while if the interest is in Product Z, it applies to Business Unit B. You use a Business Rule on a form to set the conditions and default values. Being default values, they can be changed after they are set. Read More

Apr 28

Salesforce.com – Using Validation Rules

By CRM, Salesforce CRM

This is kind of an oldie but a goodie, bring back to life a post from long ago just because I think validation rules are so helpful.  A lot of my clients tend to go down the rules of “required” fields but that doesn’t always work.  In that case, use a formula to validate fields, popping up a warning when something isn’t correct — thereby prompting the user to add in data.

In our case here, we’re going to do a rule that creates a warning if the user chooses a type of value, and we want something to clarify that value.  Here, I want to create a validation so that when someone tells me that they have Goldmine as a product, I put in their version as well (other products in this picklist don’t have a version, hence the need for GM only).

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Apr 28

Salesforce.com – Tabular reports in dashboards (tips 1&2)

By CRM, Salesforce CRM

Something I just kind of stumbled on to for another client, a useful tool that can put tabular reports in a dashboard item.  You don’t want to whole tabular report, but maybe the “top 10 opportunities by dollars” or “customers not touched in a LONG time”.  Now, a couple of caveats — you cannot use date fields as a displayed field inside of the dashboard.  I find this very annoying, but I’ve gotten around it by doing an aging field based on that date.  That works well, but takes a bit so this will be more like 2 tips.

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Apr 24

Zoho CRM – Inserting Merge fields into Email Templates

By CRM, Zoho, Zoho CRM

Inserting merge fields into Email templates just got a whole lot easier with Zoho CRM’s new Template editor!

While creating a Template, simply type the “#” hashtag symbol.  This brings up field selection box where you can just start typing the field you’re looking for the the system dynamically shows you the fields that match.  For example, say you’re creating a Lead Email Template and you wanted to insert the “First Name” field.  simply type #fir and you’ll see this:

Then you just have to click on “First Name” to insert the First name merge tag.

Apr 24

Zoho CRM – Find out how your emails are performing

By CRM, Zoho, Zoho CRM

When you send an email from CRM you can now go to the recipient’s record in CRM and see if they opened it, and/or clicked on links embedded in the email.  This is great, right?  But did you also know that if you send a mass email to a set of Leads or Contacts that you can get summary information on how that email performed overall – meaning how many people opened it, and how many people clicked links?  It’s called Template STATs!   Read More

Apr 18

GoldMine : Requiring Input

By GoldMine CRM

When customizing your GoldMine record layout, you can make any field “required”. This means that the user will not be able to navigate away from the Contact Record until the field has been filled.

To do this;

1. Enter Customization Mode by right-clicking on the Contact Record and selecting “Screen Design”.
2. Find and right-click on the field you’d like to make Required.
3. Select “Properties”.
4. Go to the “Security” Tab.
5. Check the box which says “Required Data Entry”.

“Ok” your way back out. Users may need to restart their GoldMine to get the new changes.

Apr 18

GoldMine : Using Duration Creatively

By GoldMine CRM

I’ve had a few calls over the last couple weeks with folks who’d like to use their histories in GoldMine to generate billing for clients. I actually do this myself every week. Where the challenge lies is in the fact that the “Duration” field on a History item reads like this: “00:30:00” (30 minutes).
This makes any totaling of these durations (say, on a report or within a query) difficult to say the least.

I find it much easier to enter in “Decimal” times for my histories. So, instead of using “00:30:00” for a half hour, I use “.5” Note that the Duration field is a simple text field, and will accept almost any input you give it. So my 01:45:00 becomes 1.75 and so on.

This way, any totaling you want to do becomes easy. It is possible to “parse” out the HH:MM:SS duration value, but you’ll spend more time doing  that than working on the report itself…
This also brings up a good concept; whenever possible, structure your data entry model to make reporting easier.

Try it, and have fun!

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