User Guide. November 2010

Transcription

1 User Guide November 2010

2 Table of Contents Contact information...4 Support from your AppShore account...4 Support from Support from the AppShore team...4 Logging into AppShore...5 Log in with Language Preference...5 Basic Concepts...6 Leads...6 Accounts...6 Contacts...6 Opportunities...7 Activities & Shared Calendar...7 Forecasts & Quotas...8 Reports...8 Web mail...8 Campaigns...8 Cases...8 Documents...8 Dashboard...9 Customization...9 Import Records...10 Import into Leads, Accounts or Contacts?...10 Preparation of your import file...11 Importing values of drop down menus...12 Assigning records at time of import...13 Page Layout and Standard Features...17 Company logo...17 Preferences, Administration, Logout...17 Application Tabs...18 Application Tab Sub-Menu...18 Capture Leads...19 Left Panel Toggle Switch...19 Quick Search...20 Print Page...20 AppShore Support...20 Create, Edit, View Records...21 New Record Form...21 Edit and View Forms...22 Convert a Lead to an Account...24 Related Records Grid...26 Searching, Sorting and Navigating Records...29 Search Filters...29 Saved Search Filters...29 Number of Lines Displayed...30 Sorting Records by Specific Fields...31 Selecting Records...31 Opening Records...31 Sort by Date Created and Date Last Updated...32 Pop up View Form...32 History...33 Record Coloration...33 Bulk Operations...34 Assigning Records...35

3 Exporting Records...35 Deleting Records...36 Modifying Records in Bulk...37 Creating Lists for Campaigns...37 Tags...38

4 Contact information Support from your AppShore account Services accessible from your AppShore account. Click on the Technical Support icon in the top right corner of any AppShore page, it looks like a red and white life buoy: Howto's knowledge base. Ticket application to report issues, to request services or new features. Documentation (PDF format) to download Support from The following support services are offered to all customers including those who are taking advantage of a 30 day free trial: Contact the technical support. Request a free online training session. Contact the sales team. Documentation (PDF format) to download. Sales and technical frequently asked questions. Support from the AppShore team If you still cannot find what you are looking for, you can contact us: AppShore North America 2600 E. Bidwell Street Suite 270 Folsom, CA USA Sales Inquiries: sales@appshore.com Customer care: support@appshore.com Partner Programs: partners@appshore.com AppShore Japan Suite No. 10, 6F, B2, Sagami Street Ichiban-cho Chiyoda-ku Tokyo Japan Sales Inquiries: sales@appshore.co.jp Customer care: support@appshore.co.jp Partner Programs: partners@appshore.co.jp

5 Logging into AppShore From the browser navigation bar, type your dedicated appshore.net account domain name and click Go or press the Return/Enter key on your keyboard. Your AppShore account domain name will be in the form of; where mycompanyalias is the company alias selected by your AppShore Administrator. At the AppShore login page, enter your user name or address, and your password. Click the Login button or press the Return/Enter key on your key board. Alternatively, you can access your account from the AppShore web site, Click on the Customer Login link at the top right of any page on the AppShore web site, enter your company alias, your user name or address, and your password. Click the Login button or press the Return/Enter key on your key board. If you do not know your company alias or have forgotten it, click on the link that reads Forgot your company alias and complete the form to request assistance from technical support. If you have forgotten your password, click on the Forgot your password? link on the login page and request a new one to be automatically sent to you via . If you are still not able to login, please contact the AppShore Administrator for your company to validate your credentials or to have your password reset. If you are the AppShore Administrator, please contact AppShore support at support@appshore.com to validate or reset your account credentials. Log in with Language Preference For users who prefer to operate the AppShore program in a language other than US English, you can select and have saved your language preference from the Login page. The first time a user logs in, the default language will be that defined in the user s browser unless another is selected from the menu at time of login. Once the user has logged in using any particular language preference, as long as the browser is maintaining cookies, the language preference will be saved at time of next login. The language preference may be changed at any time simply by choosing a new one at time of login. If no language preference is selected, the default will be that defined in the user s AppShore user profile. Now that you are logged in, let s get familiar with the layout and standard features of the AppShore service. Note: Your Administrator may have deactivated or made invisible some of the standard features and functions of your AppShore account. If you login and do not see or cannot access certain features or functions described in this document, it may be because your AppShore Administrator has chosen not to provide you with permission to access that specific feature or function.

6 Basic Concepts AppShore is well suited for either the B2B or Business to Consumer (B2C) sector. However the terminology used and many of the design considerations are based on processes most common to the B2B sales model which will fit the majority of AppShore customers. AppShore is comprised of multiple applications or record types. Across the top of every AppShore screen you will find the folder-like tabs that allow you to navigate from one application, or record type to another. Whether operating in the B2B or B2C sector, understanding the conceptual and practical differences between the various AppShore applications and record types is an essential first step in making effective use of the AppShore system. The following is a brief overview of the various applications and record types. Leads In AppShore terminology, a Lead is a record with no associated sales activity. In other words it is assumed you will collect a lot of names of potential prospects, but (unfortunately) only a fraction of them will turn into sales opportunities or customers. This being the case, it is useful to be able to clearly distinguish a name on a list, a Lead in AppShore terminology, from an active prospect or a paying customer. We recommend you store all your new names including purchased lists in the Leads application. At some point in time, usually when the suspect has matured into a prospect or a paying customer, we recommend you convert the Lead to an Account. Once a Lead has been converted to an Account, it is no longer a Lead and will no longer be found when searching the Leads records. Leads may be entered manually, imported from a.csv or.txt file, or inserted directly into the AppShore data base via a Contact Us form on your web site. Accounts In AppShore terminology an Account record typically represents a current customer that is a company or an organization. By design, there is no first or last name field on an Account record, so it is not suited for capturing information about individuals. That is the function of the Contact record as described below. For additional clarity, you can use the Type field of the Account record to further distinguish the Account as being a prospect, a customer, a partner, a supplier, a competitor, etc. The Account Type field is customizable so you have the ability to group and categorize Account records in whatever way best suits your business. The primary purpose of creating an Account or converting a Lead to an Account is to distinguish the record from the unqualified names on your list of Leads, and to begin tracking the status of the sales process. Contacts Contacts are defined as records that represent individuals. Contacts can, but do not necessarily need to be, related to Account records. Any number of Contacts can be related to an Account. These individuals could be personal contacts that you will never sell to but want to keep in an address book for quick reference, or, more often, they are individuals who work for a company that you are selling to. Contacts may not be related to Leads but can be related to other record types in AppShore including Activities, Opportunities, Cases, Documents, Web mails.

7 Opportunities In AppShore terminology, an Opportunity represents a revenue opportunity, a completed sale, or a sales cycle that is in progress. Any number of Opportunity records may be associated with an Account. The purpose of creating Opportunity records is to have a single place where you can track your entire pipeline including deals won and lost. Using the Opportunity record you can monitor deals in each step or stage of the sales cycle. Opportunity records have a customizable drop down menu called Stage that is used to define your specific sales process. By modifying the value of the Stage field in the drop down menu as you progress through the sales process, you can represent movement in the sales process and the current status of your pipeline. Activities & Shared Calendar Activities are discrete events such as a phone call, a meeting, an event or a task. Any number of Activities can be associated with an Account, Opportunity, Lead, Case, or Contact record. Activity records are most often used as reminders to assist you in keeping your schedule organized and up to date. Activities may be viewed in list format and searched and sorted by a variety of different criteria including the date, priority, status, Contact name or Account name. Under the Activities tab is where you will also find the shared calendar which displays Activities in a wall calendar format rather than list format. The calendar is secured by the user s access permissions which means information on the calendar may or may not be shared with other users depending on the security profile assigned to the user.

8 Forecasts & Quotas Forecasts are generated from Opportunity records and are used for pipeline management and to track the performance of the sales team or individual sales people over a user defined time period. Forecast records may be filtered by multiple criteria including the month or year the Opportunity is expected to close, by sales representative, by Stage or by Probability, or by some combination of the above. Forecasts can be sorted by the Opportunity name, the Account name, the Expected Amount, the Stage, or the Probability. Forecasts may be generated for a Month, a Quarter, a Year, or for any arbitrary date range you specify. You can also assign quotas to sales people and track the performance against quota on an individual or team basis. Reports In addition to the standard Reports we provide, you can also create your own custom reports. Reports can be viewed online, printed or saved to a.csv file on your desktop. Web mail Web mail is a built in application. You can send by clicking on the Web mail tab and then New Mail or by clicking on any address while in view mode of the record. Web mail supports Templates and custom Signatures. You can format your messages using the built in HTML editor. Although you may notice an Inbox in the list of folders under the Web mail tab, AppShore Web mail is outbound only. At this time the application does not accept inbound messages. If someone replies to a message sent from within AppShore, the reply will be directed to your current client (your business account, Outlook, gmail, Yahoo, etc.). You do not need a special AppShore address to use Web mail. When sending a message from within AppShore, the From: address will default to the address in your User profile. You can change the From: address on the fly while creating an message and you can change the address in your profile by going to Preferences, and then My Information. Campaigns Campaigns are used to send messages in bulk and are comprised of an message or template and a list of recipients. You may create Lists of addresses from Leads, Accounts or Contacts, or a combination of each. Messages and Templates may be formatted in HTML or in plain text or both. For personalization of messages, several dynamic fields, such as first name, last name, company name, and others are available to be automatically inserted into a Campaign message when it is sent. Cases Cases are usually used by post-sales support personnel and can be thought of as trouble tickets, or a way to identify and track open issues with customers. Cases can be assigned to individuals and filtered by priority, owner, or status. Cases can be sorted by priority, subject, Account, Contact, Opportunity, or Status. The Case status field is customizable. Documents The Documents service provides a central repository of documents that can be stored, accessed and shared across your organization. Documents may be organized into folders. When searching for documents, filters may be applied based on the

9 name of the document or the owner. Documents can be sorted by name, size, owner and the date of last update. A document stored in AppShore could be of virtually file type. It does not have to be Word document. Documents may be linked to other records including Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Activities, Opportunities and Cases. Dashboard The Dashboard service provides a convenient summary of, among other things, your most active Accounts, upcoming Activities, neglected Accounts, top Opportunities, open Cases and most recently viewed records. The Dashboard may be customized in a variety of different ways to suit your particular interests. Customization AppShor provides the ability to customize several drop down menus and allows for up to 50 new fields per form. You can add new fields, remove fields, rename fields, rearrange the fields on the form, create sections or groups of fields for better organization, add new search criteria, and much more.

10 Import Records One of the first things you may want to do is load your data base with records from Outlook, Excel spreadsheets, or another vendor s CRM product. As a service to our customers we prefer to work closely with you to ensure that your data is imported correctly the first time. We strongly encourage you to contact us before attempting to import data unless you are very familiar with this type of procedure. When you contact us we will ask you to forward the file(s) you would like imported so we can review the format of the data. Send your file(s) to support@appshore.com and request assistance with importing. We will need your AppShore password to login to your account. If the data is well formatted according to our requirements, we will import it for you. If the data needs to be cleansed a bit and we can do it quickly, we will do so before importing it. If there is substantial work to be done to prepare the data for import we will offer guidance on what needs to be done and ask you to cleanse your data and send it back to us. We also offer a data cleansing service. We charge $100 per hour for this service. Import into Leads, Accounts or Contacts? Before you import your data it is important to clearly understand the purpose of and differences between the Lead, Account and Contact records. These concepts are described above but a more detailed explanation is required to enable you to make the best decision on where to import your records. In AppShore terminology, a Lead is a record with no associated sales activity. In other words it is assumed you will collect a lot of names of potential prospects, but (unfortunately) only a fraction of them will turn into sales opportunities or customers. This being the case, it is useful to be able to clearly distinguish a suspect that is nothing more than a name on a list, from an active prospect or a paying customer. We therefore recommend you import your suspects, those companies or individuals who have not yet been contacted and are not yet engaged in the sales process, into Leads, as opposed to Accounts and/or Contacts. This is not a hard and fast rule. There may be circumstances where it makes more sense to import suspects into Accounts and Contacts. For example, if you have multiple contacts at each company, it may be more effective to import your records into Accounts and Contacts and mark them as Leads and ignore the Leads application altogether. The AppShore Lead record contains the company name field (Account) and the First and Last name fields and thereby stores information related to both the company and the individual associated with the company. When importing Leads, AppShore does not check for duplicates. Any number of exact duplicate records may be imported into Leads. The purpose of the Lead record, the specific information stored on a Lead record, and the absence of duplicate checking during the Lead import process are all important factors to be considered when deciding to import records into Leads, Accounts or Contacts. In the typical Business to Business (B2B) sales model it is assumed that the customer is a company as opposed to an individual. Furthermore, it is assumed that you will need to sell to, or at least speak to multiple individuals within the company in order to consummate a sale. This may not always be the case in your particular business model but the AppShore system was designed to accommodate this scenario by distinguishing between Accounts (companies) and Contacts (individuals).

11 Specifically, the AppShore Account record is designed to represent a company, not an individual, which is actively engaged in the sales process or is a current customer. AppShore Contact records represent individuals who are employed by, or are in some other way related to the company (Account). Any number of Contact records may be related to an Account record. The implications of this design are evident when importing records into Accounts and Contacts as opposed to Leads. For example, unlike Leads, when importing Account records, AppShore checks for duplicates based on the value of the Account field which, by design, should contain the company name. Each company name (Account field) must be unique. Exact duplicates will be rejected at time of import. Likewise, when importing Contacts, AppShore checks for duplicates based on several parameters; first name, last name, address and company name (Account field ). If all four of these fields match exactly to an existing Contact record, the duplicates will be rejected. If you have multiple Contacts per Account, you will need to import your data into both Accounts and Contacts. This is a two step process. First import the data into Accounts to create the Account records. You will notice the AppShore Account record does not contain a first or last name field. When importing into Accounts ignore the mapping of the first and last name fields and other information that is specific to the Contact record. Then import the same file into Contacts. In order for the relationship between the Contacts and Accounts to be established, you must be sure to map the company name in your file to the Account field of both the Account record and the Contact record. The Account field is the key that links the two record types together. If you have only one Contact per Account you do not necessarily need to import your data into both Accounts and Contacts. You can instead import your data into Contacts only. Even though you are importing into Contacts, if there is no existing Account record under the exact same company name (based on the value of the Account field of the Account record) an Account record will be created automatically at time of import and the relationship between the Contact and the Account will be properly established. However, the Account record created will contain only that information that is common to the Account and the Contact, e.g., phone number, , fax number, address information, etc. If you are working in a Business to Consumer (B2C) sales model you should contact AppShore to discuss the best alternative for importing your data. Depending on your requirements we may suggest customization of one or more of our forms to accommodate the capture of data specific to your business or industry. We will now proceed to describe the import process itself. Preparation of your import file Although it is not necessary that your file contain a column header row, if it does not we highly recommend you insert one. This will make the field mapping step of the import procedure as simple and straight forward as possible. The header row is row one of the file and contains a descriptive name for the data in that particular column, such as first name, last name, address, etc. If your file already has a header row, it will be extremely useful for you to replace it with our standard column headers. If you use our standard column headers most if not all of the field mapping will be done for you automatically when you get to that step of the import procedure.

12 To get our standard column headers, first create and then export a sample record of the type you are about import, i.e., Lead, Account, Contact, etc. To create a sample record go the tab where you want to import records and click on the New Account, or New Contact or New Lead link in the top left corner of the form just beneath the row of tabs. Complete the New record form by entering sample data into each of the fields, then click Save. Return to the search results page by clicking on the tab of the record type you just created (Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc.). Check the box next to the record you just created and then click Export at the bottom of the page. A.csv file will be created that can be opened in Excel. You will be prompted to Open or Save the export file. Save the file to your hard drive. Open Excel and open the file you just saved. The file will contain the sample data you entered and our standard column headers in row one. The file will also contain several extraneous columns which you can ignore. Copy and paste the appropriate column headers from the sample file into row one of the file you want to import. You will notice that our standard header row contains both a first and last name column. The implication being that your file must be set up this way as opposed to storing the full name in a single cell. Although we do have a full name field on the Contact and Lead records, you cannot import values into this field because it is a dynamic field that is created by aggregating the first and last names after the record has been imported. Also, we have only one address field. If your file has more than one address such as address 1, address 2, address 3, the address information must be consolidated into a single cell prior to import. Splitting a full name into two cells and consolidating multiple address fields into one cell are things AppShore can help you with if you do not know how to do it in Excel. Importing values of drop down menus When importing data into AppShore drop down menus such as the Type, Source, Industry, and Rating fields, you must have a corresponding field in your file that contains the AppShore identifier of the value you want to import. Drop down menus will not be automatically populated with the values in your file at time of import unless the proper Identifiers exist prior to import. Note there are two parameters of an entry in a drop down menu, the identifier and the label. You must insert the identifier of the entry into your file, not the label. The identifiers for values of the AppShore drop down menus are found under Administration>Customization>Drop down lists. Select the list you want to populate from the drop down menu at the top of the form. Copy and paste the appropriate AppShore Identifier of the value(s) you want to import into the appropriate rows of your file. If necessary you can create new entries or remove entries from several of the AppShore drop down menus. You must have administrative permissions to modify the values of drop down lists.

13 When importing your file, map the corresponding field or column header to the proper AppShore database field, such as Industry, Type, Source, Rating or other. Assigning records at time of import If you are in a multi-user environment and you want to assign records to Users at the time they are imported, you must have a column in your file that contains the User s AppShore User identifier. To locate the User s AppShore identifier go to Administration>Users>List. Open the User record in view mode by clicking on the magnifying glass icon next to it. The User identifier is found in the top right corner of the User profile record. Copy and paste the User identifier into each record in your file that you want to assign to that User. When mapping the fields in your file during the import process, map the column containing the User identifier to the AppShore field called Owner. Because there are an infinite number of potential variations of the type and format of data that could be contained in your data file, it is impossible to document every detail and circumstance that could arise during the import process. Again, we strongly suggest you contact us before attempting to import data so that we can evaluate the quality of your data and provide guidance for achieving the best results. You can only import to AppShore files saved as file type Comma Separated Values (.csv). If you have a standard Excel spreadsheet with a file extension of.xls or.xlsx, you must first save the file as a.csv file before attempting to import it. To save a file as a.csv file, open it in Excel and click on File in the menu, then Save as

14 After you click on Save as, you will be prompted with a pop up dialogue box. Here you can determine where on your hard drive you want to save the file, name the file, and select the.csv file type. From the Save as type: drop down menu, scroll through the list until you locate the CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) option and click on it. Then click Save to save the standard Excel file as a.csv file to be imported into AppShore. Once you have saved your file as a.csv file, you are ready to import it. To import records click on the Import link in the top left side of the page in the sub-menu below the row of application tabs. Each record type has an import option in the submenu.

15 After clicking on the Import link you will be prompted to browse for and select from your hard drive or network the file to be imported. If your file has a column header, be sure to click on the Header row check box then click Next. After clicking Next you will be prompted with a screen that looks like this: The next step of the import process is the mapping of the fields in your file to the fields in the AppShore database record. To do so, drop down the menu under the Database fields column one by one and select the AppShore field that matches the field in your file. The AppShore database field called Account is where the company name is stored for the Lead, Account and Contact records.

16 If your file contains fields for which there is no matching field in the AppShore database record, simply leave the drop down menu blank for those fields. After mapping the fields, click Next to import the records. When the import process is finished a message confirming the results will be displayed.

17 Page Layout and Standard Features Company logo The AppShore logo appears in the top left corner of each page. The Administrator can replace the AppShore logo with your company logo. To do so, go to Administration, then Customization, then Company logo. Preferences, Administration, Logout In the top right corner of every AppShore screen you will find, at a minimum, your user name, your company name and the Logout link. Depending on the rights you have been granted by your Administrator, you may also see links to Preferences and Administration in this area. If you have been granted permission to do so, you may view or edit your personal profile by clicking on your user name. You may view or edit your company profile by clicking on your company name. You may view or edit your personal preferences by clicking on the Preferences link, and you may administer some, or all, of your AppShore environment by clicking on the Administration link. If you do not see or cannot click on one or more of these links it is because you have not been granted the permissions to do so by your Administrator. You will always find the Logout link in this area, irrespective of what permissions you have been granted by your Administrator. Under Preferences you can do things like change your password, change the color scheme, set the date and time formats, and set the currency and the time zone preferences. You can also determine which application you see first immediately upon login. Use this feature if you want to login and go directly to the Dashboard, or to Leads, or any other application other than Accounts, which is the default entry application. The confirm delete option is also set under Preferences. We strongly recommend you set the confirm delete option to on (checked). This will have the effect of popping up a confirmation message before any record or other object is deleted from the data base. The user will be forced to click Ok in the pop up window to confirm the action before it takes place.

18 Application Tabs Across the top of each page are the application tabs. By clicking on a tab you navigate to the particular application. The names of these tabs can be changed, and the sequence in which the tabs appear can be rearranged. Tabs can be made invisible while the application itself may still be active. Applications can be deactivated. All modifications to the application tabs and the activation and deactivation of applications are Administrative functions found under the Applications link. Application tabs can be modified and sorted. Application Tab Sub-Menu Just below the row of tabs, for each application, there are a series of links that start at the top left corner of the page. For most applications these are the History toggle switch, Search, New Record (such as Lead, Account, Contact, etc.), and Import. The Search link returns you to the search results area where all records meeting the search criteria are displayed. If you have lots of records and you are working through the list, clicking on the Search link will return you to the same page you were on before you opened the last record. This is opposed to clicking on the application tab which takes you back to the first page of records in the list. The New record link is what you click when you want to create a new record of that type. The Import link is what you click when you want to Import records into the application. We accept.csv files for Import. As a service to our customers, as long as your file is relatively well formatted and there is not a lot of data cleansing to be done, we usually help you import your records for free. Send us your file as an attachment and we will evaluate the quality of your data and let you know if we can do it easily for free or if we have to charge you for data cleansing. We charge $100 per hour for this service.

19 Capture Leads Under the Leads tab only you will see an additional link labeled Capture Leads. Here you will find sample HTML code that can be copied and pasted into the Contact Us form on your existing web site where you are collecting contact information from visitors. Once you have modified your web site with this code, when visitors click Submit on your form, the information gathered will be entered directly into a new Lead record in AppShore. Left Panel Toggle Switch The rectangular icon in the first position of the sub menu on each page toggles the Left Panel on and off. The left panel of the form is where the History of recently viewed and edited records and Tags are displayed (Tags are discussed in more detail later in this document). By turning the switch off you gain more horizontal real estate on the search results form, which can be particularly useful if you have added a lot of fields to the search results to the extent that you now need to scroll to the right to view them on the page.

20 Quick Search Near the top right corner of every AppShore screen is the Quick Search bar. This search field searches all records, not just the records in the current view or current application. It is used to look for records using criteria other than what we offer in the search criteria area just above the list of records. Use this search tool to, among other things, quickly locate text within a Note field on any record, or search on a person s first name rather than last name, or to search for records by city. You can also use this search field to search for records by the name or subject. Unlike other open text search fields throughout the application, Quick Search allows multiple keywords to be used as criteria for locating records. You can select which specific fields can be searched using this tool, including most standard and custom fields. A maximum of 100 records per application matching the Quick search criteria will be returned. Results of the Quick Search can be sorted by any field displayed. Print Page Next to the Quick Search bar on every AppShore screen you will find the printer icon which, when clicked, prints the current screen to your local printer. AppShore Support Next to the Printer icon on every AppShore screen you will find the red and white life buoy icon which connects you to the AppShore Technical Support application. Here you can find all our contact information and official hours of telephone and

21 support, download documentation, view Frequently Asked Questions and open support tickets to report bugs, ask questions, or request enhancements. Create, Edit, View Records New Record Form To create a new record of any type click on the New [Lead/Account/Contact, etc.] link in the application sub-menu in the top left of the page just beneath the row of application tabs. You will be presented with the record edit form where you can manually enter the record data. Fields with a red label are required fields. You will not be able to save the record until all required fields have been populated. You have the ability to determine which fields, including new custom fields, are mandatory for creating new records. At the top and bottom left side of the record edit form are the Save, Save and New and Cancel buttons. Click Save to the store the record in the database once you have entered all mandatory and optional information. The purpose of the Save and New feature is to increase speed and efficiency by reducing the amount redundant data entry required when creating new records that contain much of the exact information, such as addresses. It is especially, but not exclusively, useful when creating several new Contact records which are related to the same Account. Click the Save and New button to store the current record in the database and automatically create a new record with the exact same content. After clicking Save and New you will be placed into edit mode of the newly created record so you can immediately begin to modify the fields that are unique to the new record. When creating a new record or when an existing record is open in edit mode, you may see a magnifying glass icon next to one or more fields. This indicates that the field can be used to link the current record to another.

22 When clicked, the magnifying glass icon will present the pop up search form where you can search for and select the record to which you want to link, or relate, the currently open record. The most common, but not the only, examples of relating one record to another are; relating a Contact to an Account, relating an Activity to an Account and/or Contact, and relating an Opportunity to Account. When creating a new Account or Contact record or when an existing Account or Contact record is open in edit mode, you will see links to copy the address information from one address type to another; Shipping to Billing or vice-versa in the case of the Account record, Primary to Secondary or vice versa in the case of the Contact record. Always remember to click Save when finished creating or editing a record. The Enter key does not necessary save the record in every case. If you have not yet saved the record, when clicked, the Cancel button will take you out of the record edit form and return you to the main search results page. The record will not be saved. If you have already saved the record, when clicked, the Cancel button will undo all modifications made to the record since it was last saved, take you out of edit mode, and return you to the record view form. Edit and View Forms To open a record in edit mode click on the green pen icon next to it in the search results area. To open a record in view mode, click on the magnifying glass icon next to it.

23 When a record is open in view mode you can enter edit mode by clicking on the Edit button in the top left or lower left corner of the record details. When in view mode, next to the Edit button you will also see the Duplicate, Delete, Export and Print buttons. The Duplicate button when clicked creates an exact copy of the current record, and takes you into edit mode where you can modify the newly created duplicate record. The Duplicate button does not automatically save the newly created record. To save the newly created duplicate record you must click the Save button in the top left or lower left corner of the record details area. The duplicate feature helps increase efficiency by eliminating repetitive data entry while creating records that share much of the exact same data, such as the primary and secondary address information of a Contact record. When a record is open in edit mode you will find the Save, Duplicate, Delete, and Cancel buttons in the top left and lower left corners of the record details area. The Duplicate feature respects the AppShore rule related to duplicate Account records. Specifically, AppShore does not allow for duplicate Account records with exact same company name (value of the Account field). The best practice when duplicating Account records is to change the name of the company in the Account field first, then click Duplicate. The currently open record will not be affected and a new record with the exact same content will be opened in the New Account form. One of the most common reasons to edit a record is to add notes on calls, meetings and conversations with customers and prospects. For this purpose, every record type, Leads, Accounts, Contacts, etc. has a note field. This field can contain a virtually limitless amount of data. At the top right of the Note field is Time Stamp link. Click on the link to insert your user name and the current date and time into the top of the Note field so you can keep a running chronological history of your activity. The date and time of the Date and Time stamp is determined by the time zone option under Preferences. To set your time zone preference, go to Preferences in the top right corner of the page. Click on Presentation on the left side of the page. Click the Edit button. Then select your time zone from the Time zone drop down menu and click Save.

24 In the top right corner of the page you will find the Assigned to drop down menu and the record navigation icons. Use the Assigned to drop down menu to assign the currently opened record to another user. If you want to reassign the currently open record and all records that may be related to it to another user, check the Assign related check box. When the Assign related box is checked you will be presented with a confirmation message to confirm you want to reassign all the related records to the new user. Once you have clicked Ok to confirm the operation, click the Save button in the top left side of the form to invoke the action. When the record is saved it, and all related records will be reassigned to the new user. Use the navigation icons, which also appear at the bottom right corner of the page, to scroll through the search results either one record at a time or to scroll forward or backward to the last or first record in the search results. Convert a Lead to an Account The AppShore system was originally designed to accommodate the business to business (B2B) sales model. If you are working in a B2C sales model, AppShore provides the flexibility to customize the AppShore environment for the unique requirements of selling to individual consumers as opposed to businesses. For the purpose of this discussion on converting Leads, we will describe the typical B2B sales model process. When a Lead record is open in either view or edit mode you will find the Convert button in the top left corner of the page near the Save, Save and New and Cancel

25 buttons. The only record that can be converted from one type to another is a Lead record. So, you will not see the Convert button on any other forms but the Lead record edit and view forms. The main purpose of converting a Lead to an Account is that you have consummated a sale and you want to categorize the record as being related to a customer and no longer to a Lead. Even if you have not yet made the sale, but the Lead has matured beyond the point of being a cold suspect to a being a warm or hot prospect, you may still want to convert the Lead to an Account to clearly distinguish the record from the cold suspects. Unlike a Lead record, which may contain both a company name and an individual s first and last name, the AppShore Account record is used solely for the purpose of describing the business. It does not contain a first or last name field. The Contact record is used to document information about an individual, who is usually an employee of the business. Any number of Contact records may be related to an Account record. When you click on the Convert button you are brought into edit mode so you can further complete the Lead record before conversion. It is a good idea to complete the Lead record with as much information as possible before conversion so that the maximum amount of information will be transferred to both the Account and Contact records. After you have clicked the Convert button and finished filling in whatever other details you may have, or if you have no edits to make, click on the Proceed Conversion button to finalize the conversion. When a Lead is converted to an Account and there is a company name in the Account field and there is a last name in the Last name field, both an Account record and a Contact record will be created and the Contact will be related to the Account. Look for the message at the top of the page that reads Lead successfully converted, one account created, one contact created.

26 If there is only a company name in the Account field and nothing in the Last name field, an Account record will be created but no Contact record will be created. If there is nothing in the Account field of the Lead record, the conversion will fail and the Lead will not be converted. Once a Lead has been successfully converted, you will no longer find the Lead record under the Leads tab. There is no method to revert an Account back to a Lead. Related Records Grid While in view or edit mode of a record, the records that are related to the current record are displayed below the record details at the bottom of the page in what is called the Related Records Grid. For example, if you are in View mode of an Account record, at the top of the page you will see the Account record details, and below it you will see several sections titled Activities, Cases, Contacts, Documents, Opportunities, Subsidiaries, and Web mail. If there are records related to the Account record, they will be listed under the respective section header in the Related Records Grid. From the Related Records Grid you can view and edit the related records, create a new record which will automatically be linked to, or related to, the currently open

27 record, link an existing record to the currently open record, unlink an existing record from the currently open record, and delete a record that is linked to the currently open record. To edit a record from the Related Records Grid click on the green pen icon next to it. To view a record in the Related Records Grid click on the magnifying glass icon next to it. To delete a record from the database from the Related Records Grid, check the box next to the record and then click the Delete button. Note that using the Delete button in the Related Records Grid does actually delete the record from the database entirely. Do not use the Delete button unless you really want to delete the record from the database. Use the Unlink button to keep the record in the database but remove the linkage between the currently open record and the record in question. To unlink a record from the currently open record, first check the box next to it, then click the Unlink button. To create a new record and have it automatically linked to the currently open record, click the Add button beneath the section of the record type you wish to create. When clicked, the Add button brings up the pop up edit form. In most cases all

28 relevant fields of the record to be created are available on the pop up edit form except the Note field. Be sure to click the Save button in the top or bottom left corner of the pop up edit form to save the new created record. Click the x in the circular red icon in the top right corner of the pop up edit form to close the pop up window after you have saved the new record. You will not be able to see the newly created related record in the Related Records Grid until you either refresh your browser or close and then reopen the original record to which the newly created record was linked. Link one or more existing records to the current record using the Link button. To link an existing record, or multiple records simultaneously to the currently open record, click the Link button beneath the section of the record type you wish to link to the currently open record.

29 When clicked, the Link button will display the pop up search form. Here you can use the search criteria at the top of the form to search for the record(s) you want to relate to the currently open record. When you have the desired record(s) in the search results area you can use the various options of the Apply on drop down menu of the pop up search form, found in the bottom left corner of the pop up window, to link either only the Selected lines (only those records in the pop up search form search results area with the box next to them checked), or the Current page option to link the entire page of records displayed in the pop up search form search results area, or the All results option to link all records that meet the search criteria at the top of the pop up search form, irrespective of the number records (even if all the records that meet the criteria cannot be displayed in the pop up results search form search results area). Searching, Sorting and Navigating Records Search Filters In the area just above the search results is where you will find the search and filtering criteria. Use these free form data entry fields and drop down menus to search for specific records or to view all records of a particular type. The search criteria drop down menus filter records from the search results that do not meet your search criteria. The first option in each of the drop down menus in the search criteria area is a blank line. By choosing the blank line you are asking not to filter on any of the criteria in that drop down menu. For example, if you have multiple users in the system and you want to see all the records owned by all the users, select the blank line from the Owner drop down menu and click the Search button. If you think you have records in the application but can t see them, check the Owner drop down menu to be sure it is set to either the blank line or to the specific user whose records you want to view. Several of the drop down menus can be customized including the Type, Source, Industry, Rating, Opportunity Stage and Case Status menus. You can create custom fields and drop down menus which can then be placed in the search criteria for more flexibility in locating and filtering records. To customize drop down menus you must have Administrative permissions. Go to Administration, Customization, Drop down menus. Just below the search and filter criteria options are the Search and Clear buttons. These buttons operate against your search and filter criteria. Once you have entered specific search criteria or selected a specific filter, click on the Search button to execute the search. To remove all search and filtering criteria, click the Clear button. Saved Search Filters Also in the search filters area you will find the Saved Search Filters feature. This is a convenient tool used to store common search criteria on an application by application basis. Saved Searches can be particularly useful if you tend to use a specific set of search criteria over and over but do not want to take the time to reconstruct the filters search each time. Saved searches can be searched, sorted, filters and deleted either one by one or in bulk using the Manage Search Filters feature.

30 Record Navigation Above and below the search results on the right side of the page are navigation icons that allow you to scroll through records one page at a time, or to scroll directly to the first or last page in the list. Use the single arrow icon to scroll forward or backward one page at a time and the double arrow icon to scroll to the first and last pages of the results. This is also where the number of records that meet the search criteria is displayed. This information is displayed in the format x to y of z, where x represents the first record in the list and y represents the number of records displayed on the page, and z represents the total number of records in the list. For example, 51 to 100 of 132 would indicate you are viewing records 51 through 100 of a total of 132 records that meet the search criteria. These navigation icons are also available while viewing or editing specific records. While viewing or editing records, the single arrow scrolls forward or backward one record at a time rather than one page at a time. Number of Lines Displayed At the top right and bottom right of the list of records displayed is a drop down menu box labeled Lines. You may select a number from the list in the drop down menu to change the number of records displayed on a single page of search results. You can display up to 50 lines per page.