In a previous article NET Genium ERP – Help and instructions, we learned about general help and tutorials related to NET Genium ERP.
We will now show how to work with customer documentation and explain the possibilities of using activities within the Customers (CRM) module. These instructions can also be viewed online on the website https://www.netgenium.com/en/help/erp/customer-help.
Documentation creation
Documents are used to record all documentation, files or images that are related to a particular business account. These are offers, contracts and other relevant documentary annexes.
1. step – create a new document record
In the upper gray bar, click on the application group “CRM”. In the navigation bar, click on the “Documents” application, then on the newly displayed “New document” option, or click on the button with the same name on one of the view pages.
2. step – document editing
We will fill in all required fields marked with an asterisk. In the “Links” section, we can assign a document record to an existing business account, contract or order by picker. By clicking on the “New order” button, we can even create a new order that will already be assigned to the document by default.
We will assign the file attachment to the record in the “Comments and file attachments” section. Use the “Browse” button to select the desired file and upload it to the system. Of course, we can upload several such attachments within the record.
On the “Read rights” tab, we can use the “Area of responsibility” to set read rights for the document. From the list of user groups (roles) you can select those for whom the document will be displayed in the view pages. By selecting user groups, we prevent members of other groups from viewing this document. If we decide not to set document rights and do not select any user groups in the Area of responsibility, the record will be displayed to all users (more about using the Area of responsibility again in the general help Edit forms).
If the document is subject to the approval process, we go to the “Approval process” tab and select the corresponding approval process (created in advance by an authorized user) and create an approval scheme for the record. An email is then sent to the approver in the first level of the approval scheme and the item for approval is included in the “My pending processes” table in the Approval process application in the Finance application group and in the corresponding portlet on the home page. If the selected approval scheme contains several approvers, the process is repeated. After approval of the record by the last approver, an informative email is sent to the applicant for approval. A detailed description of the process, including the procedure for creating approval processes, is explained on the Approval page.
The “Other” tab allows you to send a file attachment of the document record together with a text message by e-mail. Fill in the recipient's e-mail address or select it from the list of business contact addresses to which the document is assigned. Next, enter the text of the e-mail and press the e-mail button to send. Only 1 will always be sent in an email. Attachment to the document – ie “Attachment 1”.
At the bottom of the form you will also find the “Notify other users of this document” option to send informational messages about the document being saved to other users. When this option is checked, a field with a list of users and a field for entering a message will be displayed. After saving the record, an e-mail with a link to the record and an attached message will be sent to the users who have been selected from the list (more about using this function again in the general help Edit forms).
We will then save the record. Document records can also be created within a specific business account. In the open business account form, in this case, on the “CRM” tab, click on the “New document” button. Such a document will be automatically assigned to the business account from whose open form we pressed the button.
Activity creation
Activities typically represent an overview of communications with customers, such as records of telephone calls, appointments, e-mails, or simple tasks associated with a particular business relationship. Using the CRMService, e-mail communication activities can then be created automatically.
1. step – create new activity
In the navigation bar, click on the “Activities” application. Then click on the “New activity” option or click on the button with the same name on one of the view pages.
2. step – activity editing
We will fill in all required fields in the form. Select “Activity type” from the list. In the “Deadline” section, check the “From-To” box to display the start and end dates in case it is necessary to schedule the fulfillment of the activity within a certain time period. In the “Completion” section, then press the “Mark activity as closed and save” button, the current date will be filled in “Completion date” and the activity will be saved. Of course, the “Completion date” can also be edited manually. Activities with a completed due date are marked as completed and green in the view pages.
In the “Links” section, you can assign an existing business account, order, campaign or complaint to the activity using Picker. Attach file attachments to the activity using the “Browse” button, which will select the desired file and upload it to the system. Of course, we can upload several such attachments within the record.
On the next tab “Read rights” using “Scope” we set the rights to read the activity, ie. system users whose activity is displayed on the view pages (in the same way as for documents).
At the bottom of the form you will also find the option “Inform other users about this activity” to send messages about saving the activity to other users.
We will then save the activity. In the same way as documents, activities can also be created within a certain business relationship. These activities are then assigned to this business relationship by default.
Working with activities
The application contains a list of the most frequently used types of activities, such as a task, a phone call, an appointment or a meeting report. We can extend this list with our own values at any time, or edit/delete existing values. In the navigation bar, click on “Settings” and then on “Activity Types”. From this view page, it is possible to enter new activity types by pressing the “New activity type” button. By opening a record from the table, we can then edit or delete a certain record.
In the “Activities” view page, the function of mass editing of marked activities is implemented. Use the checkboxes in the “Mark” column to mark the required activities. To mark all activities displayed in the table, click on the filter drop-down list in the “Select” column in the table, select the “Assign value” option, check “Batch processing” and save the option. Once we have marked all the activities that we want to process in bulk, we go to the “Batch processing of selected activities” tab. Here we can press one of the buttons to deselect the previously marked activities in mass, mark them as completed or delete them.
Activities are also displayed in the graphical calendar on the “Calendar” view page. When hovering the mouse cursor over the name of the activity, the details of the activity will be displayed, and when you click on its name, the relevant record will open.
Contents of the next article
In the next article NET Genium ERP – Campaigns and CRMService, within the module Customers (CRM) we will get acquainted with working with marketing campaigns and explain the use of the CRMService service. Sincerely, Your NetGenium Team.