We recently rolled out ‘Client Review’, a simple way of tracking customer satisfaction using SQLWorks CRM.

The new ‘Client Review’ tab, which is available when you select a Company in SQLWorks, can be used by your staff to keep a log customer happiness, which is graphed over time.

Adding a new client review entry (such as during a catch-up call, or after a meeting) lets the user record positive and negative notes, score the client’s general approval of your service(s), and records the overall trend over time.

A top-level Client Review Report also gives line manager and and company management the opportunity to aggregate this data company-wide, or filter based on team, date, or by different client types.

Keeping track of client satisfaction across a customer base, and encouraging staff to maintain good client relationships, can prove a challenge for many businesses – something SQLWorks Client Review makes much easier.

The data format is flexible – allowing staff tracking customer satisfaction to gather information from catchup calls informally, while keeping an organised schedule for regular contact.

 

For CRM options and expertise, please contact our team today.

As long as your cloud app on your PC/Mac is able to sync to the cloud, SQLWorks will be able to make most up-to-date version of your synced files available for drag and drop.

SQLWorks includes two levels of security permissions: Group and User security.

1. User security states which parts of SQLWorks a user has access to (visible within menus) and does not have access to.
2. Group Security sets permissions for groups of users, including every user in that group and overrides an individual’s security settings.

To review your SQLWorks users, click the ‘System Administration’ button on the main navbar. If you wish to review your users, click ‘Users.’ This displays a table with every valid SQLWorks user at your company, and administrators can double click to view or edit an individual’s user settings.

To review your SQLWorks groups, click ‘Groups.’ This displays a table with your saved Groups of users. You can also add a new group, copy or edit any existing group from this table.

To change your security settings, click ‘Security’ (1). This loads your list of groups in the left hand list, with the users contained within any selected group in the right hand list. By clicking the ‘Add’ or ‘Remove’ buttons you can add or remove individual users to the correct group.

By using the ‘Group Windows Security’ Tab along the top, you can also set the permissions for that group (and therefore the users contained within it.) Grant access by clicking the checkboxes next to each area of the system, and  give ‘Basic’ (find, add new or edit) or ‘All’ permissions (find, add new, edit, edit multiple or delete.) (2)

There are no limits on the size or number of groups users can be assigned to, so your permissions structure can be as simple or complex as your internal company policies require. Please ask the SQLWorks team if you need help or advice on setting up security permissions settings, or on IT security best practice.

By default, SQLWorks has one ‘Admin’ group which has administration permissions for the Sales/Purchase Ledgers, Stock Ledger, Finance and CRM sections. This can be changed to different groups in larger organisations – for example to designate a different administrator for sales/purchasing.

Once you have your users and groups configured correctly, simply close the System Administration window, and your SQLWorks security permissions will be in place when each user next logs on.

 

SQLWorks Security Permissions

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Bank Ledger – Security permissions for managing Bank accounts and cash accounting

Bank Accounts – Lets users see Bank accounts within the Bank Ledger.

Bank Transactions –  Lets users access options for bank transactions within the Bank Ledger.

Petty Cash Accounts – Lets users access any petty cash accounts.

Sundry Cash Ledger – Lets users access the sundry cash ledger for cash payments.

Sundry Cash List –  Lets users access the global table listing all sundry cash payments.

 

CRM System – Security permissions for ‘SQLWorks CRM’ functions

Actions – Gives access to the Actions Table.

CRM Links – Admin Only. Allows users to link CRM items, for example: attaching a document to a lead.

CRM Prefs – Allows users access to edit system-wide CRM preferences under ‘Preferences.’

Diary Calendar – Allows users access to the diary window.

Diary Entries – Lets users access entries to the diary.

Layers – Lets users edit types of appointment, e.g.: Meeting, Visit etc.

Lead Categories – Lets users use custom checkbox categories to categorise leads.

Lead Sources – Allows users to use the editable dropdown noting where a lead originated from.

Leads – Allows users access to the Leads window.

Phone Logs – Lets users access the phone logs table.

Project Types – Admin only. Lets users access project types.

Projects –  Gives users access to the Project window.

Tasks – Gives users access to the task tables.

 

ISSAccountsPrefs – Security permissions for setting SQLWorks ‘Accounts’ preferences

Accounts Prefs – Financial Management ONLY. Gives users access to system-wide accounting preferences under ‘Preferences.’

Day Book – Gives users access to the day book.

ForX – Gives users access to amend system currencies and foreign exchange rates (multiple currency) accounting.

Message Sets – Gives users access to edit various option lists – eg: ‘why a quote is cancelled’ field answers.

VAT Ledger – Gives users access to the VAT Ledger for calculating VAT submissions to HMRC.

 

Documents – Security permissions for ‘Document Management’ functions

Crystal Reports – Deprecated feature. Lets users import Crystal Reporting.

Document Analysis – Gives users access to edit the custom document type category checkboxes when uploading a new file.

Documents – Gives users access to files uploaded to SQLWorks.

Emails – Gives users access to emails linked into SQLWorks.

Email Browser – Gives users access to the email browser which synchronises to their email account.

Icons – Gives users access to amend the preview icons which load on screen when using Documents within SQLWorks.

Letters – Currently unavailable. Gives users access to SQLWorks letter writing tool.

 

IssPRList – Security permissions for the main ‘Companies’ list and associated data management tools

Address Editor – Gives users access to the full table of recorded addresses.

Client Lists – Allows users access to SQLWorks fixed and dynamic list building tools.

Client Types – Allows users to set custom checkbox categories for categorising companies.

Companies – Allows users access to the Companies List.

Contact Data – Allows users access to the contacts table (listing each company’s recorded contacts.)

 

IssPurchase Ledger – Security permissions for Purchasing

Purchase Accounts – Lets users see their Purchase Accounts with recorded suppliers.

Purchase Ledger – Grants users access to the Purchase Ledger.

Purchase Orders – Gives users access to Purchase Orders.

Purchase Transactions – Gives users access to Purchase Transactions.

Purchase Transaction List – Allows users access to the global table listing all purchase transactions.

 

IssQuotesOrderSales – Security permissions for Sales

Contracts – Lets users access contracts system.

Customer Order –  Allows users access to the Sales Orders panel within the Sales Ledger.

Customer Quote – Allows users access to the Sales Quotes panel within the Sales Ledger.

Directors – Lets users access the recorded list of directors for each company.

Disbursements – Gives users control over sales disbursements (e.g.: expenses, mileage etc.)

Sales Account – Gives users access to each customer’s sales account details.

Sales Account List – Gives users access to their list of customer sales accounts in the Sales Ledger.

Sales Ledger – Allows users to access the Sales Ledger window within Accounts.

Sales Ledger Detail –  Gives users access to unlocked detail lines on Sales Ledger quotes, orders and invoices.

Sales Ledger Transaction – Allows users access to the Sales Transactions panel (Invoices, payments and credit notes) within the Sales Ledger.

Sales Order List – Allows users access to the global table listing all customer sales orders.

Sales Quote List – Allows users access to the global table listing all customer sales quotes.

Sales Runs –  REDUNDANT

Sales Transaction Archives – Allows users access to the global table listing all archives customer sales transactions.

Sales Transaction List – Allows users access to the global table listing all customer sales transactions.

SL Web List – (Top Secret Work in Progress. Shhhh!)

 

IssSQLWorksMain – Security permissions for managing SQLWorks itself

Audit Logs – Gives users access to the ‘audit log’ of users actions within SQLWorks.

Binary Objects –  Controls template images and more. Should be enabled by default.

Database Table Viewer – For Lineal Use Only

DB Sessions – Lets users see logged-in SQLWorks sessions.

Employees – Lets users see the recorded list of company employees.

External Databases – For Lineal Use Only. Allows access to secondary databases if required for external document stores or alternate companies.

Help – Gives users help shortcut to SQLWorks online assistance. Please see www.sqlworks.co.uk/help

Label Prefs – Allows system admin to define system-wide user-defined fields. Should be locked by default.

Refs – Lets users access reference lookup lists and set start points, e.g.: first invoice number.

Server Logs – For Lineal Use Only.

SQLWorks Prefs – Management ONLY. Lets users access system-wide SQLWorks Preferences.

System Monitor – For Lineal Use Only.

User Logs – Lets users access the recorded log of user logins.

User Prefs – Lets users set the user preferences of their own SQLWorks account.

Years – REDUNDANT.

 

Nominal – Security permissions for the Nominal accounting and company finances.

Analysis – Lets users access the accounts ordered by analysis code.

Audit By Code – Lets users audit by nominal code and run nominal reporting.

Audit By Year – Lets users audit by financial year and run nominal reporting.

Budget By Year – Lets users access and compare against recorded financial budgets.

Dashboard – Lets users access the SQLWorks account dashboard.

Departments – Lets users access the accounts ordered by department.

Financial Years – Lets users set system-wide financial year start/end dates.

Nominal Journals – Gives users access to Nominal Journals.

Nominal Ledger – Lets users access the accounts ordered by Nominal Code.

Nominal Audit List – Grants users access to ‘audited’ data calculated from the nominal ledger for financial years.

Nominal Code List – Allows users access to the list of nominal codes defined within the nominal Ledger.

Nominal Journals – Allows users access to Nominal Journals within the Accounts.

Nominal Ledger – Allows users access to the Nominal Ledger (General Ledger) Window within Accounts.

Standing Journal Items – Allows users access to standing journal entry line details for each journal.

Standing Journals –  Allows users access to the Standing Journals window.

Standing Journals Group – Allows users access to standing journal entries.

 

Products – Security permissions for managing Stock

Assets –  Lets users access the ‘Assets’ tab of equipment linked to a company.

Bin Locations – Allows users access to stock ‘bin’ locations within each warehouse.

Dealers – Allows users access to set dealerships, defining both approved suppliers and customers for a stock item, and cross reference the two (eg: for hazardous materials.)

Order Allocation –  Allows users access to SQLWorks stock ‘Order Allocation’ tab in for reserving stock for specific customer orders.

Pricing and Discounting – Allows users permission to set current and future price break rules for stock items.

Stock Allowed –  Gives users access to approvals list, restricting warehouse bins to holding only specific stock items.

Stock Audit – Gives users access to Stock Audit to perform stock takes.

Stock Browser – Allows users access to the stock browser table of all stock items.

Stock Groups – Allows users access to stock groups, to which any stock item can be assigned.

Stock Ledger – Allows users access to the Stock Ledger.

Warehouse Map – Allows users access to the Warehouse Map displaying warehouses, bin locations within these, and stock items within those bins.

 

Phone logs

If your business fields a lot of phone calls, accurate record keeping is an important part of your interactions with customers. SQLWorks includes a Phone Logs tool to keep track of calls, to manage workloads, and to produce valuable insights from this data.

The Phone Log itself can be found in the Navbar under CRM (1), and opens a table showing all recent phone logs to your business, who called, and other information. SQLWorks does not record audio from phone calls (unless uploaded), but creates a convenient admin trail for tracing calls and the work that was associated to them.

Pressing ‘F6’ at any time in SQLWorks opens the window to create a new phone log (2), and this can be launched quickly during/after a call. Choosing a company from your company’s list opens its lists of contacts, and the user can either select a known contact (automatically entering all their details) or right click on the contact list to add a new caller’s details.

Below this are fields for giving the detail from the call to a SQLWorks user within your company (e.g.: for assigning a new task) and you can choose a user/group to email with the call detail.

On the right hand side of the new call log window are tabs to simultaneously create new tasks, project links or sales leads using the data from the new phone log (3.) Each tab automatically copies across the data from the phone log, and provides the extra fields needed to also create these new entries, for example: task priority or lead conversion chance.

When new phone logs are saved, they are logged to the phone log table itself, and under each specific company’s Phone Logs tab in the company’s list. If used, the task, project and lead tables also receive the new entries.

SQLWorks phone log is an immensely versatile tool, which forms the backbone of a structured help desk or office environment – helping to keep track of call volumes, agent workloads and customer interaction. The phone log itself can be exported with timestamped entries for further analysis of busy periods or repeat customers, and by clicking ‘Reports’ users can produce reports on number of calls received from a list of companies.

The new phone log screen (remember: press F6!) can be customised extensively by the SQLWorks team to record information commonly taken over the phone from enquiries to your business, and to help you populate the task list, advance projects or manage sales leads elsewhere in SQLWorks more carefully.

For CRM support and advice, contact the SQLWorks team today.

sales leads

Need to manage a sales leads pipeline for your business? SQLWorks CRM includes a comprehensive sales leads module which can help you manage your customer outreach.

Leads can be accessed within the CRM section of the main navbar (1.) and will load a table of leads with multiple coloured panels representing your sales stages (2.)

You can double click on a lead to open it, reorder your leads by clicking the column headers or click the ‘Q1’ ‘Q2’ ‘Q3 ‘Q4’ buttons along the top toolbar to filter by financial quarter.

Once a lead has been opened, you can record common sales qualification data including priority level, log a lead source, assign categorisation and note the contact details of your contact in the top half of the edit Lead window (3.) You can also give each lead speculative value, profit and conversion chance, and set a follow up date for further action which can display in the SQLWorks diary. In the lower panel (4) are your normal SQLWorks CRM tools – you can link phone logs, emails, tasks and drag in documents to be saved against your lead, and save a record of actions performed to progress the lead with a time/date.

By clicking the [+] button above the lead stages you can unlock each new lead stage – moving your lead down the sales pipeline.

As leads move through your pipeline, your brightly coloured lead stages in the main screen (2) display how many leads are active at that stage, what the total value of these are in turnover, and the total likely profit (calculated by multiplying each lead’s percentage by it’s turnover value and adding the sum of that stages leads these together.) You can load the leads active at any single stage by clicking on that stage, and the stages themselves can be set to match your own sales pipeline. ‘Receipted’ and ‘Lost’ sales leads will always default their quantity to 100% of value converted or lost, and will move a lead to ‘Closed.’ By clicking the ‘Load Open’ button in the top toolbar you can filter your list to exclude these closed leads, and just work on those that are active.

If you need a quick way to record new enquiries over the phone, you can create a new lead when making a new phone log by clicking the ‘leads’ tab in the new phone log screen. To save time, the details of your new lead will be automatically populated from those you recorded in the phone log.

Your leads are kept isolated from your main companies list to prevent bigger sales departments with large numbers of cold contacts swamping your SQLWorks Sales Ledger with non-customers.

At any time however, (for example when a Lead becomes a customer) you can click the ‘Conversion Tab’ in the lower half of the edit lead window to automatically save the company details gathered by your Sales agent as a new company in your main SQLWorks companies list.

In this way SQLWorks makes it simple to log new leads, record progress in detail between multiple sales staff, and estimate future conversion rates.

For CRM guidance and help: contact us today.

email marketing

If you have SQLWorks linked to your email account, SQLWorks can be used for email marketing and mailshots, bulk sending emails with custom designs.

Accessed within SQLWorks CRM, users can create a new email campaign by making a new mailshot project, and create multiple mass emails within a campaign.

Right clicking in the main list and selecting ‘New Mailshot’ will open a new email creation window, where users can give the mailshot a unique name, choose an email from address, subject line, and ‘drag-and-drop’ in attachments.

The list of intended recipients can be chosen from the ‘Client Lists’ dropdown, selecting from one of your custom client lists, which you can build from your saved SQLWorks CRM contacts.

For the design of an email, you can choose from a wide range of tools from within the formatting pallet on the right of the main email editing window – get creative with different fonts and text sizes, colours, bulletpoints and alignment, insert images, tables and more!

You can format elements by highlighting them and clicking the format buttons, and confine the margins of your email by setting these measurements in the ‘Document’ tab.

For tidy formatting, we recommend creating a borderless table in which to align all the elements of your email marketing email – to ensure any custom designs are displayed consistently in the inboxes of recipients.

SQLWorks database tags can be input into the main email body so that each email contains mail merged custom data from elsewhere in your contact directory. This can be used for targeting with ‘informal’ detail (e.g.: a first name – ‘Dear John’) and a “fall-through” function which pulls in substitute data as a ‘formal’ backup (e.g.: surnames – ‘Dear Mr Smith’) where the main data is unavailable. These functions can be customised by our SQLWorks team, to email your contacts using any piece of data from your SQLWorks CRM, Accounts or Stock Control data.

SQLWorks allows you to preview each version of a mailmerged email to check for errors by clicking the ‘Prev’ / ‘Next’ buttons, and ensure each email is correctly personalised. Using the spellcheck function, and undo/redo buttons, email marketeers can also avoid any errors being broadcast to a wide audience.

If you wish to remove all formatting, and send your email as a ‘plain text’ email to improve chances of deliverability, simply tick the ‘Send as Plain Text’ checkbox at the top of the Mailshot window. Using the ‘Show Plain Text’ checkbox, you can also check how this email is likely to be seen by email inbox previews.

Deploying these tools, you can field imaginative, targeted and ongoing email campaigns, linking all the intelligence of your SQLWorks data together with your marketing.

 

For expert CRM tools, contact us about SQLWorks today:

task prioritisation

SQLWorks’ task list can prioritise your tasks in order of important with a simple colour-coding system: here’s how to use this.

When creating or editing a task, you can choose a priority level from the ‘Priority’ dropdown menu, which by default contains 3 levels. After saving the task with a task prioritisation:

All ‘Normal’ Tasks go in the main (grey) default task window. You can use the main task list as a to-do list for today’s tasks, filtering the list, sending reminders and closing jobs as they are completed. Your SQLWorks admin can also be given control over closing tasks, and recording the time taken to finish each job.

All ‘Low’ priority Tasks go to the green task panel on the left hand side – you can use this to hold tasks that are not important, or have no imminent deadlines.

All ‘High’ priority tasks go to the red task panel on the left hand side – you should reserve this list for only the most urgent tasks. When a new task enters this list, SQLWorks will also email the person who this task is assigned to, letting them know they have a very urgent task to complete.

The yellow task panel is an especially useful area, reserved for ‘Future‘ tasks that are dated ahead of time. You can do this by post-dating the ‘Open Date’ on a task before saving it. Your future tasks will remain in the yellow list until the ‘Open Date’ (and time) passes – at which point your task will be moved by SQLWorks to your main grey list to be worked on.

This is a handy tool for keeping tomorrow’s work clear from today’s to-do list, and populating tomorrow’s to-do list automatically when tomorrow arrives.

For a professional CRM solution on either Windows or Mac, contact us today.

Adding emails

SQLWorks integrates with your email inbox to let you view, send and use emails to complete other tasks: here’s how.

To add your email account to SQLWorks, click ‘User Prefs’ under Preferences (1) in the main navbar. Select your User ID, and under the ‘Employee Info’ Tab put your email settings into email settings fields, including your account ID and password. This will give SQLWorks permission to see the contents of your email inbox.

In the main Companies List (1) by clicking the ‘Emails’ Tab (2) under a selected company’s record you can view the contents of your inbox on the left hand panel, and emails saved within SQLWorks on the right hand panel.

Dragging an email from the left panel to the right panel saves a copy to the system and makes the email visible to other SQLWorks users, whilst selecting an email makes the message content visible in the yellow viewing box below.

This is most useful for adding emails which are to valuable to just sit in your inbox – emails which your team will need to be able to share or recover details from in your absence.

You can also use this tool to place important emails within the system, linking important correspondence to projects, sales leads, quotations and more.

 

SQLWorks can even be configured to recognise significant emails and automatically add them to projects and other areas – for additional information, ask the SQLWorks team today.

Client Lists

SQLWorks CRM allows for easy creation and maintenance of a list of specific companies, which can be used for email mailshots, segmented letters and other targeted communication.

Client Lists can be found under the CRM section in the main SQLWorks Navbar (1), and opens a window with a list management menu (2) and a client list panel (3).

To create a new custom list from the companies in your main Companies List, click the ‘New’ button in the top toolbar, this opens the new client list window (4) which allows you to set options for the list you’re about to create, including assigning it to a user, creating a list from companies or contacts (or both) and choosing from pre-saved options from your ‘Quick Select’ menu.

The ‘Locked List?’ checkbox allows the list creator to toggle control of the new list, locking the list to being changed by anyone but the administrator.

For generating email lists, three additional email option checkboxes provide a useful shortcuts to automatically exclude any company or contact without an email, exclude duplicated email addresses to avoid double-sending, and hide anyone saved with an email ‘opt-out’ against their name within SQLWorks.

You can build your list using any of three methods, selecting from checkbox categories saved in your Companies List, choosing options from your Quick Select menu such as companies with ‘Recent Phone Logs’, or building a custom query using the standard SQLWorks Custom Search tool. This final option gives you complete control over your new list – adding lines using the (+) and (-) buttons to add or remove qualifying companies that match a series of terms.

SQLWorks can handle both fixed and dynamic lists: by clicking ‘Enable Smartlist’ under the ‘Live Search’ Tab your list will constantly update as new data becomes available, re-fulfilling your saved search terms to remain current. Leaving Smartlist turned off will keep your list as it was when you first created it.

Two further tabs labelled ‘Always Included’ and ‘Never Included’ allow you to set overriding exception rules for who appears on your list. Moving a company or individual from left to right, onto the ‘Always Included’ category ensures this company or category will always remain on the list.

Moving a company or individual from left to right onto the ‘Never Included’ list ensures this company or contact will be never be a part of this list. If a company or contact appears on both lists, so that the two exceptions conflict, the ‘Never Included’ list takes priority.

Clicking ‘Save & Close’ will save under your SQLWorks User ID the results of your list – which can be exported to an excel spreadsheet for use in external applications by clicking the ‘Export’ button at the top of Client Lists window.

Back in your SQLWorks Companies List, your saved client lists can also be used from either Quick Select dropdown or the ‘Client Lists’ tab to filter your overall database.

SQLWorks Client Lists give you the power to create precise and complex lists from your larger company database for highly targeted marketing and other customer management.

 

For more information of SQLWorks CRM tools, click here.