Leads are the first phase in establishing a customer relationship. Your company may get leads from marketing activities such as trade shows, advertisement or PR efforts. At this phase you do not know whether this first contact will lead to a business opportunity. Usually (and unfortunately), most of your Leads will not generate any business. The CRM system considers this by treating Leads differently from all other contact information stored in the CRM. It is sensible to avoid useless Leads burdening the CRM system unnecessarily. For this reason Leads are not linked to other account or contact information.

If you create a Lead, you can capture the following customer related data:

This data will be stored as master lead data within your CRM. Your administrator may modify the type and amount of master data necessary for your business. As explained in section: New Leads, a lead is most likely the best starting point for you to enter customer data into your CRM system. Please refer to this section if you want to create a new lead. Use the Duplicate function as a practical tool if you have to create multiple leads which do not differ much.

If you want to find a lead in your CRM or to add information to an existing lead, go to the Sales > Leads menu at the navigation area. A list of all your existing leads will be shown as illustrated in figure: Leads - List View.

Figure 2.23. Leads - List View

With the magnifying glass icon, the lead list provides a powerful tool to search and quickly find any particular information as further explained in section: List Search. At this list view you can also delete leads, or change single or multiple lead entries. Contents of this list can be configured freely to fit your needs. In addition, the CRM can use these list for an automatic analysis. Please refer to section: Customize Lists for further information.

Lead Detail View

In figure: Leads - List View, some sample leads are already included. To see more information about a particular Lead click [Last Name]. A new window will open as shown in figure: Lead Detail View - Master Data. At this site you see the master data of a lead.

Figure 2.24. Lead Detail View - Master Data

Once you have provided the full address information, you may want to use the Locate Map function of the CRM system to see a map of the location. Please note that the default country is the USA. If you want to use the system for a different country, you have to provide the country information with the address information. The CRM links to Google Maps for this feature. It will only work, of course, if the target country is covered by the Google Maps service.

After clicking the [More Information] tab you may add further information to this lead as shown in figure: Lead Detail View - More Information. Note that the options provided in this menu depend on your CRM configuration.

Figure 2.25. Lead Detail View - More Information

In the sales process, sales potentials are the logical successors to leads. Therefore, you may create a sales potential from a lead and transfer all information available for the lead to the new sales potential. In addition, you may create a sales potential directly. In essence, a sales potential is an immediate opportunity to do business with a potential or existing customer. The sales department would expect that an offer could be made for this potential customer in the near future.

Direct Entry of Potentials

If a sales potential arises from a new customer it is recommended that you create a potential from a lead as described in section: Creating Potentials from Leads. For a new business opportunity with a current or former customer that's already entered into the CRM as a contact or account, you can enter a new sales potential directly. Click the [plus icon] at the potential list view. A new window will open as shown in figure: Potential - Create View.

Figure 2.26. Potential - Create View

Now you can enter your data about the sales potential. The following listing refers to the default input mask, which can be changed by your administrator according to your requirements and considers only fields which have special conditions.

Table 2.4. List of default master data entry fields for potentials

Potential Name:	You must give each potential a unique name. For a better overview it is recommended to include the account name. This field is mandatory.
Amount:	You may set an amount for the expected business. Note that this amount will be used by the CRM to decide automatically whether this potential has to be listed at Home / My Top Open Potentials.
Related To:	Select an account or contact name already stored in your CRM by clicking the [icon] at the end of this line. Note that you cannot make a direct entry. This field is mandatory.
Sales Stage:	Select a sales stage. The stage definition can be configured freely by your system administrator. Every time you make incremental progress in the sales process, you should update this entry.

Be careful in defining sales stages for your company. If you define too many stages, people in your company might find it confusing or daunting to guess which option would be appropriate. Use the extensive possibilities in this input window to store as much information as you have for this potential. Come to an agreement with your co-workers on how to use the entry fields.

Additional Information for Potentials

In order to assign further information directly to a sales potential, click the name of a potential at the potential list view, as displayed at the Sales > Potentials menu. You will reach the detail view of the master data as shown in figure: Potential Detail View - Master Data.

Figure 2.27. Potential Detail View - Master Data

If you click the [More Information] tab, you have the possibility of working with the potential and to add further information as shown in figure: Potential Detail View - More Information.

Figure 2.28. Potential Detail View - More Information

Table 2.5. Special more information entry fields for potentials

Contacts:	Here you see a list of contacts related to a potential. You may select additional contacts already stored in the CRM system.
Sales Stage History:	Every time you change the sales stage, a new entry at this history list will be created.
Quotes:	Your quotes related to this potential are listed here. If you create a new quote from here, all the potentials master data required for the quote will be transferred automatically.
Sales Order:	All your incoming sales orders related to this potential are listed here. You might use the CRM's capability of creating sales orders to keep your CRM up to date. This is especially helpful if quotes and sales orders are different.
Activity History:	Activities related to a potential which are marked as held will be moved to the history list.

The CRM system supports you in the creation of quotes for potential customers. You may use one of the following methods:

The figure: Quote - Edit View for quote and address information shows the quote and the address information of the edit view for a quote entry.

Figure 2.29. Quote - Edit View for quote and address information

Quote information

Address information

Product Details

For quotes, the CRM system considers all type of taxes or discounts which may apply to the offer of products or services. These may include local, state or federal taxes as well as special taxes. These taxes can be calculated individually for each product or service, or calculated for the whole. Before you select products for your quote, you need to decide what tax mode applies to your offer. The CRM system supports an Individual and a Group tax mode.

The figure: Product Details for Individual Tax Mode displays an example for the entry details for products calculated with the Individual tax mode.

Figure 2.30. Product Details with Individual Tax Mode

With this tax mode you may set different taxes for each individual product or service you offer.

In figure: Product Details with Group Tax Mode you see the entry details with the Group tax mode. Here the overall tax is calculated after all products or services has been entered. You may add further products or services by clicking the [Add Product] or [ Add Services] button.

Figure 2.31. Product Details with Group Tax Mode

Product Currency

All price calculations are done in the default currency assigned to a specific user. In addition, the currency assigned to a specific product or service is considered. You may change the currency by selecting a different currency from the list located on top of the product list. If you change a currency the prices for goods or services are being converted to the new currency automatically. The currencies which are available and their conversion rate are defined by the CRM administrator as explained in section: Currencies.

Finally the CRM will add up all your entries and will calculate the Sub Total. You may add further taxes or adjustments. Note that the terms and conditions can be defined if you hit the [More Information] tab. Your CRM administrator may define default terms and conditions as described in section: Inventory Terms & Conditions. Click [Save] to transfer your quote to the CRM.

PDF Output

To provide a PDF copy of your quote, you must have set your company information in advance as described in section: Company Details. Such a PDF copy can get created and mailed by clicking the appropriate icons at a quote's detail view.

Sales orders are orders you receive from customers. Such orders of goods or services are usually presented as a paper copy received by fax or mail. It makes sense to capture such orders also in the CRM. A sales order may differ from your quote and you should have such information available at the CRM system.

You may create a sales order from a previous quote by opening the detail view of the corresponding quote and clicking the [Generate Sales Order] button. This will automatically transfer your quote information to the new sales order. You may also create a new sales order by clicking the plus icon at the sales order list view. In both cases a new window will open as shown in figure: Sales Order - Edit View for sales order and address information. If you have used a quote before, you will note that all entry fields have been filled automatically.

Figure 2.32. Sales Order - Edit View for sales order and address information

Sales Order Information

Address Information

As soon you pick a contact or an account name, the address information is taken from the contact or account and included automatically.

Create Recurring Invoices

As illustrated in figure: Sales Order - Edit view for recurring invoice information you may add recurring invoice information to a sales order. This means that an invoice will be generated automatically every time the conditions set at this sales order are met.

Figure 2.33. Sales Order - Edit view for recurring invoice information

Product Details

Here the ordered goods and services ordered are listed. Please refer to Product Details in Quotes for more information.

	Tip
	You may consider to use a sales order also as a purchase order confirmation for your customer by sending a PDF copy of a sales order. To get a PDF copy you must have set your company information in advance as described in section: Company Details. Such a PDF copy can get created and mailed by clicking the appropriate icons at a sales order's detail view.

The CRM supports you in purchasing goods or services. That might be helpful if you have to order something to fulfill a customer sales order or to maintain your company operation. Before you can enter any purchase orders, you must have the vendor in the vendors list. This is explained in section: Vendors. You must have also the products or services to be purchased in your price book.

To enter a new purchase order, click the [plus icon] at the Inventory > Purchase Orders menu. As another option, you may click the [Add New Purchase Order] button at the detail view of a vendor at the Inventory > Vendors menu. By using this option the CRM will transfer the vendor information to the new purchase order automatically. A new window will open as shown in figure: Purchase Order - Create View for purchase order and address information.

Figure 2.34. Purchase Order - Create View for purchase order and address information

The meaning and the function of the other purchase order entry fields are identical to the fields in quotes as described in section: Quotes.

PDF Output

To provide a PDF copy of your order, you must have set your company information in advance as described in section: Company Details. Such a PDF copy can get created and mailed by clicking the appropriate icons at a purchase order's detail view.

You may use the CRM system to create customer invoices manually or automatically from a sales order, manually from a quote, or by clicking the [plus icon] at the Sales > Invoice menu. Parts of the detail view of a sample are shown in figure: Invoice - Detail View.

Figure 2.35. Invoice - Detail View

Invoice Information

The meaning and the function of the other invoice entry fields are identical to the fields in quotes as described in section: Quotes.

You may send the PDF copy of invoices as an email to customers directly from the invoice detail view as displayed in the figure. If you click Send Email With PDF the mail edit window will open which contains the invoice as an attachment allows you to add the receiver and additional text to the email. To create a PDF output you must have set your company information in advance as described in section: Company Details.

	Tip
	You may create recurring invoices from sales orders as explained at Paragraph: Create Recurring Invoices at the Sales Order section.

The CRM does not allow you to use an invoice number again. Therefore, in the most cases it is not recommended to delete an invoice once created. Set the amount to 0,00 or better create a credit invoice instead.