Map your CRM account data

Typically, the Phocas Implementations team adds, syncs or connects to your data on your behalf, and designs your CRM database. If you are familiar with using Designer, you can use the CRM mapping tool to keep your CRM data up-to-date. The tool pushes customer data into Phocas CRM as accounts, without the need for scripts or extensive preparatory work.

The CRM mapping tool works in a similar way to how you map data to a database in the Designer, therefore, the information on this page is summarized. See the following Designer pages for more information.

Add and map the data

1. Click the Phocas menu button > Administration > CRM Mappings. The CRM mapping tool opens on the Source Mapping tab. This is where you add (connect to) data items from the data sources panel, then map (match) the columns of raw data to their respective item in the account.

2. On the Source Mapping tab, open the data sources panel > locate the data item (such as a Customer or Ship To sync or a flat file) > drag it into the Drag here box.

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3. Map the data items to the account items. Start with the mandatory items of Name and Number, then map the other items as required.

   • The Number is a unique identifier, like the Code in Analytics. It might be called Linkfield.

   • The Payment Status, Is Active? and Contact Method items are mapped as a best match. If the source data uses different names for these items, you might need to check them.

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4. Add more data items, if required, and map the data (repeat the steps above). This step is necessary if your data comes from more than one source. You can add as many data sources as required. Any duplicate items within a single data source will be skipped and a record will display in the logs. Duplicates in multiple sources will be handled left to right.

5. Click Save. You might need to close the data sources panel to view this button.

6. (Optional - available only if you mapped data to the Owner element) Map your CRM users with account owners (such as sales reps). It is important to note that if you later want to delete the CRM user’s Phocas account, you will lose access to that user’s CRM accounts. To avoid this, you should reassign the user’s CRM accounts before deleting the user’s Phocas account. See Delete a user for more information.

   1. Click the Owner Mapping tab.

   2. Click in the empty box next to each user and select an owner (user) from the list that displays, as applicable. In the example below, there are two lists of owners to map. You can map multiple accounts to users.

   3. Click Save.

7. Proceed to update the data.

Update the data

The Update tab only becomes available after you map the data and click Save on the Source Mapping tab. The update action works like a database build in Phocas, in that it brings in updated data. An update cannot be undone.

1. Click the Update tab.

2. Determine whether you want to overwrite existing values*. If you do, you need to take an additional step, see section below.

3. Select one of these options:

   • Immediately queue and run the update and display the logs page: Click Update and click Yes to confirm. A progress bar displays during the update process, then when complete, logs relating to the update display.

   • Schedule an update to occur at another time: Click Schedule, select the frequency and click Save.

Overwrite existing values

By default, the ability to overwrite existing data is turned off, to avoid accidentally replacing data you want to keep. This also ensures that users who manually input details into CRM don't have their work overwritten.

You might want to turn this on, for example, if you need to do a bulk update of information, but you should use caution.

To turn this option on and overwrite existing values:

1. Click the Settings button on the top right corner.

2. Select the Overwrite existing values checkbox and click Save.

3. Turn this option off again, after the update is complete, to avoid accidentally overwriting anything in the future.

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