Get started with Phocas CRM
- Helen Gosper
- Denise McGettigan
In the Phocas menu, click CRM, then select the CRM item you want to open:
My agenda - view and manage your upcoming activities.
Contacts - People who work for or are associated with an account.
Accounts - Companies with whom you currently do business, or have done business with in the past.
Leads - People with whom you would like to do business with in the future.
Campaigns - Series of independent activities (across multiple accounts, contacts and leads) linked together, often as part of a marketing effort.
Activities - Actions associated with an account or a contact, such as a business note, phone log, meeting and task.
The CRM Settings items only display if you are a CRM administrator.
Phocas CRM is 100% user driven, so it is important to keep it up-to-date. As addresses, phone numbers and other details change, meetings, phone calls and other activities take place, etc, these changes should be entered as soon as possible.
Work with the CRM grids
Typically a large number of records will appear on your screen. You have several options to limit the number of records that display.
Filter - Use the filters above the grid to narrow your results. The filter button turns orange (and displays your selection) to let you know the filter is active. The types of filters you can apply vary depending on which section of CRM you are in. You can apply multiple filters at the same time. In the following example, the Activities screen is filtered by Next week and the user Bert.
Sort - Click (or tap on a mobile device) a column heading to sort the data in the grid in descending order, and again to sort in ascending order.
Search - Type the search term into the box, and either press Enter or click the Search button.
The column that is searched depends on what section you are searching, and an ‘is like’ search is performed on the relevant column only:
Accounts - Name column only.
Contacts - Name column only.
Leads - Name and Company columns only.
Activities - Subject column only.
Campaign - Name column only.
The search buttons turn orange to let you know a search is active. Search is not case sensitive. To cancel a search, click the X button.
Use keyboard shortcuts
A number of keyboard shortcuts are available in CRM.
Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl+S | Save |
Alt+S | Search |
Alt+B | New Business Note |
Alt+P | New Phone Log |
Alt+T | New Task |
Alt+M | New Meeting |
Alt+C | Close |
Alt+/ | Activates Help |
Use CRM teams (older versions of Phocas)
This section contains content relating to Phocas v7.3 and older.
A team is a group of CRM users, typically set up by administrators (for example, 'Branch', 'Depot', 'UK Operations, etc). Being a member of a team can provide a greater view of your CRM world - giving you access to not only your own entities, but to those of your team members, as access to entities is generally determined by the team or teams to which a user belongs.
Using the 'owner' filter on any of the home pages, you can determine which team(s) you are a member of, and who the other members are