Documents
One library on your own server, and one document linked to every record that needs it. The quotation you send is the quotation on the customer, on the task, and in next year's renewal conversation — not four copies with different dates in the file name.
The name is yours; the extension belongs to the file
A document is called whatever you want to call it — "Framework agreement, second version" — with no file extension in the name and no naming convention to remember. The file on the server is never renamed, and when it is written back to your disk its original extension is put back on, so it opens in the right application. Double-click a row to edit the name and the description.
- Any file type: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, images, anything
- A description beside the name, and both are searchable
- Hover a row to see the file it was uploaded under
- [C], [Q], [I] and [+] mark what the document is to this record
Contract, quotation, invoice
Three buttons give a document a role on the record it belongs to. From then on the QUOTATION button on the customer opens the quotation, and the CONTRACT button opens the contract — no hunting through a list, and no doubt about which of the six files is the one that was signed.
- One document can be the quotation for one customer and an attachment for another
- The mark is put back after any change, so the role survives editing
- Show only assigned documents narrows the library to this record
- The search filter runs over names and descriptions
Four buttons, four different jobs
OPEN reads the document. EDIT opens it for changing and watches what you do to it. DOWNLOAD writes it to your Downloads folder under its own file name. EXPORT writes it wherever you say — which is the one you want when a document has to be attached to something outside the CRM.
- OPEN (F5) — read it
- EDIT (F6) — change it, and be asked about the result
- DOWNLOAD (F4) — a copy in the usual place
- EXPORT (F7) — a copy where you choose
A new version of the quotation
Edit a quotation, change the price, close the editor — and the CRM notices. It offers to keep the changed file as a new version of that document, against the same record, in the same role. The old one does not vanish and the new one does not need a name with a date in it. This is the round trip that makes the library trustworthy a year later.
- The program asks; it never overwrites in silence
- The role — contract, quotation, invoice — is carried over
- The whole history stays on the record it belongs to
- Chapter 8 of the manual walks through it step by step
Keys worth learning on day one
The document manager is opened from the record you are standing on.
- F3
- Search the library
- F4
- Download the selected document
- F5
- Open it
- F6
- Edit it
- F7
- Export it somewhere of your choosing
- F10
- Upload a file from your computer
What this replaces
Not a document management system. The four habits that grow where there isn't one.
- quotation_final_v3_REALLY_final.pdf
- The shared drive folder only two people can navigate
- Attaching the same PDF to eleven e-mails
- "Which one did we actually send them?"
Put one quotation through it
Upload it, mark it as the quotation, edit it, and let the program offer you the new version. That is the whole idea in ninety seconds.