About
EasyCustomers program
is a Customer database. The program enables you to store, edit and search for information
about your Customers, keep records of your contacts with them, schedule your
contacts, send personalized Email messages etc. The EasyCustomers makes your
services much more efficient.
Program is distributed as shareware program. It means that you
can try it before buying it (registering). Unregistered version of program will
constantly remind you that it is necessary to register.
In addition to the local version of program (runs only on one computer),
a network version, which enables several users
to manage the database, is also available. For more details go to http://www.easyprograms.com/easyCustomers.aspx
Principle of running the program
Main window of the program
Work with list of Customers
Directories
Settings
You input the
detailed information about your Customers, including such fields as:
"Contacts", “Source” (Where a Customer came from), "Business
sector". For more specialized work you can introduce up to 8 status
fields, which you may name and use at your discretion.
Scheduled events (future
contacts), which will be transferred to history (past events) according to its
realization, may be added to each Customer. All scheduled events (contacts) are
highlighted. To work with comfort you may build up the tree, which will
represent the hierarchy between the Customers.
Additional capabilities of the program:
·
Order
and filter Customers by assigned conditions.
·
Highlight
the Customer records according to the date of contact
·
Send
personalized E-mail messages.
·
Tree
(hierarchy of Customers)
·
Search
for Customers by any accessible information
·
Operate
with groups of Customers
·
Print
Customer reports and covers
·
Several
users can use the program simultaneously with assigned access permissions to
data and functions
·
Export
and import data into Excel compatible formats
·
Customer
folders
·
Protect
the program by password
·
Setting
of the program interface.
At the top of the
window there are buttons used to edit the Customer and activate additional
functions, such as printing, export, import, mailing, etc.
They are followed by
elements used to filter the Customers by:
·
date of the
first, last and next contact
·
manager
Toolbar, that is used
for filtering by statuses, becomes available when "Statuses" is
ticked.
If "Additional
filter" is ticked, the corresponding toolbar becomes available. This
toolbar is used for filtering by following features:
·
bussiness sector
·
“source” - where
a Customer came from
·
State
The tree window, that
is used for working with Customer appears in the list area, when
"Tree" is ticked. For more details see «"Customer tree”».
In the central part of
the window there is a list of entered Customers. «Work with list»
In the lower part
there is a toolbar, which is used for Customer search. «Search»
Information about the
number of records, number of selected records, current user and his/her role is
shown in the status bar of the window..
Information about the Customer is entered in "Edit the
Customer" window.
The direct entering information in such fields as "State",
"Business sector", "Source", "Customer statuses",
"Position" of contact person is not possible. To enter this
information it is necessary to choose it from the directory. The button with
three dots, located from the right side of the choice list, activates the form,
that is used for changing the directory references. (Description of work
with directory form).
The program numbers the entered Customers automatically. According to default
setting, the number of the new Customer is generated by increasing the Customer
number counter. To change the setting of the Customer number, press the button
with three dots located next to the number of the card. Attention! In the local
version of the program you have to watch by yourself to make sure that the
number is unique.
The number of the next Customer is calculated as value of the counter
+1.
The current value of the counter can be changed in "Settings".
Additional functions may be activated within the window by double
clicking on the fields:
·
"Phone",
"Fax" - To call up the entered phone numbers
·
"WWW" -
To activate the Internet explorer with entered address
·
"Email"
- Default activation of the mail client
When the Customer is
added and "Save" button is pressed, you can enter the next Customer
without closing the form. To do this you need to press "New" button.
"Date of the first contact" is the current date by default.
The current user becomes the "Manager" of Customer by
default..
The form "View
information about the Customer" (and events) is activated by
"Customer" button located on the main panel or by pressing F2 button
located on the Customer list.
It is not necessary to
close the form in order to view the information about another Customer. To
refresh the information about him in the viewing form it is enough to select
another Customer in the list.
The form is divided on three sections:
·
Information
·
Past events
·
Scheduled
events
This section contains the current Customer information entered in the
form "Edit the Customer". The shown fields are only those fields, where
information was entered in.
Additional functions may be activated within the window by double
clicking on the fields:
·
"Phone",
"Fax" - To call up the entered phone numbers
·
"WWW" -
To activate the Internet explorer with entered address
·
"Email"
- Default activation of the mail client
To improve the usability, (if permissions to do this are granted) from
here it is possible to change the following fields: "Statuses",
"Manager" of. The change of other fields is possible only via
"Edit of the Customer" form.
This part shows the
history of past events happened to Customer. You may add them here by yourself
or transfer them according to realization of "scheduled" events.
Shown fields:
·
Date - Date of
event.
·
Manager - The user,
who entered the information about the event (contact) in.
·
Description -
Description of event
Data of event, description of event and files associated with an event
may be specified in the add/edit "Past event" form. Current user
becomes Manager of an event.
List of events can be sorted by fields. To do this you need to click the
column heading. Descending sorting by date of event is a default setting.
The field "Last contact date" with Customer changes when past
event is added.
When the right button of the mouse is pressed, besides edit menu the
menu of data export is also available.
This part shows the scheduled events. The work with this part is
analogous to the work with «Past events».
The Customer field "Date of next contact" changes in
accordance with entered data. The value of this field becomes equal to the date
of the earliest event. That's why the colour of the records here and in the
Customer list are determined in accordance with this field
Input dialogue of the "Past event" with the information from
selected in the list "Scheduled event" activates when
"Done" button is pressed. At this time the date changes for the
current date, while manager changes for the current user. At the time of
saving, the record is transferred to the "Past events" (scheduled
event is deleted) and the "Next contact date" is changed for the date
of the next event (if it exists).
Ascending sorting by date of event is a default setting.
Filter
Sort
Customize grid columns
Search
Select the
Customers
Print
Mailing List
Group change
Customer tree
Customer folders
In order to improve the usability, using the filter, you can limit the
list of shown Customers. The following filters are available::
·
By date of
first, last, next contact with Customer.
·
By manager
·
By statuses
·
By business sector
·
By “Source”
·
By State
When you exit the program the following filters are saved: by date of
contact and by manager.
The program performs both descending and ascending sorting by any shown
field. To do this you need to click the heading of the corresponding column. To
change the type of sorting this column should be clicked one more time.
You can determine by yourself which columns you would like to see in the
Customer list. To do this you have to press the right button of the mouse and
choose "Customize grid columns" menu. In the appeared dialogue box
you can choose the columns you would like to see in the list and also to
determine their order. The changes in column setting remain after the restarting
of the program..
Conducts the search
in all visible columns.
To perform the search
it is necessary to enter the phrase, which you are looking for, in the lower
part of the window.
(in the
"Search" field), and one second later or when Enter button is pressed
the program will transfer the cursor to the found row (if, of course, it will
find one). The column, which contains the found row, will be highlighted with
colour.
You can continue the
search by pressing "Find next" button. From the right side of the
button you can see the search progress based on the total number of records.
Pressing of "Reset" button will reset the search.
Comment: The
function "Global search" is available in the network version of the
program.
Search is conducted
only by "Customer name", "phone" and "contact
person". List of Customers, who corresponds to search criteria, is
presented as a result of the search. Double-clicking of the Customer makes the
program to search for this Customer in the main Customer list of the program.
Global search
should be used for quick search for Customers, who are not in the list, but who
is entered in the database. For example, if you don't have permissions to view
all Customers..
To send e-mail
messages, to perform the group change, export and print it is necessary to
select required Customers. To select the Customers the following combinations
of the keys are used:
"+" (on the
numeric pad) To select all Customers
"-" (on the
numeric pad) To unselect all Customers
"*" To
invert the selecting
Ins To select the
current row
Shift+Up arrow/Down
arrow To select the diapason of rows with select inversion
Shift+Click by left
button of the mouse - To select the diapason of rows
Shift+Page Up/Page
Down To select the diapason of rows
Ctrl+ Click by left
button of the mouse - To invert the selecting of the clicked record
The current version
has three types of reports:
·
Print of Customer
·
Print of Customer
including the past events
·
Print of covers
It is activated by
"Print" button located on the main toolbar or from the menu of the
right button of the mouse on the Customer list.
If none of the
records is selected, the report is printed for the current record.
If records are
selected, the report
is printed for selected records.
In the print
preview it is possible to save the report in different formats. To do this you
need to press the button with floppy disk.
The utility to
change the form of reports is available for registered users..
By default the
statuses are not printed in the reports. To print the statuses you need to
change the print form. To insert the status somewhere in the report it is
necessary to write the following [Name of status]. Where the "Name of
status" is the name, which you have set in settings.
Mailing List function
allows to send personalized e-mail messages to the Customers.
To make the Mailing
List work, it is necessary to set its parameters. For more details see
"Mailing parameters"
To send e-mail message you need to choose the
Customers you want to send e-mails to and press "Mailing List"
button. At this time the list of Customers-recipients of given e-mail message
will be generated and the window for the entering of the text of message will
be opened.
The list of
Customers-recipients shows the information about e-mail address, that will be
used, the contact person of the Customer the e-mail message will be send to,
and the subject of the e-mail message.
List of recipients of
the e-mail message is created according to the following rules.
·
If the Customer
doesn't have contact people but has an e-mail address, this e-mail of the
Customer will be used to send the message. Also, in this case, the default
heading of the letter will be used..
·
If the Customer
has contact people, the e-mail will be send to all contact people, who has
e-mail address and whose field "Participated in the mailing" is
ticked. In this case, the heading of the letter will depend on the information
entered in the field "E-mail addressed to" for given contact person.
If such information is entered, it will be used. Otherwise, the default heading
of the letter will be used.
Subject of the message
and its text should be entered in the mailing window. Attach the necessary files
(Files field) to the message. The sending of e-mail messages in accordance with
the list of recipients of the given message will be realised when the button
"Send" is pressed.
At the time of
sending the message, the sending status in the "Mailing list" area
will be changed from "Wasn't sent" to "Sent".».
If error occurs at
the time of sending, the error message will be displayed in the status field..
Group change allows
changing the following: Manager of the Customer, Customer statuses and also to
add the past event to the records of few Customers at the same time.
To group change you
need to choose the Customers you want to edit and to press "Group"
button..
In appeared window you
need to choose what and for what you want to change (or add, if you have chosen
the past event) and press "ÎÊ" button to apply the changes to the
selected Customers.
Customer tree allows
to build a hierarchy between the Customers, for example: "Head
office" - "branches"..
Customer tree area
appears from the left side of the Customer list when "Tree" is ticked
at the top toolbar.
There are two ways to
add the Customer to the hierarchy:
When the Customer
is deleted from the tree, he/she is deleted only from the tree and remains in
the database. It is not possible to remove the Customer from the list until
he/she remains in the tree.
It is possible to
transfer the Customers (to change the hierarchy) within the tree.
To do this you need
to press and hold Ctrl while transferring the branch of the tree by mouse.
When the Customer
is selected in the tree, he/she is automatically searched for and becomes
selected in the list of Customers. Also, if the Customer is selected in the
list and is found in the tree, that branch of the tree will be selected
too.
While applying the
filters to the list of Customers, the tree shows only first hierarchy level
Customers, who were founded in the filtered list. If the Customers from the
lower level (larger than 1) are not found in the list, such Customers are
marked as red icons on the tree. Accordingly, when such Customer is selected in
the tree, he/she won't be found in the list, but the information about this
Customer will be available in «Information
about the Customer».
Customer folder"
can be assigned to each Customer. In this folder you can keep all files
connected to given Customer.
The folder can be
stored either on the network disk or locally.
The folder route is
taken from settings by default and folder is named in accordance with the
number of the Customer. You can change the folder route and the folder name in
the "Edit the Customer" form on the "Comment" inlay.
When Customer
folder is opened (F3 in the list), it is opened in the standard window of
Windows Explorer.
Root directory for
the folders is set in settings.
In settings you may
specify whether to create "Customer folder" when the new Customer is
added. If this parameter isn't specified, the folder will be created at that
time, when the program references to it for the first time..
Export is possible
only into Excel. Moreover, Excel should be installed.
There are three types
of export:
·
Export of all
columns
·
Export of visible
columns only
·
Export for
sending e-mail messages. (Special type of export, optimised for programs used
to send e-mail messages.)
To perform an export it is necessary to select the records you want to
export.
Import is possible only from Excel. Moreover, Excel should be installed.
Imported file xls. should be chosen in the dialogue box, which appears
when "Import" button was pressed. Then, you will see data import
window, where you should specify the following:
·
Which page of
Excel you would like to import data from ("Sheet" list))
·
Row diapason
of import
·
Correspondence
of the columns in Excel file and in the program.
How to choose the row diapason and to determine the correspondence of
columns is written at the top of import window.
You may save the correspondence of columns (in Excel file and in
program) in the separate file for future Import. It will allow to quickly set
the typical correspondence of columns. "Download" button is used for
downloading, ""Save" button is used for saving of the current
correspondence of columns.
When the setting of column correspondence and row diapason are
completed, press "Import" button to launch import..
Attention! The errors are possible during the import,
particularly in transforming of dates.
Also you should be
careful while exporting "Number" column, because it may cause errors
in numbering, if the Customer with the same number already exists in the
database.
Import is optimised in such way, that it is possible to precisely import
the data, which were previously exported into Excel. In particular, it is
correct with format of exporting the contact persons of the Customer.
The program has
multiuser operation mode, with the possibility to limit the access to data and
functions of the program for some users.
By default one single user with administrator permissions exists at the
time of the first launch of the program.
The user with Administrator permissions has permissions to access all program
functions, including permissions to create new users and new roles.
User editing - Main Menu/Users
While editing, it is
necessary to specify the role for the user.
Role editing - Main menu/Roles
Each role consists of permissions assigned to this role.
“Edit own Customers only” - Editing of only belong to the user Customers and events.
“ View info about all Customers» - It
is possible to view information about all Customers of all users without
editing it.
«Edit all available customer-related data » - Editing of all Customers and events of all
users.
"Edit all available customer-related events " - Editing of events of all Customers of all
users, including the change of following Customer fields: "Statuses",
"Manager".
"Edit rights" - Editing of users and roles.
"Edit directories" - Editing of directories
"Export"
- Possibility to export data from the program
"Import"
- Possibility to import data into the program
"Email posting" - Possibility of e-mail postings.
"Group change"” - Possibility to realize the Customer group change
"Global search" - Possibility to conduct the global search. (Available only in the
network version).
For the newly created user the empty password is set by default. To change
the password it is necessary to use the menu option Main/ Password Change
When someone exits the program,
the program remembers the current user and then chooses this user as default
user at the time of the next launch of the program.
If the user has empty password, the program will launch without asking
it.
Program has the following directories:
·
States
·