Ever want to create a to-do list within a message? Sure you could use follow-up events, but that’s probably an overkill for something like a shopping list. Instead let’s use this little trick.

Here’s my shopping list:

Ok, one of these I need to draw attention to (with @highlight), because we are completely out and one I already purchased, so I can mark that off (with @done).

Heap CRM >

We’ve just added goals in Heap CRM. Take a look the reports page.

OK, enter some goals

Alright, now there is an indicator displaying which goals are complete and which goals need some attention. You can apply goals based on category, user, month whatever.

You’ve requested the ability to pay with PayPal. You’ve requested to pay in advance. We just released both in one simple feature.

Go under “Settings” then “Account”

Click the “Pre-Pay with PayPal”

Select one of the suggested amounts to pay (there is also an “other” option to allow you to enter any number you like)

Log into PayPal

Once logged in you can select any funding source you like (so yes that means you can pay with eCheck, Credit Card, etc.)

Confirm

Look at your new account balance

We have an exciting new feature in Heap CRM: E-Mail alerts. What this allows you to do is get a summery of overdue events, today’s events or both. To get started just go to your calendar and click on “E-Mail Alerts.”

Now, you can do this for any or all of your calendars, so you can be very specific on which events you will be alerted for.

Migration update

Some of you may know that a migration is in progress for Heap and all other WBP SYSTEMS assets. I’m pleased to tell you that the first, and most significant step, is complete. Over that last couple of weeks you should have noticed marked improvement in speed and performance.

We’ve just enhanced the reports in Heap CRM. Reports have always been simple in Heap, but there was never a way to see the data used to generate the report item; now there is. Next to each item in the report there is a person icon.

Clicking on the icon will reveal the leads, opportunities or customers that contributed to that number on the report.

You can also export this data as a CSV (for use in Numbers, Google Docs, OpenOffice or Excel).

Also, we have added an extremely minor (but often requested) feature worth mentioning: Import Undo. This is probably of little use to our existing users, however for new users learning to use our import system, we hope this will save you some time.

Forwarding e-mail to Heap CRM is really easy (and really powerful). But sometimes you just want to do a couple of things at once. The advanced e-mail features are here to do just that. Now, don’t worry, nothing here can’t be done within Heap itself (and a lot easier). If you just want to see the basics of Heap’s e-mail features, you might start here.

Override Auto Association

Probably the most important “advanced” feature is our oldest. You can override the auto association. On a typical message Heap takes a look at the “to” and “from” addresses and automatically associates the message with the appropriate lead, opportunity, customer or archive. But, let’s say you are communicating with a supplier who you need information from, but isn’t actually the lead, opportunity, customer or archive. You probably want to associate that message to someone who isn’t actually involved in the e-mail conversation, this is how:

Name_of_Prospect+SUBDOMAIN@crmondemand.biz

So instead of “message” you put in the name of the prospect replacing spaces with underscores (”_”). You don’t actually have to put in the person’s entire name, any part of it will do.

Categorization

You can also put any message, person, lead, opportunity, customer or archive in a category automatically. Just put the following somewhere in the body of the message:

[category: Name of Category]

It doesn’t matter where in the message body you place this info, but it must be on its own line.

Creating Follow-Up Events for a Message

Let’s say you want to create a follow-up event(s) to the e-mail. Just put the following somewhere in the body of the message:

[event:Date:Name of Event->Name of Calendar]

For instance if I wanted to create a follow-up event on December 1st at noon, it might look something like this:

[event:12/1/2007:Lunch with John at 12pm->Meetings]

You can have as many follow-up events as you want (and they can be anywhere in the body), but they each must be on their own line.

Placing Events on a Calendar

When creating an event by e-mail Heap defaults to putting the event on “My Calendar”. However, if you put:

[calendar:Name of Calendar]

somewhere in the body of the message, it will be placed on that calendar. It doesn’t matter where in the message body you place this info, but it must be on its own line.

Specifying Additional Contact Detail

When you want to specify additional contact detail when creating a person, lead, opportunity, customer or archive by e-mail, you can use the following fields:

[title: Title of the Person]
[phone: Phone Number(s - separated by commas)]
[mobile: Mobile Number(s - separated by commas)]
[fax: Fax Number(s - separated by commas)]
[email: E-Mail(s - separated by commas)]
[website: WebSite(s - separated by commas)]

Again, it doesn’t matter where in the message body you place this info, but each must be on its own line.

We’ve just added Boolean searching to Heap CRM. Now don’t worry you can still do a simple search or search by sound. But now you can be even more specific with your searches (if you choose).

Let’s say I want to find all messages with the word design; simple enough, just type it in.

Alright now let’s say I want to find all messages with design but not the word direction. Ok just put the - operator in front of the word.

Ok, now what if you just want the messages with direction to be lowly ranked and but not be eliminated entirely. Just use the ~ operator.

Other operators include (operators are placed in front of words):

• + Indicates that the word must be present
• - Indicates the word can not be present
• ~ Indicates the word should decrease the rank of the result
• < Indicates the word is important, but not as important as other words
• > Indicates the word is more important than other words

You can also search using a wild-card. So if you want to find all variations of apple you could search for apple* and you would find apple, apples, applesauce, etc.

If you want to search for a specific phrase just put it in double quotes (e.g. “search phrase”).

We’re pleased to announce our latest product, Torch, is nearing completion. Within just a few weeks, you will be able to bid, manage and invoice your projects in a simple, seamless process.

What is it:

Torch is an application to fix a “work-flow” problem. Professionals of all kinds bid, work on, then bill their work. This is such a common scenario you would think it would be a “fluid” process, but it’s not. Torch fixes that.

Torch accomplishes four tasks that would be traditionally completed by independent applications:

1. Bidding
2. Project Management
3. Time Tracking
4. Invoicing

But theses aren’t independent components. Each part of the process flows into the next. Items on a bid turn into tasks in a project. Time you spend on tasks turn into items on the invoice. In other words, you never reenter information.

Key Features:

1. Calculate bids and send them to potential clients
2. Track project progress and collaborate with messages (including e-mails), files, events and tasks.
3. Track time and associate it with events and tasks
4. Bill your clients

How much will it cost:

$9 for the first internal user, $5 for each additional internal user. External users (your clients, suppliers, etc.) are free.

Just like Heap CRM, you are not limited in any other way. Invoices, bids, projects and files are all unlimited.

I want to know more:

Stay tuned to this blog. Over the next few weeks we’ll show you in detail what Torch is all about. If you would like, you can sign-up to be emailed when Torch is released (as always, we will not sell, rent or otherwise abuse your e-mail address).

E-Mail templates allow you to send E-Mail messages on a schedule and event templates allow you to schedule a large number of events all at once. But until today, they couldn’t work together in Heap CRM; now they can.

Let’s say I want to setup an event template that I use every time I get a new lead. Ok, nothing here has changed I’m just going to add an event in 7 days to call the lead.

Ok, now I want to setup an event to E-Mail them in 14 days. Again, just enter the 14 and the title of the event, but this time I’m going to select an E-Mail template to send.

Finally, let’s setup a final E-Mail for 90 days from today.

Ever want to move an event from one calendar to another in Heap CRM? Ever want to move an event from month? Now you can, just by dragging.

Say I want to move an event from one calendar to another, just unlock the event and start dragging.

Then drop on the calendar you want the event.

Same with moving events from month to month. Unlock the event and drag to the month that you want.