Sending emails into CRM-FREE
With the paid version of CRM-FREE you can send emails directly into your database. Emails are centrally stored and depending on how they are sent they can be entered into a contacts record or a project.
The first step is to enter any email addresses you may send emails "from". Go to your profile by clicking on your name in the upper left and you can add "from addresses". Each email address can belong to only one user in the database. This is how the database will determine who to enter the data from. Any emails from unknown from addresses with be stored for your review. You can add that from address and then re-process the email to get it linked, or just tell the database where the email should be linked without adding the from address.
You have options in sending emails to CRM-FREE. First you use the "To" field to create a new contact, add a note to a contact or project, add a calendar item to a contact, project or just a personal item. You can also forward an email you received using the "To" field to address it to CRM-FREE. You will find instructions on each below. You can also use the "Bcc" field when sending an email "To" a contact. When doing this the database will search for the "To" email address and enter the email as a note in that contact's record.
When sending emails to CRM-FREE using the "To" field the subject will determine how your email is processed.
* To create a new contact the subject should be "new"
* To add a note to a contact or project the subject should be "note"
* To add a calendar item the subject should start with "calendar"
* When forwarding an email you received the subject should start with "fw" or "fwd"
Creating a new contact. All the contact data goes in the body of the email and each line begins with what data is on that line. Below is an example with all the options available when creating a new contact. The comments, notes and calendar rows all must be on one line. Any line that doesn't not start with one of the options below will be disregarded. The calendar line can only contain the day and time.
name John Doe
company CRM-FREE
address 35 N. Sunny Rd, Chicago, IL, 60601
phone 312-555-1212 office
email john.doe@test.com
status client
type referral
source seminar
comments attended seminar last winter
note he called today to discuss getting started. wanted a call next week
calendar Monday at 1pm
Add a note. Notes can be added to a contact or project. The first row in the body of the email should start with either: name, company or project. Then the name of the contact, company or project. The database will search for all matches and enter the note in each record. The rest of the email can be multiple rows of data and will appear as the note, the first row will not be included. If there is no match the email will be stored and you can manually assign it or create a record later and re-process the email.
name John Doe
he called today to discuss getting started. wanted a call next week I will call him next Monday
Add a calendar item. Calendar items also contain the date and time of the item in the subject. Example subject line:
calendar Wednesday at 4pm
The date and time need to be separated by the word "at", but a time is not required.
Date options include: Monday - any day of the week
today
tomorrow
6/1 - month/day
6/1/2010 - month/day/year
next week - places on next Monday
next month - places item on the 1st of the next month
next year - places on January 1st of next year
one week - places item one week from today
one month - places item one month from today
one year - places item one year from today
Time options can be just the time, such as: 3:00, or just 3, and include am or pm. If no am or pm is included, the system will set it for you based on the hour. If the hour is 8 or after it will select am, if it is prior to 8 it will set it as pm.
name John Doe
Call today to get him started