Getting Started with CRM

You've got a fresh new Brightpearl account in front of you, where do you start? This quick ten-step guide will walk you through the key features in Brightpearl CRM so that you know the basics and get started using the system.

You will learn how to:

1. Create a new customer / supplier
2. Search for and view a customer / supplier
3. Create and use Tags
4. View communication history
5. Schedule an activity or event
6. Apply a customer status
7. Batch update customers / suppliers
8. Use advanced searches and favourites
9. Plan your next steps
10. Import your customers / suppliers

1. Create a new customer / supplier

You can store all details for a contact in Brightpearl so you know they are in one place and do not need to update several address books or databases. As an example, create a dummy customer:

1. On the left-hand side of the screen click the Quick Add icon  and select Customer.
2. Enter the contact details:
   • Company: Casino Royal
   • First name: James
   • Surname: Bond
   • email: info@pearlsoftware.co.uk
   • phone number: 08450038935.
3. Click the green Save changes button in the top-right.
4. You will notice that there are several tabs on the contact edit screen, use these to add further contact details.
5. Just above the tabs you will see the Add a tag link. Click and select a tag for the contact.
6. Click the Save changes button. If you leave the page without saving your information will not be retained.

Suppliers are added in the same way. Try by going to Suppliers > New Supplier.

2. Search for and view your customer / supplier

We can search for a customer record in Brightpearl by entering the customer's details into the Quick Search box in the top-right of the screen. For example:

1. Type "James" or "Bond" or "Casino" in the search box and hit enter or click GO. You'll see your contact listed.
2. You can use the quick view by clicking on the small arrow by the company name, or click on any part of the name to open the customer record in full.

You can search using part of the contact firstname, lastname, company, email address or postcode.

Search for supplier the same way, but make sure you select "Suppliers" from the Quick Search drop-down.

3. Create and use Tags

Tags are used to help organise your contacts into groups, you'll be using Tags a lot to keep everything under control. You can tag contacts with one or more tags and there is no limit to the number of tags you can add. Follow these steps to create a new tag, which we will then add to our contact James:

1. Go to Customers > Customers by Tag > List/edit Tags.
2. Click the Add a new tag button.
3. Enter the name of a new tag. Let’s call it "VIP Clients"
4. Select Customers from the drop-down menu to set this tag as a subset of our Customers.
5. Use the colour wheel to select a colour and then the shade.
6. Click Save Tag.

We'll now add a Tag to the customer we just created.

1. Search for the customer as above.
2. When your customer is listed you'll see a link to Add a tag under the company name, click the link and then choose one from the drop-down menu that appears.
3. Your Tag will be added. Simple!

Create and apply tags to suppliers in the same way.

4. Viewing communication history

We use the Brightpearl Timeline to keep track of notes and activities for a client, and see all interaction with them. The timeline will show everything in one place, meaning that you don't have to hunt around to find out the latest information.

• Notes added by you or colleagues
• Changes of contact status
• Quotes and Sales
• Emails sent/received by you and your colleagues (we'll show you how it works later in this guide)
• Payments received
• Calls, Meetings and Follow-ups

Let's imagine we made a phone call to our potential lead entered above, and add a note.

1. Search for our contact James Bond using the Quick Search box
2. Click the contact name to open their record. You are automatically taken to the contact Timeline tab.
3. Click the Add Note link. Type in a summary of the call that you just had with James e.g. "James would like to discuss the 2010 contract. Please call back asap".
4. Click Save changes to save the notes to the timeline.

You easily move between tabs before saving without losing your note; this is handy if you are making a note whist on the phone with a contact and need to add a phone number, address and so on.

View the communication history and add notes to supplier records in the same way.

5. Schedule an activity or event

Use Activities to help organise important work so that nothing gets forgotten. Follow these steps to add an activity for us to return James's call.

1. While you are still in the timeline for James click the Add Activity/Schedule call link.
2. Enter the title of the activity, such as "Call with James Bond".
3. From the dropdown, select the type of activity; if it's an important call that you want to set a reminder for, select "Call".
4. Specify which staff member the activity is for - select yourself.
5. Select the date and time the call is scheduled for, say, tomorrow at 1100.
6. Enter any additional details or instructions in the space provided.
7. Click Save changes. This will close the activity box and take you back to the timeline.
8. The new activity will be shown in the Activities information box on the right-hand side.

To view your "to-do" list, hover your mouse over your username at the top of the screen and click My Tasks.

Apply notes and create activities and events for suppliers in the same way.

6. Apply a customer status

All contacts should be assigned a status to help you understand which of your leads are your hottest prospects. We have provided you with popular set of statuses, which you can view and edit by going to Customers > Customers by Status click List/edit Statuses to view or amend the statuses.

Follow these steps to update a contact's status:

1. Search for a contact and open their record.
2. Status information box is on the right-hand side, select the status from the drop-down list.
3. Click Save changes.

To view all contacts on a certain status

Go to Customers > Customers by Status and select one of the statuses listed here. You can get a feeling for how many contacts are in each status in a chart form by viewing the Customers Dashboard, accessible from the Customer menu. Clicking a section of the pie chart on the Dashboard will take you to the list of contacts with that status.

7. Batch update

You can update the data for several contacts at once using the batch update menu. Follow these steps to batch update:

1. Create a new customer and add the VIP Client tag to them.
2. Choose to view all contacts with the VIP Client tag by going to Customers > Customer by Tag and selecting VIP Clients.
3. Click the tick checkboxes to each of the contacts.
4. Above the listing click the Add Note button.
5. In the pop-up window type some text (QuickNotes can be added using the drop-down menu, these are standard notes that can be saved to speed up adding notes).
6. Click the Add note button.

A green message box will be displayed to indicate the number of records that have been updated so you know that it worked.

Batch process suppliers in the same way from your Supplier Listing, go to Suppliers > List all Suppliers.

8. Advanced search & Favourites

To search for contacts with 2 or more attributes e.g. a tag and a status, you need to use the advanced search. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Customers > List all Customers.
2. When your customers are listed click the Show filter button at the top.
3. Select VIP Clients from the "With Tag" field and select your name from the "Owner" field.
4. Click the Filter report button.  This will return all the contacts with this information.
5. To save this search for future use you can add it as a favourite. Scroll to the very bottom of the screen and click the Add to favourites link in the dark grey area.
6. In the pop-up window enter a name for the search and specify whether you want this to be added to all user's favourites or just your own.
7. To use this search again, click the Favourites icon  on the left-hand side and click on the relevant search name.

9. Next steps

Now that you're familiar with the basics, you need to start planning how Brightpearl is going to work for your business. Before moving on to the next guide, we suggest:

1. Plan your Tag strategy and set up a few tags for your contacts.
2. Add any extra staff that will be accessing the system, go to Setup at the top of the screen and click on Staff/Users > Add a new staff member. Don't forget to update their permissions for each area of the system.
3. Explore the Contacts dashboard.

10. Import your contacts!

To really see the benefit of Brightpearl, you need it to be full of your contacts.

Learn about importing customers / suppliers

Finishing up

Hopefully this has give you a good overview of some of the basics. We go into more detail on each of the topics within their own section of our free online support documentation.

If you want to reset your data and start over, then read about resetting your data here