CRM and Customer Communication

The CRM system is your centralized hub for managing all customer and vendor communications. It helps teams stay organized, ensures no customer inquiry goes unanswered, and maintains a complete history of all interactions.

Key CRM Features

Communication Management:

• Send emails directly to customers and vendors from within orders, customer records, or vendor records
• Use pre-configured email templates for common responses
• Attach order invoices, summaries, or purchase order documents to emails
• Track all email correspondence in one centralized location

Task and Activity Tracking:

• Create tasks for future follow-ups (calls to make, emails to send, meetings to schedule)
• Log activities to record past interactions (phone calls received, meetings held, emails sent)
• Assign tasks to specific team members with due dates and priority levels
• Set reminders to ensure timely follow-up
• Track task status from Not Started through Completed

Team Collaboration:

• Assign communications to specific team members
• Filter your task list to see only items assigned to you
• View all team activity for a given customer, order, or vendor
• See communication history before contacting customers or vendors

Organized Record Keeping:

• Link communications to specific sales orders, purchase orders, customers, or vendors
• Search and filter messages by date, status, assigned team member, or subject
• View complete communication history from customer or vendor profiles
• Track overdue tasks and prioritize urgent follow-ups

Tasks vs Activities - What's the Difference?

You'll see both "New Task" and "Log an Activity" buttons in the CRM. Both create the same type of CRM record with identical fields - the difference is primarily in usage context:

• Log an Activity - Use this when recording something that already happened (a phone call you just received, a meeting that took place, an email you sent)
• New Task - Use this when creating something that needs to be done in the future (a follow-up call to make, an email to send tomorrow, a meeting to schedule)

Both create the same CRM record. The Type field (Call Inbound, Email Outbound, Meeting, etc.) and Due Date indicate whether it's documenting past activity or planning future work.

1Go to CRM > My Tasks to view all open messages and tasks.

2Use the search bar to find specific messages, or click Advanced Search to add more filter options. 

3Use the View Tasks dropdown to filter by team member assignments.

4Use the timing dropdown to filter by different date frames or statuses. 

5Filter by status:

• Not Started - New tasks not yet addressed
• In Progress - Tasks currently being worked on
• Deferred - Tasks postponed for later
• Completed - Finished tasks
• Expired - Overdue tasks
• Waiting on Someone - Tasks awaiting response

6Click a subject line in the results table to open the full task details.

Creating a New Task

1From a customer, order, vendor, or purchase order record, click the CRM tab.

2Click New Task or Log an Activity.

3Complete the Task Information section:

• Assigned To - Click the search icon to select a team member

4In the Description Information section:

• Add Comments using the rich text editor
• Click Select to add attachments
• Check Send Notification Email to notify the assigned team member

5In the Reminder section, check the box and set a reminder date and time if needed.

Or Create Followup Task - Create a new related task with pre-filled information

6Click Save.

Sending an Email

1Navigate to the customer account, order, vendor account, or purchase order record.

2Click the CRM tab.

3Click Email Customer (or Email Vendor for vendor records).

4Complete the email form:

• From - Your configured admin email (pre-filled)
• To - Customer or vendor email (pre-filled from record)
• CC - Add additional recipients using the search icon
• BCC - Add blind copy recipients
• Subject - Enter email subject line
• Email Template - Select a pre-configured template (optional)
• Email Body - Compose your message using the rich text editor

5Click Select to add file attachments.

6Click Send.

Using Email Templates

To create reusable email templates:

1Go to Marketing > Email Templates.

2Under the Custom Email Template tab, scroll to Create New Email Template.

3Complete the template fields:

• Template Name - Name for identifying the template
• From - Sender email address
• CC - Default CC recipients (optional)
• BCC - Default BCC recipients (optional)
• Email Subject - Default subject line
• Message - Email body content using the rich text editor

4Click Add New.

Your template will now appear in the Email Template dropdown when composing CRM emails.

From Sales Orders

1Go to Sales Orders > Search and find the order.

2Click the order number to view the order details.

3Click the CRM tab.

4Available actions:

• Log an Activity - Record a phone call or interaction
• New Task - Create a follow-up task
• Email Customer - Send an email (pre-fills customer email)
• View All Activity - See complete communication history for this order

When emailing from a sales order, you can attach:

• Invoice
• Order Summary
• Order Summary Printable Version

Use the checkboxes to include or exclude attachments, or click Download to preview before sending.

From Purchase Orders

1Go to Vendors > Search Purchase Orders and find the purchase order.

2Click the CRM tab.

3Use the same actions as sales orders (Log Activity, New Task, Email Vendor, View All Activity).

When emailing vendors, you can attach the Purchase Order Summary Printable Version.

From Customer Records

1Go to Customers > Search Customers and find the customer.

2Click the customer number to view their profile.

3Click the CRM tab to see all previous communications with this customer.

4Use Log an Activity, New Task, Email Customer, or View All Activity.

The customer's name, email, and phone number are automatically pre-filled when creating tasks or sending emails from their record.

Assigning Tasks to Team Members

When creating or editing a task, use the Assigned To field to delegate tasks to specific team members. Each team member can filter CRM > My Tasks to see only tasks assigned to them.

Setting Task Priority

Use priority levels to help team members focus on urgent items:

• High - Urgent tasks requiring immediate attention
• Normal - Standard priority tasks
• Low - Non-urgent tasks that can be addressed later

Tracking Task Status

Update task status as work progresses:

• Not Started - Task created but work hasn't begun
• In Progress - Currently being worked on
• Waiting on Someone - Awaiting customer or vendor response
• Deferred - Postponed to a later date
• Completed - Task finished

Using Reminders

Set reminders to ensure tasks aren't forgotten. When a reminder is active, the assigned team member will receive a notification at the specified date and time.