Converting Leads To Accounts, help with set up

[JoeySperz]

I have walked through the modules for sugar university, and they are helpful. However, the way that I am customizing Sugar is different from the help modules. I have a consumer based service businesss, tutoring to be exact, and i do not deal with any companies to deliver my product. The way our sales process works is that as someone calls, our "Lead" is an automatic "Opportunity." I picture the "account" happening once they are officially signed up with us and our services begin.

If I am correct, a lead cannot have an opportunity associated with it. Right?

The main question I have is with converting a lead to an account. I have a lot of custom fields set up for my leads, how do i get these to automatically come up on my accounts? When i was trying to edit the fields in the accounts, i was having trouble. is there an easy way to get these to automatically convert without having to retype information? I would imagine that there is.

Thank you all, and please put this in "Layman's Terms." I am computer literate, but I am FAR from being someone who fully understands code and complicated computer systems. I am very new to this type of technology.

Thanks,
Joey

[JoeySperz]

I have a more specific question. It seems that the specific problem I am running into is when i try to convert leads to accounts.

When i am converting the lead, how do i edit where it says "Related Records" and "Create Account?" How do i change what fields show up here? How do i make certain info that is on my lead sheet show up automatically in the accounts?

[shan]

Are you using custom lead fields, or just the sugar default?

[JoeySperz]

A few Sugar fields, but mostly custom fields.

[kimiller]

In order for your Lead record custom fields to appear in the new Account record upon lead conversion, those custom fields must also be created in the Accounts module prior to converting the lead. This way, the custom field data in the Leads module will have a place to "land" in the Accounts module. This is the case for opportunities and contacts as well if you want the custom field data to appear in those modules, too.

We cover this in the Lead Management seminar (next one runs June 14, available at no charge). You can view the course description and the entire Sugar University learning session schedule at: http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/university/schedule.

-Kim
Training Specialist
Sugar University