Using SugarCRM for partners and referrals

[2bears]

Hi, I've just joined this forum and I'm hoping to learn more about the product. I'm looking at Sugar CRM Community Edition to see how well it fits with my company's needs and have the software up and running already.

We have a range of accountancy partners with whom we have a business relationship. Whilst they are potential referrers of business, they will never be sales accounts.

Is there a category for holding these in a structured way and detailing calls with them etc. I realise there is a sales leads category and a contact category.

How best would we represent this in Sugar? Thanks.

[davidboris]

Hello,

If I am not mistaken, you want to categorise your "Accounts". If so, you have "Type" field and you can add new values to that dropdown using Admin > Dropdown Editor or you can create a custom field Category and have your options.

[2bears]

... you want to categorise your "Accounts". If so, you have "Type" field and you can add new values to that dropdown.

Thanks very much David. Right, I've had a look at that and it seems ideal. Clearly I have a lot of research ahead of me, if we're to discover the best way to put Sugar's features into use.

What about reporting? Is it possible to get a report of (say) all the accounts in a certain category?

Also, is there a post-installation getting-started guide to Sugar that could assist us with the design of how we use it? I have looked at the main documentation already, but obviously that's very detailed, covering each feature. Thanks.

[davidboris]

Hello,

As you are using Community version of SugarCRM, you dont have Reports module. But there is a plug-in(KINAMU Reporter) available on SugarForge.

The application guide is available here.