Notes relationships

[Mekanek]

Hi,

New to the forum. I hav moved my leads into SugraCRM and started testing critical features I need in Sugar. Could nor get far before bumping into this:

There is a possibility to make notes and relate them to e.g contact, account e.g., but only two relations are allowed.

This is far from enough.

I'm not very much of a programnmer, but been working in industrial management and consulting for years, so I know normally these relations exist "in areal world", e.g. if i create a note based on an event, like a call, this note needs to be available in the corresponding acoount, contact, lead, e.g. e.g., where ever this company/person/ salesman can exist and definately in much more than just two places.

The reason is that it's necessary to track what has been said and negotiated with customer/lead/account by whom, when and in in what event e.g.e.g

Question is how to do this ? Adding relations via admin/studio /relations ? How ?

This is very critical to me, so pls. share your wisdom !

[salesagility]

I think that this may be a case of look before you leap.

For example ... click into opportunities:

Scroll down to history and what do you see? "Add Note or attachment"

Click into "Cases"

Scroll down to history and what do you see? "Add Note or attachment"

Click into Projects

Scroll down to history and what do you see? "Add Note or attachment"

etc. etc.

Notes are very flexible and can be attached throughout sugar and placed as appropriate.

I appreciate that you have just started using the application but respectfully suggest that you read the manual.

[Mekanek]

I checked the manual.

AND it says notes can be related to two items. When opening the note and editing, what do you see ? On top left "Contact" and you can bind it to the contact, which, of course is natural and needs to be done. The notes is about the contact.

On top left there is Related to: and of course it needs to be related to Account. The contact is working in that company.

Now we have two and more can not be set. However, the same note should be related to opportunity, call, meeting etc. as well because it is naturally related to it, but it can not be done anymore, because the limit of two.

If i have related the same note to contact and account , which at least needs to be the case, it is NOT visible in e.g. inte subpanel of "call".

In notes I carry all contact related notes, which is updated all the time. It is part of account, call, you name it. It is quite typical way in some other systems i have used. Each customers contact person has a file, "note", which contains info what has been up with them. Was it a meeting, call, project, whatever.

Or do you suggest I make a separate note for cases, projects etc.. ? In "call" note there is a line that I had a phone call with customer and we discussed this and that. In a meeting there is note about that same customer that we had meeting, but in that note there is no mention about the previous phone call !? That is in the the different note.

Not very practical

See my point ?

Of course, I suppose, one could go each time via contact file to and make the notes to the same file, but what is then the possibility e.g. in call to make a note for ? For call specific info ? And after call I go to my "main" note and write that check the call specific note ? Wouldn't it be much easier to write that reference on the same file ?

Do I have a some kind of general misunderstanding here about the concept ? What is the correct way of keeping track of the history of a customer so that I can see in one place the whole history including projects, cases, calls.... ? Because that is something a salesman needs to have on his notes; all the things ever done and said with the customer. And data should be visible everywhere needed.

[sugarcane]

Hello Mekanek,

Out of the box, if you want to have a note appear under other records besides the Contact and Account, you can always take an existing note that is attached to a contact and account and click the duplicate button and then select a different Related to. However, this would be a bit redundant.

You are allowed to create notes under many records, which can become a bit difficult if users are all logging notes in a different way. We generally tell our clients to pick a method and make sure all users are trained to log their notes in a consistent manner. Placing all notes consistently under the Account or Contact records can make it easier since there is only 1 place to look (especially with the View Summary feature in the History panel). For times when you need to log a note under a specific call or opportunity record, then you can always duplicate the note so that it appears under the appropriate additional records.

Your other option is to go into the code so that you can add another relational field to relate the note to a 3rd or 4th record.

[Mekanek]

Thanks sugarcane (and thanks for salesagility for the previous answer as well)

I suppose after making a duplicate all the duplicates continue their lives as independent creatures with independent content and no way to make them replicate... ?

Anyway, as learned time after time from developing industrial processes, the less moving parts the machine has, the better.

However, all it is is comnuicating and dealing with customers (human beings):
- From all modules/panels having something to do with some kind of an interaction with customer should have direct access to customer history "notes file" or document. Or whatever-it-might-be-to-get-this-done.

Is there any (good & simple) way you could think of to get this done ?

Any way e.g. in Studio to configure a subpanel into a module that displays the notes of a contact/lead/opportunity/... after one has been selected ?