SugarCRM

Editor's Note: This post comes from the blog of SugarCRM Gold partner Epicom, where they talk about a Quick Entry module they have developed for a customer of their's. Making the complex seem easy. Epicom created a Quick Entry Module for its customer, The Texas Tribune, to speed-up data entry for donations and advertisement purchases. Epicom’s Quick Entry Module leverages SugarCRM’s architecture and relates data between modules. For example, a Contact can be related to an Account and a Quote can be related to both. Creating relationships between accounts does have major benefits since information is never linear and seems to only make sense in a web-like architecture. However, creating Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, etc. in separate modules can become tedious and time consuming. To not be slowed-down by this  and to take advantage of Sugar’s architecture, Epicom built a module for data entry in one location that will automatically push information into its appropriate module. In the case of The Texas Tribune, a non-profit political and government focused media organization, it needed a Quick Entry Module for entering revenue payments. They define revenue payments as a commitment from someone to donate or a subscription record for membership. Epicom built two custom modules for “Revenue” and “Payments” which have a relationship between the two. For example, there would be a single record for a membership subscription inside of the Revenue module. Each monthly payment for that membership is made in the “Payments” module, but relates to the Revenue record and is visible within that module. The Revenue record or membership also relates to individuals (Contacts) or organizations (Accounts). That defines who the membership belongs to. The Quick Entry Module allows The Texas Tribune to simultaneously create a new organization, a new individual, a new revenue record and a new payment — all from the same screen! This replaces the need for a user to go into four different modules and create a new record each time. It also allows users to select an existing Organization or Individual if they are already in the system. The Texas Tribune also uses the Quick Entry Module for managing advertising sales. Overall, this customization and simplification of Sugar’s relationship architecture can be used in any scenario where a company wants faster data entry in SugarCRM. For more information about the Quick Entry Module or to discuss how it could be used with your business contact us at info@epicom.com or call (512) 481-9000.

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