All Discussions - Batchbook

Anybody else?

FLdefcon — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:22:41 -0400

get duplicate google contacts in the batchbook sync group EVERYTIME you edit a contact in batchbook?

re-assign contacts

starcarver — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:49:23 -0400

How do I re-assign one of my sale guys contacts now that he is no longer in the company?

Custom Fields in The New Batchbook

wyndarra — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:44:40 -0400

This is a quick note having had my first, brief look at The New Batchbook (beta). It looks and feels superb to me (colourblind and fond of gray). The orange contrast of alerts is very effective and I dread the late night that I am entering data with a migraine! The Custom Fields feature seems to be an excellent development of SuperTags, and I will play with these some more to see if I can overcome the limitations that frustrate me now (mostly to do with generating one list/report that draws data from SuperTags/Custom Fields of both company-type and contact-type fields).
One quick suggestion from my first glance: I use Batchbook for managing events (conferences and exhibitions, and I don't use Eventbrite). If I create a new Custom Field set, it will often relate to a new event which will be very similar to a previous event - or at least require similar data. In the Custom Field set list view, in addition to the New Custom Field set button, and perhaps next to the delete/trash buttons in the list of sets, might it be possible to have a "Duplicate this set" button which will create a new set, but populates it with the field names and types from a previous set, which can then be edited?
By the way, I did not come to this forum from the link posted in Melony's email announcement of the beta site - that seems to be broken, so I hope I am posting this in the right place.
Super job, and I hope you will roll out The New Batchbook soon. I read a great blog recently suggesting something along the lines of: "If you roll out the perfect new product on the first attempt, you've launched too late." The New Batchbook is enough of a development over the old to be a "new" product.

Congratulations.
Steven

Sorting/Editing Dropdown Fields

rianlim — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:21:38 -0400

Is there any way to sort the choices in dropdown fields once they have been inputted? There are times when I'd like to add another choice but doing so wrecks the order if I have originally created them alphabetically.

I also found out one of my choices was incorrectly spelled. Is there a way to edit the option without deleting it entirely and creating a new one?

To-Do view - could the system remember last sorting choice?

copydragon — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:03:38 -0400

Every day I start my day planning the most important things.

To separate the important items from all the other swell ideas I might do "some day," I use "flagged", and click the "Flag" link so that the flagged items appear at the top of the list. Then I can print a single page that shows me everything important.

However, as I add new items, or remove items, each time I must "refresh" and then re-click the "Flag" link to re-create my list.

So ...

Why not simply allow the program to remember the last "sort" choice, and on page refresh, deliver the page sorted that same way?

I bet many user have a favorite way of viewing the to-do list. It's only saving one click, but it would save you one server request, and it would seem more user-friendly.

What you think, kemo sabe?

-- Arthur Cronos

http://CopyDragon.com

List all contacts associated with a deal

CWe — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:35:10 -0500

Hi,

Just wondering if it is possible to create a report that lists the contact details (Name, e-mail, ...) of all contacts associated with a specific deal.

Thanks for any hints.

Regards, Chris

PHP Library w/out Zend

namchivan — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:14:43 -0500

Hey,

I was wondering if anyone has any examples on how to apply the PHP library without using ZEND framework? What methods are you using and how are you going about this?

Any information will be helpful...

Thanks in advance.

Reports-Related Feature Requests

KurtMilam — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:51:54 -0400

We really need some more powerful report-building tools.

For instance, we need to be able to have nested "OR"s, like:

Where Deal Assigned To John.Doe AND

(Deal Status = 100 OR

Deal Status = 110 OR

Deal Status = 120)

We need to be able to choose the sorting of items returned in a report.

It would be nice to not have to re-save the same report for each potential Assigned To: person. I'm not sure what you'd call this - maybe a variable field, so that I could save the first report above like:

Where Deal Assigned To {User} AND

(Deal Status = 100 OR

Deal Status = 110 OR

Deal Status = 120)

Then at run-time I would need to choose the user I wanted to run the report for.

Change to "state" organization in address entry

Taylon — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:05:55 -0400

This is a minor issue, but worth pointing out since it wouldn't be noticed unless you ran into it frequently.

Right now when you enter an address for a contact, "International" is at the top of the "STATE"

dropdown menu before any states.

That means if you try and tab through the fields and type the first letter of the "I" states,

like Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, etc you actually select

International which removes the drop down options.

To get around that, you have to either manually select the

state with a mouse or type out the entire state name.

Since you'd have to manually enter an international province anyway,

would it be possible to move INTERNATIONAL to the bottom of that list

so that you can auto select the I states?

FEATURE REQUEST - merge Activity Log with affiliated contacts

corey — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:59:02 -0400

I usually get contacts that start with one email address, and then the person's spouse adds to an email thread, and then they both continue sending us emails but from different addresses. Merging all of these emails and addresses into individual contacts is a royal PITA, so now I have created an Affiliation: "Additional Email and or Names" to link alternate emails and name variations.

What I would like are checkboxes next to Affiliated names, and under Activity Log a button: "Display Activity Log Merged with that of Checked Affiliated Names" sorted by date.

Display multiple company addresses in a Report?

gfisher — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:23:00 -0400

When I go to a Batchbook record, some of my companies have 2 or 3 addresses (Main, Main1, Main2, etc.), but when I create a report, I can only get "Main" for companies. Is there any way to get a report with the additional addresses?

Contacts not all ordered alphabetically

mwl — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:36:02 -0400

As a new user, I've quickly realized that Batchbook discourages users from creating duplicate contacts and tries to merge them. However, I need to use duplicate contacts with different amounts of data and different permissions for users. I have come up with the following solution: 1st contact contains all data entered, with permissions for administrator only; 2nd contact is a short form of 1st contact, containing less data and with a slightly different name, with permissions for basic users.
Having done this I now have a problem: the 2nd contact appears out of alphabetical order in the contact list. How can I ensure that all contacts appear in alphabetical order?

Set primary contact for Company

dimitym — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:24:18 -0400

Is there a way to set a primary contact person for a company? I am wanting to set a person as the primary contact for a company so that whenever details are missing from the company it displays the details from the primary contact. I also need the primary to be flagged in some way in the list of personnel.

Also, would there be a way to mark this primary contact during the batch csv import process?

Thanks!

How to put a birtday alarm into batchbook calender

suzannevoskuil — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:04:00 -0500

I have added birthday date (as a yearly recurring date) as a field in one of my supertags.

I would like this date to be added to my bb calender and/or to receive a reminder if one of these birthday dates is about to occur.

Is this possible in Batch Book?

"Search Social Network" never returns results.

daveof — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:51:30 -0400

Hi,

The 'Search Social Network' button no longer seems to work on my account. It used to work but now never returns results. There's a javascript error in the console:

1156Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 (Internal Server Error) https://******.batchbook.com/contacts/load_social_media_profiles/1156

Any ideas?

Dave.

Is there a way to hide completed Deals from the Deals list or show only current Deals?

ThoughtsHappen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:55:07 -0500

Now that I have been using Batchbook for about half a year, I have many Deals in the Won list that are old and completed. I don't want to have to wade through all of the old ones looking for just current deals. I have already set my own Tag for Current Deals and made a report, but that means I have to use my special report instead of just looking in the Deals tab for current items.

I considered adding a user named "Done" and assigning the completed deals to that user, but alas I have the 1 user plan, so I can't do that. Why isn't there a deals status in addition to "Won," "Pending" and "Lost" named "Completed"?

More than 1 company per individual

davidsmit — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:13:57 -0400

Hey there, I can't seem to give any individual more than 1 particular role at 1 particular company. I'm posting it here (as opposed to the feature requests) because I want to be sure I'm not asking for something that's already there.

Many of my contacts introduce themselves as Independent Business Owner of some kind, then, after some time, confess they also have a day time job.

Now because I'd like to acknowledge their aspirations but also map their current company, I would love to store both of these positions.

So basically, instead of having the relationship 1 (company) to many (individual), it really should be many to many.

Can't upload a forum picture

Joelorr — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:42:29 -0400

It seems to accept it, but then the field clears, and no picture is uploaded. Tried with a couple of pics, both under 600k.

What's up?

Joel

To-Do Templates, Events

khelm — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:02:12 -0500

Hello,

We've been using Batchbook for a couple pf years now but only really for managing contact info. We are now tracking tasks/to-dos and making deals. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places, but these things are driving me nuts:

Where can I manage To-Do Templates? I have two with the same name and need to delete one - this should be easy but I can't find a way.
What is the difference between a To-Do and an Event?

Contacts

pamohara — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:21:30 -0400

We're starting to unveil some of the new features you will find in the new Batchbook. Take a look at some highlights from the new Contacts tab and let us know what you think. This is still a work in progress, so there will be a few things changing but this should give you an idea of what to expect.

We're excited to get your feedback and ideas for Batchbook Contacts. Thanks for all of your help in building a better Batchbook.

Report for contacts I haven't touched in a week

Joelorr — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:38:16 -0400

I can't figure out how to create a report to list contacts I haven't emailed, phoned, or met for at least 1 week. One challenge is that it seems I need to count back from today and enter a specific date, rather than be able to have a report that simply looks back 7 days before today--effectively forcing me to create a new report every day.

Any help will be appreciated!

Joel

Freshbooks Integration: Do's and Don't

copydragon — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:43:14 -0500

As of today (20120303), here's what I've discovered about batchbooks playing nice with freshbooks ...

BEST PRACTICE:

* If you want your data to be coherent, and "the same" in both applications, then it's best to ALWAYS enter in Batchbook FIRST, then click the little leaf to push the new guy's record into Freshbooks.

* Here's why:

* If you create in Batchbooks first, then you're creating an individual, and the address and phone and email belongs to the individual ... and there's also a company name

* But if you create in Freshbooks first, then you're creating a company, and the address and phone and email belongs to the company ... and there's also an individual (but he has no address, phone or email)

* And that means that if you've created in Freshbooks first, and used the sync button to get the data into Batchbook, then you've now got a Batchbook record where the individual has no address, phone or email. The system will display address, phone, and email but the system is getting the info from the company record and the info is not really stored in the individual record.

* Now ... it can bite you when you try to sort lists and print reports (or export to a maillist program like Mailchimp), because when you sort a list where Record Type = Individual and you choose to display name and email, then on the report you'll see the name but not the email because the individual has no email address.

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY --

* If you want coherent data, loaded the same in both Freshbooks and Batchbook, and you want to be able to extract lists that show the individual and his/her data ... then always enter any new client into Batchbook first, then click the leaf icon to push your new record into Freshbooks.

* And then, for any address changes, email changes, etc, make the change in Freshbooks, and then use the Batchbook "sync" button to pull the new data from Freshbooks into Batchbook.

* And that means NEVER add a new client in Freshbooks.

* And that means NEVER do client address/email/phone in Batchbook.

THE RULES:

1) Always enter new clients in Batchbook, then press leaf icon to push client data into Freshbooks.

2) Always make client changes of address/phone/email in Freshbooks, then pull new client data into Batchbook with the "sync" button.

General feedback

pamohara — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:51:18 -0400

Hi all, we're setting up a new (and much more user friendly) community forums to help us gather all of the great feedback we have been getting on The New BatchBook (see my blog post at http://blog.batchblue.com/the-new-batchbook/) I'll be sending more updates in the future, but just wanted to get the conversation started.

Share here if you have any thoughts on the overall functionality of BB2 (as we affectionately call our new baby).

FYI - my Google Apps Marketplace Review titled "DO NOT USE"

FLdefcon — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:12:46 -0400

Time after time after time, the google and batchbook sync either does not create contacts as it says it should, and other times it just decides to create duplicates.

Support helps in no way at all. Their forums are littered with users asking for help and getting none.

I don't know what I am going to do. I have tried every single CRM app in the google apps marketplace and they all stink (frankly as a 1 man shop that has issues with every single CRM here, I can't imagine the problems larger businesses have with all these crap apps).

Nothing out there works - they are all designed by developers who think they know what users need, but they never really listen or ask for what to develop. Then when you hit a logical brick wall with their app - well, it's your problem you don't know how to correctly use it - no, how about developers create apps that people in the real world use and then actually have the apps do what they say they do (like simply syncing without creating duplicates - or creating contacts the way the app says its supposed to)

API Contacts adding email

MarkRohde — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:09:17 -0400

G'day,

I am attempting to add a new contact and cannot get the email to be posted up, here is a curl example of what i am trying to do (also not working)

curl -k -u XXXXXXXX: -X POST https://XXXXXXXX.batchbook.com/service/people.xml \ -d "aCurlaTestmarkrohde@gmail.com" \ -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -v

(replacing the XXXXXX with valid tokens and account details of course)

I get the contact created but the email is ignored, I have also tried wrapping the email into the tags but get a internal server error.

Obviously missing something here but what?

Rapportive

KnotPR — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:38:44 -0500

Hey - I have rapportive in my gmail and it syncs with batchbook. Lately I'm noticing it's not automatically displaying--I don't even know how to make "batchbook it" button appear when this happens.

Tags getting unweildy

msthursday — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:02:45 -0400

Is there a way to group tags in the tag cloud? I don't want to make more supertags for various reasons but I'd like to be able to collapse tags so the tag cloud is not so unweildy.

Links to LinkedIn profiles

davidsmit — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:22:51 -0400

I'm just going to start another one.

I see you can click on facebook & twitter to directly visit my contact's profile there.

Would it be possible to also link to Linkedin profiles?

Feature Request/Fix - complete report sorting

Syd — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:52:05 -0500

First, I realize that any report can be exported to a CSV and then sorted but that seems very counter-intuitive. Shouldn't we be able to sort our complete report data easily right within the application? When you click on "View Report" and sort by any one of the column/field headers, it should theoretically sort the whole report, right? Not just one page at a time. If we had >100 records to manage, it might not be a big deal, but this is very challenging issue for our whole team. I was told that this would be a "special feature to add" but it seems to me it is actually a bug to be fixed. Anyone else experiencing this problem?

To-do Reports?

gfisher — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:12:52 -0500

Is there any way to create a report that lists To-Dos? I know they can be seen in the Calendar and Dashboard, but our sales people like to have paper lists they can work from. Right now, the best we can do is scrape the Dashboard To Do list (which is pretty flexible, since you can do by who ToDos are assigned to).