Working with Accounts in Sherpa

 

The top half of the accounts screen is where the main information about the account/client is entered.  You can use this entire screen to add, edit, and search for accounts, set filters, and group accounts into similar categories. First, we’ll start with an overview of the buttons and their uses.

When you click on the Accounts menu option, a new window will open showing you the account information of the last account record you were in.  You can open multiple account records by clicking the New Window button  and searching for an additional record, and you will have a new window that will open for each account record.

Buttons:

Search Accounts: Allows you to search for an account by Company Name, Phone Number, Contact Name, Email Address, Zip code, County, ERP (Customer) Number or Equipment ID.  You can also choose IS, BEGINS WITH, CONTAINS, or END WITH from the dropdown to expand your search even more.  

To Search for an Account: Type in the search criteria you want to search for (based on your Search Criteria choice) and this will pull up a list of the companies in your assigned territory that match the criteria.  You can then double click on the company name that you want to choose, and you will be brought to that account record, or click the X in the right-hand corner to close the Search screen and go back to the previous account record you were on.  You can also choose how many records you wish to be displayed at a time by using “The First 25, The First 50 or Show all Records” options. The default result is 25 matches, but to view the first 50, or show all matches you can select either one of those and click on Search again to display more results.  Within the Search area there are also some additional functions using the buttons on the top of the page:

Show All Accounts: The Show All Accounts Button will ignore the Search Criteria and show all accounts that a user can view, limited by the Records Displayed amount (The First 25, 50, All Records). When clicked on, you will receive a message that "This may take an extensive amount of time to load. Do you want to continue?".  Depending on the amount of accounts viewable to the user, this might take a few seconds to load all the accounts, but typically it will not.

Export to Excel: The information being viewed in the Search Accounts area can be exported by using the Export to Excel option available for Regional Sales Managers, and above security levels.  This will export the current accounts being viewed in the Search area.

Bulk Activity Creation: Bulk activity creation allows an activity to be completed or opened on all accounts showing in the Search Accounts area (usually acquired after filtering to a specific group of accounts), by just entering it once and applying it to all accounts. See Bulk Activity Creation on page 48 of this section for further details.

Direct Marketing: The direct marketing button is available on a per user basis set by the administrator and is used to export contacts for outside Marketing Programs. If this button is showing, you can do a search in the Search Accounts area, then click the Direct Marketing button to export the contacts showing in the results of your search.  When you click on Direct Marketing it will ask you where you want the file saved to.  Browse to the location and click Save, and the file will be saved to that location.  The columns exported will be the Phone Number, Company Name, Industry (pulled from the SIC Code field), Rep Name (if it is a Named Account), and Branch Location (pulled from the Address field).  This can now be imported into the Marketing Program of your choice for mass marketing purposes.  

Add Account: Used to add in new accounts into the database.  To add a new account, click on the “+” button and enter in the account information in the respective fields.  All the field names with an * are required fields.  You must add information into these fields to successfully add an account.  If you try to add an account and forget a required field, you will get a message after you click Submit to enter in the required information and the field name will turn red.  There is also a feature where after the zip code is entered in, the City, State, County & area code for the phone number will automatically be filled in.  When all information is entered, click the Submit button and you will be asked if you would like to add an additional account; if you would like to add another account click Yes and the form will clear out allowing you to add another record.  If not, click No and the form will close, and you will be taken to the new account record you just added.  You may also get a message that another account exists with a same or similar company name and a list of accounts; this indicates that you have possibly entered a duplicate in the database.  If the Account you are adding shows in this list and you don't want to add a duplicate account, click NO in this message and your account will NOT be added.  If you do want to add the record, click YES and it will be added into the database.  

You can also search in this area using the Duplicate Account Search to search not only your assigned accounts, but all accounts in the database to see if an account already exists but is assigned to another user.  This searches by same or similar Company Name only; to search for duplicates based on other information see the "Dups Search" section below.

Edit Account: Clicking on this button allows you to edit all the company’s information including company name, address, city, state, zip code, contact information, vertical markets, etc.  This is not where you will edit or add additional Contact Names, that is done in the Contacts Tab (see Contacts section)

Contact Rank: Ranking of Main Contact as far as their role in the buying process.  This field must be edited in the Contacts Tab.

Delete Account: This button allows Managers/Administrators to delete accounts.  It is usually grayed out for use by Sales Representatives. For users that do not have access to this button, you will request that an account be deleted my using the Delete Company check box in the Vertical Marketing area.  Place a check in the “Delete Company” Account Classification check box when they find an account that needs to be removed. The Administrator can then run a filter to see all Accounts marked for deletion and verify them prior to removing.

**Best Practices: Admins can delete accounts, this would be a manual one account at a time deletion.  Sherpa is intentionally set up that way.  If you have a lot of accounts you are looking to delete, we recommend using the Account Merge Tool, merge all those accounts into one and then delete that one account.

Filter: Used to search your database by a combination of specific criteria; great for vertical marketing. To create a filter, click on the filter button, select Create a New Filter and enter your parameters; you can filter your accounts based on any combination of any of the fields in the Filter area. If there is a blue section under your criteria (such as Zip Code) the criteria must be showing in the blue area before it will filter (double click or hit Enter to move it down to the blue area). You can test the results of the filter prior to running it by hitting the Test Filter button on the right side of the screen and it will show you how many results you have.

You can also save filters for future use.  To save a Filter, select the filter parameters and then type in the name of the filter. Hit the Save Filter button. The system will pop up a message that your filter has been saved. To reuse a saved filter, click on the filter button and then “use a saved filter”.

Multiple sections selected will narrow the list to the companies that fit all the criteria. If multiple items are selected in the same section (i.e.: 2 cities are selected) the filter will produce results for both. The Account Classification is the only area that gives the option to use either “And” or “Or” when selecting. “And” will result in companies that match exactly with all the Classifications selected. “Or” will result in companies with any of them marked.

Note: If your numbers go up as you add account classifications it is because as you add more parameters, you’ll have more accounts that don’t have ALL the listed account classifications.  You might have 10 accounts that don’t have Classification A, and 40 accounts that don’t have Classification B.  Then when running the filter on accounts that don’t have BOTH Classification A and Classification B, your number may be 100.  The discrepancy of 50 additional accounts you get when running both account classifications with the “not” filter represents the accounts that do have either Classification A or Classification B, but don’t have both.

Zero Activity in the filter will result in a list of all accounts with no activity completed or created in the date range selected. This is a great tool to make sure all accounts are being contacted regularly.  This looks at the last contact date, late activity date, and last completed activity date.

In the area to filter by Lease End Dates, there is an option to run the filter using the TCO Only check box.  If checked, Compass will only display results using the equipment listed in the TCO tab.  If unchecked, Compass will display results from both the Lease Tracker date as well as the TCO.  If you do not have the Lease Tracker module, only TCO results will display regardless of the check box.

To delete a filter field (i.e.: Boise in the City filter area), highlight the criteria and hit the Delete button on your keyboard. This will move it back up into the default list and you can select something else.

You can also use the * for open-ended filters. Ex: for everything on Main St, type *Main* in the Address field. This will look for anything with “Main” in the address field.  The * can be used in any field that is free type.  Depending on where you place the *, is where the open-ended search will happen.  If placed at the beginning on a word or number, the system will search for anything that ends with that word or number.  If placed at the end, it will search for anything that begins with that word or number.  If an * is placed on either side of the word or number, it will search for anything that contains it.

When you have entered in all the information you want to filter by, click the Filter button and you will be taken to the Search area and your results will show.  You can now double click on any of the Company Names to go to that account record.  

Keep in mind that when you have a filter activated, you can only search and access accounts that meet that filter criteria.  To end the filter and regain access to all your accounts, you will have to end the filter first.

End Filter: Click on this button to remove any filter currently applied to your database that is limiting the accounts you can view.  This button will appear in Red Font when you have a filter activated.  

Print Account: Displays a print preview of the information viewed on the Account Card. You can choose to include Contacts, Activities, Emails and/or Equipment from the TCO tab before you run it, and choose from the last 10-100, or ALL.

Google Maps: Opens your internet browser to Google Maps and instantly maps you from the location of your office (set by your Administrator) to the location of the company you are currently viewing.  You must be connected to the Internet to use this feature and may be asked to select a starting office location if you have multiple regions set.

Proposal List: Click to view a list of your proposals for all companies (or all reps that you can view if you are a manager). You can double click on any of them to go directly to that proposal and company.  You can also search for specific proposals by Account Name, Prepared By, or Proposal Name in the drop down and entering in the name in the search field.  If Prepared By is chosen, you can choose a user from the search field, or use the * to view all user's proposals.

Document List: Click to search and view a list of all Documents for all companies (or all reps that you can view if you are a manager). You can double click on any of them to directly view that document.  You can search for a specific document by Account Name, Date Entered, Description, or File Name.

Sales Template: Used to fill out Sales Letter Templates automatically (such as the Vito letter supplied by Compass).  To use, click on the Sales Templates button, and select the correct template from the folder that opens.  Once you’ve found the desired template, double click on it.  The Word template will open and automatically fill out the account information.  The Word templates must have been formatted correctly by your Compass Administrator for this feature to work properly.

Account Tools Dropdown

Dups Search: Before adding a new account, this allows the user to check for Duplicates to make sure the record doesn’t already exist in another user’s database.  You can search by any part of the Company Name, Address, Phone Number, Equipment ID or Contact Name.  Enter any part of the Search Criteria in the search field and click the Search button.  Compass will bring up a list of accounts that are similar. This is a viewable option only.  You will not be able to pull up a company you select from the list and view its details, as the account may not be assigned to the user.  If an account is found, the user can now follow their Company policy to have the account reassigned to them instead of adding a duplicate into the database.

        TCO Totals: This will bring up the totals from the TCO tab allowing the user to view the customer's  current cost                    without having to leave the Accounts areas.   

    

Modules Dropdown:

Lease Tracker: This is where current lease information imported from the various banking vendors is stored to allow lease expiration follow-up. (This must be purchased as an add-on by your company to be available for use. Please see the Additional Module section for more information.)

Intelligent Device Mapper: This is a Floor Plan Mapping Tool used to show current situations vs. proposed solutions on Floor Plan outlines.  (This must be purchased as an add-on by your company to be available for use. Please see the Additional Module section for more information.)

Account Information (Top Half of the Screen) :

Account Location: Account Address, City, State, Zip Code County, fields show the company information as originally entered when the account was added to your database

Account Name Drop Down: This drop-down menu at the top of the screen allows you to access previously visited accounts within a certain time frame without having to go back to Search Accounts. The time frame is set by your Administrator, but typically is set to show a 5-7-day history.

     

Account Notes: A type-in field for notes pertinent to the Account, such as Annual sales, Number of Locations, etc. To enter notes, click on the Edit Notes button, type in your notes and then select Save. This field is also a good place for the user to put notes when requesting that an account be deleted.

ERP Number: Shows the ERP client number (as determined by OMD, E-Automate, NexGen, etc.), and is not changeable by Sales Representatives. It can be edited/added by Manager’s and higher in the Edit Account area. Next to the ERP number is a button that links to your ERP system for viewing purposes. The same button is in the TCO tab as well. See the Additional Module section for more details.

Contact Details (Top Half of the Screen):

Contact Name & Info: Main Contact Name, Dear, Title, Work Phone, Mobile Phone, Email Address, Main Office Phone Number, Website & SIC Code show the Main Contact’s information as either entered in when the account was first added into the database, or the person who has been selected as the accounts’ main contact from the Contacts tab.  To edit any of these fields, you must do it in the Contacts tab.  See Contacts Tab Instructions for updating. For Website and SIC Code  choose to edit the account to edit this information.

Web Site: Allows you to launch the account’s Web Site directly from Compass.  To launch, simply double click on the Web Site link in blue.  You must have the www. at the beginning of the web address for the link to work.

Send E-Mail: Allows you to email the Main Account Contact via Outlook directly from Compass, if you have an email address listed.  To use, click on the Send E-Mail Label.  An Outlook email message, addressed to the contact, will pop up.  Type your message as usual to the addressee, attach any files desired, etc., and then click the send button on the email.  The message will send via Outlook and be asked if you want to save a copy of the email in the email notes tab within Compass.

Additional Information (Top Half of the Screen):

Account Classification: These checkboxes allow you to identify what type of account this is (i.e. Current Customer, Priority Account, etc.) and can be used for filtering and running reports.  These checkboxes are customizable by your Administrator. Anything checked will show on top alphabetically, and anything unchecked will show under that, alphabetically. Once you check a box that wasn't previously checked it will go to the top of the list with the other checked classifications.

Relationship: if the account is marked as a Parent Account this will say Parent Account.  Or, if it is marked as a Child Account of a Parent it will say Child Account. If it is not marked as a Parent or does not have a Parent assigned to it, this will be blank.

Zone: If this account is part of a Zone (set up in the Administrator area), the name of that Zone will appear in the blue Zone field.

Reps Button: The Sales Reps button will show a list of all reps that have access to this account, either by territory rights or named account.  It will also separate it by who can see it as a Rep, a Manager or an Administrator.  

Reps: The Reps field shows the Primary Named Account Rep, and all Secondary Named Account reps can be viewed by clicking on the drop-down menu. If this is a territory account and not a named account, the Reps drop down will be blank.

Assign Rep and Remove Rep: This feature is used by Managers/Administrators to assign Accounts.  Reps can also add other reps to the account by clicking the + button and clicking the other users to have access to this account. Then hit Submit. Reps can be removed from an account by clicking the X button. They will be asked to verify that they want to remove that Rep.

When the Primary Rep assignment is changed from one rep to another here, a pop-up box will appear containing information to remind the person making the change that the rep removed from the account will only been removed from the account assignment itself but will additionally need to be removed from any open activities, opportunities, lease assignments and orders (if using the Order Processing module). Select the prompt for Yes or No if you would like to proceed with making just the account assignment change.

The most efficient way to make all changes at once for any rep assignments associated with the account is for an Administrator to use the Transfer Accounts or Bulk Naming Tool features available in the Administration menu. Sales reps do not have access to these tools.

Supplies Network:
If you are a Supplies Network’s mpsSELECT™ CPI Cost Per Image Service or A La Carte Program Customer, Your Administrator will link the customer's record to the Supplies Network Program here; Only Administrators have access to do this.  This will allow the Rep to choose Supplies Network Programs to import into the TCO and in the Printer Pricer area to use their provided pricing to price MPS.

To add the Name and ID to the customer record click the + button to see the available customers from the Supplies Network API.  Highlight the correct customer and click the Assign button.  By default, you will see customers that aren't already assigned to a record in Sherpa.  To see all accounts, click the check box "Include Mapped Accounts, however, if one of these accounts are chosen it will remove from the currently assigned account and reassign to the current account record you are on.

You can also search through available accounts using the Find feature at the top and type in a key word - it will filter through the list and show you any matches available.

 

 

 

Email Notes Tab:

This tab is used to keep a history of emails for each account.  This tab keeps a copy of the email if selected to be saved when sending out of Compass using the Send Email button in the Contacts tab, or imported in using the Email Notes tab.  It is not a live link to Outlook, so if an email is deleted in Outlook, it will not delete it in Compass and vice versa.

Sending an Email to a Contact

1. To have an email save automatically you can initiate an Outlook email directly from your Sherpa database. Click on the Send Email button on the top half of the accounts screen to email the primary contact.

         

2. To email a secondary contact, go to the Contacts tab.  Highlight the contact that you would like to email and click on the send Email button.

 

3. An email from Outlook will open and be addressed to the recipient.  
4. Type your message as usual to the addressee, attach any files desired, etc., and then click the send button on the email.  The message will send via Outlook.  It will ask you if you want to save a copy of the email in the email notes tab. Sherpa will save the email and automatically log a completed activity that an email was sent.

Saving Sent Emails

1. To save sent emails that are related to the account you are viewing that were not initiated from Sherpa, but from Outlook, click on Sent Items button in the Email Contacts tab.

 

2. A box will pop up showing your last 100 sent emails from your Sent Items folder in Outlook.

3. Check the box of the email(s) you wish to save to this account and select “Save” in the upper right-hand corner. You can save as many as you wish at one time for the one account that you’re currently in.
4. If you click on the email, you will be able to review its contents in the viewing pane below to verify it’s the correct email.
5. If you need to add more emails to your view to see one that you’re searching for, type the number in the Show box. The system defaults to showing the last 100 emails at a time. Click the Show button after typing in how many you’d like to view.
6. The email(s) will be saved in the Email Notes Tab Folder and an auto generated activity will be logged in the Contact Activity Tab for each email saved.
7. You can also view and select from other personal folders created within Outlook by using the + buttons under the Folders area to expand the section.

Saving Received Emails

1. To save received emails for the account you are viewing, click on the Inbox button.

 

2. The 100 most recent email(s) received in your Outlook Inbox will appear in a pop-up box.
3. Check the box of the email(s) you wish to save to this account and select Save.  
4. The email(s) will be saved in the Email Notes Tab Folder and an auto generated activity will be logged in the Contact Activity Tab for each email saved.

Deleting Emails Previously Saved

1. To delete an email, highlight the email in the email list box that you want to delete.
2. Click on the Delete Email Button  and then say Yes to confirm that you want to delete the selected email. The ability to delete emails will depend on your security access set up by your Administrator.

Viewing an Email

1. Highlight the email you wish to view by clicking on it once in the email list. Once selected, you will see the email details and notes in the space beneath it.

Documents Tab:

This Tab allows you to create pathways to documents related to the Account.  There are two options for saving documents to your customer's profile; Document Links, and Document Storage.  The Document Link option is not a copy of a document, but a link, therefore if you delete, move or rename the original document the link with no longer work.  In addition, the person accessing the document must have access to where the document is located.  With Document Storage, the file is saved in a database, so no link is required, and anyone with access to the account can access the document.

Document Links:

To Add a Document Link

1. Click on the Add button and browse to the document/file location that you would like to save.  

2. Double Click on the file.
3. Enter a title and click OK.

To Open a Linked Document

1. Highlight the Document that you would like to open.
2. Select Open or Double Click on the Document.

3. If the linked file is on your company’s network, you must be connected to the network to be able to access the file.

To Delete a Linked Document

1. Highlight the file that you want to Delete
2. Click on the Delete button  and then say Yes to confirm that you want to delete the selected Document.

Document Storage:

Document storage is an additional feature that can be used in the Documents Tab allowing you to store documents in a database, eliminating the need to create open and save paths in the Manage Users area, and the need for shared folders on your network. Also, anyone with access to an account, has access to any documents saved in the Documents area. To have this option turned on, you will need to contact Support@compasscontact.net.

Our Document Storage feature will make editing and saving your documents quicker and easier. If you populate a template from Sherpa or open a Word or Excel document from the Documents tab in Sherpa, you can now make edits needed on the document and choose to save your edited document directly back to Document Storage. No more saving the edited document locally and having to re-upload to Document Storage!

 

To Add a Document

1. Click on the Add button  and browse to the document/file location that you would like to save by using the Select File button.

2. Double Click on the file.
3. Enter a Description and click Save.

To Open a Document

1. Highlight the Document that you would like to open.
2. Select or Double Click on the Document.

To Delete a document

1. Highlight the file that you want to Delete
2. Click on the Delete button and then say Yes to confirm that you want to delete the selected Document.

To Find a Document

1. You can use the Find button to search by keyword .

To Edit a Document

1. Double click on the document within the documents tab
2. Make any necessary changes
3. Click on the Save icon  
4. This message will appear:

• Choose Yes to overwrite the existing document, meaning your original document will be replaced by the one you have made changes to.
• Choose No to create a new document link in Sherpa, meaning

you will now have two documents, 1. Being the original and 2. Being the one with the corrections you have made.

**For the above two options, you will need to refresh the grid to see that the documents are now saved into your Documents Tab

• Choose Cancel to only save a local copy of the document which will be saved to your (c:)drive

To Change File Description of a Document

1. Highlight the file that you want to edit
2. Click on the Pencil button.  A form will come up where you can edit the file description.

Grid Layout

1. You can change the column order by clicking the column header and dragging it to the position you want.
2. to save the layout, click the Save Grid Layout button , or to reset the layout after you have saved it, click the Reset Grid Layout button.

Equipment Summary Tab:

This tab is linked directly to the TCO section for whatever account you are viewing.  It will show a listing of all equipment in the TCO section as well as Equipment listed in your ERP for this customer number.  

You will now see a View Legend tab as well which will give you the below information as far as colored font.  Leases that are due to expire within the next 570 days, will appear in Red Font.  Leases expiring beyond 570 days will appear in green.  Non-leased Equipment will appear in Black.  Note that 570 is the default in the Control Panel – which can be changed by an Administrator.

1. List TCO: Displays the equipment in the TCO section for that customer. 
2. List ERP:  Shows the equipment in your billing or ERP database for this client.  For this button to work, the account you are on must have a correct customer number that corresponds with your billing/ERP database.  You must also be connected to the network for this button to work.  It is also important to note that clicking on this button does NOT transfer equipment information over from your billing/ERP into Compass.  That is done in the TCO tab with the View/Import from ERP function.
3. ERP Not in TCO:  Shows you the equipment that is in your billing/ERP database but has not yet been transferred into the Compass database.  For this button to work, the account you are on must have a correct customer number that corresponds with your billing/ERP database.  You must also be connected to the network for this button to work.

Addresses Tab:

This allows you to store additional addresses/location information for the account.

To Add an Address

1. Click on the Add Address button.

 

2. Select the appropriate address type (Mailing, Billing, Shipping) from the Type dropdown box, or type in the field.
3. Select the "Copy Address" check box if you want the main address and contact info to be copied in.
4. Enter the address information into the appropriate fields and select submit.  Company Name, Address, City, State, Zip and Contact Name are required fields.

To Edit an Address

1. Scroll to the appropriate Address you wish to edit by using the record ‘scroll’ buttons on the bottom left of the Address tab.
2. Click on the Edit Current button.

3. Make any changes as needed and select submit.

To Delete an Address

1.  Scroll to the appropriate address you wish to delete using the record ‘scroll’ buttons on the bottom left of the Address tab.
2. Click on the Delete button and then say Yes to confirm that you want to delete the selected Address.

Additional Information Tab:

This is where additional company information is held.  The more information you enter in about each company, the more valuable your database is to you.  To edit any of this information you must go to Edit Account in the top half of the screen and edit there.

 

Referred By: Enter in who referred this account/opportunity to you.

Group Name: Allows you to group related records together.

Parent Account: Allows you to assign ‘parent’ companies to branches, or link accounts together.  To utilize, go to the Parent Company’s Record.  Select Edit Account and check “Yes” that it is a Parent Company.

Now go to the Branch Record, select Edit Company and select the Parent Company’s name from the drop down. When you close the window, the name of the Parent company you selected will show in the Parent Account field.

If you wish to go to the parent company’s Record, click on the Parent Account link in blue.

Child Account(s): Click on the drop-down arrow to view a list of Branch locations.  To go to a branch record, select that record and click on Child Account(s) link in blue.

Assigned Region: Identifies what Region this account belongs to.  Regions are set up by your Administrator.

First Contact: Auto updated field which reflects the date the account was first contacted.

Last Activity: Auto updated field which reflects the date the account was last contacted, and an attempted activity was completed.  

• It includes system-generated activities as well. If you add an account, add or remove a rep from an account, change a sales stage on an opportunity, or do any other action to trigger a system-generated activity, it will update that Last Activity date accordingly.
• It triggers when you add an activity or make any edits to an activity.
• Activities added and edited in SherpaGo, including changes such as updating the stage on an opportunity that trigger a system-generated activity, update the Last Activity date as well.

Office Fax: Main Office Fax Number of the account when added.

Number of Employees: Size of Company/Account based on the number of employees.  

Buyers Mode: Ranking of Buyer based on current buying mode.