Version 5.1 Release Notes

Email Notifications

SmartCompany can be configured to send you email notifications whenever important events occur. In this release you can choose to be notified whenever the following occurs:

• A new Account, Contact, Project, Opportunity, or Order is created
• You are invited to an Event (calendar item)
• You are assigned a Task

Notifications are turned off by default. To turn them on, go to the Setup tab, then click My Preferences and check off events of interest in the Email Notifications section.

Each notification will be sent from notifications@smartcompany.net. If you use a spam blocker, be sure to add this sender to your safe senders list or you may not receive your notifications.

To make this feature even more useful, each notification contains a link to the SmartCompany item that triggered it. For example, if you are assigned a new task, the notification will contain a link that opens the task in SmartCompany, with no need for you to even log in. Because of this, do not forward your notifications to other people because it will give them open access to your SmartCompany database.

Opportunity Hotlists

When editing an opportunity you can click a checkbox to add it to your hotlist. The hotlist is a collection of special opportunities you'd like to track for whatever reason. Each person has their own hotlist visible only to them, and any given opportunity can appear on any number of hotlists. Opportunities on your hotlist will have a small flame () next to them when viewed in lists of search results. You can also access your hotlist from the Dashboard - see the next item.

New Dashboard Reportlets

We've added three new dashboard reportlets: 10 Most Negelected Opportunities, My 10 Most Neglected Opportunities and My Opportunity Hotlist. The first two show the 10 active opportunties with the oldest Last Touched dates, while the last one shows the active opportunities you have put on your hotlist.

Version 5.0 Release Notes

Dashboard

The Dashboard is a new tab that appears next to the Home tab. It contains 6 fixed-size panes that display within themselves miniature reports, called "reportlets." Each dashboard pane has a menu from which you select the reportlet to fill that pane. SmartCompany remembers your choices until you change them, so once you define your custom dashboard layout it will always be available to you just by clicking the Dashboard tab.

Here is what the Dashboard looks like:

Reportlet examples include:

• 10 newest items of any type (account, contact, opportunity, etc.)
• 10 most recently changed items of any type
• Top 10 Opportunities
• Top 10 Orders

We'll be adding new reportlets on a continuous basis and welcome your feedback as to what reportlets you'd like to see (send an email to our support address).

For security purposes, we have initially made the Dashboard available only to the SmartCompany administrators in your company. The tab will not appear for any other users. It is up to the administrators to grant Dashboard access to non-administrators. This is done by adding Dashboard access to any Roles you have defined for your organization (go to Setup and then Roles to change this).

The Dashboard honors your roles and access privileges. For example, if you've defined a role that's not allowed to see Opportunities, the Dashboard will hide all Opportunity-related reportlets from users with that role.

Redesigned Input Screens

Based on customer feedback we have improved almost all our data input screens as follows:

• Moved the Save/Cancel/etc. buttons to the left side so they're always visible
• Moved all required fields to the top and before any other fields
• Made the screens less cluttered and more readable

We will continue making these improvements to the rest of the application as well.

Data Backup Service

We now provide a monthly data backup service in which we email your data to you every month in Microsoft Office Access format. This format preserves your data and relationships with 100% fidelity - far better than spreadsheets or text files. This means you can use the data for in-house reporting as well as a backup. See our Products and Pricing pages for more information.

Improved Browser Compatibility

SmartCompany now supports all leading browsers on all major computing platforms:

• Internet Explorer 6.x and 7.x on Windows
• Firefox 2.x on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
• Safari 3.x on Windows and Mac OS X

YTD Sales Reports Shortcut

We have expanded the shortcut buttons at the top of the Sales reports to include Current Calendar YTD and Current Fiscal YTD. This means you can run a Current Fiscal YTD report without having to define a custom report.

Hide Inactive Users in Events and Tasks

We have added a new User preference allowing you to disable the display of inactive users in the lists of Event Attendees and Task Assignees. We have gone ahead and disabled inactive users for all our customers - you can turn it back on again by going to Setup and then My Preferences.

Performance Enhancements

We have significantly upgraded our hardware and software so the entire application is slightly faster. Some areas are MUCH faster - for example, List editing in the Setup area is nearly 1,000 times faster.

Version 4.5 Release Notes

Mass Change and Mass Delete

Easily change or delete multiple records in one operation. New checkboxes down the left side of every list give you the ability to select multiple records and then either delete them or apply changes to them all at once. For example, you can change the owner of a group of accounts and opportunities from one salesperson to another, or assign a group of accounts or contacts to the same set of categories. Mass delete and mass change are initially available to administrators only, but you can grant one or both privileges to anyone in your organization in the Setup area.

Improved Browser Compatibility

Improvements to our cross-browser scripting support result in 100% compatibility with Internet Explorer AND Firefox 1.5, plus even better reliability and performance in both browsers.

More Flexible Commission Splits

Commission splits can now be assigned to inactive users as well as active users. This allows you to assign splits to channel partners who are not part of your organization or your SmartCompany subscription.

Version 4.3 Release Notes

Minor changes and bug fixes to tasks, events, e-mails, and reports.

Version 4.2 Release Notes

• Home Page Improvements
  • Day, 5-day Week, 7-day Week, and Month calendar range selections
  • Calendar now controls task selection
  • Tasks grouped by due date: Past Due, Today, Tomorrow, This Week, This Month, Next Month, Due in 2 Months, etc.
  • Ability to move tasks by mass changing due dates.
  • Additional information on task list – day of week, status with percent complete.
  • Event list displays location
  • Full page tasks toggles display of completed/all tasks
• Email Recipient Lookup Improvements
  • Master checkboxes for selecting/de-selecting all To, CC, or BCC
  • Search improvements
  • User preferences fro setting default email font type and size
• My Organization view page shows number of turbo seats, user list shows if Turbo is activated.
• Document merge controls on account, contact, project, opportunity, order view pages for interfacing with Toolbar to perform Word Merge

Version 4.1 Release Notes

What's New

Improved Microsoft® Outlook® Integration

Instantly copy contacts and calendar appointments from SmartCompany to Outlook! SmartCompany uses the vCard and vCalendar formats to power data exchange between your SmartCompany database and Outlook. Just click a button when viewing a contact or appointment and SmartCompany emails the vCard or vCalendar object to you, where you can open and save it to Outlook.

Marketing Campaigns

SmartCompany combines Projects with Leads to support Marketing Campaigns! You can now import leads into new or existing Projects designated as Marketing campaigns. Once you've created a campaign, you can click a button to send an email blast to every lead in the campaign, and you can easily track the progression of leads within a campaign through your sales and fulfilment cycles.

Here is a complete listing of SmartCompany 4.1's major new features:

Contacts   (return to top)

• Can email a contact's data in vCard format using the new Send vCard checkbox
• View page shows related Opportunities
• New Show Related button shows activities related to all related Opportunities.

Projects   (return to top)

• New project type allows you to categorize your projects such as Marketing Campaign.
• New E-Mail All button allows you to email blast all opportunities contained in a project.
• Project total values display as a sortable column in the search results list.

Email   (return to top)

• Now can record an Inbound E-Mail as an email type.
• New Do not log activity checkbox suppresses saving an email to the Activity Log.
• Improved email attachment feedback.

Reports   (return to top)

• New Pipeline by Participant Type Report and Pipeline by Participant Report
• Activity reports show more information in a cleaner layout.

What's New

Integrated E-Mail

You can now compose and send e-mails from within SmartCompany! Using our powerful e-mail editor, you can compose messages in HTML, rich text, or plain text formats — complete with custom signatures, embedded graphics, and file attachments. E-mails can be sent individually or in blasts, and SmartCompany automatically attaches copies of your e-mails to the appropriate account, contact, project, opportunity, or order. What's more, you can create and save e-mail templates into our new E-Mail Library, and you can design your templates to automatically merge SmartCompany data into your messages for that personalized touch!

Lead Management

SmartCompany's Opportunity module has been expanded to support Lead Management! You can import lists of leads from text files directly into the Opportunity module and then move them through your sales cycle as they develop. Because of this, each opportunity now contains data fields for contact and account information that you can import from a lead list or enter manually. And, as before, you can link the opportunity to an account and/or contact if you are selling to an existing customer. When you convert the opportunity to an order, SmartCompany gives you the option to automatically create a new account and contact from the information you've entered if these records don't exist already.

Here is a complete listing of SmartCompany 4.0's major new features:

Home Page   (return to top)

• User's organization name is displayed with their login information
• Added a Today link to the calendar so you can easily return to the current day
• Added a Full Page button above the task list. Clicking this button fills the screen with your list of tasks, including tasks that have been completed.
• Added an Assigned column to the task list that displays the initials of everyone a task has been assigned to.

E-Mail   (return to top)

• You can compose and send emails from within SmartCompany. Emails can be attached to accounts, contacts, projects, opportunities, or orders.
• The email editor supports HTML, rich text, and plain text so you can format your emails exactly the way you want.
• You can merge data from SmartCompany into your emails, and you can create and save email templates that are available for everyone to use. These are stored in the Email Library, which is analogous to the Document Library.
• Emails can be sent individually or in groups (i.e., email blasts). If you use an email template with merged data fields, SmartCompany automatically populates each email with the appropriate data, sends the message, and stores a copy with the associated entity in your database.
• You can create and save an unlimited number of email signatures for your emails, then choose the signature you want for each message. You can also assign a default signature for every message.

Events   (return to top)

• When creating a new event, you can simultaneously create a follow-up task.

Tasks   (return to top)

• When assigning a task to others, you can designate whether everyone shares the same copy of the task or whether separate copies are created for each assignee.

Accounts   (return to top)

• Added the Fax Number and Last Touched columns to the account list.
• Added the Last Touched date column to the list of contacts within an account.
• The Notes, Tasks, and Events lists within an account have been replaced with two new lists: Current Activity and Activity Log. Current Activity shows upcoming calendar events, incomplete tasks, and unsent emails for the account. Activity Log shows notes, past calendar events, completed tasks, and sent emails that are related to the account.
• Added a Full Page button to the Activity Log. Clicking this button fills the page with the contents of the Activity Log for easier reading and review.
• Added Show Related buttons to the Participant In, Current Activity, Activity Log, and Documents lists within an account. Clicking these buttons shows items related to every record the account is linked with, including contacts, opportunities, orders, etc. Clicking the button again shows items related to the account only.

Contacts   (return to top)

• Added the Last Touched date column to the contact list.
• The Notes, Tasks, and Events lists within a contact have been replaced with two new lists: Current Activity and Activity Log. Current Activity shows upcoming calendar events, incomplete tasks, and unsent emails for the contact. Activity Log shows notes, past calendar events, completed tasks, and sent emails that are related to the contact.
• Added a Full Page button to the Activity Log. Clicking this button fills the page with the contents of the Activity Log for easier reading and review.
• Added Show Related buttons to the Participant In, Current Activity, Activity Log, and Documents lists within a contact. Clicking these buttons shows items related to every record the contact is linked with, including accounts, opportunities, orders, etc. Clicking the button again shows items related to the contact only.

Projects   (return to top)

• The Notes, Tasks, and Events lists within a project have been replaced with two new lists: Current Activity and Activity Log. Current Activity shows upcoming calendar events, incomplete tasks, and unsent emails for the project. Activity Log shows notes, past calendar events, completed tasks, and sent emails that are related to the project.
• Added a Full Page button to the Activity Log. Clicking this button fills the page with the contents of the Activity Log for easier reading and review.
• Added Show Related buttons to the Current Activity, Activity Log, and Documents lists within a project. Clicking these buttons shows items related to every record the project is linked with, including accounts, opportunities, orders, etc. Clicking the button again shows items related to the project only.

Opportunities/Leads   (return to top)

• The Opportunity module can now be used to track leads. You can import lists of leads from text files directly into the Opportunity module and then move them through your sales cycle as they develop. Because of this, each opportunity now contains data fields for contact and account information. You can import or enter this information directly into the opportunity, or you can link the opportunity to an account and/or contact if you are selling to an existing customer. When you convert the opportunity to an order, SmartCompany gives you the option to automatically create a new account and contact from the information you've entered if these records don't exist already.
• Replaced Open Date with Last Touched date in the Opportunity list.
• Expanded the Age column to include a graphical representation of an opportunity's age. A green circle ( ) represents opportunities less than 30 days old; a yellow square ( ) represents 30 to 59 days; and a red triangle ( ) represents 60 days or more. These intervals can be adjusted by your SmartCompany administrator.
• When converting an opportunity to an order, SmartCompany now gives you the following options:
  • Choose a status for the closed opportunity
  • Choose a status for the new order
  • Specify the opportunity close date and order open date
  • Create account and contact records using the information you entered directly for these items
  • Copy participants and locations from the opportunity to the order
  • Create a default commission split for the order
  • Move notes, tasks, events, and emails from the opportunity to the order
  • Copy line items from the opportunity to the order
• The Notes, Tasks, and Events lists within an opportunity have been replaced with two new lists: Current Activity and Activity Log. Current Activity shows upcoming calendar events, incomplete tasks, and unsent emails for the opportunity. Activity Log shows notes, past calendar events, completed tasks, and sent emails that are related to the opportunity.
• Added a Full Page button to the Activity Log. Clicking this button fills the page with the contents of the Activity Log for easier reading and review.

Orders   (return to top)

• The Notes, Tasks, and Events lists within an order have been replaced with two new lists: Current Activity and Activity Log. Current Activity shows upcoming calendar events, incomplete tasks, and unsent emails for the order. Activity Log shows notes, past calendar events, completed tasks, and sent emails that are related to the order.
• Added a Full Page button to the Activity Log. Clicking this button fills the page with the contents of the Activity Log for easier reading and review.

Reports   (return to top)

• Added three new Opportunity reports:
  • Pipeline Detail by Lead Source
  • Pipeline Detail by Business Category
  • Pipeline Detail by Business Type
• Added three new Order reports:
  • Commission by Lead Source
  • Commission by Business Category
  • Commission by Business Type

Setup   (return to top)

• Added Organization and User preferences and rules to support new functionality in other modules.
• Added the ability to enable/disable SmartCompany Turbo for individual users.

Miscellaneous   (return to top)

• Added a Resources section to left navigation area that provides access to the Document Library from anywhere in the application. In the Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities modules, this section also contains a link to import data into those modules.
• The entire SmartCompany application is now secured by SSL, which means your data is securely encrypted before traveling over the Internet.