Over the past 9 years I have built up quite a large number of contacts and accounts. These have been managed through various platforms such as Excel (multiple spreadsheets) and email. I have a local redundant server with accounts on for each client where I can track the work requests that have come in as well, and I keep working files and backups there. But it has all got rather too large to manage now, especially with regards to customer management and invoicing using spreadsheets. It was creaking at the seams so something needed to be done.
One of the issues has been tracking payments for services. An analysis we carried out in November 2020 showed around £2000+ of unresolved invoices over a 20 month period. Many of these had been overlooked by my clients, some had been paid, but not using the recommended method of a BACs transfer, so were hard to track.
Solving the problem
I looked around for potential solutions and came across a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) which is based on an Open Source Sugar CRM which is widely respected across industries. The package is called SuiteCRM.
It is possible to load the CRM into a hosting account, and the reason I mention it, is it might have wider appeal than just my application. It is basically a complex website fronting a database. The database is built around accounts, the accounts can have contacts, projects, invoices, notes, attached emails etc. It is really very thorough, and so far quite robust. I have even created my own module to cover hosting details for each client.
If you are managing projects, people, organisations on a spreadsheet and wish to move to the next level it might be worth a look.
How much does it cost?
Like WordPress the software is free. It is supported by a community, and is recommended by the UK Government, and also used by the NHS. If you have come across SalesForce CRM it is similar to this as a system.
If you have someone that is a bit techy in your organisation, and can give you local support, then it might well be a useful addition to the systems you use.
Is it easy to learn?
These days I generally judge technology on how easy it is to pick up, figure out and work around. I don’t want to plough through a 300 page manual, and if you find you have to do that, it can put you off. In my case, I have lightly read up on various things when I have hit a problem. After 3 weeks, I have now loaded in around 130 organisations, over 200 contacts from those organisations, details about websites, and services provided, invoices sent out etc and linked it all together. The really big step is creating a whole custom module for my application. I figured out how to do that and link it into the system.
However I deal with this stuff every day. But I know that in many organisations you have IT people either on your trustees, or staff in your organisation. If anyone is interested in learning more, then let me know.
My plan
Over the rest of this financial year, I am going to start adding in projects, work requests, quotes, email communications into this system and get it to generate invoices by the end of March. If I get this far, I will have a complete workflow from start to finish, including support requests for post release.
Researching SuiteCRM
You can find out more about this package which can be loaded in your hosting area by following these links: Main website is here; https://suitecrm.com/ and documentation you can find here: https://docs.suitecrm.com/
In my case, I grabbed a copy of the software and installed it locally on a Linux Server in my office. But the same package could be added to your hosting account, or better still a new and therefore isolated hosting account.
