Help! Best Practices Set Up Issues (One to Many vs One to One)

tom2017abc · 7 June 2018 20:40

Hello All

Long time reader, first time poster. Going crazy and really need some help.

I have two slightly different CSV list files. File One: cold targets. File Two: current customers.

Both CSV list files share in common: Category, Company Name, Website, Full Name, First Name, Last Name, Job Title, Email, Address, City, State, Zip, Country, Phone, Industry, Annual Revenue

My end goal - a CRM database of COMPANIES (I’m guessing aka Account) at which one or many people work, where each person may be either a target, lead, contact.

I’ve been going nuts for months trying to set SuiteCRM up for this. The best I’ve been able to do is:

One Company Record (account?) for every One Person.

Meaning if I have 10 people working for ABCD Inc, I have 10 ABCD Inc records as well. One to One.

I’d like to have 10 people working for ABCD Inc, 1 ABCD Inc record. Many to One

How do I do this?

Thank you in advance

razgrizgt · 7 June 2018 21:06

Hi Tom,

What is wrong with the out-of-the-box SuiteCRM setup?

Accounts (Company) M-M Contacts (Current Customer),
Accounts 1-M Lead,
Accounts M-M Opportunities (Target)

So standard relationship can handle ABC Company(Company name, website, industry) can have Amy (Contact, Job Title, email), Bob (Lead, Job Title, email), Charlie (Target, Job Title email). So these records are stored in 4 different modules.

tom2017abc · 7 June 2018 22:47

Hi
Thanks for getting back to me so fast.

The out-of-box install is just fine. I believe I’m missing an essential step or concept. Here’s the process I’ve been following:

clean the CSV files and ensure consitency across the two file sets
from studio/targets I enter the field editor, correctly add fields that are missing (i.e. Website URL, Account Name)
from target/import, I import the appropriate CSV file, link CSV columns to CRM fields, correct/fix any errors
from studio/contacts I enter the field editor, correctly add fields that are missing (i.e. Account Name, Description, etc.)
from contacts/import I import the appropriate CSV file, link CSV columns to CRM fields, correct/fix any errors

Accounts has no data in after the above two imports. Should it not recognize that the CRM’s Account Name has data and should be linked to Accounts?

Should I clean the CSV files to remove any data that is not directly related to a Company, and then repeat the process above as:

from studio/accounts, enter the field editor, correctly add fields that are missing
from accounts/import, import the appropriate CSV file, link CSV columns to CRM fields, correct/fix any errors

Will this result in the CRM recognizing that some of my targets, leads and contacts have a relationship to the Accounts module?

From my understanding: Accounts are businesses or organizations. Businesses have people. People consists of targets, leads, and or contacts.

Thanks again, sorry for any confusion. I can do a video capture if it helps explain the problem better.

I was going to attach this as a file, but the forum doesn’t seem to work so well in Chrome and the “add file” button won’t allow me to actually add a file. Here’s the sample data as comma separated.

Category,Company Name,Website,Contact Name,First Name,Last Name,Job Title,Email ID,Address,City,State,Zip Code,Country,Phone No.,Fax No.,Industry,Annual Revenue,Employee Size
O,1st Productions LLC,www.website.com,Bob Smith,Bob,Smith,Design Director,bob@internet.com,1234 Main Street,Anyville,New York,12180,USA,555 555 1212,555 555 1313,Web Design,$5 mil. - $10 mil.,20 - 50
M,1st Productions LLC,www.website.com,Amy Monroe,Amy,Monroe,Programming Group Manager,Amy@internet.com,1234 Main Street,Anyville,New York,12180,USA,555 555 1212,555 555 1313,Web Design,$5 mil. - $10 mil.,21 - 50
M,1st Productions LLC,www.website.com,Charlie McDonald,Charlie,McDonald,"Operations Manager, Recruiter",charlie@internet.com,1234 Main Street,Anyville,New York,12180,USA,555 555 1212,555 555 1313,Web Design,$5 mil. - $10 mil.,20 - 50
VP,ABCD Inc.,www.abcd.org,Mike Koons,Mike,Koons,VP Operations,mike@abcd.com,999 Howe Street,Smallburg,California,90210,USA,123 456 7890,223 456 7890,Food and Beverage,$25 mil. - $50 mil.,100 - 250
M,ABCD Inc.,www.abcd.org,Dave Averns,Dave,Averns,General Manager,dave@abcd.com,999 Howe Street,Smallburg,California,90210,USA,123 456 7890,223 456 7890,Food and Beverage,$25 mil. - $50 mil.,101 - 250
O,ABCD Inc.,www.abcd.org,Mary Hamner,Mary,Hamner,Recruiting,mary@abcd.com,999 Howe Street,Smallburg,California,90210,USA,123 456 7890,223 456 7890,Food and Beverage,$25 mil. - $50 mil.,102 - 250

tom2017abc · 8 June 2018 00:28

Hmmm…I just noticed that if I manually create a “contact” I have the ability to link directly to an Account from a list of Accounts.

Is there any way to have a lengthy list of contacts import and automatically link to the appropriate Accounts? Better yet, is it possible to have a Target import and automatically link to an Account so that as I bump it up the chain it maintains its relationship to the Account?

I have close to 6,400 records and man-oh-man it’ll really be un-fun to have to manually link each record one at a time to its Account.

Cheers and Thanks
Tom

razgrizgt · 8 June 2018 01:53

I think I finally understand what you’re trying to do. I will give it some thoughts and get back to you. Probably it will involve some coding.

Probably looks something like this, import all the accounts using the csv file. Then import your contacts and leads. Link them together with code.

amariussi · 8 June 2018 05:42

After you have imported Accounts you can import Contacts. If you want Contacts to be linked to Accounts you have to add a column called “Account Name” and the values must correspond PRECISELY with Accounts you have in the CRM.

For example if you have three contacts who work in “Company ABZ”, in that column you have to enter Company ABZ. Furthermore: there should be already in the CRM an Account called Company ABZ. If there is a slight difference in the name, including different spacing, punctuation or casing the link will fail.

The following is the list of fields for Contacts in version 10.4 without any customisation:

"First Name","Last Name","ID","Salutation","Title","Department","Account Name","Email Address","Non Primary E-mails","Mobile","Office Phone","Home","Other Phone","Fax","Primary Address Street","Primary Address City","Primary Address State","Primary Address Postal Code","Primary Address Country","Alternate Address Street","Alternate Address City","Alternate Address State","Alternate Address Postal Code","Alternate Address Country","Description","Birthdate","Lead Source","Campaign ID","Do Not Call","Reports to ID","Assistant","Assistant Phone","Assigned to","Assigned User","Date Created","Date Modified","Modified By","Created By","Deleted","Photo","Joomla Account ID","Account Disabled","Portal User Type","Address","Geocode Status","Latitude","Longitude"

To get this list for your system you just have to enter a module and click on import. There will be a link offering to download a csv template file containing all fields available for import.

amariussi · 8 June 2018 06:19

This is the list of standard fields available for Targets:

"First Name","Last Name","ID","Salutation","Title","Department","Account Name","Email Address","Non Primary E-mails","Mobile","Office Phone","Home","Other Phone","Fax","Primary Address Street","Primary Address City","Primary Address State","Primary Address Postal Code","Primary Address Country","Alternate Address Street","Alternate Address City","Alternate Address State","Alternate Address Postal Code","Alternate Address Country","Description","Birthdate","Assistant","Assistant Phone","Campaign ID","Tracker Key","Do Not Call","Lead Id","Assigned to","Assigned To","Date Created","Date Modified","Modified By","Created By","Deleted","Photo","Address","Geocode Status","Latitude","Longitude"

I have never tried importing Targets associated to Accounts but, since there is a field named “Account Name” this should be feasible.

Finally this is the list of standard fields available for Leads:

"First Name","Last Name","ID","Salutation","Title","Department","Account Name","Account Description","Website","Email Address","Non Primary E-mails","Mobile","Office Phone","Home Phone","Other Phone","Fax","Primary Address Street","Primary Address City","Primary Address State","Primary Address Postalcode","Primary Address Country","Alt Address Street","Alt Address City","Alt Address State","Alt Address Postalcode","Alt Address Country","Status","Status Description","Lead Source","Lead Source Description","Description","Converted","Opportunity Name","Opportunity Amount","Referred By","Campaign ID","Do Not Call","Portal Name","Portal Application","Reports To ID","Assistant","Assistant Phone","Birthdate","Contact ID","Account ID","Opportunity ID","Assigned to","Assigned User","Date Created","Date Modified","Created By","Modified By","Deleted","Photo","Address","Geocode Status","Latitude","Longitude"

Also here there is a field called Account Name.

I recommend that you test importing one or two records to see that everything works as you wish.

Last thing: I also recommend that you read the manual because these basic things should be covered.

tom2017abc · 8 June 2018 16:00

Wow! This is great information. Thank you very much for taking the time out to detail and share it. I’ll definitely give it a try and will post my results in the next day or two.