One manufacturer pays a baseline 5.00%, but their specialty line pays 4.00%. Meanwhile, your key account in Oregon negotiated a custom rate of 4.50%, and two reps are splitting the account 60/40.

Tracking all those exceptions in spreadsheets usually leads to late-night calculations, copy-paste errors, and endless rep questions when monthly statements go out.

That’s exactly why we built Commission Rules in MRSware.

In this post, we’ll walk through how Commission Rules work, how exceptions are handled seamlessly during data imports, and some of the smart little features under the hood that make managing rates effortless.

What Are Commission Rules?

At its core, Commission Rules act as your automated rate engine. When you import order reports, shipping sheets, or manufacturer commission statements, MRSware evaluates each line item against your rules and applies the exact right percentage automatically.

You can set commission rules based on any combination of criteria:

• Manufacturer: Establish your baseline rate per manufacturer.

• Customer: Set customer-specific override rates for special accounts.

• Product Group / Item Type: Adjust rates for specific product categories (e.g., equipment vs. accessories).

• Catalog Item Number: Target specific high-margin or promotional SKUs.

• Sales Rep & Split Rate: Assign reps to accounts or territories and split commission percentages between co-reps.

How Rules & Exceptions Work (A Real-World Example)

The real power of Commission Rules comes from stacking criteria so that specific exceptions override default rates.

Let’s look at how Heavenmade Safety Co. might configure their rules in MRSware:

1. The Default Rate:

   • Rule: Manufacturer = Heavenmade Safety Co.

   • Commission Rate: 5.00%

   • Every standard order for Heavenmade gets 5% by default.

2. The Category Exception:

   • Rule: Manufacturer = Heavenmade Safety Co. + Product Group = Safety Products

   • Commission Rate: 4.00%

   • Safety Products carry a lower standard rate of 4%.

3. The Customer Exception:

   • Rule: Manufacturer = Heavenmade Safety Co. + Product Group = Safety Products + Customer = Alpine Paper - Walterville

   • Commission Rate: 4.50%

   • When Alpine Paper buys Safety Products, an negotiated 4.5% rate applies.

When sales data rolls in via order entry or import, MRSware automatically picks up the most specific matching rule. No manual rate lookups, no math required.

Smart Features Under the Hood in MRSware

Behind the grid, we’ve added several smart conveniences to make rule management smooth and foolproof:

1. Zero-Friction Rate Typing (No 500% Mistakes!)

Ever typed 5 intending to enter 5%, only to find out the system saved it as 500% (5.00)? In MRSware, our smart rate rule automatically converts numbers greater than 1.0 into percentages. Type 5 or 4.5, and the system instantly turns it into 5.00% or 4.50%.

2. Intelligent Upserting (No Duplicate Errors)

If you add a rule for a Manufacturer and Customer that already exists, MRSware doesn’t throw a generic database error or create a duplicate row. Our business rules perform a smart upsert—updating the existing rate while keeping your clean data structure intact.

3. Integrated Sales & AI Smart Import

Whether you are using standard CSV imports or leveraging our AI Smart Import to paste raw text and invoice snippets directly into eyondcrm, Commission Rules are automatically triggered during processing. The system resolves the correct customer, line item, and manufacturer, then stamps the exact commission rate immediately.

4. Reassignment on Merges

Consolidating duplicate contacts or customers? When you merge manufacturers, customers, or sales reps, MRSware automatically updates and reassigns all associated Commission Rule records. Your historical and default rates stay perfectly aligned without broken links.

Getting Started with Commission Rules

Ready to clean up your commission workflow?

1. Navigate to Commission Rules under your administration menu in eyondcrm.

2. Click New to start with your manufacturer-wide default rates.

3. Layer in customer or product overrides as needed.

4. Run your next Sales Import and watch the rates compute automatically!

Have questions about setting up complex multi-rep splits or tiered rates for your agency? Leave a comment below or reach out to our team—we’re always happy to help you get your rules tuned to perfection!

Enjoying these feature deep-dives? Don’t forget to subscribe to the EYOND Substack for the latest tips, feature updates, and documentation.

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We’ve all been there: you receive an important email from a client, and immediately realize it needs to become a task on your to-do list. Or perhaps a calendar appointment sparks the need for a follow-up journal entry.

In most software, this means tedious data entry—copying the subject line, pasting the email body, manually entering the contact information, and attaching files all over again.

But what if you could do it in one seamless motion?

In MRSware, you can. We’ve built a powerful drag-and-drop conversion feature right into the desktop application, designed specifically to eliminate repetitive data entry and keep your workflow moving.

How it Works

Instead of creating a new record from scratch, you can simply drag existing items and drop them directly onto the “New” icons in your taskbar (or shortcut bar).

Here is how you can use it:

1. Grab an Email: Click and hold on an email in your inbox.

2. Drag to the Taskbar: Drag your cursor over to the “New” icons in your taskbar (e.g., the New Task or New Contact icon).

3. Drop to Convert: Release your mouse.

What happens next? MRSware’s intelligent object mapping engine instantly kicks in. It takes the relevant data from your email—like the sender’s details, the subject, the message body, and even attachments—and automatically populates a brand new Task window.

All you have to do is review the details, set your due date, and click Save.

It’s Not Just for Emails!

While turning emails into tasks or contacts is one of the most popular uses for this feature, the functionality doesn’t stop there.

MRSware’s Object Mapping engine is incredibly flexible. You can grab almost any item from a list view and drag it onto the “New” icons to convert it. This includes:

• E-Mails

• Calendar Appointments

• Contacts

• Journals

• Tasks

Want to schedule a meeting based on a Task? Drag the Task onto the “New Appointment” icon. Need to log a Journal entry after finishing a meeting? Drag the Appointment onto the “New Journal” icon.

Behind the scenes, MRSware handles the heavy lifting of figuring out which fields map to where, saving you valuable time and ensuring your CRM data stays accurate and connected.

Try it out today

We highly encourage you to build this quick drag-and-drop motion into your daily routine. It’s a small change that saves a few seconds each time, but over the course of a busy week, those seconds add up to hours of saved productivity.

Have you discovered a favorite drag-and-drop workflow in MRSware? Let us know in the comments below!

• Accepts raw pivot table output (e.g., from Google Sheets) summarizing sales, commissions, and commission rates by distributor and state

• AI Smart Import is launched from the Sales Import screen; users paste data and can include plain-language instructions (e.g., vendor name, invoice date, unique numbering)

• The AI processes the data in ~10 seconds, auto-looks up existing customers, and fills the import screen for review

• Before finalizing, users can assign missing Sales Reps, link to a Commission Payment, or make any adjustments

• Records are committed with a single click (Update Records), with a Batch Summary screen available for a final audit

A real-world example: Essendant (a large wholesale distributor) sends out a 28652 row spreadsheet of trace sales data for our territory. It has Sold To data (the Distributor) and Ship To information (the End User), City, State, Zip, and even Product categories and individual Item descriptions. Want to capture the whole thing? Feed it to the Sales Importer and watch it grab all those details and fill in all the related pages in the system.

And that feature is super-cool, and super-detailed. But that’s not what we are into today. Today, I just want to capture the totals that are coming into the territory for each of the Customer entries (no End Users for this one).

Step 1: Open the spreadsheet in your favorite tool. In Google Sheets, I use the Insert Pivot Table function and tell it to total Sales, Commissions, and average the Commission Rate for each Distributor, and to include the Ship To State, so that I can credit the correct Sales Rep for the sale. The result looks like this:

Now what? Quick Add to type in each entry. Sales Import is another option to get them all at once. Or, what I want to show today — AI Smart Import.

Step 2: Go to the Sales Import screen, and click on AI SMART IMPORT.

Paste in the data, click OK, and the AI finds the entries and adds everything to the import screen for review… I actually just told the AI what I was giving it and what I wanted too, “All of these invoices are for 3M. Use invoice date 2/15/2026, and make sure each entry has a unique invoice number.”. I could have also used the Fill Data function after to do the same thing, but if the AI can just do it for me, why not?

I hit Ok. The AI chews on it for about 10 seconds (longer if you are giving a massive amount of data), and fills in the import screen for me. No field matching required, existing customers are looked up and filled in. Now all I need to do is take a look at the entries and totals to make sure I am happy with what I see, and press Update Records to make those Invoices.

Before I press the Go button (Update Records), I could take the opportunity to assign some missing Sales Reps, add this report to a Commission Payment, or tweak anything in particular I didn’t like. However, really the job is done when I see those matching entries fill in. After import, I’ll just do a double-check in the Batch Summary screen to triple-check my work.

I see you “Missing Sales Reps”. I’ll do that next…

Choosing the wrong pattern can lead to database constraint violations, poor search performance, and cluttered user interfaces. This guide outlines the differences, design constraints, and best practices for when to use each.

At a Glance: Key Differences

1. When to Use Custom Fields (Additional)

Custom Fields (Additional) represent a key-value store tied directly to a contact. Think of them as extensions of the contact’s primary profile.

Use Custom Fields when:

• The value is unique to that specific contact: Examples include a custom callback date (Callback On), a specific date a meeting occurred (Meetdate On), or a legacy account identifier.

• The value has high variance: If the field contains dates, numbers, or unique text notes that will be different for almost every contact, it belongs in Custom Fields. Creating a Category for every unique date would result in thousands of single-use categories, diluting the database’s grouping utility.

• Database Constraint warning: The database enforces a unique constraint on the combination of ContactId and the custom field Description. A contact cannot have two rows with the description 'Product Type'. Trying to insert both 'Welders' and 'Generators' as custom fields for the same contact will result in a database error. This kind of multiple selection is better left to Categories…

2. When to Use Categories (Tags)

Categories act as tags that group multiple contacts together. They are defined globally (e.g., Dept: Purchasing, or Market: Aerospace) and linked to contacts via a many-to-many relationship.

Use Categories when:

• You want to filter, segment, or report on groups of contacts: If you need to quickly pull a list of all contacts in the “Aerospace” market, or send a bulk email to everyone in the “Purchasing” department, these should be Categories.

• A contact needs multiple overlapping values: Since categories are not bound by the unique constraint of the Custom Fields table, a single contact can be linked to as many categories as necessary. E.g. a customer can be in multiple markets, have multiple product types, et. al.

• The values are standardized: If there is a finite, structured list of options (e.g., product lines, industry sectors, account tiers), they should be registered as categories.

Case Study: Welders & Generators

Our recent GoldMine data import highlights how these two structures work together to handle complex business rules:

1. The Challenge: A company like Willmington Steel Tooling or its individual representatives might work with multiple product lines, such as both Welders and Generators.

2. The Custom Field Constraint: Because of the unique database constraint, a contact’s profile in the Additional (Custom Fields) section can only hold one primary value for 'Product Type' (normalized to 'Welders').

3. The Category Solution: In the background, the contact is linked to both the Product Type: Welders and the Product Type: Generators categories in the many-to-many link table.

4. The Result: The user sees a clean, normalized value on the contact’s custom fields tab, but the contact will correctly appear in search results when filtering by either product category.

Summary Recommendation

• Store it in Custom Fields (Additional) if it is an attribute belonging to the contact that you simply want to read on their profile card. Additional phone numbers, email addresses, spouse and kid names, anniversaries and other dates are all great uses here.

• Store it in Categories if you ever intend to click on it to filter your database, run a report, or send a targeted group communication. Market Segments, Buying Groups, Pricing Tiers are all good examples of how Categories are great ways to find group members.

Our latest infographic, Ways to Get Data into MRSweb CRM Application, highlights the flexible methods available to ensure your data is always where you need it:

• Direct Entry via Dialog: For those who prefer a hands-on approach, you can manually input data through intuitive forms directly within the MRSweb interface.

• Comprehensive Email Integration: We’ve expanded how you interact with your inbox. You can now:

  • Directly Send: Email information straight to a dedicated CRM server address.

  • Automate with Rules: Set up rules in your email client to automatically forward messages with specific subject lines.

  • Folder Drag-and-Drop: Simply move an email into a designated folder to automatically generate CRM appointments or journals.

• Google Calendar Synchronization: Keep your schedule in sync by automatically pulling meetings, contact links, and task creations directly from your calendar events.

• Smart Clipboard Transfer: Quickly move data from emails or PDFs using smart field-fill technology—just copy and paste to populate your CRM records instantly.

Whether you are automating your workflow through email rules or syncing your daily schedule, these tools are designed to keep your business organized and efficient.

Overview

The Remember My Login feature allows MRSware to automatically log you in when the application starts. When enabled, your username and password are stored in an encrypted file on your local machine, so you don’t need to enter your credentials each time you launch MRSware.

Enabling Remember My Login

1. Open MRSware and go to Preferences (accessible from the main menu).

2. In the left-hand navigation tree, expand (General) and select Login.

3. Check the box labeled Remember my login.

4. Enter your MRSware password in the Password field.

5. Re-enter the same password in the Confirm Password field.

6. Click Apply to save your settings, or Ok to close Preferences.

Once saved, MRSware will automatically log you in as your MRSware user account the next time it starts.

Important Security Note

⚠️ Shared Computer Warning: Because credentials are tied to your Windows user account, anyone who can log into Windows as you will also be able to access MRSware automatically under your MRSware account. Do not enable this feature on shared or public computers.

Disabling Remember My Login

1. Open Tools > Preferences > (General) > Login.

2. Uncheck the Remember my login box.

3. Click Apply or Ok.

MRSware will return to prompting for your username and password at startup.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I change my MRSware password? You will need to return to Preferences > Login, re-enter your new password in both the Password and Confirm Password fields, and click Apply to update the stored credentials.

Is my password stored securely? Yes. MRSware stores your credentials in an encrypted file on your local machine. Your password is never stored in plain text.

I enabled this feature but MRSware is still asking me to log in. What’s wrong? Make sure you clicked Apply (or Ok) after entering your password, and that the Password and Confirm Password fields matched exactly. Re-open Preferences to verify the checkbox is still checked. Also, since auto-login is tied to your Windows account, make sure you used the same login as before to login to the computer itself.

We’ve moved beyond simple averages to a resilient, data-driven engine that accounts for the complex realities of your business, from seasonal cycles to explosive growth trends.

The Science Behind the Numbers

Our new reporting engine doesn’t just look at what’s on the books; it understands your history. By analyzing the last three years of your data, the engine builds a “predictive twin” of your business that factors in:

• Seasonality-Aware Baselines: The model compares each month to its historical counterpart (e.g., Jan 2026 vs. Jan 2025), automatically adjusting for those predictable yearly peaks and valleys.

• Intelligent Growth Clamping: To prevent “startup years” or one-off outliers from distorting your targets, our engine applies a logic-based clamp to annual growth factors, ensuring your forecast remains grounded in reality.

• Historical Smoothing: By blending specific monthly performance with annual averages, we ensure that a single unusual month in the past doesn’t derail your projections for the future.

Three New Ways to View Your Pipeline

We’ve deployed this new logic across three dedicated analysis tools, each designed to answer different strategic questions:

1. Anticipated Commissions by Month (The Big Picture)

Stop guessing and start tracking. This report provides a side-by-side comparison of your Actual Cumulative performance against your Forecasted Cumulative target. At a glance, you can see if the company is tracking ahead or behind its historical trajectory.

👉 View the Global Forecast

2. Anticipated Commissions by Sales Rep (Team Performance)

Accountability meets insight. By partitioning the forecast by individual representative, leadership can identify high-performers and territories that are driving the most year-over-year growth. It uses stable, company-wide growth baseline to set fair and achievable targets for every rep.

👉 Analyze Representative Performance

3. Anticipated Commissions by Manufacturer (Brand Momentum)

Strengthen your supplier relations with brand-level data. This breakdown allows you to see the historical and projected performance for each manufacturer you represent. Identify which brands are gaining momentum and which may need more attention to hit their seasonal targets.

👉 Track Manufacturer Trends

Why This Matters for Your Business

By bridging the gap between “Open Commissions” and “Realized Income,” these reports provide more than just numbers—they provide clarity. Whether you are planning resource allocation for a busy Q4 or identifying a mid-year slowdown before it hits your bottom line, these tools are built to give you the foresight needed to manage your business with confidence.

Log in today to explore your new Forecast models!

The Problem: Data Entry Fatigue

Manually transcribing data from a vendor’s email or a scanned PDF invoice is tedious and prone to errors. You have to hunt for the PO number, calculate the commission rate, and ensure the dates match up. It slows down your sales cycle and keeps you away from what matters most: growing your business.

The Solution: Two New AI-Powered Ways to Work

1. AI Smart Paste

Next time you get an order acknowledgement in an email, don’t re-type it. Simply copy and paste the entire email body into the new AI Paste tab in the Quick Add dialog.

• How it works: The AI analyzes the unstructured text, identifies the legal entities (even with fuzzy name matches!), and populates the fields automatically.

• Intelligent Mapping: It knows that “Total” or “Balance Due” maps to your Sales amount.

• Automatic Lookups: It cross-references your database to find the correct Manufacturer, Customer, and Sales Rep split rates in real-time.

2. AI File Content Extraction

Receive a PDF or a photo of a packing slip? Don’t even bother copying text. Use the AI File tab to upload the document directly.

• Visual Analysis: The AI “reads” the document layout just like a human would. It extracts line items, totals, and reference numbers.

• Speed: Most documents are processed and populated in under 5 seconds.

• Safe & Verified: The data is pre-filled into the Quick Add form, allowing you to review and make minor adjustments before clicking Save.

Unified Logic

The best part? These AI features aren’t just “bolted on.” They are fully integrated with MRSware’s native business rules.

• Custom Splits: If the AI identifies a Customer, your specific Sales Rep commission splits and account numbers are automatically fetched.

• Financial Accuracy: Commission $ and Commission % are kept in perfect sync.

Transparency and Control

We’ve also implemented a comprehensive AI Usage Log for administrators. You can track every AI interaction, see exactly which documents were processed, and monitor token usage to ensure your team is getting the most value out of our AI integrations.

Ready to try it?

The new features are live now in the Quick Add dialog of both Orders and Invoices. Look for the “AI Paste” and “AI File” tabs next time you add an order!

Check out the Help documentation for more details

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to harness the power of AI to make MRSware the smartest tool in your sales arsenal.

Introducing the Orders To Ship Ratio Report (traditionally known as the Book-to-Bill Ratio)—a critical analytical tool designed to help you monitor demand, manage backlogs, and optimize fulfillment.

What is the Order to Ship Ratio?

At its core, the Order to Ship Ratio is a comparison of orders received (Bookings) to products shipped and invoiced (Billings) over a specific period.

Book-to-Bill Ratio = (New Orders) / (Invoiced Sales)

By measuring this ratio, you gain an immediate view of whether your agency is building a backlog for future revenue or clearing out current shipping workload faster than new demand is arriving.

Why Is This a Key Industry Metric?

For over a decade, the Book-to-Bill ratio has been the gold standard in manufacturing and technology sectors for three primary reasons:

1. The Ultimate Leading Indicator

Raw sales figures show you what happened yesterday. The Book-to-Bill ratio shows you what will happen tomorrow. A ratio above 1.00 (100%) indicates that demand is outstripping supply—a strong signal of future growth and increasing market share.

2. Operational Efficiency & Fulfillment

Our report doesn’t just track ratios; it measures Fulfillment %. By comparing your total available shipping opportunity (Year Start Backlog + New Orders) against actual invoices, you can identify fulfillment bottlenecks before they impact your client relationships.

3. Backlog Management

Managing a healthy backlog is a delicate balancing act. Too little backlog suggests a softening market; too much suggests fulfillment delays. This report provides the visibility needed to manage large projects and seasonal fluctuations with precision.

How to Leverage This Data

To get the most out of this new report, look for trends over a rolling 12-month period:

• Is your ratio consistently above 100%? It’s time to talk to your manufacturers about increasing capacity or lead times.

• Is your fulfillment percentage dipping? Investigate whether certain principals are facing production delays or if there are logistics hurdles in specific territories.

• Is your backlog growing with a specific customer? This is a perfect opportunity for a strategic review meeting to discuss future demand and supply chain stability.

The Orders To Ship Ratio is more than just a number—it’s the pulse of your agency’s future. By integrating this metric into your regular business reviews, you can move from reactive sales tracking to proactive growth management.

Ready to see your agency’s pulse? Log in now and explore the new Orders To Ship Ratio Report.

To help our sales teams and management track performance with greater precision, we are thrilled to announce the rollout of our new **Forecast Commissions By Sales Rep** analytics page!

This new dashboard bridges the gap between your active Orders and finalized Invoices, giving you a side-by-side comparison of your expected earnings versus what has actually hit the books.

Here are the key features you can start using today:

📊 Month-by-Month & Cumulative Tracking

We’ve completely overhauled how commission data is aggregated. Your dashboard now breaks down both **Anticipated** and **Invoiced** commissions chronologically by month. Even better, we’ve added **Cumulative Year-to-Date** columns that give you a running total of your performance across the entire year, so you always know exactly where you stand against your annual goals.

📈 Interactive Smart Charts

At the top of your analytics page, data is now dynamically visualized in three distinct smart charts:

• Monthly Anticipated vs. Invoiced: A column chart that provides a side-by-side quarterly and monthly comparison of what’s expected versus what is final.

• Cumulative Commission Progress: A running year-to-date trajectory plotting your exact pipeline growth. This chart also features fluid panning and scroll-wheel zoom so you can seamlessly dive into specific date clusters!

• Top Anticipated Sales Pipeline: A horizontal leaderboard instantly identifying which sales representatives hold the highest value of anticipated commissions.

🎯 Dynamic User Filtering

The new metrics operate on a secure, context-aware framework. When an individual Sales Rep logs into the dashboard, the view automatically filters down to their specific metrics. However, Administrators and Owners retain the ability to view the performance of the entire team from the exact same interface.

🕒 The “Unscheduled” Bucket

Not every order in the system has a concrete shipping date yet, but that shouldn’t mean those expected commissions drop off your radar.

We’ve introduced a dedicated **”Unscheduled”** category for these deals. Any active order that has a calculated commission—but lacks a *Shipping Anticipated Date*—is safely corralled into the Unscheduled bucket. These amounts are then intelligently appended to the very end of your running cumulative timeline, ensuring you never lose sight of a pending deal that’s just waiting for a firm date.

🚀 Quick Access via the Home Page

To keep your most important numbers front and center, we’ve also injected a personalized snapshot of this grid directly onto your **Home Page**. Want to dive deeper into the numbers? Simply click your name in the grid to jump straight into the full analytical breakdown on the Analysis page!

***

*The Forecast Commissions update is already live. For a full breakdown of the columns and the underlying calculations, please check out the new [Forecast Commissions Help Page](#) in the documentation portal!*

Instead of manually reassigning each record, the Merge Duplicate process automatically moves all associated data—including Orders, Invoices, Inventory, and Web Sales—to the company entry you want to keep.

Why use Merge Duplicates?

In many cases, you won’t be able to simply delete a duplicate entry because it is already linked to active business records. The Merge Duplicate process handles these dependencies for you, ensuring that your data remains consistent and your history is preserved.

Robust and Intelligent Merging

The new Company Merge tool is built to handle complex data relationships:

• Catalog Item Collision: If both companies have the same product (Item Number), the system will automatically point all orders to the target company’s product and merge any missing descriptions or notes.

• Customer Account Collision: If there are conflicting account numbers for the same customer, the system will append “-merged” to the source account to ensure no data is lost.

• Field Merging: If the company you are keeping is missing information (like a phone number or email) that the duplicate has, the system will automatically fill in those blanks.

Permissions

Only users with Owner or Administrator permissions can perform a Merge Duplicate.

How to merge duplicate companies:

1. Go to the menu bar and click or tap Contacts -> Companies.

2. Click or tap the Actions menu on the action bar.

3. Select Merge Duplicates.

4. When the merge dialog opens:

   • Select the Source Company (the entry you want to remove).

   • Select the Target Company (the entry you want to keep).

5. Review the confirmation message and click OK.

The merge is complete. The system will automatically reassign all linked records and mark the source company as “deleted” to remove it from your active lists.

TIP

This process is much safer and faster than manual cleanup, as it ensures that triggers and business rules are satisfied throughout the reassignment.

Once installed, you can select from additional options that make MRSweb easier to find, access, and run as part of your daily routine.

Computers, phones, and tablets can all benefit from installing the app locally.

What You’ll Need

Before you begin:

• ✅ Active MRSweb account (logged in at https://web.mrsware.net)

• ✅ Company information ready (name, address, contact details)

• ✅ Basic understanding of your territory and customer types

Don’t have an account yet? Sign up for a free trial or explore the demo.

Understanding Companies in MRSware

Companies represent organizations in your database. They can be:

• Customers - Businesses you currently sell to

• Prospects - Potential customers you’re pursuing

• Manufacturers - Companies whose products you represent

• Distributors - Partners in your sales channel

• Other Partners - Any other business relationships

Each company can have multiple contacts (individual people) associated with it.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Access the Companies Section

1. Log in to MRSweb at

https://web.mrsware.net

1. Navigate to the CRM section in the main menu

2. Click on Companies (or Companies/Contacts)

Tip: The exact menu layout may vary based on your user permissions and screen size.

Step 2: Start Creating a New Company

1. Look for the “Add New” or “New Company” button

   • Usually located at the top of the Companies list

   • May appear as a “+” icon or button

2. Click the button to open the New Company form

Step 3: Enter Basic Company Information

Required Fields (marked with *):

Company Name*

• Enter the official business name

• Example: “ABC Manufacturing, Inc.”

Company Type

• Select the appropriate category:

  • Customer

  • Prospect

  • Manufacturer

  • Distributor

  • Other

• This helps organize and filter your companies

Important Optional Fields:

Address Information

• Street Address

• City

• State/Province

• ZIP/Postal Code

• Country

Contact Information

• Main Phone Number

• Fax (if applicable)

• Website URL

• General Email Address

Business Details

• Industry

• Territory (if you have multiple territories)

• Assigned Sales Rep

• Customer Status (Active, Inactive, etc.)

Step 4: Add Additional Details (Optional)

Depending on your setup, you may see fields for:

Financial Information

• Credit Terms

• Payment Terms

• Tax ID/EIN

Relationship Details

• How you were referred

• Relationship start date

• Customer priority level

Custom Fields

• Your organization may have custom fields specific to your business

• Fill these out as needed for reporting and tracking

Step 5: Save the Company Record

1. Review all information for accuracy

2. Click the “Save” button

   • Usually at the bottom of the form

   • May also be at the top right

3. Confirm the company has been created

   • You should see a success message

   • The company should now appear in your Companies list

Next Steps After Creating a Company

Add Contacts to the Company

Individual people at the company should be added as Contacts:

1. Open the company record you just created

2. Look for a “Contacts” section or tab

3. Click “Add Contact” or “New Contact”

4. Enter contact details:

   • First Name and Last Name

   • Title/Position

   • Direct Phone/Email

   • Notes about their role

Link the Company to Your Sales Activities

Now that the company exists in your system, you can:

• Create Opportunities for potential deals

• Schedule Appointments with company contacts

• Log Journal Entries to track interactions

• Add Tasks for follow-up activities

• Track Sales and Commissions for this customer

Tips for Success

Naming Conventions

Be Consistent:

• Decide on a format: “ABC Company, Inc.” vs “ABC Company Inc” vs “ABC Company”

• Use the same format every time

• This prevents duplicate entries

Use the Official Name:

• Match the legal business name when possible

• Include “Inc.”, “LLC”, “Ltd.” etc. if that’s how they identify

Data Quality

Check for Duplicates First:

• Before creating a new company, search to see if it already exists

• Look for variations in spelling or abbreviations

• Use the search function with different keywords

Complete as Much as Possible:

• More data = better reporting and insights

• Fill in address information for mapping and route planning

• Add website and phone for quick reference

Update Regularly:

• Keep company information current

• Note when companies move, change names, or close

• Update contact information as it changes

Organization

Use Company Types Effectively:

• Proper categorization makes filtering easier

• Helps with territory management

• Improves reporting accuracy

Assign Territories:

• If your agency uses multiple territories, assign correctly

• This ensures proper reporting and commission tracking

• Prevents confusion among team members

Common Questions

Q: Can I import multiple companies at once? A: Yes! MRSware supports importing companies from spreadsheets. See the Data Import Training guide or contact support for assistance.

Q: What if I accidentally create a duplicate company? A: Contact your system administrator. They can merge duplicate records to preserve all associated data (contacts, sales history, notes).

Q: Can I delete a company if I made a mistake? A: Depending on your permissions, you may be able to delete or deactivate companies. However, if sales data is associated, it’s better to mark as “Inactive” rather than delete.

Q: How do I know if my changes were saved? A: Look for a confirmation message after clicking Save. You can also navigate away and return to the company record to verify your changes appear.

Q: What’s the difference between a Company and a Contact? A: A Company is the organization/business. A Contact is an individual person who works at that company. One company can have many contacts.

Q: Where can I find more help? A: Check out the MRSware Support Portal for comprehensive documentation and training resources.

Related Resources

Training Videos & Documentation

• Sales Training - Learn customer relationship management best practices

• All Training Classes - Complete training library

• Documentation Portal - Technical documentation

• Integrations Guide - Connect with other tools

Product Information

• MRSware Features Overview - See all capabilities

• Pricing Information - Plans and pricing

• About EYOND - Learn about the company behind MRSware

Need Help?

Access Support Resources

Online Training:

• Visit MRSware Blog/Docs/Training for training materials

• Browse the Support Portal for documentation

• Search for “CRM - Companies/Contacts” training

Contact Support:

• Email: support@mrsware.com

• Phone: (866) 795-8386

• Schedule a web conference: Book with Louis

Watch Training Videos:

• Lesson 2: CRM - Companies/Contacts in the training library

• All MRSware Desktop Training Classes

• MRSweb Training Classes

Mobile Device Tips

If you’re using MRSweb on a tablet or phone:

• Touch-friendly: All buttons are optimized for touchscreens

• Screen adaptation: The layout adjusts to your device size

• Landscape mode: For forms with many fields, landscape orientation may be easier

• Save frequently: On mobile devices, save your work often to avoid losing data if you switch apps

Best Practices Checklist

Before you finish creating a company, verify:

• ✅ Company name is spelled correctly and matches official records

• ✅ Company type is selected appropriately

• ✅ At least basic contact information is entered (phone or email)

• ✅ Address is complete if you’ll be visiting this location

• ✅ Territory/assignment is correct for reporting purposes

• ✅ You’ve checked for duplicates

• ✅ Record is saved successfully

What’s Next?

Once you’re comfortable creating companies, explore:

1. Adding Contacts - Build your network of individual relationships

2. Creating Opportunities - Start tracking potential deals

3. Logging Activities - Record calls, meetings, and interactions

   • Lesson 4: CRM - Journals

4. Running Reports - See your customer base analytics

5. Importing Data - Bulk load companies from spreadsheets

   • Data Entry Training

Additional Training Resources:

• Lesson 1: MRSware Home Page

• Lesson 3: CRM - Calendar

• Lesson 5: CRM - Tasks

• Lesson 6: CRM - Projects

• Lesson 7: MREPS - Customers

For more training on MRSware CRM features, visit the training classes at MRSware Blog/Docs/Training or schedule a personalized session with our team.

Quick Links:

• MRSweb Login

• MRSware Main Site

• Free Trial/Demo

• Training Portal

• Support Documentation

• Live Service Status

Support: support@mrsware.com | (866) 795-8386 | Schedule a Call

Last Updated: February 2026 Part of the MRSware Training Series by EYOND, Inc.

Updates:

• Entering an PO Number or Order Number into Quick Add that already in MRSware will update that entry with any new Sales total, if it is different.

• Entering an Invoice Number with an existing PO or Order Number will create the Invoice and link it to the existing entry. If the Sales totals are different, the PO/Order total will be updated via a Discount entry and the Description will be updated to note the change.

• Entering whole numbers in the % fields automatically converts them to percentages. E.g. enter “2” for 2%. The previous way of entering “0.02” to get 2% continues to work as well.

Some fields on the Quick Add continue to auto-fill in other fields when selected, which makes data entry go a little quicker, including:

1. Account Number is filled in when a Manufacturer and Customer combination is selected that has an Account Number in the system.

2. Sales Rep is automatically selected when the selected Customer has an assigned Rep. That Rep’s Split % is also filled in. Changing the Rep for this specific Order/Invoice will also select the correct default Split %.

References:

Quick Add article in Documentation:

Start Survey

Question 1: Features

We have been testing a few different features that we think will be handy to our users. The first question in the Survey asks which of those might be useful to you personally in your daily routine?

a) For those of you that get copies of individual POs, Orders, or Invoices from your manufacturers, and are currently manually entering those into MRSware. This question is about the process of using OCR (identifying text in the PDF/scanned image) and entering that into either Orders or Invoices, as appropriate, potentially capturing more details and/or making the entry process significantly faster.

b) A similar process to above, but for hand-written notes from your notebook. I take copious notes during a call, take a picture of those notes, then have the AI transcribe them from the picture into a MRSware Journal entry. What’s new here is that the AI can do the Contact linking, set the date, Type, and some Categories based on the content for you; instead of just filling in the text body of the Journal.

c) Like above, but for those that want to talk their notes into the Journal using the microphone, the Transcribe voice notes into Journals function can also do smarter linking and categorization.

Question 2: Interface

This survey question asks how you would like to interact with the AI. The options include emailing a document to a specific AI-accessible email address, such as pos@yourcompany.mrsware.com; uploading a document to File Share for the AI to import; or a chat-type interface, where you tell the AI what you want to do and optionally paste in a document or text that you want it to work with.

One of the options in this section is to work with an AI subscription that you may already have. If you are a subscriber to ChatGPT, for example, and would like to add the capability to directly access your MRSware data from within your existing chats, this option is meant for you.

Question 3: Your AI

We would like to get an idea of everyone’s experience with AI. This will help us tailor the interface and which AI models to use, based on what people are used to already.

Question 4: Did we miss something?

Tell us more about what you would like, what you have been doing, or anything else you think might be relevant to an AI in MRSware future.

Start Survey

I will update this article with results of the Survey as they come in. Make sure to subscribe to eyond.substack.com to get alerts when they do.

Subscribe now

If I missed anyone in your company from the distribution list, feel free to send them a link to this article, so that we can capture their preferences as well.

Share

Do you want to see more of this kind of post in the future?

Sales and Commissions dollars in the MRSware system are represented by an Invoice in the Invoice Entry screen (and an Order in the Web interface). Each Invoice has a Sales Rep assigned on it. Each Customer (Company who has purchased from one of the lines represented by the sales agency) is present in the Customer Listing screen. Each Customer has a Sales Rep assigned to it.

At invoice entry time, the sales rep as seen on the Customer Listing screen is filled in on the Order or Invoice by default. The data entry user entering the invoice has the ability to override the sales rep assignment to credit the individual sale and commission entry to a different sales rep. This is typically seen when more than one sales rep calls on the same customer.

Over the course of time, sales rep assignment to a customer will change. As they do, the new sales rep is assigned in the Customer Listing screen. When new invoices come in for that customer, the new sales rep is assigned on the invoice.

​The above two scenarios create a situation where at any given time a sale may be looked at from the perspective of the sales rep as seen on the Customer, or from the perspective of the sales rep as seen on the Invoice. There are some cases where you want to look at it one way, and some cases to look at it the other. Here are a couple of examples:

1) I want to see who was paid the commissions for these sales. Sales Rep on Invoice is what you want to look at for this information -- it will show you who the individual sales were credited to, regardless of who the customer is currently assigned to or how many time that assignment has changed. Another way to look at this is as your "historically accurate sales and commission information" since it will not change unless the original invoice is changed. This is an important measure for tax and audit purposes.

2) I want to see how the sales for my current customer base has changed since I took over the accounts. Here we would look at Sales Rep on Customer to see a picture of all of the customers currently assigned to the rep, regardless of who they were previously assigned to. This is an important way for the rep and management to see how a customer or territory has changed over a period of time and measure individual sales rep performance.

Where to find each measurement:

Sales Rep on Customer

• Sales reports based on invoice date, where the field is labeled "Sales Rep on Customer" as a parameter

• all Data Analysis cubes

Sales Rep in Invoice

• Commission reports based on payment date, which will show "Sales Rep on Invoice" as the parameter

• all Data Analysis cubes

As noted above, each of the Data Analysis cube has the ability to see both sales and commissions from either the sales rep on invoice or the sales rep on customer perspectives. Data Analysis is also the only place where you can nest the two together to look at trends in account assignment, changes over time, and breakdown the accounts with multiple sales reps assigned to them.

Similar exploration can also be found in Web by clicking on the Invoice Line Items listing, and choosing Unpaid Line Items from the View drop-down (top-left, next to the Actions and Reports menus).

Date Selection Criteria

When this cube is opened, the User is prompted to select a date range based on Invoice Date. As this cube only captures Invoices not appearing on a Payment, it is safe to pull a larger date range without worrying about getting overwhelmed with data. The default date range is January 1 last year to Today (the day you run the report). If your Agency enters future Invoices, feel free to adjust the dates to include those; or leave it as-is to just capture Invoices that have shipped.

The Default View

When opening the cube with the selected Invoice Date range, the initial view shows the list of Manufacturers with each ones’ Sales, Commission Due, and the corresponding Commission Rate. These metrics can be sorted (click on the Agg. value label) or expanded and rearranged to show the information for which Products commissions haven’t been paid yet or which Customers for which they haven’t been paid.

Due to Manufacturers’ differing payment schedules, like paying when they get paid or after fixed amount of time, it can be helpful to break-down the due amounts by Year, Quarter, and Month of the Invoice Date, using those Dimension found above the tables. Likewise, additional Dimensions for State/City and Sales Rep assigned to the Invoice can be brought down to further explorer and predict when commissions will be paid to the agency.

Comparing the Commission Payment Analysis cube, we can see some important distinctions, since this cube is focused on the opposite metric — Invoices that do appear on Payment Entries. Some of the distinctions include:

• The date range selection is based on the Payment Date, when the Invoice appeared on a Payment regardless of how old the invoices is or when the products actually shipped.

• Commission Due (total commission) and Commission Paid (amount the manufacturer has paid so far) columns. The difference between these two columns appears with partial payment on invoices, or when an invoice is carried over with no commissions paid yet.

Additional Metrics

In addition to the primary columns that show when the cube is first opened, it possible to also turn on the various Commission Split columns, for those rep agencies that pay out a portion of the commission income to their reps. The columns are Agency Split $ and Rate, Sales Rep Split $ and Rate, and column for Quantity (used to take a look at the Quantity Shipped from the Invoices).

Video

An oldy but a goody, the Commission Due Analysis video can be seen here:

This video does a nice, short (4min) overview of the cube, including views, dimension, and many of the options discussed above.

Additional Learning

Other videos, while not directly focused on the Commission Due Analysis cube, talk about Data Analysis and showcase some of the usage and examples of which to take advantage.

This last video, on the Commission Payment Analysis cube, gives a nice summary of what a Payment is and how it differs in date especially from Invoices recorded on it.

​
Lesson 7 – MREPs - Customers

With this lesson, we begin to learn about MRSware’s MREPS modules. As multi-line sales reps know, synergy between their lines is a powerful tool in selling. MRSware creates synergy by integrating CRM and MREPS. Individually, CRM and MREPS contain helpful information, but when integrated into a single system, they become greater than the sum of their individual parts. MRSware provides a complete picture of your customers; not just bits and pieces of data. ​

​MREPS is made up of Customers, Invoice Entry, Order Entry, Payment Entry, Product Catalog, and Sales Rep Management. Another valuable piece of the puzzle is reporting and analytics. Future lessons will cover these subjects.

​MREPs contains the business functions for tracking and reporting on the financial data of the rep agency. Because of the sensitive nature of this information, MRSware includes a variety of permissions to protect the disclosure of the data. You will not be learning about permissions in this lesson; however I mention them because what the User sees in MREPS is determined by their User Roles and Permissions.


In this lesson, you are going to learn about Customers. MRSware is unique in that it breaks Companies, Contacts, and Customers into separate sections.

As you learned in Lesson 2, Companies and Contacts, which are the heart of the MRSware CRM system, may include your Customers as well as Competitors, Principals, End Users, Vendors, and Others. Companies contains the profile and activity information for any business entity entered in your system.

Customers includes only the companies that have purchased a product from your Principals. Customers shows information regarding the sale of a product and the commission dollars earned as a result of the sale.

For this lesson, you will learn that Customers shows the results of your sales activities. With the tools available in MRSware you will sort and filter the data to find the answers to these questions - who are your best customers, how many Principals does a customer buy from, who are all the customers in a specific state or city or zip code, how do sales compare over a specific period of time, when was the customer last contacted by someone in your company, and many more.

Today, you are going to go through each section of Customers and learn how to edit a current customer or add a new customer to your system, the types of views in the Customer table, and how to sort and filter the information once it’s in the system.


Chapter 1
Customers

Customers contains all of the companies that purchase products from any of your Principals. A sales rep or territory is assigned to a customer. The individuals who are assigned to a customer can view the information found in the Customers table.

The Customers table displays every customer, the sales rep or territory assigned to the customer, the sales and comparison of the sales, the percentage of difference in sales shown in the comparison, the commission split rate, the date of the last activity associated with the customer, and the company profile information.

Login to MRSware now. Once MRSware is open, click on Customers in the Shortcuts panel or click on the Customers icon on the Shortcuts Tool bar.


Customers Menu bar and Toolbar

When Customers opens, look at the Menu bar and the main Toolbar. Notice the changes in the options available on the Menu and Toolbars from the options available in other areas of MRSware.

​​The Menu bar has two new Menu options – Customers and Customer.

Please click Customers, on the Menu bar to see the options available to you in this Menu.

The Customers menu gives you access to display your customers in the Customer Listing two different ways, choose to hide or show your customers or your manufacturers, change the dates for your sales numbers, create new customers from companies in bulk, send bulk email to customers, and run a document merge for a mailing.

Did you notice there are two views in the Customers menu?
1. Customer view
2. Account view

​

Please click Customer on the Menu bar to see the options available to you in this Menu

​The Customer menu gives you access to add a new customer, edit a current customer, delete a customer, edit a company in your system, and run a Customer Snapshot report.







​

Customer View

​Customer view displays a sales dollar total amount for all manufacturers from whom a customer buys.

In the example below Alpine Paper & Plastics - Walterville branch, purchased a total of $938,699.81 YTD 2016. This is the sum of all lines purchased by Alpine Paper & Plastics.

In addition to the Company name and YTD 2016 sales total, the Customer view displays the name of the Sales Rep, the Split Rate assigned to them, YTD 2015 sales total, % Sales Difference between the two years, and the Last Activity associated with this company. The ensuing columns (not shown) display address, phone, e-mail, website information, along with notes.

​Account View

​Account view displays a sales dollar total amount for each manufacturer from whom a customer buys.

In the example below Alpine Paper & Plastics - Walterville branch, purchased from 6 different manufacturers YTD 2016. The sales dollar shown is the purchases for each manufacturer.

In addition to the Company name and YTD 2016 sales total by Manufacturer, the Account view displays the name of the Account # by manufacturer, Sales Rep, the Split Rate assigned to them, YTD 2015 sales total, % Sales Difference between the two years, and the Last Activity associated with this company. The ensuing columns (not shown) display address, phone, e-mail, website information, along with notes.

i In order to use the Account view, the Customer must have entered in the system, an account number for each manufacturer.

​There is also an option in the Customers menu to Change Sales Summary Dates.

Click on Change Sales Summary Dates to choose a time frame to compare sales. The default setting is This Year to Date vs Last Year to Date.

You can save the date range by checking the box below each Sales Summary Date Range - Save Date Range in Preferences







The Customer Listing table will display, in the column headers, the new dates set in the Date Range dialog.






​

The Customers Toolbar has two new buttons available. Move your cursor over each icon to see what their function is. Then click on each of the buttons available to you.

Did you notice, like similar Toolbars throughout MRSware, you can add a new Customer, edit a Customer already in the system, or delete a Customer already in the system?

Did you notice the new icons on the Toolbar – Customer Snapshot and Run Document Merge?

The Customer Snapshot, available in the Customer Menu and the main Toolbar.

To run the Customer Snapshot from either the Customer Menu or Toolbar:
1. Right-click on a Customer in the Customer listing table
2. Click on Customer Snapshot
3. Select the date range in the Report Prompt Customer Snapshot
4. Click Ok

To run the Customer Snapshot from the Edit Customer dialog:
1. Right-click on a Customer in the Customer listing table
2. Click on Reports -> Customer Snapshot in the Edit Customer dialog.
3. Select the date range in the Report Prompt Customer Snapshot
4. Click Ok.

i You must select a customer before you can click on and run a Customer Snapshot.






​
​

​Chapter 2
Edit Customer/Add Customer

There are two Customers dialogs.
1 – A customer already in your system – Edit Customer
2 – A blank customer – Add Customer


Edit Customer

Edit Customer displays the customer name, sales rep/territory assigned to the customer, the commission split (if applicable), and the names of the Principals and account numbers from whom the customer buys.

The Edit Customer dialog is used to change the sales rep assignment, commission split rate, an account number for a Principal, or to add a new Principal.

There are three ways to access a current customer or the Edit Customer dialog:

​

​Option 1 -
1. Highlight the customer in the Customer Listing table
2. Right-click and select Edit









​

Option 2 -
1. Highlight the customer
2. Click the Edit icon on the Toolbar





​

​Option 3 -
1. Highlight the customer
2. Double-click to open Edit Customer dialog.
​

To add a new Principal to a customer:
1. Click in the first field below Accounts
2. Type in part of the name of a new Principal, such as Riv
3. Click the Tab key on your keyboard and the Principal’s name auto-fills.
4. Click the Tab key again to move to the next field
5. Type in the customer’s account number for this Principal.
6. Click Add.
7. If you are done editing, click Save and Close.
OR
7. If you want to make other changes, click the Save button. This will keep the current Edit Customer dialog open for reference or for further additions or changes.


​
​

Add Customer
​
Add Customer opens a blank customer dialog waiting for you to create a new customer in your system. (Figure 16)

The Add Customer dialog is used to create a new customer, assign a sales rep to the customer, assign a split rate, and add new Principals with account numbers.

​There are seven ways to add a new customer:

Option 1 -
1 - Click on Customer in the New Panel in the Sidebar
2 - The Add Customer window opens.








​

Option 2 –
1 – Click on Customers in the Shortcuts Panel.
2 – Click on the New customer icon on the Toolbar.
3 – The Add Customer window opens.







​



​
​

Option 3 –
1 – Click on Create Customer icon on the New Toolbar
2 – The Add Customer window opens.


​

Option 4 –
1 - Click on File -> New -> Customer on the Menu Bar
2- The Add Customer window opens.













​

Option 5 -
1 - Click on Customers in the Shortcuts Panel.
2 - Click on Customer -> New on the Menu Bar
3 - The Add Customer window opens.

Open an “Add Customer” dialog using all of the options shown above.

Which do you prefer? Is one option faster than the other? Will one option save you time?

Regardless of the option you choose to open the Add Customer dialog, the method in which you enter information is the same.

Now, open and add a new customer to your database. Follow the steps below to enter information:

! Tip: Don’t forget to hit the Tab key to move from field to field.

1 – Open an Add Customer dialog by using one of the options previously discussed.
2 – Click your cursor in the blank Company field.
3 - Type in the name of a customer in Company field.
4 – Tab to the Sales Rep field and click on the down arrow to select the Sales Rep name.
5 – Tab to the Split Rate field and enter the percentage of the commission that the Sales Rep will receive
6 – Tab to the Accounts field and type in the name of the Principal from whom the customer is buying
7 – Tab to the Account Number field and type in the account number
8 – Tab again and click Add
9 – Click Save and Close.
OR
9 - If you want to add another Principal before closing, click Save (the disc icon to the right of Save and Close). This will save the information you have entered, but keep the dialog open for further additions.



i There must be a corresponding company in MRSware in order to create a new customer. If, when you type in the name of a new customer in the Company field in the Add Customer dialog, you see a red squiggly line under the company name, this indicates there is no corresponding company in the system. If this is the case, you must add a new customer.

You can add a new company to MRSware, from the Add Customer dialog, by clicking on the file button at the end of the Company field and selecting New Company.

You will type in the information in the Add Company window (see instructions in Lesson 2 – CRM, Companies/Contacts).

i You can also edit the company information by clicking on the file button at the end of the Company field and selecting Edit.



i The instructions shown above are for adding customers one at a time.


​

The last two ways to add a new customer are:

Option 6 -
During Conflict Resolution after an import of invoices using the Import Invoice Wizard, you can select the option Add the data as a new record when no matching customer is found.

When you choose Add the data as a new record, a new company is created.

i All fields that are in the import file (and mapped) are added to the new company, such as: street address, city, state, zip, business phone, etc.

i In the Add Customer dialog, only the main entry (the Company field) and the account number (if in the import file) are added to the Add Customer dialog. A Sales Rep is not assigned, nor is the Split Rate entered.

​Option 2 -
Add new customers in bulk using the Customers menu option Customers -> Bulk Create Customers from Contacts.


1. Click on Bulk Create Customer from Contacts in the Customers menu. The Bulk Create Customers from Contacts window opens.

The customers shown in the window have not yet been added to your system as a customer. They may be in your Companies list and the System Type may show Customer, but Customers need to be added not only to the Companies listing, but also to the Customers listing. With this option you can add them in bulk.

2. Click Save.

i You do not have to select any of the companies in the table.

​

​Chapter 3
The Customer Title bar, Menu bar, and Toolbar

By now, if you’ve gone thru some of the other Lessons, you’ve learned about the Title bar, the Menu bar, and the Toolbar. The Edit Customer and Add Customer dialogs have very simple Menu and Toolbars.

Did you notice there are no tabs?

​

​Title bar

At the top of any MRSware window or dialog, you will see the Title bar which displays the name - for example: ABC Paper Co, Inc: Edit Customer

​

Menu bar

Under the Title bar, is the Menu bar – the menus from left to right are:

File, and Reports

Each Menu option has a drop down list which allows you to perform another action.

​Take the time now to click on each option on the Menu bar and view the drop down lists and the options available to you.
​

​Toolbar

Under the Menu bar, is the Toolbar – the icons from left to right are:

Save and Close, Save, Save and New (grayed out), and Delete.

These icons are short cuts to perform actions in the dialog.

Take the time now to click on each of the icons. Each icon will complete an action in the dialog.
​

​

​Chapter 4
Customer Listing

In order to view your customers, open the Customer Listing. Click on either Customers in the Shortcuts panel or the Customers icon on the New Toolbar.

i The default view will be the Customer View.

The table provides sorting and filtering options.


Here are a few reasons to sort and filter:

• Working with a manufacturer

  • Who are their customers?

  • Are sales up or down for each customer?

  • Who are their largest customers?

  • Who isn’t buying from them, but is a prospect?

• Planning a sales trip out of town

  • Who are the customers in the area?

  • Who is up or down for the year?

  • Who are the top customers?

  • Who are the prospects in the area?

  • What manufacturers need to be promoted?

​To sort on a column header:
1. Click on the right-facing arrow at the top of the columns to sort by column
2. Select Sort -> Descending

The table shows the YTD (2015) column sorted in descending order or Top, down.

To filter by selection:
1. Right-click on a state in the Business State column
2. Select Filter by Selection

The table only shows the customers located in the selected state in the Business State column.

Now try sorting and filtering in the Accounts view. Try to filter by the manufacturer and then sort descending. What do you see?

You should see a list of all the customers who buy from one manufacturer, sorted from the top down, showing you who the customers are that buy the most from the manufacturer.

Try sorting and filtering to see what other uses you have for the Customer Table.



* Customer Snapshot
​
In Chapter 1 of this lesson, the Customer Snapshot button was briefly mentioned. We discussed where it could be found:
1. On the Customers main Toolbar.
2. As an option in the Customer menu
3. As an option in the Edit Customer Reports menu

i Remember, you must select a customer before you can click on and run a Customer Snapshot.

When clicked, a report prompt opens offering options for report information.
1. Select the date range
2. Uncheck the boxes next to the names of the information you do not want to appear
3. Click Ok

The Customer Snapshot report opens showing the sales for all Principals from whom the customer is buying. The sales are compared to the previous year’s month and the previous year to date. There is also a section showing up to 4 years on monthly comparisons.

This report is often used by sales reps for call planning. When combined with the Contact Printout Report (Lesson 2 – CRM – Companies/Contacts) the sales rep sees not only the sales history, but the activities that have taken place. The two reports make it very easy for sales reps to focus their sales efforts where they are most needed.

The Customer Snapshot for ABC Paper Co, Inc, is shown below. I have unchecked several boxes in the Report Prompt in order to show the sales information.

Run a Customer Snapshot Report leaving all of the boxes checked to see the options available to you.


Chapter 5
Final Thoughts

With the synergy created by integrating sales data found in the Customer Listing with the sales activities found in Companies/Contacts, you can complete your customer’s picture. You now have the ability to focus and plan your sales efforts.

In a single, shared system you and your associates have the activities and numbers showing you what has worked in the past and what needs to be done in the future to ensure continual growth, while enhancing customer service to all businesses with whom you interact.

​By its nature, a project is linked to various other areas of MRSware, such as Companies, Contacts, Calendar, Journals, Tasks, File Share, Campaigns, Opportunities, Expenses, and E-mail. All of the above can be associated with a project in order for everyone to follow the steps you’ve created to achieve your project’s goals.

MRSware’s Projects can be used to fit your needs in planning, managing and measuring projects, from the Initiation phase through to the Completion phase. Projects will be used to coordinate schedules and activities, tying those activities, documentation, and expenses, across multiple contacts and Users, to the project in order to assure the project’s successful completion.

Today, you are going to go through each area of a Project, learn why you will use each field and how to add information to the project already in your system.


Chapter 1

Projects

Projects contain all the details of any deal, event, job, or quote. Whether it’s a specification file, an opportunity, an appointment, a journal, a task, an e-mail, a marketing campaign, an expense, a company or contact card, it can be linked to a project and shared with all Users who are participating in the project.

Login to MRSware now. Once MRSware is open, click on Projects in the Shortcuts panel or click on the Projects icon on the Shortcuts Tool bar.


Projects Menu bar and Tool bar

When Projects opens, look at the Menu bar and the Toolbar. Notice the changes in the options available on the Menu and Toolbars from the options available on the Home page, Companies, Contacts, Calendar, Journals and Task bars.

The Menu bar has one new Menu option – Projects

Please click on Projects to see the options available to you in this menu.

​You can choose to display the closed projects, the open projects, the completed projects, or just your projects. You can select a date range for projects by clicking on any of the options to the right of the Data Range.


















​

​

Now take a look at the Projects Toolbar. There are several new buttons available. Move your cursor over each icon to see what their function is. Then click on each of the new buttons available to you.

Did you notice, like similar Tool bars throughout MRSware, you can add a new Project, edit a Project already in your system, or delete a Project already in the system?

There is also a Printout button. To use the Printout button:

1. Highlight a specific project in the Projects table
2. Click on the Printout button
3. When the Report Prompt for the Project Printout dialog opens, select the options you want to see in the report, from the drop down arrows – the Activity Since date and the number in Top Count
4. Click OK
5. The report opens in the default .pdf format.

​The report displays the information found in the project. The printout may be used to report to manufacturers who want to know about a specific deal, job, or quote, or provide a prospect with a copy of the completed project.




​

​Did you notice the Date Range selector buttons on the Tool bar?

Move your cursor over each icon to see what their function is. Click on one or two of the buttons to view the different displays of projects.

To use the Date Range selector buttons:

1. Click on the date for the projects you want to display in the table
2. The table displays the projects for the specified period of time


Chapter 2


Edit Project/Add Project

There are two types of Projects:
1 – A project already in your system – Edit Project
2 – A blank project – Add Project


Edit Project

Edit Project is a project containing information that is already in your system. Access this window when you want to review, add to, update, or change the information found within the current project.

There are four ways to access a current project or the Edit Project window:

Option 1 –

1 – Click on Projects found in the Shortcuts panel or the Projects icon on the Shortcuts Toolbar
2 – Wait for all of the projects to load (watch the task bar for the completion of this operation)
3 – Highlight a specific project in the Projects table
4 – Double-click, or right click and select Edit on a specific project
5 - The Edit Project window will open


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Option 2 –

1 – Repeat steps 1 – 3 from Option 1
2 – Click on Edit on the Button bar and that specific Edit Project window will open







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Option 3 –

1 – Repeat steps 1 -3 from Option 1
2 – On the Menu bar, click on Projects -> Edit
3 – The specific project window will open

Option 4 –

1 – Type a project name (or part of a name) in the Quick Project Selector field found at the bottom of the Sidebar
2 – Hit Enter on your keyboard
3 – The specific project window will open

​Try opening an Edit Project window, using a project in your system. Then change or update information in the project and when the change is completed, click Save and Close.

Which option is easier to use and saves you time while you work?


Add Project

The Add Project is a blank project waiting for you to create a new job, deal, quote, or event.

There are six ways to open a new Project:
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Option 1 –

1 – Click on Projects in the New panel in the Sidebar
2 – The Add Project window opens







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Option 2 –

1 – Click on Projects in the Shortcuts panel in the Sidebar or the Projects icon on the Shortcuts Toolbar.
2 – Click on the New Projects icon on the Toolbar
3 – The Add Project window opens



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Option 3 –

1 – Click on Create Project in the New Toolbar
2 – The Add Project window opens
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Option 4 –

1 – Click on File -> New -> Project on the Menu bar
2 – The Add Project window opens















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Option 5 –

1 – Click on Projects in the Shortcuts panel
2 – Click on Projects -> New on the Menu bar
3 – The Add Project window opens









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Option 6a –

1 – Open a Company or Contact card
2 – Click on the Projects button on the far right side of the Projects field at the bottom of the company or contact card
3 – Click on New Project
4 – The Add Project window opens











Option 6b –

1 – Open an Opportunity
2 – Click on the Projects button on the far right side of the Projects field at the bottom of the opportunity
3 – Click on New Project
4 – The Add Project window opens












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​Open an Add Project window using all of the options shown above.

Which do you prefer? Is one option faster than the other? Will one option save you time?

Regardless of the option you choose to open an Add Project window, the method in which you enter information is the same.

Open and add a new project to your database. Follow the steps below to enter information.

! Tip:

Don’t forget to hit the Tab key to move from field to field.

1 – Open an Add Project window using one of the options previously discussed.
2 – Click your cursor in the blank Description field and add the Project name
3 – Click the drop down menu next to Type to select the Project type
4 – Click the drop down menu next to Due Date to select the day the project is due
5 – Type in any general information details in the Notes section
6 – Type in all the names of the companies and contacts associated with the project in the Contacts field
7 – Click on the Categories tab and check the boxes of all applicable categories
8 – Click on the Files tab to add any documents that pertain to the project
9 – When done, click Save and Close
OR
9 - If you want to continue to add information to the project, click Save (the disc icon to the right of Save and Close). This will keep the current project open for reference or for further additions or changes.


i The Contacts field is an essential parts of the Project window. All names – companies and contacts – you type into the Contacts field will be automatically associated with the project you save. The project is entered once and saved to all the company and contact cards listed in the Contacts field. The project will appear in the Activity list of all the associated company and contact cards.

Open any or all of the companies and contacts entered into the Contacts field in the project you just added to your system. Click on the Activity tab for each company and contact to see the project you have added.

As with the Contacts field, you can also add a project to an opportunity, campaign, or expense by typing in the name of the project in the blank Projects field at the bottom of their windows. The opportunity, campaign, or expense will be associated automatically with the project and will appear in the Activity list of the project.

After typing in the name of the project into the Projects field of an opportunity, campaign, or expense, click on the Activity tab in the Project to view the associated opportunity, campaign, or expense that you added.


Chapter 3


The Project Title bar, Menu bar, Toolbar, and the Tabs

Up to now, when you edit a project or add a new project, the Project main page displays. The main page shows the general information found in a project. This includes the name of the project, the type of project, who opened the project, when it is due, and may include an overview of the project in the Notes field as well as who the project is associated with in the Contacts field.

Projects is an important part in building your Relationship Database, as each project can be linked to journals, tasks, appointments, e-mails, opportunities, campaigns, and expenses that in turn are linked to all companies and contacts associated with the project. The Menu bar, Tool bar, and Tabs will be used in your project to track categories and activities, and attach files pertaining to the project.

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​Title bar

At the top of any Project you will see the Title bar with the name of the Project..

For example: XYZ school construction: Edit Project.
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Menu bar

Under the Title bar, is the Menu bar - the menus from left to right are:

File, Reports, Files, Activity, Tools.

Each menu option has a drop down list which allows you to perform another action.

Take the time now to click on each option on the Menu bar and view the drop down lists and the options available to you.

Toolbar

Under the Menu bar, is the Toolbar - the icons from left to right are:

​Save and Close, Save, Save and New (grayed out) Delete, Run Project Printout Report, New Appointment, New Journal, New Task, Refresh, and Spell Check. These buttons are short cuts to other windows or dialog boxes within the CRM application.

Take the time now to click on each of the icons or buttons. Each button, other than Save and Close, Save, or Delete, will open another window or dialog box allowing you to save time and add more information to your Relationship Database.

i The project must have a name and be saved before you can use the Run Project Printout Report, New Appointment, New Journal, New Task, or Spell Check buttons.

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Tabs

Under the Tool bar, is a series of tabs. The tabs open to other pages within the Project.
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​Here is a brief description of each of the tabs in the Project:

Project: This tab displays the main page of the Add Project or Edit Project window. Shown are the description (name of the project), the type of project it is, the person who opened the project, the day the project is due, the day the project is done, the day the project is closed, and the Notes field (the large section in the middle of the page. At the bottom of the page is the Contacts field, where you associate companies and contacts with the project.

Categories: This tab opens to a list, which your management creates, so you can group projects for searching and filtering. For example, you may include information on the kind of work the project represents (new construction, replacement parts, tradeshow, etc). Once the categories are created, you can use Search on the MRSware main Menu bar to look for groups or lists or projects in order to find trends, amount of time spent on specific projects and the manufacturers, or customers to whom they apply.

Files: This tab opens to a list of files that are related to the project. For example, the files may include specs, or quotes that are needed for the project.

Activity: This tab opens to a list of all activities associated with the project. For example, all appointments, journals, tasks, opportunities, campaigns, expenses, and e-mails will be shown in the table.

Take the time now to click on each tab in a Project within your system to view the information available.


Chapter 4

Final Thoughts

Now that you can add a new project and edit or update a current project, you can continue to add to your Relationship Database. The projects fill out information about your Companies and Contacts, providing you with the knowledge you need for successful business interactions. You’ll have all the information you need to plan your sales calls and stay abreast of your customer’s, prospect’s, end user’s, Principal’s, and other business partner’s ventures in order to provide superior service and support.