Seeing if a Contact in CRM Exists in
your Finance DB
Welcome to week #22 of the
KnowledgeSync Educational Bulletin for Business Partners
and clients who are using KnowledgeSync.
This week's question:
We use both a CRM application and an Accounting
application but they're not integrated and we have a
problem keeping the databases in sync. Is there a way
KnowledgeSync could look for new contact additions in
our CRM database and then check to see if the contact
does not exist in our Accounting system?
Answer:
Yes - this is not too different from last week's
question on monitoring records for inactivity, such as a
lead not contacted in 7 days.
The difference here is that you need to create an event
that uses queries from different applications - the
first query would identify new contacts in your CRM app,
and the second query would check to see if that contact
does not exist in your Accounting app.
Here's how you'd configure this:
1. Decide what field - or fields - you are going to use
for the purpose of "matching" a contact record in your
CRM app with a contact record in your Accounting system.
You can use any fields for this purpose - contact name,
phone number, email address, and so on. (You can even
match on multiple fields.)
2. Create query #1 to identify newly-created contacts in
your CRM app. Make sure that you choose (as columns) the
field(s) you are going to use for matching purposes
(e.g., the contact's email address).
3. Note the "Customized Name" for the matching column(s)
(e.g., "CONTACT_EMAIL").
4. Create query #2 in your Accounting app. Call it "Link
To; Contacts Not in Accounting DB". Choose the table
that stores the contact records in your Accounting
system.
5. In the "Columns" tab, choose only one column - the
column that uniquely identifies each contact record
(e.g., "customer_no"). Change the Column Type to
"Count".
6. In the "Filters" tab, create a filter on the matching
field(s). Choose an Operator of "equal to", and in
Compare Value, key in the customized name of the
matching field (enclosed by curly braces) from the first
query (e.g., "{CONTACT_EMAIL}").
7. Go to the Sub-Filters tab. Since we want the event to
trigger only if there is no match in the Accounting
system to the new contact in the CRM system, create a
sub-filter on the "count of customer records", specify
an operator of "equal to" and a Compare Value of '0'
(zero).
(And if you were matching on multiple fields, you would
modify step #6 to include filters on all - or any
combination - of the matching fields you had chosen.)
That will do it. This same logic can be applied to the
"matching of records" between any two (or more) business
applications you are using. And if you need assistance
designing such an event, just contact Don Farber at
farber@vineyardsoft.com.
Vineyardsoft Corporation
1-800-850-8055
info@vineyardsoft.com
www.vineyardsoft.com
Video
Data Sheet
Podcasts
PowerPoint
Overview
Supported Applications
Educational Bulletins
Become a Business Partner
Newsletter Archive
