The GoldMine Blog - Tips, Tricks & More

After working with a GoldMine contact for a few years you'll find their history tab becomes an absolute treasure trove, some might say "GoldMine" of information!  Finding that exact history nugget can, though, be challenging.  Fortunately, we are able to add a filter to the GoldMine History (and Pending) tab to help you find what you are looking for.

First, go to the History tab.  Then within the Tab do a Right-Click | Options | Filter.

This brings us to the Activity Filter window.  Here we can base our filter on the user, activity type (call, appointment, email, etc.), date range, activity code, result code, and reference text.  Simply check the boxes you want to filter by and then enter the criteria then click OK.  In the screen shot below you'll see that we've chosen to filter based on the User and Date Range.

So our History Tab now looks like this.

You'll notice above the Reference column it now says, "Filter Active", showing you a filter is active.  To release this filter simply do a Right-Click | Options | Release Filter to go back to standard viewing. You can also do a Right-Click | Options | Filter again to change your filter criteria.

Happy GoldMining!

Chad

Within GoldMine Filters, Groups, and SQL Queries are our ways of segmenting the database to pull specific records for emailing, calling, or simply viewing in list form.

Here is a 'cheat sheet' on which to use to get the desired data.

For 'On What': This is relatively self-explanitory.  Each has different criteria on which you can select data and criteria from.

For 'Statis vs. Dynamic': This refers to how 'fresh' the data is.  For Filters & SQL Queries whenever they are executed they return the database as how it exists currently.  For Groups, they exist as they are built at the point in time they are built, they are a snapshot of the datbase at a specific point in time.

For 'Speed': Groups are the fastest.  If you are using GoldMine Standard Edition Filters & SQL Queries can be slow to access because they have to scan the entire database when they are run.  Groups will be faster because they are prebuilt.  If you are using GoldMine Corporate Edition they will almost always be incredibly fast becauase Microsoft SQL Sever is very efficient at performing these operations.

For 'Difficulty': Filters are the easiest as they provide the last number of options.  As one might expect, as your options increase so does the difficulty.

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Wild card searching is allowing some mix of characters, any characters, to occur within the field you are searching. 

For example, you are searching for 'City of Midland' in your database as a company name, what if it was entered "Midland, City Of" or just "Midland".  Or, if you are searching by Additional Contacts, and you don't remember the person's first name so you want to search by last name.  It'd be nice to just type Midland and any contact with Midland anywhere in the company name would show up.

If you are using GoldMine 4.0, 5.x, or 6.x with a Microsoft SQL Server database (Corporate Edition) or 7.0 with either the Microsoft SQL or FireBird database you can!

Simply type a '%' (without the quotes) before the string of character you are searching for.  Here's an example from the Contact Search Center.

In GoldMine 6.0 and above, you have the ability to customize the columns you see in the Contact Search Center.  The Contact Search Center is simply the formal name of the window that pops up when you are trying to find a contact....  Here it is:

It should look familiar.  By default, you will see the Company, Contact, City and Phone1 fields.  However, this can be changed!  In the Contact Search Center toolbar (The icons just above "Lookup") all the way to the right you'll see an icon that looks almost like an Excel spreadsheet.  I've put a red box around it in the screen shot above to draw your attention to it. 

That's the "Select Browser Columns" button.  Click it, and a window like this will pop up:

Too add a column simply find the column on the left, they are in alphabetical order, and double-click on it, or single click on it and use the right-arrow button.  It'll then move to the right-side of the screen.  The order of the columns can be changed by clicking on a field on the right and using the up or down buttons. 

Click "OK" and you'll see your Contact Search Center with your customized fields.  Any field from the top half of the screen (except for email or website), the summary tab, or the fields tab can be added.  Also, the column widths can be adjusted in the Contract Search Center by dragging the dividers between the column headers, just like in Excel.

When you change the columns you see or their widths this is a 'Sticky' setting.  So once it's set it does not change when you Exit GoldMine, close the Search Center, etc.  Also, it affects only you, no one else.

Happy GoldMining!

Chad

Because of some new security features in Windows, when you launch GoldMine you may receive this error message:

Not a big deal you can just click "Run" and GoldMine will operate normally, however, if you want to eliminate this message, here's how:

1) Choose Start | Run in Windows then type gpedit.msc and press OK.

2) Go to User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Attachment Manager

3) Double-click on "Inclusion list for low file types" and change the settings to the following:

Note: Where it reads, "K:\goldmine\gmw6.exe", should be changed to where your GoldMine is currently installed.

4) Close the Group Policy Editor then try to run GoldMine again.

PS Get notified of the newest Blog postings as they happen!

Go to: http://www.thegmblog.com/notify and fill out the form.  Whenever I update the Blog you'll be notified so you can check out the new post.

I was with a new client today who did a self-implementation of GoldMine and now needs some support...  I noticed they were making heavy use of the Notes tab to record call conversations, meeting notes, etc, instead of using the History tab. 

I explained the 4 reasons why not, in my opinion, to use the Notes tab, and I thought I'd share.

1) Storage Limitation.  After about 65,000 characters (8 pages) information will simply start to disappear.

2) Doesn't Sync well.  A new note inserted via Contact | Insert a Note will sync, but changes to that note, or notes not added via that method will not sync.

3) No Security.  Anyone with access to the tab can go in and delete everything there.

4) No Analysis.  If you want to find out how many calls, appointments, or actions were taken by date or GoldMine user then you are out of luck with the Notes tab.

Of course, the solution is to use Pending and/or History rather than notes... and some simple GoldMine macros and shortcuts on the Tool-bar make this process no more time consuming than using the Notes tab.  Also, if you're currently using notes GoldBox has a greate feature built-in that will convert them to history entries!

Of course, if you need help with the GoldBox operation or customizations drop me a line at csmith@plain-english.com.

Happy GoldMining!

P.S. Get notified of the newest Blog postings as they happen!

Go to: http://www.thegmblog.com/notify and fill out the form.  Whenever I update the Blog you'll be notified so you can check out the new post.

There are many ways to encourage users to fill out fields...  Here's a very non-draconian and non-invasive way to encourage the users to fully fill out a record.  This method will make the field label red if the field is left blank, therefore drawing attention to the field!

In our example we'll use the Company field; however, this can be done for any field in the top-half of the screen or the Fields tab.  First, do a Right-Click | Properties on the company field while logged in as a user with 'Master' rights.  Then go to the Color tab.

Click on the Expression radio box under Label Color and enter this:

iif(trim(company) < ' ', 255, -1)

If you are using a different field you'll need to substitute that field name for 'company'.  The 255 is the color red while the -1 is the default label color.

Then OK.   

So now it's red:

Now it isn't!

Happy GoldMining!

Evening!

Just returned late last night from doing some GoldMine training in beautiful, but cold, Toronto, Canada!  Here's a tip I shared with them that went over very well, and I think you'll like it too!

On the GoldMine calendar it, by default, shows the contact name and reference of a scheduled activity:

Wouldn't it be nice to also see the company the activity was scheduled with?  If so here's how you do it.  First, go to Edit | Preferences then to the Calendar tab then click More Options.  Choose "Show results of a xBase Expression" and type in this:

iif(trim(cal->accountno) > ' ', trim(contact1->company) + " " + trim(cal->company) + ": " + cal->ref, cal->ref)

Then Click OK.

Voila!

PS Get notified of the newest Blog postings as they happen!

Go to: http://www.thegmblog.com/notify and fill out the form.  Whenever I update the Blog you'll be notified so you can check out the new post.

Here's another question that came up in Toronto's GoldMine training...  BTW --- I've been doing GoldMine training for 6 years, even certified by FrontRange to do GoldMine training, so if you're looking for GoldMine training whether it be GoldMine 101 or GoldMine administration drop me a line at csmith@plain-english.com

... big discounts if it's somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line during the Michigan winter! ;-) 

By default, when you alarm an activity the "Alarm Lead Time" will be 10 minutes prior to when the activity is scheduled to take place.  You schedule an activity for 9:30, check the alarm box, and the alarm will be set for 9:20.  This can be changed at that time, but that's the default...

Often times, especially for appointments you'll want to increase this time which can be done on an activity by activity basis by simply changing the time.  If you'd like to increase the default lead time first go to Edit | Preferences then click the Alarms tab.

In the upper-right of the alarms tab is, "Alarms default lead time".  Change that to however many minutes you'd like the default alarm lead time to be!

PS Get notified of the newest Blog postings as they happen!

Go to: http://www.thegmblog.com/notify and fill out the form.  Whenever I update the Blog you'll be notified so you can check out the new post.

First, I hope you had a very enjoyable Holiday, this might be the last post for this year!  Here's to a prosperous 2007!

If you're a user of Groups in GoldMine you'll find this a very handy tip.  Groups, unlike filters or SQL Queries are static, meaning they represent the database when the group was created, a snap-shot, if you will, of the database at a particular point in time.

(For more information on the differences between Filters, Group, and SQL Queries check out this posting: http://goldmineblog.typepad.com/the_goldmine_blog/2006/10/filters_groups_.html)

Since groups are static I find it convenient to 'Date Stamp' the group so I know when it was created.  To do this we can use the 'Code' field for a group.

To make this process even easier we can add a dBASE macro to insert the data automatically for us.  The value should be:

~date()

That code will automatically insert today's date into the field!  Neat eh?  The Code field is limited to 8 characters so we have to stick with the DD/MM/YY format. 

If, when you use this macro, you get '12/26/20' for example you'll need to change your Window's short date setting to use the DD/MM/YY format.  This can be done in the Windows Control Panel under 'Regional and Language Options'.  Once in that Control Panel click 'Customize' then change the short date setting under the Date tab. 

Get notified of the newest Blog postings as they happen!

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It happens every day... 

You'll be on someone's record in GoldMine, not finished on the work there, and need to go to a different record, then flip back to the original record to complete some work.

To make the process of moving back to the original record a little quicker you can cycle through the last 5 records you were on by holding down the Control key then pressing Page Up or Page Down.

Get notified of the newest Blog postings as they happen!

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Simple.  Powerful.

What could be better?  GoldMine's scheduling and calendaring capabilities help keep you organized for appointments, calls, and, in general, what you need to be doing.

Whenever you complete an activity, whether it be a phone call, an appointment, or a next action GoldMine gives you the option to schedule a follow up activity. 

You visit a client or prospect, come back to the office, and complete the activity.  Great!  You've marked it as done.  You've automatically moved the activity to the History tab.  You've helped build the 'Corporate Memory' of all interactions with that particular contact.  As you're completing, why not:

• Schedule yourself a reminder to call them back in two weeks, or
• Schedule a next action to create a quote or proposal for them, or
• Schedule a forecasted sale on business you discussed?

Below is a screen shot of the standard completion window.  Notice, in the lower left, the Checkbox for "Schedule a Follow-Up".

Check that box then select the type of activity to schedule from the drop down tot he right.  After clicking OK you'll automatically be taken to the standard schedule an activity window.

If you'd like to 'Carry Over' the reference and notes from the completed activity to the activity you're scheduling that can be done via Edit | Preferences then the Schedule tab.

How many records in your filter?

... this is quickie as its been a long long day.  Let me assure you, that while I am a big fan of Microsoft CRM, it does have its share of quirks just like GoldMine.  Fortunately I left the customer in a happy state after applying a fix roll up and finding a couple of work-arounds.  Implementing both GoldMine & Microsoft CRM keeps me grounded.  When I get down on GM for this or that I can realize that software, like myself, is never perfect.

Now for our quick tip!

Filters in GoldMine let you segment your database based on any criteria in the top-half of the screen, fields tab, or summary tab, with the exception of e-mail and web site.  This feature lets you do targeted marketing via email, letters, calls, etc. as well as global replaces, deletes, etc. against a subset of the database.

Here's a little tip if you want to know how many records are in a filter.  Once the filter has been created and you are back at the Filters tab of Filters & Groups...  Do a Right-Click | Count on the filter of interest.

After doing a count GoldMine will tell you:

1) How many records are in the filter; and

2) What % of the database the filter represents!

Happy GoldMining,

Chad

... "Great, I'll call you back tomorrow then."  We've all said it!  Then we diligently go into GoldMine and schedule ourselves a call for tomorrow so we actually remember to call them back.

Here's a trick to make that process a little bit quicker.  In the Date field when scheduling the call (But this works for any type of activity), instead of typing in a date, or using the lookup to bring up a calendar, type in 1D. 

Then, magically, when you tab or click, to the next field the date will be set for 1 day from Today.

Assume, then, that you want to schedule the activity 2 days from now, well, just type in 2D, for 3 days 3D.  

D works for Days, W for Weeks, and M for Months.  So to schedule something 2 months from now, Just 2M!

GoldMine utilizes a concurrent licensing model.  Under that licensing model you have a set number of licenses up to that many people may login to GoldMine at any point in time. 

The other licensing model that’s popular among CRM vendors is named user licensing.  Under named user licensing you must purchase a license for anyone who needs to login to the CRM system, even if it’s only for 10 minutes a month. 

The concurrent licensing model is definitely more friendly to the customer!

One issue, though, that customers may run into is someone who logs into GoldMine and stays logged in, taking up a license, even if they aren’t doing any work.  By forcing these people to log out of GoldMine after a set period of inactivity you can free up that license for someone else. 

To force that log out, go to File | Configure | User Settings.  You’ll need master right’s to do this.  Once there Double-Click on any user.  Notice at the bottom of the user’s Profile tab is “When Idle for 30 minutes. 

The 30 can be changed to any value to force the user out after not doing any action in GoldMine for that long.   Setting that value to 0, turns off the forced logout.

Happy GoldMining!

Here’s an easy way to make entering data quicker, and improve the ‘cleanliness’ of the data in your GoldMine, i.e. prospect not spelled 5 different ways.

If you right-click within any field GoldMine’s Field Lookup Dialogue Box pops up…

Here you can add, delete, and edit the lookup entries for just about any field in GoldMine.  Also, in this screen you’ll notice a Setup button to change preferences and settings for this field.  (These settings affect only the field you are on but are universal amongst users).

You’ll notice one checkbox in here is Auto Fill.  When checked GoldMine will ‘complete’ the data entry in a field for you, like this:

I just typed a ‘C’ and GoldMine finished the rest since ‘Consulting’ is one of the entries in our Lookup for the Industry field.

Happy GoldMining!

The ability to schedule an activity, and have it linked to a contact, is what makes GoldMine different from other calendaring applications.  In training I always counsel my clients to first find the record you want to schedule an activity for, then schedule an activity.

… But, what if you forget to find the record you want to schedule the activity for, or, are scheduling from the GoldMine Calendar?

Here’s a great tip for those situations!

So, if you accidentally begin scheduling the activity for the wrong contact, you can click the search button to the left of the contact name, and select Lookup Another Contact to change the person.

This brings up the standard Contact Search Center.  Use it, as you normally would, to find a contact.  After double-clicking on the contact you'll be brought back to the schedule window, and, the activity will now be linked with a new contact!

There are a few different ways to bring up the Contact Search Center (CSS) in GoldMine in order to find a record.  The CSS, by the way, is the ‘correct’ way of referring to this:

It is what we all use dozens of times a day to find a contact or company in GoldMine.  My favorite way of bringing this up is to simply double-left-click on the field that I want to search by.  So, if I want to find someone by their company name, I’d double-click on the company field.

After double-clicking on the company field the CSS is displayed with the lookup set to company.  (Just like the first graphic). 

You can double-click on any of GoldMine’s indexed fields including: Company, contact, last name, city, state, zip, phone1, and any of the Key fields.  (The key fields are those located in the lower-right quadrant of GoldMine).
 

GoldMine 6.70.61214 brought Internet Explorer 7.0 compatibility to GoldMine.  It also brought a nasty bug.  If you complete an unscheduled activity, e.g. select Complete | Unscheduled Call or Complete | Pending Activity from the main menu you’ll find that the activity will often simply ‘disappear’.

Not Good.

Thework-around is to schedule a ‘dummy’ activity for every contact record.  A contact with an activity pending will not be subject to the above problem.  We can do this by scheduling any sort of an activity to the entire database.

I’ve scheduled an activity to the ‘Master’ user to overcome the bug for clients.  After an update to GoldMine 6.70.61214 is released, we can use the Auto-Update feature in the Activity List to delete all ‘dummy’ activities. 

Rolling back to GoldMine 6.70.50123 is also an option, however, since the new build of GoldMine, probably, 6.70.70226, will be released soon that will fix the problem, this is probably a good work-around at this time unless you're seeing additional problems.

PS - Since most of you are probably not using this release of GoldMine this is a non-notify post.

First, my apologies to readers in Africa, Oceania, and South America, for the “Northern Hemisphere-Centric” nature of the title!  But the tip will help you, whether you’re entering spring or fall!

… And it’s definitely March here in Detroit.  Yesterday, I was greeted with 1 ½ inches of snow on the car as I left in the morning, by the time I arrived home, the snow had melted, and I noticed the first tulip starting to make its way out of the ground!

I love Garrison Keillor’s quote, “God designed the month of March ‘to show people who don’t drink what a hangover feels like.’”  

So, the spring season has now begun and, it’s time for some Spring cleaning on our GoldMine database!  Or, for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, you can do some fall cleaning as well.

Today’s tip is how to do a ‘Merge Purge on Tagged Records’.  When a merge/purge is done we combine two records into one.  Information on the contacts, details, referrals, history, links, opportunity, and project tabs will be combined into a single record.  For fields like contact, company, etc. the record we tag first will win.  If the first record tagged is missing information, say a fax number, but the second tagged record isn’t, the fax number will be populated in the surviving record.  This is my favorite method for removing duplicate records from my GoldMine!

First, we need to Tag two records.  This is done in the Contact Search Center by holding down the Control key and doing a Single-Left Click on the two records you want to merge together.

After tagging two records you’ll notice the title bar of your contact record will tell you that you have two tagged records.

There is no undo after a merge/purge so be sure you have the correct two records tagged.  Check and Double-Check!

If you want to un-tag the records simply close the Contact Search Center. 

With the two records tagged choose Tools | Merge/Purge Records | Merge Tagged Records from the main menu.

GoldMine will warn you…  

Click Yes to complete the Merge/Purge.

Happy GoldMining!

If you need to quickly copy a contact’s basic information such as name, address, phone number, email address, etc. here’s how to do it.

From the Edit menu select Copy Contact Details.

From there you will be prompted to specify what contact information to copy.

Note that the first three options are exclusive… You can’t copy “Name, Address” and “Name, Title, Address”… Which makes sense, why would you want the contact’s name copied twice?

Once you’ve determined what information to copy simply click the Copy button.  From there you can Paste the information into just about any other application, such as, Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.

Not a big deal at the time, but when you are ready to do some marketing or list generation it’s a big deal!  Then you look at your empty fields and getting the data at that point in time can seem like an insurmountable task.

To, not so gently, encourage users to fill out those fields we can turn on, on a field-by-field basis, “Required Data Entry”.  This forces a user to enter data into a field when the record is created or changed.  To turn on this option for a field simply do a Right-Click | Properties on the field in question, then choose the Security tab.  Note: You need master rights to make this change. 

After checking this box and clicking OK you’ll notice a red-box around the field, indicating that it is required.

If you attempt to leave the record without filling in the field by using the Contact Search Center or closing GoldMine, it is not going to happen!

If the user has “Required Field Override” checked in their user security settings they can click Skip Required Entry and give a reason for not entering the information.  Otherwise, they’ll need to click OK and enter data into the field.

It’s important not to go overboard with this feature.  Turning this on for too many fields can make using GoldMine, at worst, nearly impossible, and at best very frustrating.  Using it judiciously, however, can significantly increase the value and usefulness of your GoldMine data.

Curious what you or your colleagues have been doing?  Check out the Activity List’s Real Time tab. 

Open the Activity List (View | Activity List) and along the lower bank of tabs to the far right you’ll see Real Time.  

All completed history activities will show up in the Real-Time tab.  If you’re on GoldMine Corporate Edition or GoldMine Premium Edition only today’s activities will be shown by default.  

If you do a Right-Click | Options within the Real-Time tab you can change the date range you’re viewing, and also filter down the tab to only see a particular user, date range, reference, activity code, etc.

If you want to keep your employees from checking out what others are doing you can turn off someone’s ability to see the Real-Time tab in the access settings of their user’s properties.

Like almost everywhere else in GoldMine a Right-Click | Output To will allow you to send this information to Excel or the Printer.

If you use GoldMine's Links tab it’s easy!  (This is the same process for Standard, Corporate, or Premium).

In each GoldMine record you will have “Links” tab.  Often times I’ll rename it “Docs” when I implement, but it’s the same thing.  If you don’t see it, you may need to click the Right Arrow on the far right of your tabs.



There is our Links tab.



Once a document is on the Links tab a simple Double-Click will open it.  Any kind of document, from Word, to Excel, to PDF, to a Graphic can be ‘linked’ via the Links tab.

To manually add a document…  First, Right-Click | New from within the white area of the Links tab.
 


This will bring up the Linked Document window.  Type in a few words to describe the document in the Document Name area.   

Then click the Open button, I’ve high-lighted that in Red in the graphic. 

This will bring up the standard Windows Open Dialogue box.  Navigate to where you’ve saved the document, select it, then click Open.

That doesn’t actually open the document; it just tells GoldMine where you’ve saved it.  If you want other people in your office to be able to open the document from GoldMine as well as yourself, you’ll need to save it somewhere on the network where everyone is able to access it.  GoldMine doesn’t save the document in its database, it’s saving a pointer to the document.

Click OK, and it’ll show up on the links tab! 

If you’re saving a Word or Excel document, and you have the GoldMine link to Word and Excel installs you can save that document to the Links tab simply by selecting Save as Linked Document from the GoldMine menu.

… If you’re in sales, then this shouldn’t be a new concept.  Your hot list is simply your top prospects or opportunities.  Here’s an easy way to keep these at ‘top of mind’.

There are many ways to do this within GoldMine…  Here’s one way that offers the individual sales rep the most flexibility, but will also allow managers to report on the lists if necessary.  

Our first step is to create an empty group.  In Part #2 I’ll cover adding contact to the Hot List.  To create a group, first, go to View | Contact Groups.

In the top half of the Contact Group window right-click then click New.

The Group Name is how we’ll reference the group.  You may simply call it “Hot List”, or, perhaps, you want to have a couple of hot lists so can also name it something else, such as “Gadgets Hot List”.  GoldMine doesn’t care.

Uncheck Build the Group.  If you are in a sync environment with laptops and you want others to see the group then check Synchronize Group.

Click OK.  You’ll now see your “Gadgets Hot List” group with 0 members.  Next week we’ll start adding contacts to this group. 

In our previous entry, we created an empty Group to track our ‘Hot List’ in.  Here’s how to add people to the Hot List.

First, find the Members tab in GoldMine.  You may need to Click on the Right-Arrow to the right side of your screen to see it.

Once you find the members tab do a Right-Click | New from within the area under the tab to add this contact to the ‘Hot List’.

Choose the Group to add the contact to… In this case it’s our ‘Gadgets Hot List’.

Voila!  They are added to the group.

You can also add contacts to a group by dragging them from the Contact Search Center into the members area within the Groups window.  

Once the Group is built you can run reports against it, schedule calls against everyone in the group, print them out from the Contact Search Center, etc…

You’ll see the complete list of contacts in a group from the Filters & Groups area (View | Contact Groups).  From there you can also choose Right-Click | Output  to print the members list.