The Master Control Panel

The Standard CRM work area contains a single movable tool palette, the Master Control panel, located by default in the centre of the screen.

You can open the Master Control panel or bring it to the front at any time by choosing 'Master Control' from the File menu. Windows users can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-M, while Mac OS X users can use ⌘-M. To close the Master Control panel, click the close box or use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl-F4/⌘-W.

The Master Control panel is divided into three main parts:
Please click the links below for information about the functions and routines that you can control from the Master Control panel:
Go back to:

Routines

The 'Routines' section of the Master Control panel contains tools that you can use to produce reports, print documents, set preferences, import and export information, run Maintenance functions (batch processing routines), and register your copy of Standard CRM.

You can use three of these tools by clicking the [Reports], [Documents] and [Settings] buttons in the Master Control panel. To use the remaining tools, click the [Routines] button. This will open the 'Routines' window, in which you can click the button that you need:

Please click the links for more details about each routine:
Go back to:

Routines - Reports

Reporting in Standard CRM is non-destructive, i.e. you can make and print a report as many times as you wish. Some programs are designed in such a way as to allow journal printing only directly in connection with the data entry. Standard CRM does not have this limitation.

When you click the [Reports] button in the Master Control panel or use the Ctrl-R (Windows) or ⌘-R (Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut, a window will be opened, containing a list of all available reports. The contents of this window will vary with the selected module: the illustration below shows the reports in the Contact module (if you have any Value Packs or Extra Features, you may see more reports than are shown in the illustration):

Choose a report by clicking an item in the list once. If you need to set the page size, number of copies and other printer options for the report, choose 'Page Setup' from the File menu. You can also use this function to choose the printer on which the report is to be printed. These settings will be used whenever you print the report until you choose 'Page Setup' once again.

Once you have done this, double-click the report name in the list. A specification window will open, where you can choose the information that you want to be shown in the report. For example, when producing a Quotation Journal, you can use its specification window (illustrated below) to choose the period that is to be covered by the report.

While the specification window is open, you can choose the destination of the printout by selecting one of the Media options at the bottom of the window. These are the available options:
Screen
If you print to screen (the default setting), the report will be shown in a new window (described here). You can subsequently send the report to a printer by clicking the Printer icon in the Button Bar of this window or by selecting 'Print' from the File menu.

Printer
Use this option to send the report directly to a printer.

File
Choose this option to export the contents of a report to a tab-delimited text file on your hard disk. You can then open this file in Excel, for further calculations etc, or in Word or a page make-up program, for incorporation in publicity material or published reports.

Clipboard
This option will place the contents of a report in your computer's clipboard, from where you can paste it into another application.

Fax
You cannot use this option with reports.

Pdf
Choose this option to print a report as a PDF file on your hard disk.

Excel
This option opens the Excel application and creates a new workbook containing the report.

Html as Attachment
This option will place an html version of a report in your Personal Desktop. You may need to close and re-open the Master Control panel to see the report there.

You can only use this option in a multi-user system, where it can be useful when you need to produce a long report. You can print a report using this option, log off and leave the server to produce the report overnight, and the report will be waiting for you in your Personal Desktop the next day.

To open the report, highlight it in your Personal Desktop and choose 'Open Record' from the Master Control panel's Operations menu. The report will be shown in a new window in your browser.
If your database is in restricted mode, you will only be able to print a report using the Screen option.

If you want a print dialogue to appear when you send the report to a printer, check the Print Dialog box (last of the Media options). You might do this if you want to print several copies of a report.

Once you have entered the reporting criteria and have chosen a print destination, click [Run] to produce the report.

Individual Reports
Please click the links for details about the individual reports, descriptions of which have been divided into the following categories:

In this chapter:
Go back to:

Routines - Documents

Documents are more formal printouts, usually printed using forms, such as Quotations. They are often directed to third parties (e.g. Customers or Suppliers). Standard CRM offers several documents in each module.

When you click the [Documents] button in the Master Control panel or use the Ctrl-D (Windows) or ⌘-D (Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut, a window will be opened, containing a list of the available documents. The documents available vary with the selected module: the illustration below shows those in the Contact module (if you have any Value Packs or Extra Features, you may see more documents than are shown in the illustration):

Choose a document by clicking an item in the list once. If you need to set the page size, number of copies and other printer options for the document, choose 'Page Setup' from the File menu. You can also use this function to choose the printer on which the document is to be printed. These settings will be used whenever you print the particular document until you choose 'Page Setup' once again, or until you choose 'Remove Page Setup' from the Operations menu.

Once you have done this, double-click the document name in the list. A specification window will open, where you can choose the information that you want to be shown in the report. For example, when printing Quotations, you can use the specification window (illustrated below) to choose the Quotations that you want to print.

While the specification window is open, you can choose the destination of the printout by selecting one of the Media options at the bottom of the window. If your database is in restricted mode, you can only use the Screen option. You can only use the Fax option on a Windows machine with Fax Services installed.

Once you have specified the documents that you want to be printed and have chosen a print destination, click [Run] to print the documents.

Defining Documents
You must assign a Form to each document before you print it for the first time. The Form is the design or layout of the document. You can have a single Form for each document, or you may have several versions of a particular type of document, to be used on different occasions. To assign a Form or Forms to a document, open the 'Documents' list as described above, highlight the document in the list, and select 'Define Document' function from the Operations menu. Click the button in the top left-hand corner of the 'Documents' list window and illustrated below to access the Operations menu:

Before you can specify when each Form is to be used, you should design the Forms using the Form register in the System module. Full details of this design process can be found here.

Having designed your Forms, use the 'Define Document' function to specify when each one will be used, as described below. In this example, we will imagine that we have designed a Form named "QUOTATION", and we want this Form to be used whenever we print an Quotation:

  1. Use the [Module] button in the Master Control panel or the Ctrl-0/⌘-0 keyboard shortcut to choose the module in which the document is to be found. In the case of the Quotation document, this is the Contact module.

  2. Click the [Documents] button in the Master Control panel or use the Ctrl-D/⌘-D keyboard shortcut. The 'Documents' list window will be opened showing a list of available documents. Highlight the document that you need to define ('Quotations' in the example).

  3. Select 'Define Document' from the Operations menu. Specify "QUOTATION" as the Form on the first row, and enter the following:
    Seq
    Use this column if you want to print two (or more) different documents from a single command. For example, you might want to print Quotations on two printers: one containing plain paper and one containing headed paper. If you want a Quotation to be printed on plain paper first, allocate Seq. no. 1, to this row and Seq. no 2 to the row with the Printer with headed paper.

    Form
    Enter the Form Code of the relevant Form in this field. This field is case sensitive: you should only use upper case characters. Use 'Paste Special' to select from a list of Forms as set up in the System module. Please refer to the description of the Form register for details about designing Forms, and here for details about the 'Paste Special' feature.
  4. Click [Save] to save the document definition. In this example, when you print Quotations from now on, they will always be printed using the "QUOTATION" Form, without further user intervention.

    You can repeat this process for almost all documents as required.

Individual Documents
Please click the links for details about the individual documents, descriptions of which have been divided into the following categories:
In this chapter:
Go back to:

Routines - Settings

This command opens the 'Settings' list window where you will find an alphabetical list of the settings that are available in the current module. Settings allow you to tailor certain aspects of the program's operation to your requirements, and to supply information to be used throughout the program.

The contents of the 'Settings' list window vary according to the module selected. The illustration below shows the different settings in the System (on the left) and Contact modules (if you have any Value Packs or Extra Features, you may see more settings than are shown in the illustration).

Choose an entry in the list by double-clicking it, or by selecting it and pressing the Enter key. Settings are described individually in the appropriate sections of these web pages.

Types of Setting
The settings in Standard CRM can be divided into three groups:

  1. Settings of the first type take the form of a single screen where you can set preferences to determine exactly how Standard CRM is to operate in a certain situation. Examples of such settings include Configuration, Company Date and Numeric Format, and Company Info.

    When you open one of these settings from the 'Settings' list, you can change any of the fields as required. To save changes and close the window, click the [Save] button. To close the window without saving changes, click the close box.

  2. Settings of the second type contain a number of records that are displayed in a grid. Each row in the grid represents a separate record. Examples of such settings include Quotation Classes and VAT Codes.

    When you open one of these settings from the 'Settings' list, you can change any of the fields in the existing records as required. To add new records to the list, click in any field in the first blank row and enter appropriate text. To remove a record, click on the row number on the left of the row containing the record and press the Backspace key. To insert a row, click on the row number where the insertion is to be made and press Return. To save changes to all records in the grid and close the window, click the [Save] button. To close the window without saving changes, click the close box.

    When working in one of the main registers, you may need to refer to a particular record in a setting of this type: the 'Paste Special' look-up function is provided to make this task as easy as possible. For example, when entering a Quotation, you can use 'Paste Special' to choose the relevant Quotation Class. To help you choose the correct record using 'Paste Special', it is recommended that you keep the rows in the alphabetical order of the Codes.

  3. Settings of the final type also contain a number of records, but behave in a similar manner to the main registers in that their contents are displayed in a browse window and have to be opened in a record window for editing. Again, when working in one of the main registers, you may have to refer to a particular record in a setting of this type using the 'Paste Special' look-up function. Examples of such settings include Price Lists and Payment Terms.

    When you open one of these settings from the 'Settings' list, the browse window is displayed, listing the records already entered.

    Double-click an item in the list to edit it, or add a new record by clicking the [New] button in the Button Bar. Alternatively, highlight a record similar to the one you want to enter and click [Duplicate] on the Button Bar. A record window is then opened, allowing you to change the existing record or enter the new one.

    To save changes, click the [Save] button. To close the window without saving changes, click the close box. You can also close the browse window using the close box.
Individual Settings
Please click the links for details about the individual settings, descriptions of which have been divided into the following categories:
In this chapter:
Go back to:

Routines - Exports

The Exports routine allows you to export information from your Standard CRM database to tab-delimited text files on your hard disk. This information is then available for use in other programs, such as word processors, spreadsheets, database programs etc. You can also import the information into other Standard CRM databases or Companies using the 'Automatic' and 'Automatic manual file search' Import routines in the System module.

To begin exporting, click the [Routines] button in the Master Control panel and then the [Exports] button in the 'Routines' window. Alternatively you can use the Ctrl-E (Windows) or ⌘-E (Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut at any time (even if the Master Control panel is hidden). The 'Exports' list window is then opened, listing the Exports that you can produce from the active module. The options available in the 'Exports' list vary according to the active module: the majority of Exports are in the Integration module, as shown in the illustration below:

Double-click the required item in the list: a specification window will then appear, where you can decide the contents of the exported text file. Click [Run] and a 'Save File' dialogue box will appear, where you can name the file and determine where it is to be saved.

To gain access to the Integration module, you must log in as a Person whose Access Group explicitly grants full access to that module.

By default, text files exported from a Standard CRM database will contain Unicode characters. You can change this by specifying a Default Export Codepage in the Local Machine setting in the User Settings module.

As well as exporting information to text files, you can also use the Exports routine to back up your Standard CRM database. For full details of how to do this, please refer to the Backing Up page. For security reasons, the 'Company Text Backup' and 'Database Text Backup' exports do not produce text files as mentioned above but encrypted files that can only be read by another copy of Standard CRM.

Note that you can also print all Standard CRM reports to disk as text files. This, in combination with the Exports routine, makes it very easy to retrieve information from Standard CRM for use with other applications.

Individual Export Functions
Please click the links for details about the individual export functions, descriptions of which have been divided into the following categories:

In this chapter:
Go back to:

Routines - Imports

The Imports routine allows you to import the contents of text files, previously saved in the proper format, into the Company you are working with. Usually, only new records will be added during the import process, and there is no danger that you will get duplicate data of any kind in your database. However, if you import a setting that is a set of fields and check boxes (e.g. the Company Date and Numeric Format and Activity Types, Subsystems settings), the imported setting will overwrite the existing setting.

To begin importing, click the [Routines] button in the Master Control panel and then the [Imports] button in the 'Routines' window. Alternatively you can use the Ctrl-Shift-I (Windows) or ⌘-Shift-I (Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut at any time (even if the Master Control panel is hidden). The 'Imports' list window will be opened, where you can specify what is to be imported. The options available in the 'Imports' list window will vary, depending on the active module. Double-click the option that you need and then, when the 'Open File' dialogue box opens, locate and open the import file in the normal way.

You must save or cancel all changes before trying to import information. If you are modifying a record or setting (i.e. at least one window is open with the title 'Update'), you will be told 'Some records/blocks are locked' when you attempt to use the Imports routine.

In multi-user systems, you can only use the Imports routine when you are the only user logged in.

You should use the Imports routine to restore your Standard CRM database from a back-up and when updating to a new version of the program. For full details of how to do this, please refer to the Restoring from a Back-up page.

You should also use the Imports routine to import information previously exported from another Standard CRM database or from a text file created by another program. In the latter instance, you should ensure the text file is correctly formatted (contains the information in the correct order) before importing. This format information is available from your local Standard CRM representative and can also be found in the Export Format report in the Technics module.

Usually, you will use the 'Automatic' or 'Automatic manual file search' import functions in the System module to import information in this way. These functions require the following lines to appear at the beginning of the import file:

format
1    46    1    0    1    44    0    /

codepage    UTF-8
The numbers in the second line should be separated by tabs. There should be at least one empty line before the codepage. The word "codepage" and the codepage should be separated by a tab.

The numbers in the second line are parameters that inform the import procedure about the contents of the import file, as follows:

Date Order
The first parameter tells the import procedure what date format you have used in the text file. You can use the following values:
0
Month/Day/Year

1
Day/Month/Year

2
Year/Month/Date

3
Month/Year/Day

4
Day/Year/Month

5
Year/Day/Month

6
Hijri (Arabic)

7
Persian
Decimal Character
The second parameter uses ASCII codes to tell the import procedure what decimal character you have used in the text file. Typical values are:
44
comma

46
full stop
Import Mode
Use the third parameter to specify the platform on which you created the text file, as follows:
0
Mac OS X, AIX, iSeries

1
Windows, Linux
The import procedure will use the default codepage for the platform specified here for string conversion if the fifth parameter (String Type) is 0 and if there is no "codepage" line at the beginning of the file.

Replace Mode
This parameter tells the import procedure what to do if information in the text file duplicates what is already in the database.
0
Any duplicate information in the text file will not be imported. Records in the database will not be replaced.

1
Duplicate information in the text file will be imported, overwriting existing records in the database. This applies to entire records. For example, there is an existing Customer 001 in the database with the name Customer A and Payment Terms 30 days, and in the import file Customer 001 has the name Customer AA and no Payment Terms. The import procedure will overwrite the entire record for Customer 001, so the result will be that it has the name Customer AA and no Payment Terms. Records in the database with no duplicate in the text file will not be touched.
Note that blocks will always be overwritten with duplicate information from a text file, irrespective of whether this parameter is 0 or 1. There are two types of block: the setting that is a set of fields and check boxes (e.g. Company Date and Numeric Format, Activity Types, Subsystems); and the setting that is a series of rows (e.g. Quotation Classes, VAT Codes).

String Type
Use the fifth parameter to specify the character set used in the text file:
0
The text file contains characters belonging to a single character set (e.g. ASCII, KOI-8R [Russian Cyrillic], ISO-8859-1 [Western European]).

1
The text file contains Unicode characters.
If this parameter is 0 and if there is no "codepage" line at the beginning of the file, the third parameter will determine the codepage/character set.

By default, text files exported from a Standard CRM database will contain Unicode characters. You can change this by specifying a Default Export Codepage in the Local Machine setting in the User Settings module.

Thousands Separator
The sixth parameter uses ASCII codes to tell the import procedure what thousands separator you have used in the text file. Typical values are:
0
No thousands separator

32
space

44
comma

45
hyphen

46
full stop
Escape Character
The seventh parameter is not currently (version 6.2) used by the import procedure. You should place a 0 (zero) in this position as shown in the example at the beginning of this section.

Date Separator
The eighth parameter will tell the import procedure what date separator you have used in the text file. This parameter should be the actual character, not the ASCII code. Typical values are:
(blank)
System default (set in the Company Date and Numeric Format setting in the System module)

/
/

.
.

-
-
Use the "codepage" line to name the character set that you have used in the text file. This line should contain the appropriate value taken from the left-hand column in the following table:
UTF-8UTF-8 (Unicode)
ISO-8859-1ISO 8859-1 (Western Europe)
ISO-8859-4ISO 8859-4 (Baltic)
ISO-8859-5ISO 8859-5 (Cyrillic)
ISO-8859-15ISO 8859-15 (Western European with Euro sign)
US-ASCIIUS ASCII
CP437DOS CP 437 (US)
CP850DOS CP 850 (Western Europe)
CP1250Windows codepage 1250 (Central Europe)
CP1251Windows codepage 1251 (Cyrillic)
CP1252Windows codepage 1252 (Western Europe)
CP1257Windows codepage 1257 (Baltic)
KOI8-RKOI8-R (Cyrillic)
MACINTOSHApple Western Europe
ACEApple Central Europe
ACYRApple Cyrillic
Generating Unique Numbers
If you are importing Quotations, the import file may already contain Quotation Numbers. However, you may want new numbers to be assigned to each record as part of the import process. If so, enter "-99" in the import file in the space where each Quotation Number would otherwise appear. When each record is imported, it will be given the next number in the relevant Number Series, as if you had entered it yourself.

If you use this feature, take great care over the following two points:

  1. The Quotation Number is determined by the Quotation Date. The Quotation Number will be the first unused number in the Number Series for the year or other period in which the Quotation Date of the Quotation falls. Make sure you include a Quotation Date for each record in your import file, otherwise the imported records could be placed in the wrong number sequence.

  2. Make sure there are sufficient unused numbers in the relevant Number Series for the number of records that will be imported. If there are not enough unused numbers in the relevant Number Series, some records will not be given numbers at all.
Individual Import Functions
Please click the links for details about the individual import functions, descriptions of which have been divided into the following categories:
In this chapter:
Go back to:

Routines - Maintenance

Maintenance functions allow you to carry out certain updating tasks, usually involving batch processing: examples include adding Contact Classifications to or removing them from Customers and updating Quotations with the latest Item, Price and Customer information.

To run a Maintenance function, click the [Routines] button in the Master Control panel and then the [Maintenance] button in the 'Routines' window. A list window will appear, from where you can choose the required option by double-clicking. The options in the list will vary, depending on the active module. Illustrated below are the Maintenance functions in the Contact module:

When you choose a function by double-clicking, a specification window will appear, where you can decide how the function is to operate. Click [Run] to operate the function.

Individual Maintenance Functions
Please click the links for details about the individual Maintenance functions, descriptions of which have been divided into the following categories:

In this chapter:
Go back to:

Routines - Registration

Use this routine to register your copy of Standard CRM. Please refer to the Enabler Key page for full details.

---

In this chapter:

Go back to:

Passwords

You can set or change your password from the Master Control panel. Bring the Master Control panel to the front using the Ctrl-M (Windows) or ⌘-M (Mac OS X) keyboard shortcut, and then select 'Change Password' from the Operations menu. Enter the old password if there is one and then type in the new one twice to ensure that it is correct. Click [ve] to close the window and save, or [Cancel] if you do not want to save changes. The password is case-sensitive.

When you first used the old password, you may have specified that you wanted Standard CRM to remember it so that you did not have to enter it yourself each time you log in (as described in step 7 on this page). If so, the first time you use the new password, you will be asked once again if you want it to be remembered. Please refer to the description of the 'Stop Auto Login' function for more details.

In a single-user system, you can only set or change your password if a record for you already exists in the Person register (i.e. you had to log in to Standard CRM). If this is not the case, you must create such a record first: please refer here for details.

---

In this chapter:

Go back to: