Hi,

We are an events company www.capabilityevents.co.uk and we use Daylite V1.9

At present our workflow is this.

Client initial contact- create contact and organisation, write notes, create opp fill in all blanks about event and set tasks.

We then use pipeline and stages to manage client until they book.

Once booked we always keep opp as an opp and not a project as this would remove the event from the pipeline and therefore the cash flow prediction would not be valid in the sales forecast. This forecast is very important to us in getting a handle on the cash flow.

Is this the best way of doing things? We tend to find that the clients book and constantly change their minds about what they are having right up until the first hour of the event! By keeping the opp open we can make these changes and retain the cash flow forecast.

Anyone got any tips?

Cheers

Hi Ben,

Actually I've been using DL (1.9 and now 3) for a mobile DJ business so I'm in a pretty similar industry as you guys. Unfortunately, I've all but abandoned doing any kind of financial forecasting in DL right now because I've found that it's really just not very well geared to that use. On the other hand, I've found that converting Opportunities to Projects does give us the ability to track lead conversion which is a bit more important to our industry.

I guess the long and short of the whole thing is that if it's working for you right now, then I think you are going to probably going to want to find a really compelling reason to switch your workflow. As they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"...

In any case, good luck with DL!

Hi George,

I think your right about not relying too much on the cash flow forecasting aspect of DL. But it does give me a very rough idea of what’s coming up cash wise.

I'm interested to hear your running 1.9 and 3. Why? I'm a bit hesitant to take the leap into 3 as it means re educating my 2 staff into using what looks to a sales man like a totally different program... although the principles are the same the buttons are in different places and that can really stump some people...stop their workflow while the search for the right button to do what they could previously do in a second.

Do you use the estimating side of 3? This for me would be very useful in my biz. Can you change an estimate once you've sent it if you see what I mean.

For example. A client asks for a quote which you prepare with the estimate. Then they see the quote and ask for something else or a reduction in budget. Can this be done?

Cheers


Ben

Hi Ben,

You misunderstood me slightly, I WAS running 1.9 but have since migrated to 3. I know the feeling with the whole re-education deal but the way I figured it, we were going to move to 3 sooner or later, so we might as well do it sooner. However, I do have to admit that even though we've been on 3 for quite some time, there are still a lot of features that I would like to use but haven't even touched yet.

As far as the estimating side, we don't use it and here is why: probably 90% of our leads come from our website where customers do an online price and availability check. We capture that info with PHP/MySQL and then import it into DL using the XML WebLeads functionality. Because of that, we do actually have an estimate of what a lead might be worth (even though it is stored in a form).

So, unfortunately no, we don't use the estimates. That's one of those features that, like I said, I would like to find a use for, but have not had a chance to do so yet...

Hi Ben,

Once you send an estimate, we save a PDF in the database so you have a record.

If the client wants to change it or you offer a better deal you can change the estimate and resend - again and again and again.. every time we keep a PDF of what was sent.

As for upgrading from 1.9 - Version 3 has many improvements one of which is it is more apple like and therefore easier to get to grips with than 1.9 - the concepts have not changed.

3.0 is universal and will run on all the new intel stuff - as we develop version 3 you will see even more benefits as we take advantage of Apple's core technologies in Tiger - and perhaps whatever Leopard has to offer.

Hope this helps.

Hi Gareth,

Thanks for that. The estimating sounds ideal for us.

Cheers

Ben

quote:

Originally posted by Gareth Watson:

Once you send an estimate, we save a PDF in the database so you have a record.

If the client wants to change it or you offer a better deal you can change the estimate and resend - again and again and again.. every time we keep a PDF of what was sent.

Do these PDFs transfer over to the Project once an Opportunity turns into a Project? This is so that the users can see what they quoted without having to dredge up a closed Opportunity (that was closed because it was won).

Yes, I've also got a client in Daylite 3 which is a Catering/Event Space company. They have a riverside restaurant with a floating barge and ship tied up to it, the latter of which they rent out for various functions. I've configured them almost exactly as you've described. There are only a couple of caveats I've noticed (at least in version 3.1.1 since I'm not that familiar with version 1.x):

1. Since I've dumped their entire menu into Forms that I've created, the fact that Forms don't transfer over from Opportunities to Project is a major problem (hence them never switching over from Opportunities to Projects, even with Opportunities that are "won").

2. Ditto for "Estimates" in that they want to transfer the Estimates data into an Invoice without having to refer to a closed Opportunity.

3. Printing of Forms is a major issue since they want to print the forms with the catering and bar orders straight to the chef and her catering staff (cuts out lots of retyping in MS Word that they were doing in the past). The Forms printout capabilities are only good if it's a one-page form. Anything more and there are layout irregularities (first and last lines have their top and bottom halves cut off as if they were formatted for a different paper size) and there are 3 inch gaps between the top of the paper and where the printout beings again for all subsequent pages after the first).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kok-Yong Tan,

Just wondering if you've reported all this directly to MarketCircle? I only ask because sometimes users are not aware that posting to this board is not the best way to report bug reports or feature requests.

Yes, as a Daylite Partner, I've made sure that Marketcircle is aware of all the above caveats and they've said that it is on their feature wishlist and should debut in a future version of Daylite. I only outlined the caveats in this forum so that should someone want to try to implement what I've done, they already know what will and won't work. At least in version 3.1.1 build 969 of Daylite anyway.

quote:

the fact that Forms don't transfer over from Opportunities to Project is a major problem (hence them never switching over from Opportunities to Projects, even with Opportunities that are "won").

I agree and I have to add one more element to that gripe--forms are essentially tied to contacts as well. That's a problem for me because I use WebLeads and all of my forms get tied to my contacts. It would be really nice if there was a way that I could link the forms to the opportunity (and/or) project.

Hello Ben.
Your use of Daylite to plot the progress of projects is fine.
however a few suggestions that may be of help.

1. v1.9 has now been replaced by version 3.1.1. I would recomend that you consider upgrading because there are several advantages you may find useful as listed below.

2. You can now build your own pipelines for opps and projects.
3. you can have multiple pipelines for both opps and projects. This means you will be able to create pipelines that vary depending on the type of project you are working on. You may set up a few which align to the way you work.
4. You can take an opportunity and convert it to a project. (also possible in 1.9).
5. Instead of a single value for an opportunity you can build a list of products. This is helpful if you are changing your values as your customer changes his mind. This would enable you to break down a total cost into a series of components that make up the full value.
6. Smart lists are an excellent tool to enable you to manage multiple opps/projects. You can create a smart list for every stage in an opp/project so as to list clients at various stages in the pipeline. etc etc there are many possibilities here.

HTH

Bill Verkaik