Did anyone knows how to use extra fields in opportunity? I can't find any information on using extra fields in Daylite 3.0 manual.

Andy

Extra fields work the same for Contacts, Orgs, Opportunities etc. You define the fields in Preferences (Forms and Fields) as per the DL Manual page 46.

In terms of how to use them, you can do whatever you like with them -- they are there for you to enter custom info for your own purposes.

Nick

I've used them sparingly simply because I'm not sure what I want to do with them yet.
I'd be interested to learn how people are using them in any of the objects; contacts, orgs, opportunities, etc. What are some of the 'extras' you find useful?

Here is a rule to determine whether something should be an extra field or a form.

If you are going to record that 'data' several times, then it should be a form.
If the 'data' will be enterred once and only once (or updated), then it could be an extra field.

Originally we didn't have extra fields - it was added because in some cases, forms, are too heavy. Also you cannot display forms in the list view.

Let's say you do wedding photography and each 'job' is a opportunity (or project). In this opportunity, you would use forms for all the location information you need. You'd have a form for wedding location and all the equipment needed. You'd have another form for whatever other ceremony and the equipment needed there. Because there is multiple 'instance' of that type of data, you'd use a form instead of an extra field.

(as an aside, you'd use roles to link the bride, groom, parents, cameraman etc... You'd link appointments for the actual event dates)

Hope this helps.

I used extra field in products/services to record the cost of the product. However, the cost is fluctuating. Any idea of keeping every record of extra field without changing along with the next estimate.

Thanks AJ, that does help.

I was also wondering what sort of information people are putting in the extra fields? For example, for my wedding clients, I use an extra date field to record the day they booked the wedding. This way I can look back (and hopefully print a report although I haven't got that far yet) on how long before the actual wedding people are booking? Is it 6 mos, a year, that sort of thing.

Still early days here in terms of using extra fields, partly because they are "hidden" from the main views people use and so people don't really think to use them.

The one thing I do use them for is "data source", particularly when I'm bulk importing contacts. Knowing where people come from can be important in terms of handling the first steps of the relationship, or the last steps if they respond to say don't call me again!

Nick

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Guilbault:
Thanks AJ, that does help.

I was also wondering what sort of information people are putting in the extra fields? For example, for my wedding clients, I use an extra date field to record the day they booked the wedding. This way I can look back (and hopefully print a report although I haven't got that far yet) on how long before the actual wedding people are booking? Is it 6 mos, a year, that sort of thing.

Use an Opportunity for that. The Opportunity create date is when they initiated the deal and the opportunity close date (end date) is when they closed the deal.

How can I record costs in estimate? Every time I renew the estimate, I also renew my costs. Every estimate should record for personal refierence so that I can track my quotations. I followed Eric advices to send estimate to my customers, but I don't want to show them my costs. Costs should be showed somewhere as records for next order.

quote:

Originally posted by AJ:
Use an Opportunity for that. The Opportunity create date is when they initiated the deal and the opportunity close date (end date) is when they closed the deal.

The only problem with that, is that I want to know how long before the actual wedding date they booked. The opportunity close date is not necessarily the wedding date.

Is there a a way of making the form data appear somewhere on the contact record as opposed to having to load the form to see it?

Hi Pedro,

There is an Extra Fields HUD you can download.

Hi howard. Thanks.

I've downloaded and installed but it doesn't seem to appear in the available widgets list when you click on the + to load them. I also tried the googlemaps widget and that didn't appear in the list either.

Strangely it did work on the server.

I have the latest version of Daylite.

Is this perhaps a preference thing? Any ideas?

Thank you.

Check to see that they are in the correct folder, which is:

Home:Library:Application Supportaylite:HUDTemplates

We run an online store using Daylite Opportunities.
We use the extra fields for invoice numbers or tracking number for shipping.
We also use the extra date fields to record order date and date sent.
We then use the extra fields as part of a mail merge in our email order confirmations.
Works pretty well.