General questions

[SpeedBullet]

Hello there, I'm a new user of this forum and I'd like to become a new user of this software. It looks great, very smooth and responsive. Also, as a current user of zurmo, I'm feeling a little abandonned by the community / developers as it's a very closed kind of community. I hope espocrm will be different but looking at the responses, it's very promising.

1) I tried the advanced demo, because for future projects I would also require quotes and invoices. Still I don't see any link to invoices in the advanced demo. What's up with that? How can I check this functionality?

2) Continuing with the invoices. You would of course need products. I see there is a place to define them so that's ok. However I don't see stock numbers. Is that something that's on the roadmap or is stock management not really something you're aiming to add at the moment?

3) A year after I purchased the advanced module, will I still be able to use the extra functionality? create/modify/delete quotes/invoices, etc... ? Would there be reasons to buy the package again?

4) I also have a question about the recommended workflow when using the software as a salesperson. In Zurmo, when you have a lead, you then convert the lead to a contact and add an account or opportunity. I see this is also possible in espo but I see that the lead remeans in the lead list as a "converted lead". What is the thought process behind this behaviour?

5) What's the difference between a task and a case? Let's imagine I run a business where I also work with contractors to perform the installation of a network our salespeople sold (just an example). Which one should I use? A case or a task?

6) How are files stored (like contracts, invoices, quotes, other documents)? Are they kept in the database or in a directory with files? I'd prefer them to be in a directory as that makes backups easier to manage. Zurmo stores it all in the database and I don't like that.

7) How would I go about integrating our future webshop (woocommerce or prestashop, a choice we are considering) with espo? Are there integrations available to sync contacts/orders/whatever? This is low priority. The above is more important for now.

8) Do we have the option and is there documentation available to migrate from zurmo to espocrm?

[SpeedBullet]

Dont feel shy because I asked a lot of questions. Even an answer to one of them would be very welcome. Thanks for your input.

[yuri]

Hi

1) Quotes are available in navbar > more.

3) You will be able to use but won't be able to upgrade to newer versions.

4) Removing lead after conversion if not good idea. Just use filter Actual and you won't see converted leads.

5) Example: Task: manager creates task "Call to lead" for salesperson. Case: Customer reported about an issue/ with the product you sold. Case entry represents this issue.

6) Files are stored in upload data/upload folder. Quotes - are records in database.

7) Did not planned yet.

8) There is no documentation. We can provide some help with a migration.

[SpeedBullet]

Hi

1) Quotes are available in navbar > more.

3) You will be able to use but won't be able to upgrade to newer versions.

4) Removing lead after conversion if not good idea. Just use filter Actual and you won't see converted leads.

5) Example: Task: manager creates task "Call to lead" for salesperson. Case: Customer reported about an issue/ with the product you sold. Case entry represents this issue.

6) Files are stored in upload data/upload folder. Quotes - are records in database.

7) Did not planned yet.

8) There is no documentation. We can provide some help with a migration.

Thanks for your responses. For question one, I have found the quotes, but not the invoices... :s they weren't there. Is that normal? (demo)

[yuri]

There is no separated invoices. You can use quotes to generate invoices.

[SpeedBullet]

There is no separated invoices. You can use quotes to generate invoices.

Ok is this how it was meant to work?

• Generate quote for an account
• Quote status = approved
• Then you "print to pdf" or "mail pdf" and select template "invoice"

If this is the way it works, then can I make a couple of suggestions?

• Is it possible to have a system in place to "auto generate" the invoice number?
• Maybe we need a button like "convert lead" but then "convert quote to invoice"
  • Auto approve quote
  • This will auto increment invoice number
  • auto input invoice number into invoice
  • auto input current date in invoice
  • Maybe add a checkbox to auto-mail the invoice
• Ideally there should be a tab in history with Quotes and a tab with invoices? Or perhaps auto-attach the invoice to the documents section so we have an overview of the quotes/invoices?

[yuri]

This maybe we will implement in future. Now you can just replicate all quotes code and create new entity invoice. But needs a very little of skills in programming.
Invoices is a thing not related to CRM. It's more from ERP, accounting systems.

[SpeedBullet]

This maybe we will implement in future. Now you can just replicate all quotes code and create new entity invoice. But needs a very little of skills in programming.
Invoices is a thing not related to CRM. It's more from ERP, accounting systems.

I agree it's more an ERP feature but still a nice to have. Thanks for your input, appreciate it.

*Edit: can I ask how you would suggest to do invoicing that works with the base data of the CRM system? I mean I always think about all the duplicate data you have if you have to run invoice software separately. Are there solutions for this problem?