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12 min read

Data migration to HubSpot for travel management company

How travel management company successfully migrated 46,000 records to HubSpot and unified data structure.

Time of the project: 3 months

Scope:

  • data migration to HubSpot
  • matching and structuring data from two separate databases
  • merging duplicate record while at the same time keeping the history of both records
  • mapping out the custom deal structure and creating custom fields in HubSpot
  • uploading 46,000 records to Hubspot that included companies, contacts, notes, tasks along with the record history
Effect: 46,000 records migrated to HubSpot, unified data structure, new custom fields, a list of new leads for the sales team
I am working on full data migration to HubSpot. We have built the API routine available to load Tasks, Call's and Notes into Hubspot, this has been tested on a several occasions over the last few days and works as I would expect. - Alistair Knox, SoftwareSupp Freelancer

When two companies are joining forces, there are also two sales databases that need to be unified and structured. Merging data from two systems into one requires data manipulation and restructuring. The most important point is to make sure that the imported records are easy to be accessed and managed in the new system. Up-to-date reporting is also a benefit that results from proper database migration.

Two companies the challenge of merging data from two CRM systems into one. Company X delivers expense management solutions under three brands. Their systems are easy to deploy and compliant with the country-specific regulations. The company helps mid-sized and large enterprises as well as governmental institutions to track and manage the expanses of their employees.

After the acquisition of one of the brand, the company X wanted to move their database. They wanted to make sure that all the records are properly migrated and that all the duplicates are merged and adequately managed in HubSpot.

The company reached out to SoftwareSupp to find the right expert for the job at hand. They needed someone who’d be able to structure and migrate data while maintaining the highest level of data protection They also needed an expert that would be able to create custom scripts for the import and the subsequent upload of records to the new system.

Alistair is a HubSpot expert with over 15 years of experience in data migration. He provides integration solutions for companies that require support with online platforms and CRM systems across multiple sectors.

His experience with various CRM systems and data migration was a perfect match for this project, as he is aware of different methods of data manipulation. Alistair prepared the project estimation and agreed with the client on the scope of the project.
The project was coordinated by the SoftwareSupp Project Manager. All the tasks were created and tracked in Asana. It allowed everyone involved to stay up to date and verify the progress at any given moment. All the tasks included time estimations. The responsibilities were also assigned in Asana to make sure that everyone has a clear picture of their tasks. When you hire an external consultant, it’s crucial to be able to track the progress and deadlines.

Data export and manipulation

The database was the one that belonged to one of the brands, and the HubSpot one belonged to the company X. The goal was to move all records to Hubspot to create one clean database for the sales team. The migration involved contacts, companies, deals, conversation history, attachments, and other related data. 

The first step of the project was to export data from both systems and to structure them in a new database. Then, the records were converted into spreadsheets. The majority of data manipulation was done at this stage to better prepare the data for the upcoming upload.

Source: hubspot.com

Alistair created a database that included data from both systems in Microsoft Access. To ensure maximum data protection and security, all actions were performed on the client’s servers. The expert created all scripts from scratch in this environment. For duplicated records, both the company X and one of the brand's data history needed to be kept and stored in HubSpot. 

The company X didn’t want to move only the current deals, but also all the deal history. That meant 15,000 separate deals. Some of the past deals included owners that had left the organization, so they couldn’t be copied in a straightforward way. They needed a new owner within the organization and new notes that the previous owners had left the company.

The next step required input from the client. HubSpot and another CRM system are separate systems that differ in the way they handle data. Brand's deals were managed with a different setup of stages than the ones that were stored in HubSpot. The client was able to make the choices on how to manage the records and add comments. The goal was to make sure that the imported data will be useful for the team. They also needed to decide who would be the overall owner of the contact. Contacts could be owned either by brand or company X.

The deal mapping also needed to be signed off by the company team to confirm that all deals will be put in the adequate stages. The expert created a list of the differences in deal stages and custom fields that needed to be reviewed. He also asked the client several questions that allowed him to create the most effective data structure and custom fields in the new system.

The duplicate records were also taken care of at this stage. Alistair merged the records in a spreadsheet. To match the data from both systems, he verified the following details: name, telephone, address. If at least one of the conditions was fulfilled, the records were merged.

In HubSpot, a contact record is recognized by its email address. By default, you can’t create a contact record without the email address. For companies, the unique identifier is the website address. Alistair created sample email addresses and websites that point out that the record was migrated from another CRM system.

Thinking about future employees and deals, the expert created a number of custom fields that inform the users about the import source and additional bespoke details from another CRM system.

If the deal was lost in the brand's pipeline, it was added as a lead to HubSpot. It’s a source of new contacts for the company team as they might want to approach them in the future.

Uploading the records to Hubspot

Having received the client’s input, Alistair structured the records according to the client’s instructions. Additionally, he added a reference note to all the records migrated to HubSpot saying that it was migrated from another CRM system. 

The first sample upload consisted of 500 records. When the test portion of the migration was completed, Alistair continued with the following 46,000 records.

In Hubspot, when you allocate a new contact, the application sends out an automated notification. The team needed to switch off all the notifications during the uploading process. Otherwise, they’d receive thousands of automatic emails. Alistair informed the client when the uploading will take place so that all the employees could switch off the notifications.

The first part (companies, contact, deals) of records was possible to upload using the default HubSpot tools. The rest (notes, tasks) needed to be loaded via HubSpot’s API.

Source: hubspot.com

For notes and tasks, Alistair created a script that was opening the spreadsheet and uploading the notes one by one. 

The majority of records went through via API, but some showed up in the system as “pending”. Alistair reached out to the HubSpot support to solve this issue on behalf of the client.

If the note included the word “meeting” and was scheduled in the future, Alistair created a script that transformed it into a task in Hubspot. This way, all the tasks were triggering alerts to the Owners in due time.

Once uploaded, Alistair verified if all data from another CMR system is in HubSpot. From 64,000 separate records, only 220 were not uploaded. Those were the records that contained imprintable characters exported from another CRM system. The expert manually deleted the characters, so that they could be uploaded again without errors. After this last operation, all data was successfully migrated to HubSpot.

Merging two environments for easier sales management

The major benefit of this migration was that both company X and brand teams were able to work within the same environment and cooperate to close deals and increase sales.

An additional benefit was that lost deals from the brand's funnel were added to the company's X pipeline as potential leads. They created a new database of potential clients that could be contacted in the future. 

The company X team can now access all data history in one place and browse sales data related to all the brands within the Group. It’s necessary for better reporting and making strategic decisions.

Working with a SoftwareSupp consultant on data migration saves you a lot of time and hassle as an experienced expert knows how to handle data manipulation. It’s also necessary to structure the database before the upload. Outsourcing this work is a decision that allows you to make the migration process easier and the results will bring you benefits in the long run.

News

12 min read

Scoping session - How to run an effective scoping for your project?

What is a project scope and how to plan your project with SoftwareSupp? Use our scoping tool or book free scoping session with a SoftwareSupp consultant.

As PMI research on project management practices shows, over 50% of the projects that fail in the early stages are failing due to poor planning. Inexact cost estimation or incapability of defining clearly the project's objectives and milestones can end up with your project before it even starts.

Of course the scope of the project can change to some extent during the implementation phase but outlining the most important deliverables is crucial if you want to succeed. 

Preparing a detailed plan will also help you to deal with the changes in a more effective way if they occur during the project execution.

In this article I will share with you our best practices in project scoping based on multiple CRM and Web projects completed successfully for our clients. I will also go with you through the typical project scoping we do at SoftwareSupp. After reading this article you will be able to decide which option is better for you - posting your project directly using our scoping tool or booking a free scoping session with our software consultant first.

What is project scope?

In a simple way, the scope of a project is a list of what has to be delivered during the realization phase in order to achieve project’s objectives together with the characteristics of these deliverables, order, budget and timeline.

One of the best agile project management methodologies, Prince 2, says that every project must have at least two logical phases - a planning phase and an implementation phase. In short, it is impossible to effectively manage the implementation phase if we do not have a solid benchmark, which is the scope.

It doesn’t matter what kind of project management technique you are using, the common practice is to divide the project into tasks. Especially if your project is a complex one you might want to break it down into smaller parts. This will allow you to get estimates of time and budget as exact as possible.

How to start project scoping?

Every project is different and as such needs an individual approach. However, based on our experience from several dozens of completed projects we know that there are some common practices that can help you to plan every kind of software related project. We prepared for you a short list of 6 things you have in mind while doing your project scoping:

1. What are the core processes in your organization, especially those related to individual and integrated functioning of the areas mentioned below?
  • Customer Acquisition (Sales)
  • Marketing
  • Design
  • Production
  • Customer Service
  • Quality & Product/ Service Delivery
  • Management Responsibility
  • Financial Analysis & Reporting
  • Accounting management
  • Administration
2. How the technology you use supports these processes and what software stack is used?

While creating your project at SoftwareSupp you can choose from the list of almost 60 software available. If the software you need is not on the list just add it by typing its name manually in the field.

3. What additional technology needs to be implemented and what kind of integrations need to be set up to improve your processes?

Now when you have the list of the processes and your software stack defined you can think of what are the areas of improvement/bottlenecks in those processes? In order to make the processes more efficient it is not always necessary to add more tools to your technology stack. Sometimes you can obtain better results by integrating the tools you already have to automate your processes. It might even occur that after the integrations are done correctly you will need less tools and you will be able to cut your licences costs.

Our project manager will be happy to go with you through your technology stack during the scoping session and advise you about the integration capabilities of your software. 

4. What is the timeline of the potential project? 

In order to ensure the proper change management and smooth implementation of technology we strongly recommend breaking the project into smaller tasks. You should define the outcome you want to achieve with each task and establish a clear deadline for each of it. This will allow you to follow the project progress and to make necessary adjustments in a more efficient way.

At SoftwareSupp we understand that the project scoping is not only about defining the deliverables but also about documenting them.

Before you start spending your money we want you to have a project plan as precise as possible. 

Knowing with details your requirements we will be able to prepare for you an exact offer with the time and budget estimate for each part of the project, just like this one:

5. What resources need to be allocated to complete the project successfully?

When you already know how much time and effort you will have to spend for your project you can think of the resources you will need in order to execute it properly.

Are there people in your company with the right set of skills to run this project? Would it be possible to engage them in this project without compromising their daily responsibilities?

In many cases you can cut the cost of the project implementation by outsourcing it to external service providers like SoftwareSupp. It will not only reduce the budget you will have to spend on the project but also you will get the guarantee that the project will be executed by an experienced specialist in the particular field.

6. What is the budget that can/shall be allocated to the project?

There are different ways you can calculate the budget that should be allocated to the project. You can estimate the budget by the number of hours needed to complete each task and the hourly rate of the person responsible for the project implementation in case you decide to outsource it. This method however includes some risks, as the number of hours is always an estimate and it can go higher during the project implementation. The other way is to estimate the budget using the comparison with similar projects, however, you might not always have access to such data

At SoftwareSupp your project will be estimated by specialists according to industry standards and you will always know the full price upfront, before the project will start.

How to use SoftwareSupp scoping tool

Now when you know what are the most important elements of project scoping I will show you how the SoftwareSupp scoping tool can help you to define your project scope in just a few minutes.

1. Choose the right category for your project

Regardless of the technology you are going to use if your project falls into the categories of CRM, Website building or E-commerce you can use our suggestions drop-down list. The first step is to select the right category for your project:

You can choose more than one category or change it after adding some task already.

2. Select the tasks from the list or add them manually

Once it is done, it is time to select particular tasks you want to be completed within your project (if you want to see the suggestions for all the categories just keep the “All” as a category. In case you don't want to see any suggestions at all and add all the tasks manually just remove the “All” from the field and keep it in blank).

The list of the suggestions was prepared by the SoftwareSupp team after carefully analyzing dozens of CRM and web projects we have carried out so far. As we acknowledge that every project needs an individual approach we have also noticed that some tasks tend to repeat in most of the projects more than the others. Also, many of our clients are not fully aware of the wide range of possibilities the software they are using (or they are planning to use) offers. Here is where our suggestions list might help them to discover features they had no idea existed and define the scope of the project better.

You can add as many tasks as you want and remove them if necessary. If there is a task in your mind that you can’t find on the list just add it by manually typing it into the selected field.

3. Describe what are your expectations

I know that some of the project requirements might be difficult to define as a task. That is why you also have the option to add the description of your project - however, it is not obligatory. 

In this field you can write your expectations, what is the result you would like to achieve with this project or maybe some possible questions:

In case you have already prepared a document or a chart with your project requirements or maybe you want to add some mock-up designs to your web project don’t worry. You will be able to add the links and photos/screenshots in the very next steps of posting your project.

Scoping Session with SoftwareSupp consultant

But what if you have already defined the objectives but you are not sure which technology will be the best fit for your project? Or maybe you would like someone to help you with the scope and to show you all the possibilities of different technologies before you make the final decision ? At SoftwareSupp we offer you a scoping session with our software consultant to make sure we understand well your needs and that we can offer you the optimal solution.

How does the scoping session look like at SoftwareSupp?

Scoping session is a free meeting with our specialized software consultant and  our project manager where we go with you through your ideas and advice on the solutions.

Be prepared for answering a lot of questions during the session.

For CRM project we will ask you about:
  • Your sales process
  • The way you collect and store you data currently
  • Tools/applications you use in the company that should be integrated with the CRM
  • Your expectations about the analytics and reporting
  • Your marketing flows
  • Your lead sources
  • The way you manage your project
  • CRM training for the users
  • What are the biggest challenges the team and the management are facing every day
We will go with you step by step through or CRM guide and we will help you define the areas for improvement.
The process is very similar in case of a web project. For the new projects we will ask you about:
  • Theme and design
  • Your products/services
  • Your target audience
  • Your goals
and we will advise you on:
  • Delivery options, payment methods (for e-commerce)
  • Integrations with third party tools
  • Analytics
  • SEO optimisation
  • E-commerce chanel building (e.g. Amazon, Ebay, Wholesale, etc.)
  • UX/UI
  • Marketing optimisation
  • Reviews collection
  • Blog setup
CRM

5 min read

Fantastic lost reasons and how to set them up

To analyze your lost opportunities you need to have the proper kind of data that will make your analysis as painless and as little time consuming as possible. How to do it and where to start?

I firmly believe that tracking your lost opportunities is as important and in some cases even more important than tracking your wins. After all, won opportunities are pretty self-explanatory, obviously there are some metrics we can track and conclusions we can derive from them, but at the end of the day keeping an eye on your loses might in many cases give you a better idea of where the market is heading and how the needs of your clients are evolving. Jan Solecki, CRM and Integration Freelancer at SoftwareSupp

A tale of two data sets

To analyze your lost opportunities you need to have the proper kind of data that will make your analysis as painless and as little time consuming as possible. Before I dig into the various possible reasons we can track, let’s look at the two major types of data we can collect which are quantitative and qualitative data. As their names suggest, the first set deals with numbers, hence the quantity and the second one with in-depth descriptions. With these sets of data we can follow one of the 3 scenarios:

1st scenario: Only qualitative data

Qualitative data sound great, after all they are supposed to give you deep insights instead of raw numbers. Take a look at the sample qualitative data set below:

Lost reasons:
  • Client went silent
  • Not responssive
  • Doesn’t pick up the phone, doesn’t respond
  • Went with our competitor X (more features)
  • Choose Y instead of us (better track record working with their industry)
  • Compared us with different companies and choose someone else
  • They couldn’t afford our services
  • Didn't have the budget
  • No budget this quarter

In this scenario lost reasons are tracked as comments. They provide a deeper understanding of why a particular opportunity was lost, in some cases they even specify which competitor was chosen instead of our company.

However, we need to remember that this sample data set only shows 9 opportunities, whereas in a in a real company those would be hundreds if not thousands of deals. Who would be capable of analyzing such a data set and how could any decisions be made based on it?

Since, analyzing qualitative data at scale is practically impossible instead of getting a better understanding of our business, we end up looking for a needle in a proverbial haystack.

2nd scenario: Only quantitative data

In this scenario, lost reasons aren’t tracked as comments using open text fields, instead they are selected from a pre-defined list of lost reasons in a company CRM. Take a look at the sample quantitative data set below:

Lost reasons:

At first glance, we are able to see that this set of data is much simpler to analyze. We have a total of 9 lost opportunities distributed evenly among the 3 available lost reasons. It’s all simple and clear if we need a high-level analysis, however the trouble begins when we want to dig deeper and try to understand why we are losing our business.

Let’s say we want to tackle our competitors. We find the corresponding reason - Different provider, and analyze it. We see that it currently accounts for 33% of our lost opportunities, but why is that? Why did we lose that opportunity? There’s a number of number of questions which remain unanswered:

  • Why were our competitors chosen instead of us?
  • What company was chosen in those 3 lost opportunities?
  • Was is the same company? Or maybe 3 different providers?
  • Why were they chosen instead of us? Was it the price? Was there something our product or service lacked in comparison to our competitors?

All of those questions are not only valid, but crucial if we want to adjust our offer, improve our processes and increase our closing rate and quantitative data doesn’t give us the answers.

That being said, if qualitative data is too difficult to analyze and quantitative data doesn’t give us enough insight to make an informed decision, how should we track our lost opportunities? This is where scenario no. 3 comes to our rescue.

3rd scenario: Quantitative + Qualitative data

The perfect solution is, like in many cases, mixing the two approaches. Using both quantitative and qualitative data combines the pros of the two approaches and at the same time allows us to overcome their individual limitations. Take a look at sample data set below:

Keeping these two sets of data at the same time allows both for a high-level overview and an in-depth analysis. Let’s see how this scenario plays out if you want to see how your competition is performing.

How much business are we losing due to our competitors?

33% of our lost opportunities are due to a different provider choice.

Who are those different providers?

In one case it was company X and in the other it was Y, we have no data on the third case.

Why have they chosen them instead of us?

In one case our competitor had significantly more experience in the client’s industry, in the other one we didn’t offer as many features as required by the client

Being able to ask and answer those questions allows you to respond more accurately to the ever-changing demand of your potential clients and also to make important decisions regarding your offer, pricing or the industries you need to focus on.

Summing up, you simply have to track the reasons behind your lost opportunities, there's no other option. Combining the power of quantitative and qualitative data will give you a full and precise 360 overview of why you are losing your opportunities and will help you act accordingly.

CRM

5 min read

5 interesting extensions for Pipedrive for B2B and B2C companies that will help you in your daily work

How to improve everyday work with Pipedrive? Discover interesting extensions and improve your operations.

Every entrepreneur or founder of a small or medium-sized company would like to efficiently and accurately develop offers for his clients. However, not everyone has knowledge about current solutions in CRM systems. These few simple steps will help you organize information about your customers. The list below is based on my experience in everyday work and working with my clients.

1. Linkmatch

When working with business clients (usually in B2B sales), we meet with the fact that a lot of information is currently on LinkedIn or Xing. If you want to find this information for our CRM, see the manually available information and selections in CRM - be it Pipedrive, Hubspot, Zoho or many more.This is where the LinkMatch tool comes in handy - to easily transfer data from our clients' profiles or prospects. After creating an account, just set which information should go to which fields in CRM and you're done! Now, by entering the profiles of an organization or people, we can see if a given person or company is added to our database, create it or update the relevant fields.

This is where the LinkMatch tool comes in handy - to easily transfer data from our clients' profiles or prospects. After creating an account, just set which information should go to which fields in CRM and you're done! Now, by entering the profiles of an organization or people, we can see if a given person or company is added to our database, create it or update the relevant fields.

From the tool directly on LinedIn or Xing, you can create a sales opportunity and plan activities - to minimize the time of switching between pages and quickly add information important to us.

2. Routerjet 

When the sales team consists of several people, the challenge of assigning leads to salespeople appears. To do this quickly and evenly, you might want to reach for a dedicated tool to "roulette", which is a mechanism for assigning salespeople to new sales opportunities.

When I was looking for such a tool a few weeks ago, I came across RouterJet - a tool for assigning appropriate sellers, based on the indicated criteria. Criteria can be tailored to the specifics of your business - salespeople can receive leads based on their value, geography or the time the opportunity was generated - it all depends on your team's setup.

In RouterJet, you can set SMS and email notification about assigning a deal, when we care about time, the system can change the chance every 14 minutes, until the person does not make contact, or assign them as part of the availability of our sellers.

The configuration itself is very simple - just log in via your Pipedrive account, set up users and rules for rewriting sales opportunities and you're ready to go.

3. SnapADDY

Do you know this feeling when you have to enter a whole stack of business cards into your CRM after a conference? Usually it has to be done manually by rewriting the contact details from the card into the system. In such cases, it is very easy to make a mistake, and this may result in a lost contact due to an error in the prescribed contact details.

I use Pipedrive on a daily basis which does not have OCR functionality built into the mobile app, so I looked for an external app for this purpose. After trying a few tools, I found the snapADDY application.

SnapADDY boasts the highest efficiency in text recognition, automatic duplicate checking when adding data to CRM, as well as the largest number of possible CRM systems to connect.

It only takes a few clicks to connect the application with your CRM system, set which fields in the system are to be filled with what data and it's ready! Just take a photo of the business card in the application and the contact will be saved to the database. No more piles of business cards after the fair!

4. Pipedrive Gmail add-on 

When an important element of your work is e-mail correspondence with clients and prospects, and additionally you use Pipedrive CRM, this add-on can be a great help.

Plugin to GMail i GSuite is very helpful in two main ways:
  • When you don't want to constantly switch between browser windows - between CRM and email - this add-on will help you identify the deal in Pipedrive related to the email thread you currently have open. Thanks to a quick look at the latest activities in Pipedrive and the information contained therein, it will be easier and faster to reply to an e-mail and plan further activities.
  • When there is no synchronization with Pipedrive in your Pipedrive package - thanks to this add-on you can forward the last messages to the deal in Pipedrive or send e-mails with the appropriate e-mail address in BCC - then the message will automatically be linked to the appropriate sales opportunity.

5. Leadfeeder

Have you ever wondered who visits your company's website?

In B2B sales based on, for example, Account Based Selling, it is worth knowing who visits our website, what subpages they go to and where they spend the most time. This is where LeadFeeder comes in handy:LeadFeeder is a tool that shows what companies visit your site, what the entry channel was and what they are interested in. When we combine this tool with the mailing system, we will also be able to track which people from a given company have entered our website.

The tool also includes a scoring module - to focus on the most valuable leads that we can track in real time.
LeadFeeder has native integration with Pipedrive, thanks to which you can track what our contractors are interested in sales opportunities - which gives us a lot of scope for up- and cross-selling.

As you can see, there are many aids, plugins and applications to facilitate your daily work with your customer base. It is worth following the latest information, because new ideas are created very quickly, in line with the emerging needs. I hope these 5 simple solutions will help you in a simpler and faster way to collect and manage the data of your current and future customers.

Customers

6 min read

Custom Sales Reporting for a Booking Agency

For many industries, built-in analytics aren’t sufficient to get the full picture of the sales process. In this case study, you’ll learn how we transferred data from Pipedrive to Google Sheets, created custom reports and automated commission calculations.

Time of the project: 1 month

Scope of the project:

  • Setting up custom fields
  • Custom reports in Google Sheets
  • Integrating Google Sheets with CRM through custom API

Reporting is one of the most important tools that a CRM system offers. However, for many industries, built-in analytics aren’t sufficient to get the full picture of the sales process. In this case study, you’ll learn how we transferred data from Pipedrive to Google Sheets, created custom reports and automated commission calculations.

Project management with SoftwareSupp

When you start using a CRM, you typically need to verify your initial assumption about the workflow after the implementation. Further CRM optimization is a necessary process that maximizes the benefits of the software.

When you start seeing the benefits of using a CRM system, it’s possible that you’d like to use the newly acquired sales data to create more advanced reports. They help you gain more insights into your business. The agency asked us to prepare custom sales analytics for their team. This project required an expert with a specific set of skills in this area.

To make sure that the project is always run in the most effective way, SoftwareSupp assigns a dedicated project manager that takes care of the entire process. This means that if a certain task requires a consultant with a different set of skills, the project is never started from scratch. The project manager makes sure that everyone knows what the next steps are and figures out the timelines. All the most important details are passed on to ensure a smooth project transition from one expert to another.

For this project, we cooperated with Kamil who is an expert in app development, custom analytics, and software integrations. He completed many similar projects in the past that involved Pipedrive-Google Sheet integrations and custom script development.

Adding custom fields

Custom fields are an extremely useful feature for the booking agency. The reason is that booking businesses need a number of customer details that they use for reservations on behalf of their clients. Their offers are tailor-made, so no two trips are exactly the same.

With the help of Kamil, we implemented new custom fields in Pipedrive. These fields included the information necessary for an agent such as:

  • currency
  • transport
  • destination
  • hotel
  • event/service
  • reservation method
  • payment method
  • lead source

These fields were then also used for a more in-depth analysis of the client’s profile and revenues. It also allows the agency to prepare better offers for future clients and increase their margins. To further optimize the sales process, they needed more advanced reports that take into account the custom fields that they use in their CRM

Setting up custom reports in Google Sheets

Pipedrive doesn’t provide advanced reporting options when it comes to custom fields. The agency wanted to have monthly reports exported to Google Drive

Their main goals of the project were to:

  • create a dashboard with a visual representation of custom fields
  • be able to easily compare and verify sales goals
  • get a tool that will make preparing reports for the stakeholders easier
  • automate commission calculations

Our consultant created a Google Sheet document that presented data from Pipedrive and allowed for their further modifications. The sales team was able to choose a specific month and year and export all deals that were closed within this month.

Kamil used Pipedrive’s API to transfer information from Pipedrive to Google Sheets. He created tables that generated reports automatically and charts that displayed all the data in a more visual way.

With Pipedrive’s API, you can access the data from your Pipedrive account and use it in another application. Everything is secured by the access token that is unique to a user. You can find it in the “Personal preferences” tab in Pipedrive. The token ensures that all your data is safe and only you have access to the contents of your Pipedrive account.

Personal API token in Pipedrive

To import the relevant data from Pipedrive and present it in Google Sheets, our expert created custom scripts within Google Sheet. In Google Workspace, you can create custom scripts using Apps Script. It’s a developing platform created by Google that is based on JavaScript. For G Suite integrations, it’s the easiest and fastest choice, as the development happens within the Google environment. To write your own script, you can use Google’s Script Editor. 

Apps Script project in Google Workspace

Our consultant created custom tables and charts that showed the sales in relation to the custom fields from Pipedrive. Thanks to this setup, the sales team was able to see which destinations bring in the most revenue and how it related to other factors.


Another important aspect was to estimate the profitability of the destinations. It was calculated using the revenue, margins, and costs. They could also check which airplane class is the most popular or brings the most profit. These in-depth reports allowed the team to get insights into that sales process that weren’t available by default in the CRM system.

These additional reports were also an important tool for the management that helped estimate their business performance as well as make sure that the sales representatives are on track with their targets. Thanks to multiple filtering options, it was possible to generate comparative reports for various factors. 

For every report generated, the client is able to export an .xlsx report and send it via email.

Our expert added a button in the Google Sheet menu that allows the client to send the report to a given email address.

Automated commission calculation

The proper automation setup can speed up tasks related to finances and accounting. For this booking agency, our expert created an automated commission calculator. As the deals have different currencies, Kamil used an external tool that provides a currency exchange rate for a specific date. This way, the team doesn’t need to follow currency exchange rates and check historical data.

To calculate the commission, it was crucial to make sure that all deals were assigned to the month in which the customer signed the contract. Normally, the close date is assigned automatically by Pipedrive when the deal is moved to a specific stage. However, in this case, the sales representatives wanted to have control over this field as the dates needed to be consistent with what is written in the contracts. We created a custom field and marked it as “required” in Pipedrive to make sure it’s always filled in.

To guarantee that the date is always provided, we created a pop-up window that requires the salesperson to fill this field in. This setup ensures accurate reporting and commission calculation.

The commission calculations aren’t as straightforward as they might seem in the booking business. The calculations need to take into account the revenue, costs, different currencies, and the commission rules set up by the company. Thanks to the custom scripts and reports that use the Pipedrive data, we were able to automate this process for the client.

Insights into the sales process

To adapt to the reality of international bookings, the sales analytics need to include various details about the clients. Data security is also important as the agency has access to clients’ personal information to be able to make book tickets, transfers, and hotels on their behalf.

To optimize the sales process, the team needs to take into account many factors that go beyond a simple cost-profit equation. There are many factors that contribute to the satisfaction of the client that are not easily measurable. However, with the right analytics in place, finding valuable insights is easier. With automated reporting, you gain more time to talk to your clients and hear their personal feedback about each and every booking they embark on.

CRM

3 min read

How to use Pipedrive for account management

Discover possible ways of using your Pipedrive CRM for account mangement.

Below are several possible operations on accounts inside Pipedrive CRM:

Use your contacts timeline

To open timeline view of your contacts just go to the "Contacts -> Contacts timeline" tab, then you can switch between personal contacts and organizations.

This functionality allows you to analyze selected customer accounts in the form of a timeline and plan weekly / monthly / quarterly contact points and activities.

It also allows you to generate a list of organizations / contacts using filters (e.g. contacts of a certain size or from an specific source).
Additionally, it makes it possible to visually present the customer's contact path with you and the activities that have led to closing / losing a sales opportunity (e.g. the time interval in which emails were sent to specific customer accounts).

Transaction values based on products

Pipedrive allows you to define products which are then linked to sales opportunities, which makes it possible to automatically calculate the value of potential transactions based on the products on offer. One customer / contact / organization account may have several transactions / orders with different forecast values.

To configure products, go to the Products tab and then, by adding a deal, you can attach selected products, calculating the sales value.

Sales analysis per customer account

Pipedrive Insights allows you to monitor sales / sales deals for specific organizations / contacts.

To generate such a report, go to:
Insights -> Add a new report

Then select the report:
Deal -> Performance

Afterwards, select specific report parameters / filters, such as:
- sales opportunity analysis period (opportunity emergence period)
- the organization that is the target of the analysis