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Broker's Ally FAQ's |
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This page contains answers to common questions handled by our support staff, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful and presented here as questions.
Note: In these answers we will follow a few shorthand conventions for describing user-interface procedures. Key combinations will be presented like this: Ctrl+Alt+Delete, which means that you should press and hold down the Control key, the Alt key, and the Delete key at the same time. Menu selections will be presented like this: File->Open, which means that you should open the File menu, and then make the Open selection.
Creating a List for Reports/Mailings
There are numerous occasions when you would like to make a list of all contacts that have a special significance in order to carry out a business activity. For example, you might want to create lists for the following purposes:
- Make a phone call to a special group of people who are holding a specific stock.
- Produce a report of everyone living in a certain zip code.
- Follow up a mailing to a special group with a phone call.
You can produce a Calls list with specified characteristics. Once you have created such a list, you can save it and reuse it whenever you wish. You can work through the list as time permits.
To generate a Calls list, choose View from the menu, select Campaigns and Call Lists, click the New List button, and give a descriptive name to the list you are about to create.
You will now come to the Edit List dialog. Because we provide extraordinary flexibility in choosing selection and sort criteria for lists, this dialog seems a little complex when you first encounter it. However, you build all expressions using plain English phrases. You define Search Properties to select contact records and Sort Properties to establish how to order these records. Then, when you Close the dialog, Broker’s Ally creates the list.
Click on the Add Filter button to bring up the Search Logic window. You will build a logic expression utilizing one or more database fields to construct the filter for selecting contact records. You can use the fields in one or two of the following files: contacts, activities, or postings. For example, suppose you want to build a Call list for everyone having a scheduled CALL activity dated March 13, 1995 or before. You will select contacts based solely on activities information..
- Select Activities - Type from the Field combo box,
- Select Equal to: (=) from the Operator combo box,
- Enter CALL in the Value field,
- and click OK.
On returning to Edit List dialog the Search Properties Criteria
displays:"Activities - Type Equal to: (=) CALL". Once again click on the
Add button adjacent to the Search Properties list box to bring up the Search Logic
window.
- Select AND in the Continue Previous Statement With group,
- Select Activities - Activity Date from the Field combo box,
- Select Less than or equal to: (<=) from the Operator combo box,
- Enter 4/1/95 in the Value field,
- and click OK.
On returning to Edit List dialog the Search Properties Criteria displays:"Activities - Type Equal to: (=) CALL" & "AND Activities - Activity Date Less than or equal to: (<=) 3/16/1995" Notice that the first clause is connected to the second clause with AND, meaning that both clauses must be true in order to select a contact.
Search Properties Dialog Window
Network Users
If you are running Broker’s Ally on a network, you will want to create a Calls list containing only your calls. You must therefore additionally select activities assigned to you. Once again click on the Add Filter button to bring up the Search Logic window.
- Select AND in the Continue Previous Statement With group,
- Select Activities - Activity For User from the Field combo box,
- Select Equal to: (=) from the Operator combo box,
- Enter your User ID (assume XYZ for this example) in the Value field,
- and click OK.
On returning to Edit List dialog the Search Properties Criteria displays:"Activities - Type Equal to: (=) CALL" & "AND Activities - Activity Date Less than or equal to: (<=) 4/1/1995" & "AND Activities - Activity For User Equal to: (=) XYZ" .
You have finished building the select statement, and now you must create a sort statement. Press the Add Key to bring up the Search Logic window. You now build a logic expression utilizing contact and activity fields to construct the sort statement. For example, suppose you want to sort the Calls list mentioned above by Last Name. Simply select Contacts - Last Name from the Field combo box and click OK.
On returning to the Edit List dialog the Sort Properties Criteria displays: "Contacts - Last Name" You may change this or add to the sort porperties.
Docking Station routine
- Select Docking Station Option found under the Edit, User Preferences menu.
- After you check the Docking Station option in User Preferences, you can download all of your data from the Main data source located on the network file server. This allows you take your laptop PC home and continue using Broker's Ally.
- Transfer and Docking Download from the File Data Operations menu to copy your data from the file server to a dBase data source on your PC.
- You may subsequently use Docking Upload to pass additions and revisions back to the network data source.
- "Plugged into a docking station?" BA asks you this question on start up after you have checked the Docking Station option and have downloaded a "snapshot" of your network data.
- Answer:
- Yes to use the Main data source on the network file server, or
- No to use the local copy of the Main data source.
Please Note:
- Docking Download transfers only the data in the Main data source (or first data source created) and the contact records that you have privileges to view.
- You cannot download private BA data sources located on the file server, only the Main data source.
- When undocked, private data sources which reside on your PC will have only contact information and notes. This is because postings, activities, histories, etc. are stored on the file server and are not downloaded.
- Docking Upload allows you to upload changes to the file server. Otherwise, changes you make to the local copy of the Main data source will be lost when you next download from the server.
- Docking Upload passes changes to Contacts, Notes, Postings, Activities, Histories, Securities, Remembered Responses, Phone Tallies, Alerts, and new User Field information back to the file server. Marked Letters and Lists are not uploaded and consequently will be overwritten whenever you perform a download.
- Due to the design of the Docking download, the only way to get the your other data sources off of the server is to "import"/"export" them onto your local computer.