Sales Teams

Who leads whom - the middle tier of CRM visibility, and the ladder that escalations climb.

1Overview #

The CRM has three tiers of sight. An executive sees their own records. A sales manager sees everything. In between sits the team lead, and this screen is the only place that says who that is and over whom.

A team is a name, a team lead, and members with optional from and to dates. The dates matter: when somebody moves from one team to another, set the To date rather than deleting the row, and the history keeps who was where.

Teams also decide where a neglected follow-up escalates to, and who is asked when an approval names "the record owner's team lead".

2Who it is for #

Say who leads whom, so a team lead can see their members' leads, deals and follow-ups.
Keep the membership honest over time with from / to dates.
Give the approval workflows and the escalation alerts somebody real to name.

3What it is not for #

Making somebody a sales manager. That comes from the designation's category, not from here.
Rights. A team lead can *see* their members' records, and can also *change* their members' leads and log or finish those leads' follow-ups - as far as their own user permissions allow (Modify, Delete ... on CRM Leads and CRM Activities). A member's deal or contact stays view-only: changing one needs ownership, an Edit share, or manager standing.

4Step by step #

Press Add (F3), name the team and pick its Team lead.
Pick a user under User to add and press Add member. Repeat for the team. - A person may sit in several teams; the team lead need not be listed as a member.
Set Member from and Member to where they matter. - Blank means "always". Set To when somebody moves on.
Save (F5). - The team lead sees their members' records from that moment.
When a team is disbanded, switch Inactive on instead of deleting it. - Its lead stops seeing the members' records; the membership history is kept.

5The fields #

The team
Team name - What the team reports group by. Team performance report. Up to 50 characters, unique
Team lead - The user who sees every member's leads, deals and follow-ups. They may also change the members' leads and their follow-ups, within their own user permissions; a member's deal stays view-only unless shared for Edit or they have manager standing. Tier 2 visibility, escalations, and the "team lead" role in approval workflows. Any user with a login
Description - What the team covers - a region, a product line. Up to 512 characters
Inactive ? - Stands the team down: its lead sees only their own records again. Members and their dates are kept. Switch
Members - One row per person.
User to add - Pick a user, then press Add member. Any user of this company
Member from - The first day they count as a member. Blank = always. Outside the window the team lead does not see their records. A date
Member to - The last day, included. Blank = still in the team. Set it when somebody moves team, so history keeps who was where. Not before the From date
Remarks - Anything worth noting about that membership. Up to 255 characters

6Rules and integrity #

Team lead: leads yes, deals view-only - A team lead may change a member's lead and its follow-ups when their user permissions allow it. A member's deal is only seen: changing it needs an Edit share, or sales-manager standing.
Dates decide membership - A member counts from the From date to the To date, both included.
Somebody may lead one team and belong to another - That is normal for a senior executive.
Deleting a team touches no records - Leads and deals are untouched; only the lead's extra sight goes away.
Tier 3 is set elsewhere - Sales-manager standing comes from the Designation master's Category = Sales Manager, an administrator role, or the Approve right - never from this screen.

7If something does not work #

"CRM is not licensed for this company ... Contact your software vendor."

Why: The company's licence has no CRM module.
What to do: Ask your vendor to add CRM, then sign out and in.

"You do not have the Alter right on CRM sales teams. Ask an administrator (User Manager > permissions > CRM)."

Why: Teams decide who sees whose records, so changing them is an administrator's or a sales manager's job.
What to do: Ask one of them.

"Give the team a name." / "The team name is at most 50 characters."

Why: The name is blank or too long.
What to do: Give a short name people will recognise.

"There is already a team named '...'."

Why: Team names are unique.
What to do: Use the existing team, or choose another name.

"Pick the team lead."

Why: A team without a lead has nobody who can see its members' work.
What to do: Name the lead - they see everything their members do.

"Every member row needs a user."

Why: A member row was left with no person on it.
What to do: Pick the person, or remove the row.

"... is listed more than once." / "... is already in this team."

Why: The same person appears on two rows.
What to do: Keep one row and set its period - one row per person.

"...: the To date is before the From date."

Why: A member's period runs backwards.
What to do: Set From before To, or clear To to leave them in the team indefinitely.

"That team is no longer there."

Why: Somebody deleted it while you had it open.
What to do: Press F5 to reload.

A team lead still cannot see a member's leads

Why: Reach is worked out when the list is read, and a member period that has ended no longer counts.
What to do: Check the member's From and To dates, and that they are on the right team. Ask them to press F5 afterwards.

Somebody is in two teams

Why: Nothing stops it, and both leads then see their work.
What to do: End the period on the team they have left rather than deleting the row, so past records still read correctly.

8For an administrator #

Every executive needs a login link - In Ledger Master, tick Has Login on the executive's ledger account and pick the login name - the CRM matches users to executives only through that link.
Sales managers - Designation Master: set the sales heads' designation Category to *Sales Manager*. They then see everything, inside their report option.
Rights - CRM Sales Teams in User Permissions; the table's own triggers back it up. The default template grants View only.

This is the help InvoiceNET® ERP shows beside the Sales Teams screen. Whether you have the screen depends on the modules of your licence and the rights your administrator has given you.

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