Overview
The Sugar user interface consists of various modules designed to help you manage customer-related records such as contacts and accounts. Each module, representing a record type, groups the tools and functions needed to perform specific tasks. This enables you to work more efficiently.
Application navigation
You can relate records to one another. For example, a contact can be related to a specific account. When you view a record in Sugar, the system also displays related records. For example, the Detail View of an account displays related contacts in the Contacts sub-panel.
When you log into Sugar, the Home module displays on the page. Tabs for other modules display alongside the Home tab. You can click a tabto open the module to view, create, and manage records.
A drop-down menu is located on the far right of the module bar. You can use this menu to view sets of modules under groups, such as Sales, Marketing, Activities, and so on. This feature is available in all Sugar themes, except the Classic theme.
The Home page displays a list of your activity records such as calls and meetings. It also displays emails, accounts, opportunities, leads, and cases that are assigned to you. For more information, see Home Module .
Common Module options
The following options are available from any page in the Sugar application:
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Quick Create forms. You can access these forms from the sub-panel of a related record that displays in a record’s Detail View. For example, you can create a contact from the Contacts sub-panel of an account’s Detail View. Administrators can add, remove, and move fields to customize the Quick Create forms.
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Global Search field. This field, located in the top right corner of any Sugar page, enables users to enter a letter or a keyword to search all the modules for matching records. For more information, see Global Search.
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System links. System links, located at the top right-hand corner of any Sugar page, are common to all modules. These include your <name>, Logout, Employees, Support, Help, and About. When an administrator logs in, theAdmin link is also visible.
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Your Name. Click this link, located at the top right of the page, to view your settings. These settings include your profile information, layout options, and so on. For more information, see Editing your User Preferences.
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Employees. Click this link to view a list of other employees in your organization. This list, maintained by the administrator, displays information such as name, title, phone number, department, and email address. Click a name to view detailed information about the employee. Every user is listed as an employee. However, every employee may not be a Sugar user. For more information, see Employees Module.
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Admin. This link displays only if you login as the administrator. Click this link to access the Administration Home page to perform administrative tasks. For more information, see Administering Sugar.
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Support. Click this link to view the Sugar Support page, which provides links to Sugar documentation, Knowledge Base, FAQs, and training courses to guide you through the process of learning the Sugar application.
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Help. This is a context-aware link to the Application Guide. For example, if you click on the Help link in theContacts module, you will be directed to the Contactssection of the Application Guide.
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About. Click this link to learn more about SugarCRM and view version information. This link also provides credits and source code references.
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Shortcuts menu. This menu lists options to perform actions such as creating and viewing records, and the last viewed record(s).
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Last Viewed. This list displays records that you last accessed within the module, as well as calls and meetings you recently scheduled. Place the cursor on a module tab to view this list. To access a record again, select the record link.
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Sugar Modules
The core Sugar modules are as follows:
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Home. The Home module provides a quick view of your activities and assigned records in the form of Sugar Dashlets. For more information on this module, see Home Module. For more information on Dashlets, seeManaging Sugar Dashlets.
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Accounts. Click this tab to view the Accounts module. Use this module to manage your customers. You can track information about an account, including website, address, number of employees and other data. You can link business subsidiaries to the parent organization to show relationships between accounts. For more information on creating accounts, see Accounts Module.
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Contacts. Click this tab to view the Contacts module. Use this module to track people involved in doing business with your organization. You can track contact information such as title, email address, and phone number. Contacts are usually linked to an account. For more information, see Contacts Module.
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Opportunities. Click this tab to view the Opportunities module. Use this module to track potential customers. Opportunities help you manage your selling process by tracking attributes such as sales stages, probability of close, deal amount, and other information. For more information, see Opportunities Module.
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Calendar. Click this tab to view the Calendar module. Use this module to view scheduled activities (by day, week, month, or year) such as meetings, tasks, and calls. You can also share your calendar with your coworkers to coordinate your daily activities. For more information, see Calendar Module.
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Calls.Click this tab to view the Calls module. Use this module to manage outbound and incoming phone calls between you and your customers. For more information, see Calls Module.
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Meetings. Click this tab to view the Meetings module. Use this module to manage meetings, including both internal and external invitees, that you schedule or accept. For more information, see Meetings Module.
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Emails. Click this tab to view the Emails module. Use this module to send and receive emails. You can also automate email management and create email templates for automated responses and email-based marketing campaigns. For more information, see Emails Module.
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Tasks. Click this tab to view the Tasks module. Use this module to manage a list of actions that you need to complete by a specific date. For more information, see Tasks Module.
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Notes. Click this tab to view the Notes module. Use this module to manage notes and file attachments. For more information, see Notes Module.
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Documents. Click this tab to view the Documents module. Use this module to view a list of documents that you can download. You can also upload your own documents, assign publication and expiration dates, and specify the users who can access them. For more information, see Documents Module.
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Leads. Click this tab to view the Leads module. Use this module to track individuals or companies that are potential customers. When you choose fields in the Web to Leads form in Sugar from the fields in the Leads module, Sugar generates the HTML code to display the form and the code to connect entered field values to the fields in the Leads module. For more information, see Leads Module.
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Targets. Click this tab to view theTargets module. Use this module to track and manage targets. For more information see Targets Module .
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Target Lists. Click this tab to view theTarget Lists module. Use this module to create target lists and to track and manage mass marketing campaigns. For more information seeTarget Lists Module .
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Campaigns. Click this tab to view the Campaigns module. Use this module to create and manage marketing campaigns. You can implement and track telemarketing, mail, or email-based marketing campaigns. For more information, see Campaigns Module.
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Cases. Click this tab to view the Cases module. Use this module to help Customer Support manage product problems and inquiries by tracking information for each case such as its status and priority, the user assigned, as well as track related open and completed activities. For more information, see Cases Module.
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In addition, Sugar provides the following modules, which your administrator can make available to you:
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Projects. Click this tab to view the Projects module. Use this module to track and manage tasks for multiple projects. Tasks can be assigned to different users and assigned estimated hours of effort. You can update information as tasks progress or are completed. For more information, see Projects Module.
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Bug Tracker. Click this tab to view the Bug Tracker module. Use this module to report and track bugs associated with a product. Customer support representatives can manage software-related support problems or inquiries to completion by tracking information for each bug such as its status and priority, resolution, assigned user, release of software involved, type (defect or feature) as well as track related activities. For more information, see Bug Tracker Module.
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Grouped Modules
Users have the option to view modules as individual module tabs, or as sets of modules belonging to one of the following groups:
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Sales - Home, Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, and Leads
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Marketing - Home, Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Campaigns, Targets, and Target Lists
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Support - Home, Accounts, Contacts, Cases, and Bug Tracker
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Activities - Home, Calendar, Calls, Meetings, Emails, Tasks, and Notes
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Collaboration - Home, Emails, and Documents
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To view individual module tabs
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Mouse over the All tab located next to the grouped module tabs.
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Select the individual module tab listed under the All tab.
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Click the double right arrows >> located under the All tab to the right of all the modules to view more modules.
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Select the individual module you want to view.
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Viewing and managing record information
Every module represents a record type such as accounts or opportunities. Sugar provides three types of views for every module: List View, Detail View, and Edit View.
List View: The List View displays links to individual records in a table format. By default, Sugar sorts records in descending order of their creation date. The List View also displays other relevant information such as the name, email address, and phone number for each record. You can change the default view by adding or removing columns depending on the information that you want to view. For more information, see Searching for Information in Sugar.
You can click a record name to view its details. Alternatively, if you have Edit permissions, you can click the Edit icon located next to the record name to navigate to the Edit View.
The Actions drop-down list, located above the Name column in List View, provides options to perform actions such as Delete, Email, Mass Update, Merge, Add to Target List, and Export one or more records.
Sugar paginates long List Views. Click any column name that has a double-arrow icon beside it to sort the list. Click the column name again to reverse the sort order.
Detail View: The Detail View displays available information such as the record name, modified date, and related records. The related records are displayed in the separate sub-panels. For example, a Contact’s Detail View displays sub-panels for related Activities, History, Documents, Opportunities, and so on. The Detail View enables you to edit, duplicate, find duplicates, manage subscriptions, and view change log for the record. You can also create, edit, and delete related records in the sub-panels.
Edit View: The Edit View enables you to update existing information and add more details if needed.
To view and edit a record
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Click a record name in a module’s List View, to see its Detail View.
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Click Edit in the record’s Detail View to edit the record.
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Input the required information and click Save.
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Click Cancel to exit the Edit View without saving your changes.
To manage related information in sub-panels
The Detail View of a record displays related information in sub-panels. Each sub-panel consists of rows to list links to records. You can add more records to the list, if necessary. This feature enables you to quickly associate multiple records. For example, you can associate more than one contact with an account.
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To minimize a sub-panel, click the arrow located to the left of a sub-panel’s name. This hides the sub-panel, but still displays its name and the arrow icon. Click the arrow icon to display the sub-panel.
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To move a sub-panel to a different location on the page, mouse over the sub-panel name, click and drag the panel to the desired location on the page.
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To create a new record, click Create below the sub-panel name. This displays the the Quick Create form. Input required information and click Save. Click Full Form to include additional details and click Save.
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To choose a record from an existing list, click Select above the sub-panel.
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A list of available records for the sub-panel displays in a separate window.
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To select one or more records from the list, click the box adjacent to the record name and then click Select.
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To delete a related record, click the rem icon located to the extreme right of the record row, and click OK.
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Tracking User Activity
The Last Viewed bar displays recently accessed records, as well as calls and meetings you recently scheduled.
Creating and Managing Records
You can access a module only if the administrator grants you permission. Your ability to perform actions within a module, such as creating, editing, and deleting records also depend on the access permissions that the administrator grants you.
Sugar displays existing records on a module’s Home page. You can see this List View when you select the View option from the module menu.
Assigning Records to Users
When you create a record, by default, you are the user assigned to manage it. You can change the user assignment if required. When a record is assigned to a user, Sugar sends an email notifying the user. You can view the assigned user from the record’s Detail View and Edit View.
To assign users to records
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Select the module in which you want to create a record.
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Select Create from the Actions bar on any page within the module. For example, to create a record in the Accountsmodule, choose Create Account.
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Click the Create icon located on the top right of any page within the module.
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Enter the record name.
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Sugar automatically assigns this record to you.
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To change the assigned user, enter the user’s name, or click the Select button to select it from the Users list; if you do not want to assign a user, click the Clearbutton to remove the existing user name from the field.
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Click Save to save the record.
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To manage record assignments
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To edit or delete an assigned user, click the record name in the List View.
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This displays the Detail View of the record.
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Click Edit in the Detail View.
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This displays the Edit View of the record.
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To assign your record to a different user, replace your name with the appropriate user’s name. Alternatively, clickSelect and choose from the Users List.
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Click Save.
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Tracking and managing record History
The Detail View page of every record displays a History sub-panel that enables you to track record-related activities such as meetings, notes, attachments, and archived emails. Each row in the panel displays icons to edit or remove a record. You can also use this sub-panel to create and record new activities.
To track and manage record history
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To view the details of a listed note, meeting, attachment, or email, click its title.
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To sort records in ascending or descending by date, click the Up or Down arrow located next to the Due Datecolumn.
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To add a note or to attach a file, click Create Note or Attachment. For more information, see Creating Notes and Attachments.
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To archive an email, click Archive Email, copy the email’s contents into the Email form, and save it.
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To view a summary of all the listed records, such as subject, status, and date, in a separate window, click View Summary.
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To edit or delete a record, click the appropriate edit or rem icon respectively.
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Editing and Deleting Multiple Records
Most of the modules provide a Mass Update sub-panel on their home page that enables you to edit or delete one or more of the listed records simultaneously. This feature is useful to update information shared by several records such as the assigned user. The fields that you can edit vary depending on the module. For example, in the Contacts module you can change the related account.
To edit or delete multiple records
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To edit information, in the module’s List View, select the records that you want to edit.
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From the Actions drop-down list, select Mass Update to view the Mass Update sub-panel.
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Make your changes and click Update.
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To reassign the record to a different user, click Select to choose a new user from the Users list. Other fields that display in this panel vary depending on the module.
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Click Update to save your changes.
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The selected records are updated.
Integrating data from external sources
You can bring data into Sugar from external applications using Sugar Cloud Connectors.
Typically, you use the import functionality to add a large volume of data from an external system. You can also use Connectors to view and add data to a Sugar record from third party data providers.
This section discusses the following Connectors: LinkedIn and InsideView.
Integrating data through a Connector
To integrate data through a Connector
Follow the steps listed below to integrate data through a Connector:
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Navigate to the record’s Detail View.
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If the system administrator has enabled the LinkedIn Connector for the module, Sugar displays its symbol next to the account name.
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Point the cursor at the LinkedIn symbol in the Sugar record, and from the pop-up window, select the connection that you want to view.
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Accessing InsideView
You can access InsideView information only for the modules that have been enabled by your administrator. Sugar allows the following modules to be enabled for InsideView access:
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Accounts
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Contacts
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Leads
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Opportunities
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To view InsideView information
Follow the steps listed below to view InsideView information related to a record:
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Go to a module that has been enabled for InsideView access.
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Select a record from the module’s List View page.
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This displays the record’s Detail View page.
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Scroll down to the InsideView subpanel in the Detail View page to access InsideView information on the record.
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Click the up or down arrows next to the InsideView link to hide or display the InsideView panel within the records in the module.
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Read the terms of use and privacy policy and select the checkbox if you are accessing InsideView for the first time.
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Click Get Started.
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When you access the Detail View of Accounts, Opportunities, and Leads, InsideView performs a search based on values in the Account Name field and displays the results in the InsideView panel. For the Contacts module, InsideView searches for the Contact name and displays the results in the InsideView panel. You can narrow down search results by adding the Company name in the search field provided in the InsideView panel.
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The extent and depth of information that you can access in InsideView depends on your InsideView subscription. For more information, see
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Managing Sugar Dashlets
Sugar Dashlets are user-configurable panels that enable you to customize your Home page to view information of your choice. You can edit, add, and delete Sugar Dashlets.
A Sugar Dashlet displays a list of records similar to a module’s List View. You can add Sugar Dashlets for modules, charts, websites, and tools such as My Activity Stream and Team Notices. You can filter records based on criteria such as date, status, and subject, and specify the fields you want to view. You can add a Dashlet to your Home page for easy access to records that you have marked as your favorites.
My Activity Stream enables users to notify each other immediately when one of them creates or modifies a record. User Feed enables users to post their status along with external links, images, and YouTube videos. For more information, see My Activity Stream.
Jot Pad enables you to add a text area to your Home page to jot down tasks, personal or business-related, that you need to complete.
You can add multiple Sugar Dashlets of the same kind and configure each one differently. For example, you can add more than one Activity Dashlet. By default, you can add a maximum of ten Sugar Dashlets on your Home page, but the administrator can change this setting. You can also move a Sugar Dashlet to a different location on the page.
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Check with your administrator to ensure that the functionality has been enabled if you cannot add or move Sugar Dashlets.
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To add Sugar Dashlets
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Click the Add Dashlets button on the Home page.
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This displays the Add menu in a separate window.
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To add a module Sugar Dashlet, select the module on the Modules tab.
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You can add multiple Sugar Dashlets of the same type and configure each other differently. For example, you can add two Sugar Dashlets for Accounts and display different columns, filters, and so on.
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Select a chart from the Charts tab to add a chart Sugar Dashlet.
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You can add a chart Dashlet to your Home page or to the Dashboard. The Charts tab displays pre-defined report charts under Basic Charts.
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To add a Jot Pad, or My Activity Stream, select it from the Tools tab.
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Enter the URL in the appropriate field on the Web tab and click Add to add an external website or a news feed.
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This displays the Dashlet on your Home page.
To edit Sugar Dashlets
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Go to a Dashlet (for example, My Calls) and click the Edit Sugar Dashlet icon on the top right corner of the Dashlet.
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This displays the <Dashlet name> : Options pop-up window. You can change the Dashlet’s title, the number of rows that it displays, and the fields that display as columns. You can also filter records that you want to view in the Dashlet, based on the subject, assigned user, due date, and so on. Click Save after you have made the desired changes to the Dashlet settings.
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To sort a Dashlet by a column such as user name or start date, click the column name on the Home page.
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To manage Sugar Dashlets
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To move a Sugar Dashlet, click anywhere on its title and drag and drop the Dashlet to its new location.
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To remove a Sugar Dashlet, mouse over the title bar, click the Delete icon and then then click OK in the delete confirmation pop-up box.
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To manually refresh a Sugar Dashlet, mouse over the title bar, and click the Refresh icon.
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My Activity Stream
The My Activity Stream Dashlet on your Home page enables users to notify each other immediately when one of you creates a new contact, lead, opportunity, or case. Users are also notified when a lead is converted and when a case or opportunity is closed.
My Activity Stream also enables you to post your status along with external links, images, and YouTube videos.
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If you select the Show Full Name option in your User settings, your full name will display in My Activity Streamentries.
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To add a My Activity Stream Dashlet
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Click Add Sugar Dashlets on your Home page.
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This displays the Add pop-up window.
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Select My Activity Stream from the Tools tab in the Add pop-up window.
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This displays the My Activity Stream Dashlet on the selected tab of your Home page. You will see your username and a field to enter the status information to post, if User Feed is enabled.
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To post an external link, image, or YouTube video in the My Activity Stream Dashlet, select Link, YouTube, orImage from the drop-down list under your name; enter the URL or path in the field displayed and Click Post.
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This displays the posted information on the Home page for all users. When you perform an action such as creating a contact or converting a lead, the information automatically displays in the My Activity Stream Dashlet.
Merging Duplicate Records
You can merge duplicate records into a single record to update your data. You can select which fields you want to merge and when the process completes, the system deletes the duplicate records. This ensures that there is no confusion and that your users are accessing information from only one source. Before the duplicate records are deleted, related information such as activities, history, contacts are moved from the duplicate records to the primary record.
You can merge records in the following modules: Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Cases, and Bugs.
If you already know of the duplicate records that you want to merge, you can do it from the module’s List View. If you need to search for duplicates of a record and then merge them, you can do so from the record’s Detail View.
To merge duplicate records from the List View
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Select two or more duplicate records on the module’s home page, and click the Merge link from the Actions drop-down list.
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The Merge Records page displays fields from the primary record on the left and fields from the duplicate records on the right.
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The system treats the first record that you select as the primary record. However, you can change to a different record.
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Click Set as Primary to specify one of the duplicate records as the primary record.
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This moves the record to the left column.
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Click the << button to replace a field in the primary record with a field from a secondary record.
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Click Save Merge.
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This merges the selected fields, moves all the related information to the primary record, and deletes the duplicate records.
To merge duplicates from the Detail View
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Click a record in the List View to navigate to its Detail View.
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Click Find Duplicates.
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This displays the Find Search Records to Merge With page.
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Set filters in the Find Search Records to Merge With page to specify the field that you want to search for. For example, you can search for records that have the same billing address or phone number.
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Select one or more filters and click Next Step; Click the Trash icon located next to the field name to remove a filter.
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This displays the Records Found To Merge With page.
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Select the records that you want to merge and click Perform Merge.
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This displays the Merge Records page.
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Merge records as described in To merge duplicate records from the List View.
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Searching for Information in Sugar
You can search for information across Sugar or restrict it to a specific module. Sugar offers the following Search types:
Global Search
You can perform a Global Search on all the modules enabled for Global Search by the system administrator. You can also add or remove modules enabled by the administrator to search on. For more information, see To add or remove modules from Global Search.
Administrators can select the modules that users can search on when using Global Search. This includes both standard and custom modules that have been deployed in Sugar. For more information, see To Enable/Disable modules for Global Search.
Global Search looks for one field at a time. For Contacts, you can enter the first name, last name, or the full name in the Search field. You can also enter a letter to find all records whose names contain that letter. For example, if you enter “a”, Sugar will search for all records that start with the letter “a”.
Global Search may or may not be case-sensitive depending on your database configuration. In general, Global Search on Sugar installations running on the MySQL database is not case-sensitive; Global Search on Sugar installations running on Oracle is case-sensitive, by default.
Enter a letter or a keyword in the Search field and click Enter or Search icon to perform a Global Search.
Sugar appends the % wildcard character when searching text fields. For example, searching for “Acme” will match Account names such as Acme Industries or Acme Funds. Searching for “%Acme” will also match account names such as ABC Acme Industries.
The search result lists records for the module from which you perform the search at the top of the list, followed by records from other modules. For example, if you perform a global search from the Opportunities module, matching opportunities are listed first.
Click the Show All link that displays at the bottom of the Search result list to view the full search results from each module in separate panels.
To add or remove modules from Global Search
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Click the Search button located next to the Global Search field.
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This displays a page with the message: There were no results found. Please search again.
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Click the Advanced link next to the Search button on this page.
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Drag and drop module names between the Enabled Modules and Disabled Modules columns to add or remove modules from Global Search.
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Basic Search
You can perform a basic search based on record name from the Search form in the List View of most modules.
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To perform a basic search, enter the record name, or the first letter of the name in the Search field and clickSearch. When searching for contacts, you can enter the first name, last name, or full name.
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To find only records assigned to you, select My items, and then click Search.
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Click Clear to clear the search filters.
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To edit or delete records in the search results, see To edit or delete multiple records.
Advanced Search
Click Advanced Search for more filtering options in your search results. The search fields are context-sensitive and will vary depending on the module you are searching.
Text entered in search fields needs to match from the beginning of the value stored in each record, unless the wildcard character is prepended. Only records that match the selected fields are included in the filtered list if text is entered in more than one search field. For example, searching for “fred*” would only match first names like “Fred*erick” or other “Fred” names containing the asterisk (*) character.
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Numeric search strings match anywhere in a field. All matching records are displayed in a series of paginated lists.
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Advanced Search also provides the option to save search criteria and related search results as Saved Search.
Saving Search Criteria and Layout
Saved Search and Layout option enables you to specify information you want to find and the layout of the search results. You can save the search results in the specified layout for future use. For example, you can view or hide details such as the record name, assigned user. You can also sort the results in ascending or descending order.
You can save an unlimited number of search results. The Saved Searches drop-down list displays the last saved search at the top of the list.
To save and manage search criteria
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Enter a name for the search results in the Save this search as field and click Save.
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This displays the name in the Saved Searches drop-down list.
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Select a saved search from the Saved Searches drop-down list in the module’s home page to view a saved search.
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Select the saved search from the drop-down list, change the criteria as needed in the fields above, and click Updateto modify a saved search.
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Select a saved search in the Saved Searches drop-down list, click Delete, and OK to delete a saved search.
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Select a cloumn from the Hide Columns list and use the left arrow to move it to the Display Columns list to add a column to the List View.
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Select a column from the Display Columns list and use the right arrow to move it to the Hide Columns list to remove a column from List View.
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Use the Mass Update sub-panel to edit or delete multiple records in the search results. For more information, seeTo edit or delete multiple records.
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