Ticket Source field

Like others, I would like to analyze the effectiveness of my marketing campaigns. I have been entering the the type of campaign (e.g. newspaper ads) into the 'Source' field in the 'Ticket' section. I know how to run custom reports based on this field in CommitCRM but I would rather use the Quickbooks reports as they are more accurate since they can include all of my income and expenses. I have found in the CommitCRM preferences the options to add data to the Quickbooks invoice lines but those choices are limited and I do not see a way to add the ticket 'Source' to the generated invoices. If I could easily add or even export this information into Quickbooks then I could run the kind of report I need in Quickbooks to analyze the profitability of the advertising campaigns.

Is there a way to make this happen and if not is there a way to at least export this information into Quickbooks from CommitCRM ?

I incorrectly thought there was a 'source' field in the Account record but I guess it is only in the ticket. Personally, I think it may be worthwhile to track where the account came from rather then each individual ticket from a marketing perspective.

That being said, I could see the ticket source useful in understanding how the ticket came to be. I would especially find this useful to see how many were created from a verbal request while a technician was on-site performing some other service.

May situation may be unique in which case the chances of this feature being added will be slim. My goal is to be able to run a custom report in Quickbooks in which I can select invoices that were generated from sales that resulted from an advertising source so I can measure the effectiveness of that source.

The reason I am stuck on Quickbooks is that I have in CommitCRM a general item with a "0" price which is for any part I may need for a repair. Only when I close the order in CommitCRM do I then change the price to whatever the part was. It is in Quickbooks where I record the expense of buying that part. I do it this way so I do not have a huge inventory of 1-time use parts inCommitCRM.

So by running the report in Quickbooks I can see the net profit that the advertising source had brought in that month.

I believe this would all be possible if in the CommitCRM CRM options under the Quickbooks tab the option to add the "Source" field to the invoice line was available. I am curious as to the reasoning of only making available the existing options (i.e. Data, Employee Name, Ticket Number, Contract Code) Why not make these options selectable from all applicable fields ?

You do have a good point if you want to see how much revenue is generated from a targeted marketing campaign. Very interesting idea actually!

@Eastern Shore IT - thank you for your interesting suggestion on how to analyze your profits from campaigns, sounds useful indeed. As you mentioned, the source field is not currently being passed to QuickBooks invoices, and although we may add the ability to pass more fields in the future (this has come up in the past for other purposes), I'm trying to figure a way to help you with the current implementation.

The way I see it, I think you should be able to pull this information from RangerMSP using charge reports and filtering by the ticket Source field. The only thing which prevents this from working for you (as you mentioned) is the way you enter the Part Charges, and I'm thinking that maybe there is a better way to go about this.

I understand you want to use a general item with price "0" for all "1 time" parts, however, I'm not sure why you enter a "0" price in the charge itself. You can use the item which has no price, and enter the price in the charge itself, so it will reflect whatever the part was. This way you can record the expenses correctly in RangerMSP. I believe this way you will be able to generate the required reports in RangerMSP directly.

I hope this makes sense :-)

Neta

I think I understand and I am open to doing differently.

Just to clarify - I keep the generic part in the "items" list. When I use a part in a ticket then I insert the correct price in the charges. This is the price that I charge the client.

With your suggestion I don't understand how I can see the profit made from parts that I mark up. This would be important data since it contributes to my net profit which is what I am measuring against the cost of my advertising campaign.

Well, the best way to track profits in RangerMSP is setting the item's cost and price and then you can use these fields when generating charge reports which analyze profits. This would require defining a separate item per produce. You should see which of the ways (using dedicated items or a generic item) has the most benefits for your process, as each has it's own pros and cons I guess...

Neta

Thanks for the input. It still seems that CommitCRM CRM is not quite as flexible as I would like. I am referring to the options which are presented such as the 'web interface print report' and the 'Quickbooks invoice lines options'. It seems as if both these options are perfectly capable of having expanded options (e.g. the options in the same class as what are currently made available).

Is CommitCRM CRM still the best option for this niche market? Yes and I will continue to use it.

I can only assume there were practical reasons the developers made the decisions regarding what the customer can and cannot customize. I am not a programmer so I will make no presumptions as to why decisions were made.

Unfortunately I am left still looking for a solution to send ticket source data to Quickbooks short of entering it manually in Quickbooks. I purchased the Quickbooks link option so that I can use the power of Quickbooks to better analyze profit from tickets.

I appreciate the support CommitCRM CRM provides its customers through this forum.