Hello again Method users; it’s Alex (your friendly neighbourhood documentation specialist), here again with more good news for those of you pining for some down-to-earth Method support.  I’m pleased to announce that even more documentation has recently been added to our Help Center (courtesy of yours truly), including a full section detailing Campaigns, and a section we're calling Common Lists.  The articles in this section focus mostly on transaction-related screens, including how to create and edit Invoices, Estimates, Sales reps, and Sales receipts, plus a whole lot more.

But why put these in a separate section when almost everybody accesses those screens through the Customers tab, a savvy Method user may ask.  Well, savvy Method user, since you’re so savvy you’re no doubt aware that all these screens can be accessed from a variety of different places throughout the Method environment.  But not every user is quite as savvy as you (at least, not yet!) A user who regularly accesses estimates from the Leads tab, for example, might not think to look for our Estimates documentation in the Customers section of the Help Center.  So, we’ve given a whole section of the Help Center over to these screens in the interest of making it easier to locate the information you need, when you need it.

And on that topic, I’d like to bring up something else.  During my time here at Method, I have learned a great deal about CRM and what it means to small businesses.  My father was (and still is) a small business owner, so I have some idea of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs striking out on their own.  I sincerely believe (and not just because it’s my job) that Method offers extremely useful solutions for small businesses of all stripes, and I want all our users to be able to make the most of these solutions.  
To that end, I entreat each of you to get in touch with me (yes, me personally) with your questions, comments, and feedback regarding our documentation.  If something doesn’t work, or doesn’t make sense, I want to hear about it!  If something made your life easier, I definitely want to hear about that (writer’s ego, you understand), but joking aside, I want to make sure your experience with our technical documentation is as smooth and helpful as possible.  And that goes for videos too: Errol and I can only improve our service to you if we know what’s working and, more importantly, what isn’t.  

So feel free to drop us a line anytime at documentation@method.me.  We will respond to you just as fast as we can (and that’s pretty fast).  We look forward to hearing from you!

All the best for a happy November,

Alex Krueger
Documentation Specialist
Method CRM

This is a guest blog by Advanced Certified Consultant and Method Solution Provider, Mark Crews.

The Cloud Consultancy team is just back from the 1st Method Solution Providers (MSPs) Retreat, adeptly run by Scaling New Heights. Over the course of the retreat, we had a chance to preview the next generation of Method, and participate in many jam-packed, cutting-edge sessions presented by the Method team, as well as other MSPs. We loved the chance to informally network with our fellow MSPs and spend three days immersed in Method. The best part though, was getting to see the future of Method CRM.

Joe Woodard and Paul Jackson, Method’s CEO, kicked off the retreat with keynote presentations. Paul coined the concept of “frankensteining” or putting together a business system made from many different applications which may or may not work well together. Naturally, Method is the antidote, since it can provide the functionality of many different apps, and reduces the number of moving pieces. Paul unveiled the new Method logo, which incorporates the infinity sign, reflecting the infinite possibilities of Method. Finally, his keynote included what we were all waiting for, a sneak peak at the new version, known as V2, and a timeline for its release. Method users should be excited to know that V2 Mobile Beta will be available soon.

The developers at Method have been hard at work on the next generation platform over the last year, and it shows. It’s built on a proprietary markup language using HTML5, taking advantage of the latest in web technology. For the first time, Method screens really are true web pages, with all the power that implies. The User Interface (UI) is greatly simplified, which will lead to easier adoption for new users, and it is slick and fast. Of course it is responsive, allowing designs to work equally well on any device: mobile, tablet, desktop. Under the hood, we have all the great drag and drop design tools that have made Method such an awesome platform for creating custom applications, but V2 goes even farther with some advanced filtering and expressions, which gives us more power as developers. Method gave all the attendees a demo account to play with V2, and the designer is as slick as the user interface, making it a joy to use.

The sessions then broke up into two groups - new Method Solution Providers training for Method certification for the first time, and a post-certification track for advanced developers. Paul and his team presented topics ranging from Marketing to UI Design to Advanced Report Designer tricks, and many of the sessions included peeks into the capabilities of the new version. Throughout all sessions, the Method team reiterated their core vision for V2 - rapid, responsive, and a radical new approach to business software, which seeks to unify all the different areas of a business - marketing, sales, accounting and management reporting - on one platform.

We also had some great joint sessions: Selling Method, an open forum sparked by a conversation with three long-time MSPs, Robin Hall of VARC, Matt Raiser of Tech in the Field and Gale Kirsopp of Kirsopp Consulting, and Consulting Legalities, presented by Joe Woodard. Cloud Consultancy really enjoyed participating in the Advanced Think Tank, where the post-certification group had a series of open discussions led by different MSPs: Database Naming conventions, using Method on QBO vs QB desktop, UI design principles (led by Carol Oliver of Woodard Consulting) and a continuation of the selling discussion (led by Robin Hall).

Those MSP’s who missed the retreat should be able to access some of the presentations in the MSP only V2 forum. Three days went by very quickly! Thanks to the Scaling New Heights team, Joe Woodard, Ardel Strother and the ever capable Wendy Rohrssen, the event was a great success and return on investment for everyone who attended. We can’t wait for the next retreat, but in the meantime, we have V2 to assimilate and look forward to implementing, soon!

Mark Crews
Cloud Consultancy

Mark is an Advanced Certified Consultant and Account Manager for Method CRM, accorded “Guru Status”. His experiences have garnered the Method CRM Partner of the Year and Community Excellence awards.  Mark is also an avid music fan and the founding member of Cloud Consultancy, which was born when he found partners who share his passion for software development, cloud computing, Method CRM, and just having fun.

Allo, and welcome to Method’s weekly blog! Or is it bi-weekly now? I’m not sure! Anyway, today is Halloween so a few people from Method dressed up. (I dressed up as a cat because my daughter wanted me to wear ears.)

Like our T-Shirts?

Also, I recorded myself pretending to be a cat with Alex, who dressed up as ‘Grumpy Dad’ because his son kept him up way later than should be legal.

Of course, you probably aren’t here to watch cat videos, or at least, you don’t reference this blog as a source of cat videos. What I do have for you are more tutorial videos!

In this series, we take a look at Cases. In fact, I help Bob Crenshaw through a problem he is having with his pen. I’ve heard that this is one of my more tame videos, at least that’s what the folks around the office says, so judge for yourself!

Anyway, they’ve been handing candy out at the office, and this is not really good for lack of will, so I guess I’m going back to the kitchen to get some. I hope you guys have a great weekend, and hey, tweet me your costume at @Method_Elumir!

I hope you have a great day, bye bye!

Hi there again, it’s Adam from the Support Team. Today, I’m going to talk about Sharing.

Now I don’t mean the sharing you were taught in school, like sharing your Halloween candy. You should always share your Halloween candy - especially with me! The sharing I’m talking about relates to how you share your Customers, Transactions, Activities and other records in Method. As an Administrator for your Method Account, you can determine how your Method users access and share records with each other. Isn’t that great?

In Method CRM, most records contain an “Assigned To” or a Rep field. These fields designate who these records belong to and are used to determine how they are shared throughout the Method Account. When you edit your Users (found under Customize > Users), in Step 6 of 10 of the Edit User wizard, you can determine which Users can see which records. Also note that your Customers are assigned Sales Reps, and in order to assign them to a Method user, you must first link your Method users to a Sales Rep. This can be done on Step 1 of the Edit User wizard.

To explain the options available, let’s assume we are setting up our Method account with 4 Users. Firstly, we have an Administrator, let’s call him Adam, who can access all records. Secondly, a Manager (Joe) who can access Adam’s records as well as those of his two staff members, and the two staff members (Sidney and Tim) who will only see their own records.

Let’s first look at the setup for Sidney and Tim. Each member will have nearly identical settings. See the screen below for staff member Sidney’s setup:

I’ve set Sidney to see “Empty Records” and “Missing Assignments”. This will allow her to assign Customers and other records to herself or another user if the records are unassigned. I’ll set the other Users with these options also. I’ve also left “Share All Records” unchecked. If this was checked, Sidney would be sharing all of her records in Method with every other User.

Below are the sharing permissions I’ve set for each Method user as they relate to Sidney. Notice that Adam, the Administrator, can access Sidney’s records since he can access everything as an administrator; however, Sidney (staff) cannot access Adam’s. Next we have Joe, the Manager, who can also access Sidney’s records, and again, Sidney cannot see Joe’s records. The last user is Tim. He is set to share “none”, so that he cannot see Sidney’s records and Sidney cannot see his.

To set Tim up as a User (the other Staff member), the same settings would apply.

Let’s next look at Joe. Since Joe is a Manager, we want him to see his two staff members, Tim and Sidney, as well as Adam’s.

Notice that the setting for Adam says “Full: Joe and Adam share with each other”. This means that Joe and Adam can see each other’s records. Next, for Sidney and Tim, Joe can access their records, but they cannot access his. This is likely already set, since you have previously configured this step when setting up Sidney and Tim.

Finally, let’s take a look at Adam, the Administrator. We want Adam to access everyone’s records, but only have Joe access Adam’s. See below:

For the three users, Adam is set to access their records, with only Joe set to Full Access. Again, this will likely already be set while you were setting the permissions for the other Users. Remember, as an Admin, you can change these settings any time, as your business needs change.

If you have any questions, please post in the comments, our Forums, or send us a tweet @MethodCRM!

Did you know that we are also up for the PwC People's Choice Award?  To help us get on the Vision to Reality Award night podium, click here to vote for Method CRM on twitter.

Until next time!

Adam

It may not yet be New Years Eve, but we’re popping champagne at Method HQ!

Thanks to you, our Method CRM community, we are finalists in the PwC Vision to Reality Awards.

As you may have read in our previous blog post, it was really exciting just to be short listed, so you can imagine how thrilled we were to see our name as one of the PwC 2013 Finalists.  But at Method, we're always striving for more - on November 7th, PwC will be be presenting the People’s Choice Award and we’ve got our eye on the prize.

We appreciate your support in making Method CRM a finalist and we would REALLY love your support in getting the People's Choice Award.  PwC will determine the winner of the People's Choice Award directly through social media votes using the hashtage #V2R.

To help us get on the Vision to Reality Award night podium, click here to vote for Method CRM on twitter.

Thanks again for your continued support.

Until next time, 

Lynda 

It is no secret that video is a proven and effective way to communicate with current and potential customers, so I was excited to attend Space Camp, an information-packed video marketing conference put on by Vidyard.  

The one-day conference consisted of a lineup of impressive speakers, awesome networking, amazing food, and even life-sized Star Wars posters to go right along with the space theme!

I insisted the Jamil, Method's Marketing Director, strike a pose with Han Solo - he was a good sport

The true highlight of Space Camp however, was the informative presentations from an impressive lineup of speakers, including:

• Meagan Eisenberg, VP of Demand Generation at DocuSign

• Victor Haseman, Marketing Director of Video Strategy at Salesforce (yes, the competition!)

• Ian Hutchinson, Video Marketing Specialist at Vidyard

• Jon Lucas and Andrew Askes, Founders of Arc Media

• Michael Litt, Vidyard’s CEO

The event’s speakers were enthusiastic, had proven metrics to demonstrate their points, and also had some great one-liners and analogies on video marketing.  

Here are some of my favourites from the day:

Michael Litt, Vidyard’s CEO, kick-started the day with this statement alongside some pretty impressive stats proving that a ‘play’ button on a website, or google search, yields the most clicks.  With all the emails, texts, tweets, etc that we all read everyday, it’s no surprise that a visitor to your website would much rather watch a video on your product than read about it.    

Michael reminded us that, while it is essential to have video as part of your marketing strategy, it is important to monitor where you’re sending your prospects or customers to watch your videos.  He recommended embedding your video directly into your website with pop up calls-to-action (CTAs).

Michael also emphasized that video content can also be interactive.  He recommended using registration pages, surveys, and polls to keep your audience engaged.  Even better, if you’re promoting your product or service, have a CTA within the video when you’ve introduced a particular product, to take the viewer directly to the product’s web page.  CTAs at the end of videos are also really important, since viewers who make it to the end of  the video are your most engaged audience and are more likely to purchase your product or service.

Jon Lucas and Andrew Askes, Founders of Arc Media, made the argument that if all you have is a smart phone, you can create great video content.  I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first, but came around to the idea when the Arc Media guys showed the original video for the Pebble Watch, which was shot using an iPhone and generated millions of pre-orders.  Sure, it may seem intimidating to create a video, but you don’t have to take out a second mortgage to create video content that is professional, authentic, and captivating to your target audience.

Ian Hutchinson, Vidyard’s Marketing Specialist, challenged the group to think of our videos as more than just website content. Especially in the world of small business, there’s no question that your company’s website is the storefront and first point of contact for your brand.  By having video on your website, you’re bringing leads into your “store” and presenting them with an engaging sales rep that can present your product/ service all while you’re having dinner with your family or catching up on sleep.  

Lastly, almost every speaker at Space Camp asked video measurement questions, such as:

• What are you doing to discover where your viewers are coming from?  

• Are you aware of how long most viewers stay on your videos?  

• If viewers are not staying on to watch your video in full, where are they dropping off and why?  

The importance of measuring your video content was a hot topic during Video Space Camp.  A platform like Vidyard helps companies measure the engagement and success of their videos with intelligent video analytics.  

All the presenters at Space Camp gave us lots to think about and actions for Method’s own video marketing initiatives.  A big THANK YOU  to Vidyard and all the speakers for sharing your insight and experience.

Are you currently engaging in video content marketing?  If so, how's it going for you and your business? Let me know in the comments section below or tweet at me @MethodCRM.

Until next time, 

Lynda

Hi there Method friends!  

This weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving, so the team is getting excited to eat delicious food, give thanks, and spend time with friends and family.  Support will still be available on Monday if you need us.  

We wanted to take this opportunity to express our utmost appreciation and gratitude for what we are most thankful for everyday here at Method HQ - you, our customers.  

From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for choosing Method CRM as your Customer Relationship Management platform!  

Until next time, 

Lynda 

Allo! And welcome to this week’s Method blog. My name is Errol, and had this blog post come out on Friday, it would have been October 11th! And that would have meant that I had been with Method for 8 months! So close!

However, it’s only the 10th, so it’s been 8 months minus one day! HUZZAH! I hope Lynda buys me lunch. Not that I’m hinting or anything. No. Not at all. No sirreee….

But if she does buy me lunch, I want fish and chips!

Anyway, guess what I have for you? More videos! Of course I have more videos, that’s the only reason why they let me blog on here. Oh, and in case you missed it, did you see the last video we made? It was for the PwC Innovator of the Year award! I hope you were able to tweet that out! Also, can I just say working with the Method actors was a lot of fun?!

Hah. “Method Actors.” Get it? … Ok, moving along…

Anyway, the latest videos I have are on Opportunities and you can find them on our Youtube channel! I cover creating an Opportunity, editing an Opportunity, and the Opportunities List. And it’s all in its own playlist to make life easier for you.

Oh, and if you missed it, I have a playlist of Transaction videos too! There are four videos: Estimates, Sales Orders, Invoices, and Receiving Payments.

And that’s it for this week. It’s Thanksgiving for Canadians so I know that all I will be doing is eating. Mmmmm…

I hope you guys have a great weekend! Thanks for reading and take care! Bye bye!

As you may have read in our previous blog post, Method CRM has been nominated for the PwC Innovator of the Year Award.  

Everyone here at Method CRM is really excited for the news, but one member of our team is almost a little TOO excited about this:

I hope you enjoyed Errol's antics as much as we did.  We'd love your support!  Click here to vote for us on Twitter

Until next time, 

Lynda 

Good afternoon Method users!  

Alex the friendly neighbourhood technical writer here, coming to you from my home office where I'm flanked on one side by Kleenex boxes and on the other with teas, tinctures and Tylenol.  Yes, I've succumbed to the yearly autumnal head cold.  

Of course, like many of you I can't stand being unproductive, so it was a boon to me that our marketing department asked me to take a break from building out Version 1 documentation to write this blog post.  And, charmingly, my current state has afforded me not just majority stocks in tissue companies but also a topic for this post: namely, what to do for your business when you're stuck at home.   

Before working for Method, I spent several years working as a senior editor and campaign manager for an advertising agency specializing in social media strategy.  As a result I became proficient in the use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other popular platforms - and I was surprised to learn these platforms could be used for more than just sharing adorable photos of cats with hilariously misspelled captions.  In fact, I regularly saw the benefits of a strong, effective social media campaign for businesses of every size - my clients ran the gamut from independent musicians all the way up to big corporations like Pepsi and Volvo, and in each situation my team was able to leverage social media to benefit not only our client's current product launch or special, but also their ongoing relationship with customers and the medium at large.

So what does this mean for your small business?  

I'm sure you've heard all the self-styled “social media guru” rhetoric about how valuable Facebook can be to your business, and while it's true that maintaining a social presence can be a benefit, you have to know how to keep people coming back to your social spots - otherwise you're just maintaining real estate nobody is coming to visit.  Here are a few tips I picked up along the way.  Remember them the next time you, too, are stuck at home and aching to do some low-impact business improvement!

1. Providing Interesting Content

Think about the blogs you read regularly, the Twitter accounts you follow, or the Facebook pages you visit.  What brings you back to these locations over and over?  Chances are, it's great content - stuff that's interesting, engaging, relevant, and quick to digest.  Most importantly, it's not all material that has to do directly with you or your business - much like in real life, consumers and potential vendors alike won't bother sticking around if all you do is talk about yourself.   So what's interesting?  It depends on what kind of business you're running.  The key is to provide content that's high-quality (it's never good practice to link to Joe's News Blog when Reuters or Forbes has a similar article) and relevant to your business field.  If you're a tech startup, you might want to post about the latest high-tech bauble released by the geniuses at Apple.  If you're a restaurant, why not post a story about the latest culinary craze in Paris?  That's not to say you shouldn't post about yourself - far from it - but the trick is to find a balance between self-advertisement and content that will keep your client base coming back.  And that means…

2. Knowing Your Audience

You know, better than anyone, what your customers and partners are interested in, right?  After all, you work with them every day.  But even if you don't, there are a few universal truths about the average viewing public on the world-wide web.  

• First of all, your customers and vendors are businesspeople like you - they don't have time to read “War and Peace” every time you post content.  Keeping it simple means keeping it relevant.  

• Second, there are certain formats guaranteed to appeal to the reader on the go: most notably, the much-touted list format (think “The Top Ten Ways To Teach Your Dog To Type”, or “The Five Worst Hummus Recipes”).  It's quick, easy to digest, and entertaining.  Sometimes, entertaining even wins out over informative, but I won't tell you whether that's the best way to go with your online presence, because I don't know your audience (you do!)  

• Third, people don't like to be bugged - if you're updating your Facebook page or Twitter feed a hundred times a day, unless you happen to be really good at content management, there's a good chance you'll drive people away with the sheer volume of your posts.  Try to remember that quality is always better than quantity: providing one interesting post per day is worth far more than filling everyone's news feeds with every list you've managed to drudge up.  Of course, if you have found that many things to post, you're doing something right... 

3. Knowing Your Stuff

Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not telling you that you suddenly have to become an internet expert overnight.  But it does behoove you to know where to find good content fast, and the easiest way to do that is to watch your own behaviour.  If you're interested in something from a business standpoint, there's a good chance your customers and vendors will be as well.  Don't spend a lot of time on the web?  Don't worry, there are plenty of people who can help you out.  Signing up for a Google Alert can help: just plug in the keywords you're interested in and Google will email you with pertinent stories every day.  Or you can take a cue from social media sources you're already following - it's a good idea to follow industry leaders with your profiles, because they often employ people specifically to hunt down content.  Don't feel bad about “reblogging” (posting material other people have already posted) - the trick isn't to be the first person out of the starting gate, it's only to keep up with the race.  If you know how to distinguish interesting content from chaff, and you know how to apply that to your audience, you're already ten steps ahead of some pretty major companies (believe me!)

Ultimately, I can't tell you whether or not maintaining a social media presence will be good for your company.  Like all advertising, there's an element of chance and risk, and some people don't feel it's worth the investment.  But I can tell you this much: the great thing about social media is that it costs you nothing to maintain other than a few minutes out of your day.  You have very little to lose, and if you bear these tips in mind, you'll be well on your way to establishing yourself as a forward-thinking, tech-savvy, Web 2.0 business - and there's no way that can be a bad thing!

Now, if you'll excuse me, my wife has made me anti-cold soup and I have to go online and find out how to hook it up to an IV drip.  *sniffle*

Happy trails,  

Alex

Twitter: @MethodCRM

I spent 11 years working in capital markets, as an arbitrageur and market maker at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).  It was a wonderful experience that taught me a tremendous amount about markets and myself.  Since then, I have become Director of Finance at Method, which I thought would be a large departure from my former life.  I was wrong.  There is considerable overlap between the trading world and small business community; both operate in a fluid world of imperfect information and uncertainty.

Here are three things that day traders and entrepreneurs have in common:

1. All failures are just information:  

The single most important thing I learned from trading was that all mistakes and failures are just information.  If you can peel away the anger and frustration associated with failing, and objectively analyze the result, there is a pot of gold sitting in front of you.  This was not a free pot of gold, obviously.  You had invested time and money making the mistakes to acquire the information, but the only way to monetize this gold, is to be emotionally flexible enough to grab it.  Also, this vital information is time sensitive - it has a short shelf life.  Cultivating this mind set in your sales team can be especially effective.  For example, all unsuccessful sales calls are a rich source of information, if looked at the right way, fueling your next great innovation.

2. Pivot quickly based on objective data:  

A good trader is someone who is hardworking, disciplined and can operate effectively under conditions of uncertainty - ‘pivoting’ quickly when information changes.  Does this sound familiar?  It should if you work in a small business or start up. Over the months at Method, I have heard many references to ‘pivoting’, ‘fail-fast’ and ‘monthly sprints'.  To me, they are just different ways to describe concepts that I have seen in my previous life.  If your firm is pursuing a project, setting objective criteria for completion and success or failure is critical.  It is easy to leave projects open-ended but this can create operational uncertainty, breeding laziness and indecision.  One or two slow transitions or iterations may not make a large impact, but if you multiply this over many occurrences, the effect on your company’s competitiveness could be massive.   

3. When you have an edge, press it:  

In trading, one spends a lot of time searching for a clear advantage that can be leveraged for an outsized return.  Often a handful of trades can make a major difference to your month, quarter or year.   The same is true for small businesses where the release of a new product or service can have a significant impact on the top and bottom line.  For every company, there are often only a few true insights over the course of the year. If you see a marketing channel, product or service start to work, it is time to press it!  For example, at Method we hit our target ROI on Paid Search campaigns last month.  This month we’re “pressing” that by increasing our spend with a goal of maintaining the ROI level while boosting the number of leads.  

Sincerely,

Dan McClean 

Method CRM, Director of Finance

Please share your thoughts. Have you pressed an edge or pivoted with success?  Please tell us about it.  

Email: 3things@methodintegration.com

Twitter: @MethodCRM

We are really excited to tell you that the Method CRM team has been shortlisted for the PWC Vision to Reality Awards.

The Vision to Reality Awards celebrates Canadian companies in the technology sector who have “demonstrated successful growth, and whose outstanding achievements have made them some of Canada’s most successful technology companies”.

We’re proud to be on the 2013 Top 20 Short List alongside amazing companies like 500 px, Top Hat, Vena Solutions and more.  

Most of all, we're thankful to our customers and resellers for their feedback, which inspires us to innovate and continually improve Method's platform.

This year, Method CRM is nominated for Innovator of the Year and Top 10 Up-and-Coming Companies. The award winners will be announced on November 7, 2013, so wish us luck!

In the meantime, your shout-outs on Twitter would mean the world to us. Click here to vote for us on Twitter to show your support!

Until next time,

Lynda 

Greetings, Method users!  Tech Writer Alex here again, bringing you more good news from the Method camp.  For quite some time now, we’ve been getting feedback from a lot of you crediting our growing list of integrations, but a common question we’ve received is “when will Method integrate with PayPal?” 

The answer, my friends, is now. 

That’s right -- as of August 27, we launched the beta of our brand-new PayPal integration, courtesy of the indefatigable Sasha and his outstanding team in our Dev department.  We’re really excited about this: as you already know, PayPal is pretty ubiquitous across the internet as a standardized pay portal, so the fact that we’re now PayPal compatible represents another giant leap forward for us (and, by extension, for you!) 

There are a few things you need to remember before you jump gleefully onto our flashy new PayPal bandwagon, however: the first of which is that PayPal transactions come in two distinct types.  

The PayPal Account transaction is the one most common to individuals buying and selling via PayPal on the internet.  It requires both buyer and seller to have at least PayPal Standard accounts, and essentially functions as a simple transfer of funds between the two accounts.  This means you’ll be redirected to the PayPal website to complete the transaction.

The PayPal Credit Card transaction, however, is a lot more like end-user transaction experiences elsewhere around the internet, in that you don’t have to go anywhere else to complete the transaction.  In order to take advantage of this transaction type, you’ll have to have a PayPal Payments Pro account.

So in order to get started setting up PayPal for your Method account, you’ll need to make sure you have one of the two accounts listed above set up in your name, and you’ll also need to ensure you have established your API credits, which you can learn how to do on PayPal’s website.

Once you’ve got your house in order, so to speak, drop by our Help Center and check out this fabulous article (written by a certain fabulous technical writer) and follow the steps to get PayPal up and running on your account.

Thanks for dropping by, friends, and until next time, I remain,

humbly

Alex K.

Fabulous Technical Writer

Hi! It’s me again, Jason. 

Here at Method we like to go out and do fun things after work. What kind of fun things, you ask?  Well, for our next outing, a bunch of us are going to see my band play! We’re called The Breaking Lakes. I guess I have to go…but others are coming too, so I decided to track who at Method is attending.  Since I’m tracking who is coming from Method, why not track it in Method? Method isn’t just about CRM: from tracking your expenses to planning your next vacation, you can make apps in Method for just about anything. 

First thing's first: I need a table to house my data. This table will contain the data for my guest list, so I think I’ll name it…MyGuestList. I’ll choose to automatically create a screen since I’ll need it later. Now I need to decide on some fields. After an intense brainstorming session, here is what I came up with:

I chose a variety of field types.  A dropdown made sense for my IsAttending field because I wanted the options to be strictly Yes, No, Maybe, or Undecided. Some other field types I used were Text for name and notes, and Integer for my numerical field.

I can use the screen that gets automatically created with the table, likely called MyGuestList, to start entering data into all my new fields. Usually, I’ll go ahead and customize this screen a bit to suit my needs. Below is the guest list app I designed.

I added a few features that I thought I would need in my app:

• Send Email Confirmation? - This is important! I need to send an email to my colleagues to confirm if they can come or not.
• Filter By View - With a few grid filter options, I can easily filter my list by those who are attending, not attending, maybe attending, or undecided. 
• Export Grid - This button will allow me to export my grid, so I can print my guest list later!

There you have it! My very own app that I can use to keep track of my band’s guest list. Remember, Method is not just a CRM app, but a platform that can be used to develop all kinds of apps. I even made a hockey pool once. If only the players I chose were as awesome as the app I built. 

So, what do you think? Have YOU made an app using Method? Let us know by leaving a comment below, and if you have any questions about customization, feel free to post them on our forums!

Stay customized my friends…

Jason