April 2014 - Posts

• 4 Ways to Stay Organized and Efficient at Work

  I’m all in when it comes to continually learning how to help keep myself sharp, but this year’s lessons have been bitterly cold with new concepts like -30ºC (-22.ºF) and terms like #PolarVortex. Thankfully, the birds are now chirping and we can rely on some older terms like spring cleaning. Spring is not only a great time to clean the office of those not-so-cute dust bunnies, it's also a good time to reinforce or rethink about ways to help keep organized at work. Here’s a list of the 4 tips that work well for me. 1. Tidy Up Your Desk No surprise that this makes the list. Start by deciding what’s actually needed and throw away anything that hasn’t been used in years. You can also find another place for these items, but your workspace should not be used as storage. Organize in a way that helps you find items quickly and make decisions faster. Once everything’s in its place, make it a habit to return items to where they belong as soon as you're finished using them. Your workspace should always be conducive to making you efficient at your job. 2. Make Lists and Set Goals Make daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term lists that outline the tasks requiring your attention. You should try to make the list specific to tasks and items that need attention immediately: this shouldn't be just a general list of “work to get done”. As a bonus, you should communicate the status of your tasks to co-workers or managers if applicable: this can help get you early feedback. 3. Manage Your Time No matter the job or task at hand, each day should include some aspect of scheduling your time. I recently switched positions here at Method:CRM and am using this as an opportunity to introduce some new behaviour to help organize my clutter of work beyond just the basic calendar for time management. 4. Be Realistic Taking a realistic approach to each facet of your day is critical to your overall organization. Step back and be realistic about what works for and what doesn’t, and even more importantly, about what you can and cannot control. Don’t mislead yourself or others by pretending you've "got it covered" when you don't: doing so will set you on a sure path for failure. Your workspace should work for you, not everyone else. Goals, lists and time management should reflect what you have control over. That's my list: what are some of the strategies you use to keep organized during hectic periods?  Leave your responses in the comment section! Val  Posted Apr 22 2014, 02:45 PM by Method_Valbon with no comments

• What Method:CRM Users Should Know About Heartbleed

  In the last few days, you you may have heard of the Heartbleed Bug on the news or in your social newsfeeds, so we wanted to provide reassurance and a little background info. Heartbleed is an OpenSSL security vulnerability. Method:CRM does not use OpenSSL and therefore our systems and customers are not exposed to this threat Note: Individuals who re-use their password across multiple sites could have had their passwords stolen from another site, which would indirectly compromise the security of their Method account. If you have re-used your password on other sites, we recommend you change your Method password as a precaution. Do this by clicking your name in the top-right corner inside Method, and clicking My Profile. Rest assured that as a Method:CRM user, your data is protected. If you would like to learn more about the HeartBleed Bug, I recommend checking out the HeartBleed FAQ site. If you’re interested to know which sites are potentially vulnerable, check out this post from GitHub. Be safe out there and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Lynda Community Coordinator   Posted Apr 09 2014, 05:04 PM by Lynda Byrne with no comments

• Customizing Tab Permissions in Method:CRM

  Every so often I get a call from a Method user who wants to restrict what screens a user sees.  The best way to accomplish this is to use Tab Groups specifically to define what screens individual users can access.  I have seen companies take advantage of tab groups to keep tabs, permissions, and screens organized. Today, we’re going to go through how to manage your tab groups by showing how to create a tab group, create tabs for your new tab group, and how to manage users’ access to tab groups. Step 1: Create a Tab Group Go to your Customize tab and click on the Tab Groups tab link.  Follow the steps for creating a new tab group. Enter a Tab Group name and click ‘Continue…’.  (You already have CRM, QuickBooks and Mobile Users as Tab Groups).  In the list, choose which Users you want to access your new tab group.  Next, choose the tabs you want to see.  If you have not created tabs for the tab group yet, select any tab as a placeholder tab for now.   “Allowed to Integrate Accounting” and “Allowed to Design Reports” needs an explanation.  If Integrate Accounting is checked, any person assigned to the specific tab group can use their credentials to connect the Method Integration Engine.  It is similar with Design Reports.  If checked, anyone assigned to the tab group can connect the report designer to the Method account. Click Add Tab Group. For those users you selected, you should be able to see the New Tab Group in the top right. Step 2: Create a Tab Go to the Customize tab and the Tabs tab link.  From here, follow the instructions to create a new tab.  Enter a tab group name and click ‘Continue…’.  A list of Tab Groups will appear, allowing you to select where the new tab is to appear.  (If you skipped the step above and don’t have the Tab Group created, then keep all the boxes unchecked.) Once done, click ‘Add Tab’.   A pop-up will now appear asking you to create Tab Links (eg. My Account, Display, Screens, etc.) and assign screens to the tab. Here you can assign both default and custom screens.  To create a tab link, select a screen from the dropdown to use in your tab.  Next, enter a tab name.  Once done, click Add Tab Link.  The new tab link should appear on the list Once you have completed adding all tab links to the tab, click Finished Editing Tab Links.   Step 3: Manage your Tab Groups To manage what Tab Groups a user can access, go to Customize -> Users and click Edit… for the user.  Navigate to Step 4 of 10: Access to Tab Groups.  Check off any tab groups you would like the user to see.  Also, set the Tab Group the user sees when they first login to your newly created one.   With these steps, you will be able to create tab groups that are designed specifically for a group of users.  It will allow you to exercise unprecedented control over how your users see and use Method!   Greg  Posted Apr 03 2014, 05:45 PM by Method_Greg with no comments