ACT! by Sage 2010 Course

Welcome to this VTC Course on ACT! 2010. Now I imagine if you're watching this course you will be new to ACT! or perhaps have used an older version of the program and wish to get back up to speed with it. Well, either way don't panic. I'll talk you through the program at a gentle pace so that you can pick up the information you need quickly and easily. If I do explain something a little too quickly or perhaps take for granted you have more experience than reality, then please contact me through VTC's website, and I'll try and point you in the right direction. I'm going to explain the program from the perspective of a user like yourself. Understandably, you might be asking how am I qualified in this program? Well, if you've seen any of the other courses I've produced for VTC you'll see my background leans toward music software, web design, video, and photography and run my own company, so this is what qualifies me in the real world. I use both ACT! And Sage's Instant Accounts for my bookkeeping and contact management on a day to day basis in the real world of running a business. Let me explain how ACT! helps me by describing what it is and what it can do for you. At its most superficial level, ACT! is an address book, but we're not superficial, are we? And neither is ACT! In addition to being an electronic address book it allows you to access E-mail addresses, websites, phone numbers, business, and personal details. It's a notebook. It's a sales tracker. It's a calendar. It's a letter-writer. It's a financial planner. It's your personal assistant that acts now rather than later, and all within easy reach of the Enter button. Well, why not just use pen and paper? One reason, your personal ACT! Assistant will organize, categorize, and remind you instantly. With the best intentions pen and paper note taking at some point falls down owing to our fatigue and lack of time to organize this, and here's another major selling point: ACT! doesn't just take notes. Because it's a contact and customer management software program it assists you in not just establishing customer relationships but also in developing and maintaining them. How on earth does it do this, I hear you cry? You don't need to cry. I'll tell you. One way is that ACT! uses the information we enter and creates personalized E-mails and letters. Admitted, we all like the personal touch in real life, so does business and it, i.e., business, pays because of this personal service. Nobody likes to spend money unnecessarily. You'll know this is very true of the business world and won't entertain shoddy impersonal service. You go out for dinner and get great service, you'll tip the waiter, you'll eat at that restaurant again, and conversely, if we receive poor service as much as we'd like to slap the waiter around the ears with his cold custard actually we don't eat there again. You remember the science teacher from school who went the extra mile for you, took an interest in you, and was kind. You worked hard for that teacher, even if you hated science. Using ACT! as part of your business does just that. It shows you care about your customer or client because it helps you to remember much more information than just a phone number and name. For example, you'll be surprised how, having ACT! remember a business director's child's birthday can do wonders for you. ACT! lets you do this. Right. Let me just explain how this course will pan out. First, I'm going to look at an overview of the ACT! Interface and where things are. I'll look at setting up ACT! so it works for you in terms of look and functionality. I'll look at creating a database specific to your company. The majority of this course, though, will use a demonstration database that you will also have as part of the installation of the program. Sage provide a demo database so that you can see at a glance how each of its elements link to each other. Also we'll look at adding and removing contacts in our database. We'll set up relationships, oh, not that sort. We'll delve into calendars and activities. We'll look at reports. We'll look at sending letters on E-mails, dashboards, opportunities, and much more along the way. So, let's get started. Let's get our ACT! together.