In this article I want to look at how users can create and use groups of records.

This article will attempt to answer the following questions?

• How can groups be used?
• How can dynamic groups be created?
• How can static groups be created?

A group is a defined set of records that all belong to the same type of entity. You can have a group or opportunities or a group of companies or a group of cases. Each of the main entities including new custom entities can allow groups to be added.

The starting point for groups is the definition of a view.

The views that are to be used to create groups need to be designed so that each row returns a unique person, company or lead id.

Groups that have been created within the system are managed under the My CRM menu.

This screen provides one of the locations that new Groups can be created.

Newly created groups can be used for a range of different purposes in Sage CRM.

Groups provide the data from Marketing campaign actions. They allow sets of data to be mail merged to Word documents or used for mass e-mailings. Groups allow mass updates to take place too.

Each of these uses is explored in more detail in the context of articles that discuss how to carry out a mass email or how to export data.

Groups can either be created from a find screen or they can be created from within the Groups screen.

Groups are one of two types, either Dynamic of Static.

Creating a Group

The simplest way of starting to create a Group is to carry out a search for the data you want.

For example in the screen below you can see that I have searched for Companies of Type 'Customer' in the city London.

Note: Groups can also be created from the Advanced Find menu.

Once I have refined my search to get exactly the information I wanted I can click the 'Create New Group' button and I can enter the details of the group. I can also choose whether all users can access the group or whether it is limited to only Info Managers or just me as the creator. I can then decide whether this group is created as a Dynamic Group or a Static Group.

If I save it as a Dynamic group then the group is saved as a 'query' that will always pull the latest data back from the database that matches the criteria defined in the group. So the actual number of records that might be included in a group will change as the data changes. If a company in London changes from type 'prospect' to type 'customer' then it would automatically be included in the group.

Dynamic groups can be imagined as being like reports as they also retrieve the data on-demand as the group is used. Dynamic groups are used like reports as a data source for List Gadgets in the Interactive Dashboard.

For more technical information about the way in which Reports and Groups are saved in the meta data you can see the article "Reports, Saved Searches and Groups".

If I save the group as a Static Group then the unique Identities of the records that match the criteria when the query was run are saved associated with the group. Basically I create a snap shot in time of those records that matched the criteria when the group was saved.

Static Groups are useful because they create a list of records that can be managed. For example in the image below you can see how a static group can allow individual records to be excluded from the group where necessary.

And the membership of a Static groups can be expanded by adding more records to the list through an additional query.

Note:

• If you create your Group from Find screens you automatically use the system views that are named like 'vTargetListXXXXXX' e.g. vTargetListCompany
• If you create your Group from the Advanced Find screens you automatically use the system views that are named like 'vSearchListXXXXXX' e.g. vSearchListCompany

Groups can also be created from within the Group screens in a series of steps. This allows you to choose which view is used for the creating of the group.

In the image above it lists the views using the captions that have been associated with the view.

The captions are added to the View when they are defined but a System Administrator can search for all the different view caption in the Translations area.

Creating the group through the management screens allows you to fine tune your Group by adding the needed search criteria which could include the sophistication of the Advanced Find features. You can also expand the number of fields included in the group output. These fields listed in the Group Content would the fields returned on screen or included if the group is exported.

The process of creating the group continues. If the group is a Dynamic group the query that defines the membership of the group is saved. If the group is a Static group then you have choice of either saving the set of records that match the criteria at the time the group is created or you can create a empty group.

A group created as an empty group is very useful to allow you to create a handpicked set of records that do not have a convenient common set of criteria.

A user can navigate to the record that they wish to include in the group and manually select it. The list can continue to be managed on an 'Ad hoc' basis.