Customers are individuals, groups, or companies that purchase your products or services to meet specific needs, creating a direct commercial relationship. Customers can originate from converted Leads or be acquired through other channels such as sales prospecting.

To motivate sales staff, ShareCRM introduces the Account Pool — a pressure-driven sales management tool. Key characteristics of the Account Pool: - Public customer resources can be designated as Account Pool customers and assigned or claimed by sales reps (Account Pool members). - Each rep can claim only a limited number of Account Pool customers and must achieve signing or follow-up targets within a specified period; otherwise, the customer automatically returns to the Account Pool for reassignment.

1. Customer status transitions in the business process

picture coming soon:

• Lead → Account: When a Lead proves valuable during follow-up, convert it to an Account.
• Account → Account Pool (manual return): If follow-up yields no results or the rep gives up (or in the case of Deal Lost), the Account can be manually returned to the Account Pool.
• Account → Account Pool (automatic reclaim): Each Account Pool can define reclaim rules that limit follow-up time to keep sales active and speed customer circulation. If the Account does not close within the rules, it is reclaimed.
• Account Pool → Account (claim): Sales reps can claim Accounts from the Account Pool based on their skills or regional assignment to drive revenue.
• Account Pool → Account (assignment): Administrators can assign Accounts based on customer priority and reps’ skills to maximize deal conversion.
• Account → Won Account: When configured closing actions occur (Opportunity is won, a Sales Order is created and confirmed, or a Contract is created), the Account becomes a Won Account.
• Won Account → Account Pool: If a company sells multiple products or repeat purchases are possible, a previously won Account can be returned to the Account Pool for future transactions.
• Account Pool → Account Pool (transfer): For reasons such as address change, company growth, or business adjustment, move an Account from one Account Pool to a more appropriate Account Pool.

2. Example business scenarios

• Accounts: Depending on your business model, an Account can be a company (e.g., “Beijing XX Technology Co., Ltd.”, “Shanghai XX Financial Services Co., Ltd.”) or an individual such as a real-estate agent (e.g., “Mr. Wang”, “Mr. Li”).
• Account Pools: Create multiple Account Pools by industry, region, or customer tier (e.g., “Exhibition”, “North China Accounts”, “VIP Accounts”) to manage distribution.
• Using Accounts and Account Pools together: Company A sells office equipment nationwide (printers, projectors). After collecting business cards at an Exhibition and verifying them, convert them to Accounts (e.g., “Beijing XX Co.”, “Shenzhen XX Co.”). Customer B places an order and becomes a Won Account. Customer C declines due to price and can be returned to the Account Pool for future reallocation. Even if B completed a transaction, you can return it to the Account Pool for future product promotions. C, marked as Deal Lost, can be returned to the Account Pool for another rep to pursue later.

3. Detailed information about Accounts

3.1 Account views

3.1.1 Default Account filters (scenarios)

• All: Records where the Account owner is the current user or the current user’s subordinates; or where the related team includes the current user or their subordinates; or where data-sharing rules in Data Permission Management share records owned by the owner or the owner’s department with the current user, the current user’s department, or the current user’s user group; or “My Responsible Departments” data.
• Owner is current user or current user’s subordinates.
• Related team includes current user or current user’s subordinates.
• Data sharing rule grants record or owner-department access to the current user, their department, or their user group (configured in Data Permission Management).
• My Responsibilities: Accounts where the owner is the current user.
• Joint Follow-up by Me: Related team includes current user and the team role is Joint Follow-up by Me.
• Serviced by Me: Related team includes current user and the team role is “After-sales Personnel”.
• Participated by Me: Related team includes current user.
• Joint Follow-up by My Subordinates: Related team includes current user’s subordinates with the Joint Follow-up role.
• Responsible by My Subordinates: Account owner is a subordinate of the current user.
• My Subordinates Serviced: Related team includes current user’s subordinates with the “After-sales Personnel” role.
• Shared With Me: Data sharing rules configured to share records owned by the owner or the owner’s department with the current user, their department, or their user group.
• My Responsible Departments: The current user is the head of their primary department, and the related team members’ primary department is that department. Note: Whether the responsible department includes all subordinate data is determined by CRM Management → Rule Settings → Basic Settings → “Upper-level visible data scope”.

Notes: - CRM Administrators can view all data. - Records marked “Canceled” are visible only to CRM Administrators; others cannot view them.

3.1.2 Account list page

• List view: The standard Account list.
• Map view: Shows Accounts on a map based on the “Location” field of the Account primary address.

3.1.3 Account detail page

Summary metrics: - Opportunity total: Sum of Opportunity amounts related to the Account that the current user has permission to view. - Sales Order total: Sum of Sales Order amounts related to the Account that the current user has permission to view. - Return total: Sum of return amounts related to the Account that the current user can view. - Payment Collection total: Sum of Payments related to the Account that the current user can view. - Refund total: Sum of refunds related to the Account that the current user can view. - Amount pending collection: (Sales Order total − Return total) − (Payment Collection total − Refund total)

Other fields and descriptions: - Related teams: Account owner and related after-sales and service personnel. - Expenses: Expense reimbursements related to the Account (e.g., client entertainment). Expenses are submitted under Work → Approvals → Expense Reimbursement and must select “Related Account”. - Remaining retention time: If the Account’s Affiliated Account Pool has automatic reclaim rules or the owner’s department has a non-Account-Pool reclaim rule, the system calculates remaining retention time using the highest-priority matching rule. Display the remaining retention time only when it is less than 30% of the total; otherwise do not show. If no automatic reclaim rules exist, this value is empty. - Transfer count: Number of times the Account owner has changed. - Deal status: Updated according to configured behavior rules (see Customer Behavior Rules). - Last follow-up time: Updated according to configured behavior rules (see Customer Behavior Rules). - Profile completeness: Ratio of edited fields to editable fields for the Account.

References: - Customer behavior rules: https://www.fxiaoke.com/mob/guide/crmdoc/src/7-3-2%E5%AE%A2%E6%88%B7%E5%92%8C%E5%85%AC%E6%B5%B7%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86.html

3.2 Account operations

3.2.1 Create Account

Creation methods: - Manual entry: Enter customer information collected from external channels. Entry point: Accounts list → New. - Duplicate (Copy): Copy an existing record from the record detail page. - Lead conversion: Convert a validated Lead to an Account (Sales Leads list → detail → More → Actions → Convert Lead). - Scan business card: On ShareCRM mobile app, scan a business card to quickly create an Account. - Import: Bulk-create Accounts from marketing campaigns or purchased lists; see Import documentation.

Business supplements: - Business registration data autofill: When you enter an Account name, the system will suggest registered companies from the government registry. Selecting a company allows you to autofill registered details into the Account form. - Duplicate-check: The system validates duplicates. By default, Account Name is used as the duplicate check key. Admins can configure additional duplicate rules in the backend (Duplicate Settings). If all New-creation duplicate rules use Exact Match, creation fails when a match exists. If all rules use Fuzzy Match, the system lists similar Accounts for review but still allows creation to proceed. - Account holding limit: Administrators can set a maximum number of Accounts a rep may hold. If the current user has reached this limit, they cannot create new Accounts. See Rule Settings — Account holding limit.

References: - Import: https://www.fxiaoke.com/mob/guide/crmdoc/src/2-8%E5%B0%8F%E5%B7%A5%E5%85%B7.html - Duplicate settings: https://www.fxiaoke.com/mob/guide/crmdoc/src/7-3-4%E6%9F%A5%E9%87%8D%E8%AE%BE%E7%BD%AE.md - Rule settings — Account holding limit: https://www.fxiaoke.com/mob/guide/crmdoc/src/7-3-2%E5%AE%A2%E6%88%B7%E5%92%8C%E5%85%AC%E6%B5%B7%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86.html

3.2.2 Email

• Purpose: Store email correspondence related to the Account and its associated user addresses.
• Entry: Accounts detail page → Email.
• Email tracking: Sent emails can track whether the recipient has opened them. An opened email displays a read icon; unopened shows an unread icon.
• Actions: Filter by Received by me, Sent by me, or All. Send email.

3.2.3 Financial information

• Purpose: Used primarily for Invoice Application’s invoice information.
• Available when Account status is Unactivated, Reporting, Unassigned, or Assigned.
• Authorized actors: Account owner, owner’s supervisor, related team members with Read/Write permission (and their supervisors), and data-sharing recipients with Read/Write permission.
• Entry: Accounts detail page → Financial Information.
• Actions: Set as default (the system will populate invoice fields in new Invoice Applications), Edit, Delete.

3.2.4 Address management

• Purpose: Use addresses for visits, Sales Order shipping addresses, and Invoice Application shipping addresses.
• Available when Account status is Unactivated, Reporting, Unassigned, or Assigned.
• Authorized actors: Account owner, owner’s supervisor, related team members with Read/Write permission (and their supervisors), and data-sharing recipients with Read/Write permission.
• Entry: Accounts detail page → Address Management.
• Actions:
  • Primary address: Usually the registered or most commonly used office address. Used as the default visit address.
  • Default shipping address: The address normally used to receive goods; used as the Sales Order shipping address.
  • Edit and Delete: Creation/edit permissions follow the Account’s create/edit permissions.

3.2.5 Associated Contacts

• Purpose: Contacts belong to Accounts.
• Available when Account status is Unactivated, Assigned, Reporting, or Unassigned.
• Authorized actors: Account owner, owner’s supervisor, related team members with Read/Write permission (and their supervisors), and data-sharing recipients with Read/Write permission.
• Note: This operation follows Account creation permissions.

3.2.6 Edit Account

• Purpose: Modify Account information.
• Available when Account status is Unactivated, Reporting, or Assigned.
• Authorized actors: Account owner, owner’s supervisor, related team members with Read/Write permission (and their supervisors), and data-sharing recipients with Read/Write permission.
• Special restriction: To change the Account name, administrators must enable “Owner can modify Account name” in the backend; otherwise, name changes are not allowed.

3.2.7 Merge Accounts

• Purpose: To standardize customer data and reduce redundant Accounts created arbitrarily by sales reps, CRM Administrators can manually merge duplicate Accounts.
• Entry: CRM Management → All Accounts list.

3.2.8 Return (to Account Pool)

• Purpose: Return an Account to the Account Pool. If a rep gives up after follow-up or records a Deal Lost, they can return the Account to the Account Pool so others may claim and follow up later.
• Available when Account status is Assigned.
• Authorized actors: Account owner and owner’s supervisor.
• Entry: Accounts detail page → More → Return.
• Note: If the Account is a non-Account-Pool Account, you must select the target Account Pool to return it to. If the Account already belongs to an Account Pool, it will return to its Affiliated Account Pool.
• Return reason: When owners return an Account, they must select a return reason. This requires the “Salesperson return reasons” field on the Account object to be enabled; admins can add or remove reasons.

3.3 Account Pool operations

You can manage Account Pool customers from the front-end Account Pool section, including claim, assignment, reclaim, return, and transfer operations. Account Pool configuration is described in Customer and Account Pool Management.

3.3.1 Claim (Receive)

• Purpose: Organizations can specify distribution rules for Account Pool customers; customers can be obtained either by employee claim or admin assignment.
• Conditions: Account is an Account Pool customer, status is Unassigned, Account Pool type is “Visible and claimable by employees; assignable by admins,” the current employee’s number of Accounts (excluding Won Accounts) is below the claim limit and below the system-configured Account holding limit.
• Authorized actors: Account Pool members.
• Entry: Front-end Account Pool list.

3.3.2 Assignment

• Purpose: To ensure proper utilization of customer resources, assign important Accounts to specific sales reps to improve conversion rates.
• Conditions: Account is an Account Pool customer; status is Unassigned or Assigned; the target rep’s current number of Accounts (excluding Won Accounts) is below the claim limit and below the system Account holding limit.
• Authorized actors: Account Pool administrators.
• Entry: Front-end Account Pool list and detail pages.

3.3.3 Transfer

• Purpose: For reasons such as company growth, address change, or business adjustments, move an Account from one Account Pool to a more appropriate Account Pool for better allocation and management.
• Conditions: Account is an Account Pool customer; status is Unassigned or Assigned.
• Authorized actors: Account Pool administrators.
• Entry: Front-end Account Pool list and detail pages.

3.3.4 Reclaim

• Purpose: If a rep claims an Account but makes no progress or fails to close, Account Pool administrators can reclaim the Account and reassign it to another rep.
• Conditions: Account is an Account Pool customer; status is Assigned.
• Authorized actors: Account Pool administrators.
• Entry: Front-end Account Pool list and detail pages.
• Note: You can configure multiple reclaim rules in Account Pool Management. See Customer and Account Pool Management.

Reference: - Customer and Account Pool Management: https://www.fxiaoke.com/mob/guide/crmdoc/src/7-3-2%E5%AE%A2%E6%88%B7%E5%92%8C%E5%85%AC%E6%B5%B7%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86.html

3.4 Common Account operations

• Common list-page operations: see list common operations.
• Add Sales Record: see Sales Record documentation.
• Frequently used operations (change owner, add related team members, print, import, export, edit, cancel, delete, etc.): see common operations.

Supplement: When changing an Account owner, you can optionally change the owner of related objects: - Contacts: status ≠ Canceled AND owner = original Account owner - Opportunities: status = In Progress AND owner = original Account owner - Sales Orders: status = Confirmed, Shipped, Received, Rejected, or Withdrawn AND owner = original Account owner - Contracts: status = Active AND owner = original Account owner

If the related object is in a workflow, BPM, or is manually locked, do not change its owner.

For operations integrated with collaboration tools (forwarding, Calendar, reminders, call, email, etc.), see common operations.