Google Suite Integration (Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Drive)
Google Suite Integration (Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Drive)
The Google Suite Integration currently includes four different Google apps integrations with Sales CRM, each with their own use cases. For example, sending emails directly from Gmail. This page will go over the different apps and what they can do.
Do note that as of now, there are a few functionalities that are locked behind the Google Suite Integration (sending email, creating task reminders and activities, uploading file).
Setup
The Google Suite Integration is a per user integration - meaning that users will need to connect their Google Account on an individual basis.
To connect your Google Account to Sales CRM, first head to the Integration Section of Sales CRM and click on the “Connect” button for the Google Integration.
If you instead click on the Google Banner (and not the connect button). You will be sent to the next page, where an error message will show, asking you to connect your Google account.
Syncing Google Account
Once you click connect, you will be shown the Google authentication pages to link your Google Account to Sales CRM (via jsofware.io). You can review our Privacy Policy and Terms of Services.
During the Beta of the Google Integration, we are going through the Google Apps Partnership process. Until then, you will have to proceed through the warning message to trust Jsofware.io (bottom left → Advanced → Proceed). We apologize for this temporary message and are actively working on getting the right status going on.
You will once again be asked to sign-in to Jsoftware using the chosen Gmail account.
After you continue, you will be asked to confirm you are Ok with the Permissions. You can read about the permissions in more details in the “Permission” section of the Google Integration. These permissions are for the following tools : Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Drive.
Do note that you can choose which combination of apps you want to allow Sales CRM to sync with. (Select all, select only a few, etc.) Not selecting everything means that some features will not be working. In case of mistake, simply disconnect Google Integration and reconnect it.
Once you press continue - you will now have your Google Account connected to Sales CRM !
Do note that you should be getting an alert from Google about Sales CRM having access to your Google Account. No action are required.
Connecting to the Apps
Now that your Google Account is connected to Sales CRM, you will need to manually sync each apps. This is what it looks like for each apps. Each time an action is taken, you should see a message prompt to confirm that the information has been updated by Sales CRM. Use cases will be explored later.
Gmail: Connects your email account
Google Calendar: Connect a Personal Calendar of your Choice
Google Contact: Allows you to import your contacts in Sales CRM
Google Drive: Allows you to attach files to deals
Apps Permission
This will Summarize what Sales CRM plans to use for permissions and why it wants to use those Google permissions for. For more information on how each integration will work, you can read more information on the Use Case section.
Sales CRM will use https://mail.google.com/ to be able to have a user send an email from the activity screen of Sales CRM so that they can store the email thread directly in Sales CRM. Also if the user makes a mistake in one of the email threads, this would allow the user to delete their email created directly from Sales CRM.
In addition, Sales CRM will use https://www.googleapis.com/auth/contacts in order to get the ability to import contacts from the user directly into Sales CRM’s Contact section. In addition, this permission will allow Sales CRM to be able to make modifications to the users contacts - as more information becomes available, then the user will be able to make modifications in Sales CRM (change name, company, phone number, etc.) and have that information be reflected in Google Contacts.
In addition, Sales CRM will use https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive in order to be able to upload files into a shared drive of the users choosing, directly from the app. But also, to be able to select a file from a shared drive in order to upload it to Sales CRM under a deal to display more information.
Finally, Sales CRM will use https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar to show a user's Google calendar data under a deal section of Sales CRM, so that users can create reminders and tasks in their schedules through Sales CRM and sync the changes with their Google calendar.
Automation rule (default)
Do note that once you sync Sales CRM with your Google Account, some new automation rules will appear.
1- When you press the Google Sync Contact, Sales CRM will import the Google Contacts to your Sales CRM contacts → Remember that you can combine this automation step with another to automatically create a new deal as well
2- When you make activities or reminders, Sales CRM will send these activities to your Chosen Google Calendar
3- Any modifications to Google Contacts will also be made in Sales CRM
Use Cases
Gmail Part 1: Email Activities
What is it
Gmail is the email service provided by Google.
what does the integration do
Connecting your Google Account and Gmail to Sales CRM will allow users to send emails directly from Sales CRM and have those emails be recorded as activities/customer interactions in Sales CRM. This is applicable for Deals, Contacts, and Accounts.
How does it work
After you link your Google account and connect your Gmail to Sales CRM, you will be able to - on a deal, a contact, and on an account, be able to send an email (no difference).
To send an email to a contact, press the email icon on the upper-left side of a contact/account/deal section. If your Gmail account is connected, you will have the email editor appear like below.
End result example
Once the email has been sent, a couple of things will happen.
1- The email will have been sent. You can always verify this by checking your inbox’s “sent” tab. The image below shows an example of an email being sent (page formatting in Gmail will depend on your Gmail settings).
2- The email will be attached as an activity to this deal/account/contact. It can then be found either by looking at all the activities or the “Email” tab.
Pro tips and notes:
You will be able to see other people’s emails that have been linked to Sales CRM - even if you have not connected your account (however, in this case, you will not be able to send emails yourself)
You will be able to see the last 50 activities in all tabs
If you send an email with Sales CRM, you will be able to track when someone opens up an email.
Gmail Part 2: Inbox
Sales CRM also uses your linked gmail for its inbox functionality. This means that each user will be able to connect their personal Gmail account to the inbox.
The idea is for users to have a personal segment through the inbox functionality and a way to connect information from this segment to the team’s pipeline so that the most recent information can be made accessible.
Accessing the inbox functionality
After connecting your Gmail account (from the Integration section of Sales CRM), you will now be able to access your personal inbox directly in Jira through the email icon on the side panel of Sales CRM.
You can use the inbox feature to read and send emails directly from Jira - just as you would with your gmail account.
Another thing that you can do is to associate an email to an existing Deal/Contact/Account in order to track the client interactions done through that email thread (email sent, replies, forwards, etc.). Once logged, these interactions will be associated to the proper element (Deal/Contact/Account) for you and your team to re-explore. You can do so after clicking on an email of interest an clicking on the “Log email” button that shows on the side panel.
You are also able to create deals from the inbox based on the email you wish to associate. (At this time, it does not also automatically log the email as an interaction). You can do so after clicking on an email of interest an clicking on the “Create Deal” button that shows on the side panel.
From an email, you are also able to add contacts to your Sales CRM based on the email recipients. You can do so after clicking on an email of interest an clicking on the “+” button that shows on the side panel next to the recipients' emails.
The aim with this new inbox functionality is to help remove context switching, and make it easier to add more interaction points in Sales CRM
Google Calendar
What is it
Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google
What does the integration do
Connecting your Google Calendar to Sales CRM allows Sales CRM to create activities through tasks, meetings, reminders, and logging calls. In addition, these activities are sent directly to your connected Google Calendar..
How does it work
After connecting your Sales CRM to your chosen Calendar, Sales CRM will enable the ability to create and store activities for accounts/contacts/deals.
This means that the following will be unlocked: Meeting, Task, Call. Here’s how we define each elements, how they work, and how they show up.
Meeting: A meeting is going to send a calendar invite to all the attendees in the meeting invite. This meeting invite will show up in your google calendar afterwards.
Name of the meeting
Time for the meeting to be schedule
Attendees : must be email addresses, must have at least one email address in order to be able to submit an calendar invite. (mandatory)
Notes that will appear in the calendar meeting invite (optional)
Location : Must be a valid address (optional)
Time for when reminders will be sent out (optional)
Private notes - will show up in Sales CRM (optional but useful to have)
Task: A task is an action that should be done (i.e: a To-Do or a follow-up)
As of now, the prompt will be exactly the same as for the meeting, with the exception that attendees are optional (i.e: it will serve as a reminder). This will also show up in your Google Calendar and will also be tracked in Sales CRM
Call: A call can be used either to store notes on a past call or to schedule a future call with a contact.
As of now, the prompt will be exactly the same as for the meeting, with the exception that attendees are optional (i.e: it will serve as a reminder). This will also show up in your Google Calendar and will also be tracked in Sales CRM
Subtypes:
There are also a few other subtypes : Deadline, Lunch - as of now, these subtypes do not defer from the main activity types (Meeting, task, call).
End result example
Creating an activity will create a few things.
1- The Activity will be stored in Sales CRM
If other users are creating activities for the same deal/account/contact, then this information will be available to the team
Information will be visible under the Activity tab, and things can filtered by going to a specific tab
2- Clicking on the activity will open up the calendar meeting in Google Calendar
If the meeting is not created in your calendar, it will show up as an error (e.g: trying to open up a colleague’s meeting)
3- This will update Deal Cards (Board View)
In the board view of the deals' view, deal cards will show a few things. For example, they will show
4- This will update your My Work
Pro tips and notes:
You can create activities in the past
You can see other users activities that are stored in Sales CRM under the activity tab
Creating activities
There are currently three ways to create an activity
1- By going on the Deal/Account/Contacts and clicking on the Activity icon of choice
2- By Creating an Activity in the Deal’s view
Do note that you will need to specify the deal/contact/account in order to have the activity be created correctly
3- By creating an activity directly from the Deal card
You can click on one of the three symbols for activities to schedule an activity. The three symbols are as follow:
1- Yellow Triangle Warning Sign (no activities planned for this deal)
2- Red Circle with < symbol (at least one activity is overdue)
3- Grey circle with > symbol (an activity has been scheduled in the future but is still not overdue)
Managing your Activities (My Work)
After you have created some activities, they will appear in your My Work section. This section can be accessed from the upper right section of the Deal’s view/Account View/Contacts View in either the grid view or the board view.
Currently, Sales CRM does not allow you to create activities for others. Meaning that all activities that you create will be shown in your My Work. If you click on My Work, you will be able to see all the activities that are to be done, overdue, done, due today, and due tomorrow.
To-Do : Refers to activities that are still to be done
Overdue: Refers to Activities that are past their deadline
Done: Refers to Activities that have been marked as completed
Today: Refers to Activities due today
Tomorrow: Refers to Activities due tomorrow
Activities can be completed by clicking on the checkmark icon (to the left of the activity). This will remove the activity from the To-Do/Overdue section and into the Done section.
Do note that you can complete activities from My Work, on the deal cards, or in the activity section of the deal/account/contact
Google Contacts
What is it
Google Contacts is a contact management service developed by Google.
What does the integration do
The integration lets you import contacts from Google Contacts into your Sales CRM Pipeline when the app is connected and the user decides to Start the import.
How does it work
On the Google integration menu, under the Google Contact section, you will be able to sync your contacts in Sales CRM with your Google Contact list by clicking on the node and then pressing the “Start Sync”. The sync will showcase the amount of contacts that will be imported.
End result example
The success of the import can be shown in the automatically created Sales CRM automation rule “When A google sync request is made THEN sync google contacts to Sales CRM contacts” In addition,
Things to note:
As of now, you can only bulk import all the contacts at once (no option to import a selection - for that, please import those contacts through a csv and by looking at the Import Section)
If you press the “start sync” button multiple times, it will import your contacts multiple times
Google Drive
What is it
Google Drive is a file-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google
What does the integration do
The integration lets you upload files from your Google Drive to a deal/contact/account in Sales CRM. This can be useful if you need to attach things like contracts, invoices, mandates, and more and do not want to attach it directly to the ticket. This can also be a good way for other members of the team to collaborate on a file.
How does it work
On the Google integration menu, under the Google Contact section, you will be able to sync your contacts in Sales CRM with your Google Contact list by clicking on the node. Doing so will create a folder from Sales CRM in your Google Drive named SalesCRM(pipeline name) - e.g. SalesCRM(DemoSale.
You will then be able to go to a deal/account/activity and upload some files.
Uploading files will create a Google Drive for that Pipeline
End result example
The uploaded files will show under the Contact/Account/Deal under which they have been uploaded, in the Activity section. You can filter by “Files” to see the last 50 items that have been attached.
Clicking on “View” will allow you to visualize the file (redirects to Google Drive). You will only be able to view the file if you have permission (based on Google Share Permissions) - i.e: you can share with specific users or an organization.
These files will also appear in the Google Drive folder that has been created.
Things to note:
Deactivating and reactivating Google Drive might create multiple folders of the same name.
You can modify the sharing permissions for the whole folder
If you modify the name of a file in Google Drive, it will not change the name of the file in Sales CRM → however the content/name will be up-to-date when visualizing it (because you are redirected to Google Drive)