Custom Filters for Opportunities and Projects

We're releasing custom filters for Opportunities and Projects this week. We've also improved the list views of Contacts, Organizations, Opportunities and Projects to now remember the last view settings selected - so next time you visit that list page, the filter and sort order you had selected previously remains selected as the default.

Custom Filters for Opportunities

Custom filters allow you to filter the list of opportunities by different criteria that you specify. It's similar to the  custom filters we previously released for the contact list and organization list.

You could filter the opportunity list for something like: "Open opportunities where Anthony is responsible and the bid is over $50k". You can then save that filter and bring it up at any point in the future by selecting it from the list. We'll show you how to create this filter below.

Creating a Custom Opportunity Filter

To create a new filter, select "Create New Filter" from the view menu in the Opportunity list shown below in red.

You can then enter in new criteria on each line to build up your filter. For the example above, we've created a new custom filter for Jim with three criteria. We're going to save it for future reference as "Anthony's big deals", as shown below.

After you have selected each criteria, click the 'Add' button to save that criteria. To delete a criteria you have saved by mistake, click the small trash can icon to the right of the line. When you're happy with the filter, you can enter a name and save it for future recall. (Shown below in red)

The results of the filter will be listed below the filter box in real time as you build up each filter line. You can also order your results by the 'Order By' drop down at the top of the list. You might want to order the list from biggest opportunities by dollar value first, or by deals with a forecast close date in the near future first. (Shown below in red)

Note that for the filter values for "Opportunity Bid Amount" and "Probability of Winning", you can just put in the number  - you don't need to put the $ sign or the % sign.

Exporting your filtered list

To export the list of Opportunities included in the filter, first click the checkbox in the header to highlight all the Opportunities. You can then click the "Export" link that pops up in the blue box to export the entire list as a CSV file, which you can then open up in a tool like Microsoft Excel (as shown below in red).

Project Filters

Project filters are very similar to Opportunity filters but operate within the Projects tab, and have filter criteria options that are applicable to Projects rather than to Opportunities. You can create a new filter by selecting "Create New Filer" from the "View" drop down under the Projects tab as shown below. Entering filter criteria and saving the filter is the same as for Opportunity filters detailed above.

Insightly Contact Sync

We're introducing a new feature this week for Insightly customers on paid plans - the ability to sync selected Insightly contacts with your personal Google contact list and with Gmail. We've got two options for sync, either one way or two way sync.

One Way Sync

One way sync will copy selected Insightly contacts to your Google Contacts and keep them updated when their details change in Insightly. If you just want a copy of your Insightly contacts available within Gmail or on your phone, we recommend you choose One Way Sync. This option will ensure that changes you make by mistake on your mobile or within Google Contacts will not be replicated back to Insightly and on to other users in your domain.

Two Way Sync

Two way sync will also copy selected Insightly contacts to your Google Contacts, but any changes make to those Google contacts will be saved back to Insightly.

If you sync your mobile device with your Google Contacts and you have Insightly Contact Sync turned on, the selected Insightly contacts will also be available on your mobile device. If you have two way sync enabled, changes made to those contacts on your mobile device will also be replicated back to Insightly.

Insightly will sync selected contacts with your Google Contacts a few times per hour.

How to turn on Contact Sync

Your Insightly administrator has to first enable contact sync for selected users. This can be done by checking the checkbox labelled 'Can sync contacts' for each user under Settings > Users, which can be access via the small silver gear icon in top top right corner (as shown below in Red).

Once sync has been enabled for you, you can choose which sync type you want from the 'My Info' page, which is the small card icon in the top right corner (as shown below in red).

If you want new contacts that are added to Insightly after you have setup the sync (as detailed below) to also be added to your Google Contacts, be sure to check the checkbox below the sync options to include new contacts too.

We always recommend you back up your Google Contacts before you enable sync. You can do this from the 'More' drop down in Gmail Contacts as shown below.

Adding all your Contacts to sync

You can add your entire contact list to the sync in four steps as in the screenshot below. First select "All Contacts" from the contact view, then click on the "All" link in the header to bring up the entire list on one page, then click the checkbox in the header to highlight the whole list, and finally click the "Add to Contact Sync" hyperlink to add all the contacts into the sync.



Adding individual contacts to sync

After you've enabled sync, you can then select which Insightly contacts you want added to your personal Google contact list. To add contacts to be synced in bulk, click the checkbox next to the contact names in the contact list, and choose 'Add to Contact Sync' from the menu that appears at the top of the list (as shown below).

You can also add and remove individual contacts from sync via the Edit menu when viewing a single contact (as shown below).

How to Remove Contacts from sync in bulk

To see the list of which contacts are currently included in the sync, and to remove individual contacts from sync in bulk - select the 'Contacts included in Contact Sync' view from the Contacts list. To remove contacts from sync, select the contacts and click the 'Remove from Sync' link in the menu at the top of this view. Contacts that are synced will have a small sync icon to the right of their names in the list (as shown below).

The Insightly-Contacts group in your Google Contacts

Contacts added to your Google Contacts will be added to a group called "Insightly-Contacts" and also added to the “My Contacts” group. The "Insightly-Contacts" group will be created within your Google contact list by Insightly the first time the sync is run, and it's used to keep track of synced contacts. Do not add contacts to this group yourself or those contacts will be deleted.

Insightly will sync the contact name, photo, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates to remember, roles and linked organization names, and the background information from the Insightly contact will be synced with the Notes field in the Google Contact.

Turning off contact sync
You can turn off the contact sync from the 'My Info' page accessible via the card icon in top right corner of Insightly (as shown below). Doing so will remove all the synced Insightly contacts from your Google Contacts.

We hope you find the new contact sync feature useful.

Changes to delegated tasks in Insightly

We've made a couple of small improvements to the tasks system in Insightly this month around delegated tasks. From now on, tasks that you create and delegate to someone else will not show up in your own task list by default. The previous setting was to include those tasks in your own task list as well as the list of the  user you assigned the task to, but we had feedback from customers that those tasks were distracting them from the tasks they needed to complete themselves - so we've moved delegated tasks to a separate view.

Adding tasks you've assigned to others to your own Task list

If you still want to add a task that you assign to someone else to your own task list too (to keep an eye on when it gets completed) - you can check a checkbox on the bottom of the task form to make this happen (as shown below in red). This option appears after you change the 'Assigned To' field to another user.

Viewing Tasks you've assigned to others

We've also added a new view to the Tasks tab in Insightly that shows all the tasks you've created and assigned to others, called 'My Delegated Tasks' (as shown below in red).

We've made these small changes to Insightly so your task list is less cluttered with tasks that you're not responsible for. For those important tasks that you do want to keep track of - we've included an option to show them in your list. We hope you like the changes.