Welcome to Softshare eCenter Direct

Welcome to Softshare eCenter Direct, an add-on component of Softshare 'CATS, Softshare's client activity tracking system. eCenter is a Web interface that lets prospective clients of your center request counseling and register for conferences online. Clients of your center can also use this online interface to register for conferences, as well as to respond to surveys and submit information updates.

Because eCenter tightly integrates with Softshare 'CATS, this online help file covers not only eCenter as visitors will experience it, but also the various features in WinCATS and WebCATS that you'll use to manage the information displayed at eCenter, and the information that results from eCenter activity. 

Table of Contents

In this help, the following main topics are discussed:

 Readying the Softshare 'CATS Database
Center Record Configurations
Counselor Record Configurations
Conference Record Configurations
User Account Permissions
E-mailing Passwords to Existing Contacts
Global Configuration Settings
 eCenter Direct Features Available to Users
Existing User Login
Network of Centers List
Training Event Registration
Counseling Request
Record Information Update
Client Survey Completion
 Posting Conferences on eCenter Direct
Overview
Conference Title, Dates, Description, and Location
Conference Fee
Publishing Center
Conference Status
Scheduled Time(s)
Conference Contact
Additional Conference Information
 Posting Surveys on eCenter Direct
Creating Surveys
Configuring Survey Posting Options
Informing Your Clients of New Surveys
 Working with Conference Request Records
Overview
Notification of New Conference Request Records
Accepting or Rejecting Conference Request Records
Conference Request Record Status
 Working with Counseling Request Records
Overview
Notification of New Counseling Request Records
Accepting or Rejecting Counseling Request Records
Counseling Request Record Status
 Working with Survey Response Records and Other Records Impacted by eCenter Surveys
Overview
Survey Response Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions
Milestone Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions
Award Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions
Investment Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions
 Generating and Distributing eCenter Direct Passwords
Generating and Distributing eCenter Direct Passwords
Editing eCenter Direct Passwords
Distributing eCenter Direct Password Information in a Mass E-Mail

Readying the Softshare 'CATS Database

After eCenter Direct is installed, there are several configuration steps you must perform in the Softshare 'CATS database to manage the external information that is displayed at eCenter as well as the internal information that results from online eCenter activity. These eCenter-specific configurations are discussed in the following sections:

Center Record Configurations

Center records play an important role in eCenter's operations. As discussed in the next two sections, they determine the centers that are available for public viewing and selection, the counselors that are assigned counseling requests, and the counselor e-mail addresses that many automated eCenter messages are sent to and from. 

Making Centers Available to eCenter Direct

On eCenter's home page, visitors can view a listing of centers in your program, as discussed in Network of Centers List. In order for a center to be included in this list and be available for selection when visitors request counseling services or view conferences by center, a database administrator must manually change the center record's Status field from "Active" to "Public" from within WinCATS, as shown in the next graphic.

When making a center public, ensure that the center's phone number, fax number, e-mail address, Web site address, mailing address, and primary contact are accurate. This information will be pulled directly from the conference record for display in the Network of Centers list.

Setting Default Counselors

The default counselors that are assigned to center records, as displayed in a center record's Default Counselor field, play several important roles in eCenter's operations. When an eCenter visitor requests counseling from a center, it is that center's default counselor that is assigned the counseling request record. In addition, it is a center's default counselor who sends and receives the majority of e-mails that are exchanged with eCenter users who are not yet clients of your program. The various roles that a center's default counselor plays are listed next:

  • When an eCenter visitor requests counseling from a particular center, the resulting counseling request record is assigned to that center's default counselor. 

  • When an eCenter visitor requests counseling from a particular center, eCenter sends an automated counseling request notification e-mail message to that center's default counselor. Similarly, eCenter sends an automated confirmation message to the visitor that uses this default counselor's e-mail address as the sender (and reply-to) address.

  • When a non-client eCenter user submits a password retrieval request, the password is provided to the user in an e-mail message that uses the e-mail address of the user's center's default counselor (i.e. the default counselor that is assigned to the center record that owns the user's contact record in the Softshare 'CATS database) as the sender (and reply-to) address. 

  • When a non-client eCenter user updates basic contact or company information, the updates are e-mailed to the user's center's default counselor (i.e. the default counselor that is assigned to the center record that owns the user's contact record in the Softshare 'CATS database). 

Although it's likely that your center records already have default counselors assigned to them, it's a good idea to open each center record in WinCATS and double-check that the default counselor assigned to each record is indeed the appropriate person to handle the previously listed eCenter duties. Only database administrators can edit center records. 

Counselor Record Configurations

The majority of e-mail communications between eCenter and your program happen between eCenter users and counselors. As described in the previous section, many eCenter e-mails are sent to and from the default counselors assigned to center records. In addition, many eCenter e-mails are sent to and from the counselors assigned to the client records of existing eCenter users. For these reasons, it's important that all counselors assigned as center default counselors, as well as all counselors that work with clients, have valid e-mail addresses in their counselor records. 

For example, if an eCenter visitor requests counseling from the Santa Barbara Center, the counseling request notification will be sent to the e-mail address stored in Sam Haroldsen's counselor record, as shown in the next graphic. Similarly, the counseling request confirmation message that is sent to the new client will arrive from Sam Haroldsen's e-mail address.

Note: Many of eCenter's automated e-mail messages will reference the counselor's phone number, if present. For this reason, it's a good idea to verify that counselor records have valid phone numbers in their conference records as well.

Conference Record Configurations

Once eCenter is installed, you must decide which upcoming conferences you want to make available for online viewing and registration via eCenter. This is done by opening the relevant conference records and for each one, completing the fields that contribute to an eCenter conference posting. These fields are discussed in detail in Posting Conferences on eCenter Direct.

User Account Permissions

An eCenter Direct license enables two new record types in WebCATS: conference request records and counseling request records. As far as permissions are concerned, these record types fall under the domain of the "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" database area. For example, a user with permissions to view client, company, and contact records for the Central Coast Development Center automatically has permissions to view that center's conference request and counseling request records.

The following table outlines the permissions a user must have in order to perform particular eCenter-related activities in Softshare 'CATS.

eCenter Activity Minimum Required Permissions
Viewing eCenter records View permissions for the current center's "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" database area
Editing eCenter records Edit permissions for the current center's "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" database area
Assigning eCenter records to other centers Edit (including center) and Add permissions for the current center's "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" database area and Add and Edit permissions for the other center's "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" database area
Accepting counseling or conference request records Add and Edit permissions for the current center's "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" database area

As described in Accepting a Counseling Request Record, the acceptance of a counseling request record spawns the creation of a new client, company, contact, and, optionally, administrative counseling session record. Typically, the creation of counseling session records is governed by "Client Activity" permissions. However, to keep things from becoming too complicated, users with add permissions for "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" will be allowed to generate an administrative counseling session record upon acceptance of a counseling request, even if they do not have add permissions for the "Client Activity" database area. 

Similarly, the acceptance of a conference request record, as described in Accepting a Conference Request Record, automatically adds the new contact information to the conference's attendee list record. Typically, the editing of list records is governed by "Conferences and Mailing Lists" permissions. However, users with add permissions for "Clients, Companies, and Contacts" will still be allowed to accept conference requests, even if they do not have edit permissions for the "Conferences and Mailing Lists" database area.

Note: For more information on permissions, download the Softshare WinCATS Database Administrator Guide, available from Softshare eService.

E-Mailing Passwords to Existing Contacts

As described in Existing User Login, any contact in your database that has an e-mail address and eCenter password present in their contact record can log into eCenter. As you add new contacts to your database, passwords are automatically assigned and, as described in Generating eCenter Direct Passwords, e-mailed to your contacts. But what about those contacts, if any, that existed in your database prior to the installation of eCenter? They were assigned passwords during the eCenter installation procedure, but have no way of knowing what those passwords are. For these contacts, you may want to consider sending a mass e-mail that introduces them to eCenter and instructs them on how to access eCenter.

Below are instructions on how to isolate the appropriate contact records and generate a mass e-mail destined for the e-mail addresses found within those contact records.

  1. In WebCATS, open the contact record summary view.
  2. Click the General Subset button.
  3. At the Contact Subset screen, select "eCenter Password" and "Date Created" as the subset's criteria types and click the Specify Criteria button.

  4. At the following screen, select "(All Centers)" from the Center(s) field's drop-down menu. This is an important step. If you do not change the center criterion from the current active center to all centers, only contact records belonging to the current active center will receive the e-mail.
  5. Enter an asterisk (*) in the eCenter Password field. This returns all contact records with a non-blank eCenter Password field.
  6. In the Date Created fields, leave the start date field blank and enter the date you installed eCenter as the end date. This returns all contact records that were created before eCenter was installed (and, technically, on the day that eCenter was installed.)

    7.  

  7. Click the Finish button.
  8. WebCATS returns all contact records for all centers in your database that were created before eCenter was installed and contain an eCenter password. From this general subset summary view, click the E-mail button.
  9. In WebCATS' e-mail interface, compose subject and message text for your e-mail and click the E-mail button. To help you compose your message, sample text is shown next.

Note: Contact records without e-mail addresses cannot be included in this mass e-mail. However, you've still reached your entire target audience because an e-mail address is required as part of the eCenter login. As described in Generating and Distributing eCenter Direct Passwords, an e-mail address must be present in a contact record before that contact is allowed to log into eCenter.

Global Configuration Settings

There are several global configuration settings for your Softshare 'CATS database that affect eCenter's behavior. These settings can be found on the Reporting page, eCenter page, and Surveys page of WinCATS' global configurations. Only database administrators can edit Softshare 'CATS' global configuration settings.

Note: For more information on global configuration settings, download the Softshare WinCATS Database Administrator Guide, available from Softshare eService.

Reporting Page

From the Reporting page, review the text for the agreement portion of the new client intake form. This is the text that eCenter visitors will agree to when submitting a counseling request.

Surveys Page

From the Surveys page, you can customize the satisfaction survey questions that are posted to eCenter and configure their response types. For detailed information on writing eCenter surveys, see Creating Surveys.

eCenter Page

From the eCenter page, you can post satisfaction surveys to eCenter as well as configure other eCenter survey options. For detailed information on posting eCenter surveys, see Configuring Survey Posting Options. 

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eCenter Direct Features Available to Users

Clients and non-clients of your center can benefit from the many features of eCenter Direct, as described in the following sections:

Existing User Login

For eCenter's purposes, existing users are contact records in your Softshare 'CATS database that have an e-mail address and eCenter password present. Because WebCATS automatically assigns an eCenter password to any contact record with an e-mail address, it's likely that the majority of contacts in your database are capable of logging into eCenter. 

Note: As described in Generating and Distributing eCenter Direct Passwords, eCenter passwords are randomly generated in Softshare 'CATS when a contact record is created. At the time of generation, assuming an e-mail address is present, Softshare 'CATS gives you the option of forwarding the login and password information to the contact via e-mail.

Logging In

To log in to eCenter, users must provide an e-mail address and password that matches the e-mail/password combination in their contact record, as shown in the next graphic. If the contact record contains multiple e-mail addresses, eCenter will accept any of the e-mail addresses in combination with the password.

Retrieve Password

If a user does not remember their password, they can click the "Retrieve your password?" link. This password retrieval feature queries your 'CATS database for a contact record that contains, in combination, the last name and e-mail address provided by the user.

 

If a match is found, the user is e-mailed the corresponding password to the e-mail address provided in the Password Retrieval screen. The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this e-mail is either the user's counselor, if the logged in user is a client of your program, or the e-mail address of the user's center's default counselor (i.e. the counselor that is assigned to the center record that owns the user's contact record in the Softshare 'CATS database). For this reason, as discussed in Counselor Record Configurations, it's very important that valid e-mail addresses exist for all counselors assigned to center and client records. An invalid counselor e-mail address could keep this message from reaching the user.

If a match is not found, the user is informed, via the e-mail address provided in the Password Retrieval screen, that their last name and e-mail address do not exist in combination in the database. The e-mail goes on to recommend that they contact the nearest center and includes the network of centers list. The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this e-mail is the lead center e-mail address that your program provided Softshare when initially installing eCenter.

eCenter Features Available to Logged In Users

Once successfully logged in, an existing user has up to three options available to them:

Update Record Information

Immediately upon login, existing users are presented with a welcome message from their center. In addition, the users are asked to review the contact information that their centers have on file for them and make any necessary updates via e-mail. For detailed information on this eCenter feature, see Record Information Update.

Simplified Training Event Registration

As with new users, existing users can register for training events on eCenter. However, because an existing user's contact information already exists in your database, existing users are not required to complete the registration form that new users must complete. After selecting the training event to register for (by clicking the pencil icon from the training events calendar page), an existing user only needs to click the Sign Up button, as shown in the next graphic. 

Completion of Client Survey

If the logged in eCenter user is a client of your program (i.e. the user's contact record is associated with a client-status company record), the user may have the option of completing a client survey, as described in Client Survey Completion.

Network of Centers List

On eCenter's home page, there is a link titled "View our network of centers." Accessible to any eCenter visitor, this link provides address and contact information for each public center in your database.

Training Event Registration

New and existing users can register for training events at eCenter's training events calendar page, as shown in the next graphic.

As described in Simplified Training Event Registration, existing users only need to click the pencil icon from the training events calendar page to register for an event. New users, however, must complete a registration form that requires minimal contact and company information, as shown in the next graphic.

Mandatory registration fields appear in bold. New users will not be able to submit a training event registration until they have completed all mandatory fields. The Company Name and Date Established fields become mandatory only when a selection of "Start-up" or "In Business" is made for the mandatory Company Status field.

Registration Confirmation Message

After registering for a training event, logged in users and new users alike will receive an automated e-mail message. However, the message content for the two user types differs.

Registration Confirmation Message for Logged In Users  

Upon registration, logged in users will receive a confirmation e-mail that informs them that they are successfully registered for the event and reiterates the event details, as shown in the next graphic. This e-mail is automatically sent by eCenter to the e-mail address(es) stored in the user's contact record. 

Note: The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this confirmation e-mail is the e-mail address of the conference point of contact. For this reason, as described in Conference Contact, it's very important that a valid e-mail address exists for the conference point of contact. An invalid e-mail address can keep this confirmation message from reaching the registrant. 

Registration Request Received Message for New Users

New users, on the other hand, will receive an e-mail informing them that their registration is being processed, as shown in the next graphic. This e-mail is automatically sent by eCenter to the e-mail address provided in the training event registration form.

Note: The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this confirmation e-mail is the e-mail address of the conference point of contact. For this reason, as described in Conference Contact, it's very important that a valid e-mail address exists for the conference point of contact. An invalid e-mail address can keep this confirmation message from reaching the registrant. 

The new user will then receive a follow-up e-mail when their conference request record is accepted or rejected from within Softshare 'CATS.

Counseling Request

eCenter visitors are able to sign up for services (i.e. request counseling) from the center of their choice. Available by clicking the Client Sign-Up button from eCenter's home page, this option presents the new user with a comprehensive signup form, as shown in the next graphic. With the exception of revenue information, the client signup form requires the same information as the client intake form (i.e. SBA 641 parts I/II).

Counseling Request Confirmation Message

After submitting the online client signup form, new users will receive an e-mail that informs them that their client application is being processed, as shown in the next graphic. This e-mail is automatically sent by eCenter to the e-mail address provided in the signup form. 

Note: The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this confirmation e-mail is the e-mail address of the chosen center's default counselor. For this reason, as discussed in Counselor Record Configurations, it's very important that valid e-mail addresses exists for all default counselors assigned to public center records. An invalid e-mail address can keep this confirmation message from reaching the new client.

The new user will then receive a follow-up e-mail when their counseling request record is accepted or rejected from within Softshare 'CATS.

Record Information Update

Immediately upon login, existing users are presented with a welcome message from their center. In addition, the users are asked to review the contact information that their center has on file for them and make any necessary updates via e-mail.

Upon clicking e-mail, an e-mail message, auto-addressed to the appropriate counselor, opens in the user's default e-mail application. This message reiterates the contact's current information and asks the user to provide their new information as free-form text.

How is the recipient counselor determined? If the logged in user is a client of your center, the generated e-mail's To field will display the e-mail address of the counselor that is assigned to the contact's associated client record. If the logged in user is not a client of your center, the To field will display the e-mail address of the user's center's default counselor (i.e. the counselor that is assigned to the center record that owns the user's contact record in the Softshare 'CATS database). 

Client Survey Completion

If your center posts surveys on eCenter, logged in users that eCenter recognizes as clients (i.e. the user's contact record is associated with a client-status company record) are given the option to take the current satisfaction survey, as shown in the next graphic.

Clicking the Take the Survey button brings the client to eCenter's survey page where your custom survey questions are posted along with up to three optional survey questions, as shown in the next graphic.

If the client reports any new employee numbers, awards won, or loans obtained in any of the three optional questions, eCenter displays additional survey forms for each topic, as shown in the next graphic. 

As discussed in Working with Survey Response Records and Other Record Types Impacted by eCenter Surveys, a client's responses to the first set of questions are added to the Softshare 'CATS database as a survey response record. Similarly, if a client reports any new employee job numbers, awards won, and/or loans obtained, the information is added to the database as a new milestone, award, and/or investment record.

 

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Posting Conferences on eCenter Direct

When eCenter Direct is installed, your conference records display a new section that is devoted entirely to eCenter, as shown in the next graphic. The first field in this eCenter section is the Post this conference on eCenter? check box. This check box must be selected in order to make a conference available for viewing and registration via eCenter's training events calendar page.

In addition, there are several other fields (found throughout a conference record) that contribute to an eCenter posting. These fields are discussed in the following sections.

Note: After you post a conference to eCenter, it's a good idea to visit eCenter and view the posting as your visitors will see it to make sure you've provided all the necessary information.

Conference Title, Dates, Description, and Location

As shown in the next graphic, the information stored in a conference record's Title, Training Starts and Ends, Description, Address, and City fields is carried over to the training events calendar page when the conference is posted to eCenter.

Note: State and zip code are also carried over to eCenter from a conference record, but this location information isn't displayed until a client selects a conference to register for. 

Conference Fee

The fee information displayed for a conference on eCenter's training events calendar page is pulled from the conference record's Full Fee field. eCenter doesn't support a multiple-fee structure. If an eCenter registrant is eligible for a discounted fee, you'll need to express this to the registrant in follow-up communications.

Publishing Center

Found in the eCenter area of a conference record, the Publishing Center field displays the name of the center that eCenter will display as the training event's hosting center. Only centers that have been designated as public centers are available for selection from this field's drop-down menu. It is possible for a conference record to be published under a center other than the center that displays in the Center field.

Note: If the owning center of a conference record, as displayed in the conference record's Center field, is a public center, the Publishing Center field will always default to the owning center. This is true when creating a new conference record or when editing the Center field in an existing conference record.

As shown in the next graphic, the training events displayed on eCenter can be browsed by publishing center.

Conference Status

From a conference record's Status field, you must assign one of four statuses to the conference:

Open Status

When "Open" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing and registration via eCenter's training events calendar page.

Full Status

When "Full" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page. eCenter visitors will not be able to register for a conference that is full. If an eCenter visitor attempts to register for a full conference, the visitor is informed that the conference is full, as shown in the next graphic.

Postponed Status

When "Postponed" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page. As with a full conference, eCenter visitors will not be able to register for a postponed conference. As shown in the next graphic, the word "Postponed" replaces the training event date when a conference record has a postponed status.

Cancelled Status

When "Cancelled" is assigned as the status, the conference is available for viewing only via eCenter's training events calendar page. As with full conferences and postponed conferences, eCenter visitors will not be able to register for a conference that has been cancelled. As shown in the previous graphic, the word "Cancelled" replaces the training event date when a conference record has a cancelled status.

Scheduled Time(s)

The scheduled time displayed for a conference on eCenter's training events calendar page is pulled from the conference record's Scheduled Time(s) field. This field is a free-form text field, allowing you to be as descriptive as necessary since there could be varying start and finish times for training events that last multiple days.

Conference Contact

Found in the eCenter area of a conference record, the Conference Contact field and its associated E-mail and Phone fields determine the conference contact information that will display on eCenter.

The e-mail address provided here plays a very important role in eCenter's operations. The automated registration status e-mail a visitor receives upon completing an eCenter training event registration arrives from this e-mail address as does the follow-up confirmation e-mail or rejection e-mail that is sent upon the acceptance or rejection of the registrant's conference request record. In addition, all conference request notifications are sent to this e-mail address.

Additional Conference Information

The final field in the eCenter area of a conference record is the Additional instructions/information for prospective attendees field. It's a free-form text field that lets you expand upon the conference record's Description field. The text entered into this field is displayed when a visitor selects a training event to sign up for, as shown in the next graphic.

 

 

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Posting Surveys on eCenter Direct

When eCenter Direct is installed, you have the option to post satisfaction surveys to the clients-only area of eCenter Direct. In this section, we'll discuss how to create satisfaction surveys, configure survey posting options, and inform your client base of the new survey.

Creating Surveys

Satisfaction surveys are created from the Surveys page of WinCATS' global configuration settings. They are created on a program-wide basis and cannot be customized per center. Only database administrators can create or edit satisfaction surveys.

Note: Don't confuse satisfaction surveys with conference surveys which are created from the Conferences page of WinCATS' global configuration settings and then attached to conference records.

The steps required to create satisfaction surveys in WinCATS are listed next.

  1. In WinCATS, select File|Global Configuration.
  2. Open the Surveys page.

  3. Click the New button in the lower left corner of the page.
  4. WinCATS asks if you would like to base your new set of questions on the existing set of questions that is selected in the Current Question Set field. Click Yes or No here. If you click Yes, WinCATS displays the current set of questions in an editable format. If you click No, WinCATS presents you with an empty New Client Survey Questions screen, as shown in the next graphic.

  5. In the Name field, you may overwrite the default survey title of "New Client Survey Questions" with a more meaningful title. When you save the new set of questions, WinCATS will automatically place the current day's date at the end of the title. 
  6. At the New Client Survey Questions screen, edit or create a question by placing the cursor into the Question field and typing your question.

    7. Note: Do not place a colon at the end of your question. For any question that does not end with a question mark (?), eCenter will automatically add a colon for you at the end of the question.

  7. Select the Mand? option if you would like the survey question to be mandatory (i.e. the client will not be able to submit the survey from eCenter until this field has been completed).
  8. From the Type field's drop-down menu, select the type of data value that best suits the question:
    • Text. A text data type allows up to 50 alphanumeric characters as the response.
    • Number. A number data type allows up to 50 numeric characters as the response.
    • Date. A date data type requires a date as the response.
    • Yes/No. A yes/no data type restricts the response to a "Yes" or "No" response, as chosen from a picklist.
    • Picklist. A picklist data type lets you restrict the response to a set of picklist options. If you select this data type, enter the picklist selections into the Picklist Choices field, separated by semicolons (;).

  9. Close the survey questions screen to save your newly created question set. Upon saving, WinCATS will automatically designate this new set of questions as the current question set, as displayed in the Current Question Set field.

Note: Your new question set will not display on eCenter unless you have configured the eCenter page of WinCATS' global configuration settings to display surveys on eCenter, as described next.

Configuring Survey Posting Options

Once a satisfaction survey is created, you must enable it for posting on eCenter from the eCenter page of WinCATS' global configuration settings. This page holds several other survey posting settings for you to configure as well. These eCenter page settings, accessible to database administrators only, are discussed next.

Posting the Survey

To post the current satisfaction survey to eCenter, select the Include survey questions? option, as shown in the next graphic.

 

As described in Client Survey Completion, this makes the survey visible to all logged-in eCenter users that eCenter recognizes as clients of your program. As described in Survey Response Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions, when a client completes a satisfaction survey from eCenter, a new survey response record and "Responded to Survey" milestone record are automatically created for the client in the Softshare 'CATS database. In addition, the Last Survey Date and Most Recent Milestone fields found in the client's client record are updated with the current day's date.

Posting the Optional Jobs/Awards/Loans Questions

Once you select the Include survey questions? option, several additional posting options become available from the eCenter page. These options determine which, if any, of the three standard survey questions you would like to post along with your satisfaction survey.

Note: After you post a satisfaction survey and any, all, or none of the standard accompanying survey questions, it's a good idea to visit eCenter and view the survey as your visitors will see it to make sure you've provided all the necessary information.

Jobs Question

Selecting the Include jobs question? option from the eCenter page causes the standard jobs survey question to be added to the end of your custom satisfaction survey questions, as shown in the next graphic.

The text of the jobs questions pulls full-time and part-time employee numbers directly from the logged-in client's company record. If a respondent selects "Yes" for this question, the respondent is prompted to enter new full-time and part-time employee numbers. If the employee count was increased overall, a "Jobs Created" milestone record type is added to the Softshare 'CATS database for the client, as described in Jobs Created Milestones, and the Most Recent Milestone field found in the client's client record is updated with the current day's date. In addition, regardless of whether the employee count increases or decreases, the client's company record is automatically updated with the new employee information. 

Awards Question

Selecting the Include awards? option from the eCenter page causes the standard awards survey question to be added to the end of your custom satisfaction survey questions. The wording for the awards question is customizable so that you may specify the appropriate time period or types of awards you are interested in; this wording is pulled from the Prompt text for awards field, also found on the eCenter page, as shown in the next graphic.

If a respondent enters a value greater than zero for the awards question, the respondent is prompted to enter details for each award. These details include the contract number, contract type, agency name, agency type, and award amount. As described in Award Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions, upon submittal of the eCenter survey, an award record is automatically created for the client in the Softshare 'CATS database for each award indicated. In addition, the Most Recent Award field found in the client's client record is updated with the current day's date.

Investments/Loans Question

Selecting the Include investments/loans? option from the eCenter page causes the standard loans survey question to be added to the end of your custom satisfaction survey questions, as shown in the next graphic. As with the awards question, the wording for the loans question is customizable so that you may specify the appropriate time period or types of loans you are interested in; this wording is pulled from the Prompt text for investments field, also found on the eCenter page.

If a respondent enters a value greater than zero for the loans question, the respondent is prompted to enter details for each loan. These details include the loan number, loan type, institution name, and loan approval date and amount. As described in Investment Records Created via eCenter Survey Completions, upon submittal of the eCenter survey, an investment record is automatically created for the client in the Softshare 'CATS database for each loan indicated. In addition, the Most Recent Loan field found in the client's client record is updated with the current day's date.

Duplicate Checking

When a client enters new award or loan information into eCenter as part of an online survey response, the Softshare 'CATS database can be automatically queried to ensure that these new awards or loans don't already exist in the database as award or investment records. The Duplicate Checking field found on the eCenter page of Softshare 'CATS global configuration settings determines whether or not automatic duplicate checking takes place and, if it does, the actions that Softshare 'CATS should take if duplicate records are found. There are three duplicate handling options:

  • No duplicate checking. This setting instructs Softshare 'CATS to bypass duplicate checking. All award and loan data entered into eCenter via the online survey is automatically added to the Softshare 'CATS database as award or investment records.
  • Allow duplicates, but provide warning. This setting instructs Softshare 'CATS to perform duplicate checking against all new award and loan information entered into eCenter via the online survey. If the new award or loan data is found to potentially duplicate award or investment records that already exist in the Softshare 'CATS database, a warning e-mail is sent to the client's counselor informing the counselor that duplicate award/investment information may be present. However, all award and investment data entered into eCenter is automatically added to the Softshare 'CATS database as award or investment records, regardless of whether possible duplicate records were found. If the counselor deems that the new record is indeed a duplication of an existing record, the counselor must go in and manually delete the award or investment record that was automatically created via eCenter.
  • Prohibit duplicates. This setting instructs Softshare 'CATS to perform duplicate checking against all new award and loan data entered into eCenter via the online survey. If the new award or loan data is found to potentially duplicate award or investment records that already exist in the Softshare 'CATS database, a warning e-mail is sent to the client's counselor informing them that the award/loan information recently entered into eCenter by their client was NOT converted into corresponding award and investment records because the information may already exist in the database. If the counselor deems the new information collected by eCenter to be valid, the counselor must manually add the information into the Softshare 'CATS database.

In the case of award information, Softshare 'CATS considers duplicates to be award records belonging to a single client that contain the same contract number and award amount. In the case of loan information, Softshare 'CATS considers duplicates to be investment records belonging to a single client that contain the same application number and approved loan amount. 

Informing Your Clients of New Surveys

An easy way to request that your clients take your new survey is to send out a mass e-mail from WebCATS. You can use the subset filter to isolate the appropriate group of client recipients for the e-mail. Within your e-mail notification, you may want to consider sending out instructions on how to access eCenter and subsequently, the survey, similar to those instructions found in the sample letter Softshare provided as a template for e-mailing eCenter access instructions to contacts.

Note: For more information on using WebCATS' subset filter feature, see Softshare WebCATS Online Help.

 

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Working with Conference Request Records

When a new user registers for a training event on eCenter Direct, they are prompted to provide a minimal amount of contact and company information. The information the user provides is sent to your Softshare 'CATS database as a conference request record. All records in Softshare 'CATS have an owning center and conference request records are no exception. They are assigned to whichever center owns the conference record being registered for (this may or may not be the same center as the publishing center). 

The main purpose of a conference request record is to provide an interface in which you can, in one easy step, convert the new user's information into corresponding contact and company records and add the new contact to the conference's attendee list.

Conference request records are stored in the Conference Requests form, available from WebCATS' left-hand navigation menu (eCenter|Conference Requests). Assuming you have the appropriate permissions, you can view, edit, accept, reject, and delete conference request records.

In this section, we'll discuss the following topics:

Note: Only training event registrations by new eCenter users (i.e. non-logged in users) result in conference request records. Logged in eCenter users are already contacts in your database and therefore, there is no need for resulting conference request records. Instead, eCenter alerts the conference point of contact to the conference registration via e-mail and automatically adds the logged-in user's contact record to the conference's attendee list.

Notification of New Conference Request Records

When a new user registers for a training event on eCenter, they immediately receive an e-mail letting them know that their registration is being processed and that a confirmation message should be forthcoming in a few days. For this reason, conference request records should be attended to in a timely manner. To help ensure that the appropriate persons are made aware of new counseling request records, three types of alerts are provided, as discussed in the next three sections:

Conference Request Notifications

When a new user registers for a training event on eCenter, eCenter sends an automated e-mail to the conference point of contact, alerting them to the new registration, as shown in the next graphic. The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this notification e-mail is the registrant's e-mail address so that you may quickly open a dialog with the registrant if necessary. 

Conference Request Record Alerts in MyWebCATS

As described in the Softshare WebCATS Online Help, MyWebCATS is a pop-up window that displays a listing of timely events, organized by category, that affect your user account. One of these categories is the "eCenter Records" category, which features, among other things, all pending conference request records for the current active center that were created within the last seven days. A pending conference request record is a record that has a status of "New" (i.e. the record has not yet been accepted or rejected).

Conference Request Record Alerts in Conference Records

In the eCenter area of a conference record, an alert displays the number of pending conference request records there are for that conference record. A pending conference request record is a record that has a status of "New" (i.e. the record has not yet been accepted or rejected).

Accepting or Rejecting Conference Request Records

Ultimately, all conference request records should either be accepted or rejected. If neither of these actions are performed for a conference request record, the record remains pending indefinitely which is not a desirable long-term status.

In the next two sections, we'll discuss in detail the acceptance and rejection of conference request records:

Accepting Conference Request Records

There is a basic procedure that you should follow when accepting conference request records:

  1. Check for duplicate records
  2. Accept the record
  3. Send a confirmation e-mail to registrant
  4. Verify the resulting contact and company records' center assignment

Checking for Duplicate Contact and Company Records

Before you accept a conference request record and create a resulting contact and, optionally, company record, check to make sure that a contact and/or company record don't already exist in your Softshare 'CATS database for the registrant. You can check for duplicate records in one of two ways, as shown in the next graphic:

When checking for duplicate contact records, this feature returns contact record(s) belonging to any center that meet both of the following criteria: the contact's last name must contain the same first five characters that display in the conference request record and the contact's first name must contain the same first character that displays in the record. When checking for duplicate company records, this feature returns company record(s) belonging to any center that contain the same first five characters that display in the conference request record.

If you find a duplicate contact or company record, the best course of action, as discussed in detail in Rejecting Conference Request Records, is to (1) reject the conference request record, (2) send an e-mail to the registrant, (3) update your Softshare 'CATS database with any new information provided in the conference request record, and (4) manually add the contact record to the conference's attendee list, assuming the record is not already there. Using the previous graphic as an example, consider for a moment that your database already has a contact record for Graham R. Miller, but does not have a company record for Heating Inc. Following the recommended course of action, you would (1) reject the conference request record, (2) send Graham R. Miller an e-mail confirming his registration, (3) manually enter a company record for Heating Inc. and link it to the existing contact record for Graham R. Miller, and (4) manually add Graham R. Miller's contact record to the attendee list for the Creating Commercials for Cable Television training event.

Accepting a Conference Request Record

When you accept a conference request record, you are automatically creating a contact record that consists of the contact information stored in the conference request record and, at the same time, adding this new contact record to the attendee list of the requested conference. In addition, you are provided with the option to automatically create a new company record for association with the new contact record. 

To accept a conference request record, click the Accept button from the record's upper title bar (the record must be in view-only mode). Upon clicking Accept, you are reminded that this action will automatically create a contact record and add that contact record to the attendee list of the requested training event, as shown in the next graphic.

Next, you are prompted to create a company record, as shown in the next graphic. 

Note: You will receive the company record prompt even if the registrant indicated that their company status is pre-venture. In this case, the company record will be created using the contact name as the company name.

The contact record and, optionally, company record that WebCATS creates when you accept a conference request record are built using the data found in the conference request record. The next graphic shows exactly how WebCATS uses the data in the conference request record to create resulting contact and company records.

Of course, contact and company records contain more fields than just those fields that conference request records are able to populate. For example, contact records have a Position field, but company position information is not collected by eCenter's training event registration form.

For those contact and company record fields that aren't completed during the conference request record acceptance process, but that require data, such as drop-down menu fields or yes/no fields, WebCATS auto-fills them using either built-in defaults particular to the conference request record acceptance process or your database's global configuration settings. These fields and the logic WebCATS uses to auto-populate them are listed in the following table.

             Contact Record Fields
eCenter Password The eCenter Password field is assigned a random, six-digit number
Position The Position field, present when the contact record has an associated company record, defaults to "(Undefined)" 
Owner The Owner field, present when the contact record has an associated company record, defaults to "No"
Work Phone The Work Phone field, present when the contact record has an associated company record, defaults to the same phone number as is in the Home Phone field (which originally came from the Primary Phone field of the conference request record)

             Company Record Fields
Business Size The Business Size field defaults to the default value specified in Softshare 'CATS' global configuration settings for this field
Organization The Organization field defaults to "(Undefined)"
Company Gender The Company Gender field defaults to "(Undefined)"
Business Type The Business Type field defaults to "(Undefined)"
Inc. The Inc. field defaults to "(Undefined)"
Company Veteran The Company Veteran field defaults to "(Undefined)"
HUBZone The HUBZone field defaults to "(Undefined)"
International Trade? The International Trade? field defaults to "No" 
Business Online? The Business Online? field defaults to "No" 
Distressed Area? The Distressed Area? field defaults to "No" 
Home-based Business? The Home-based Business? field defaults to "No" 

If you know any of these previously listed defaults to be inaccurate upon acceptance of a conference request record, open the resulting contact or company record in edit mode to make modifications.

Sending a Confirmation E-mail to Registrant

After you accept a conference request record, WebCATS automatically opens a confirmation e-mail message using its internal e-mail application. As shown in the next graphic, this e-mail is addressed to the registrant and reiterates the details of the training event. It also informs the registrant of their newly assigned eCenter login information. 

You may edit this e-mail before sending in any way you see fit, but be sure that you do send some type of confirmation to the registrant because the automated e-mail sent by eCenter at the time of registration informed the registrant that they would receive an e-mail in the next few days confirming their registration.

Verifying Center Assignment for Resulting Contact and Company Records

When a conference request record is created, it is initially assigned to the center that owns the conference record being registered for (this may or may not be the same center as the publishing center). When a conference request record is accepted, the resulting contact and company records are automatically assigned to this center as well, assuming you have not modified the Center field in the conference request record. However, this may not be the appropriate owning center for the contact and company.

For example, consider that your program is divided into four geographical areas: North, South, East, and West. If someone located in the northern tip of the state registers for a conference being held in the western tip, their resulting contact and company records are assigned to the West regional center. But if this contact were to someday become a client of your program, they would be serviced by the North regional center. For this reason, you should think about center assignment when accepting conference request records and, if the assignment is not appropriate, open the resulting contact or company record and edit its center ownership.

Note: When contact and company records are linked to one another, Softshare 'CATS requires that they have the same owning center. To enforce this, WebCATS will not allow you to edit the Center field of a contact record that is linked to a company record. You must edit center ownership from the company record and the edit will be carried over to the contact record.

Rejecting Conference Request Records

There are many reasons why you may reject a conference request record. Maybe the registrant is already a contact in your database and you do not want to create a second contact record for the registrant via the conference request record acceptance process. Or maybe the registrant is already signed up for the training event; or the training event is full.

There is a basic procedure that you should follow when rejecting conference request records:

  1. Reject the record
  2. Send an e-mail to registrant
  3. If applicable, manually update the Softshare 'CATS database with new information contained by the conference request record
  4. If applicable, manually add the registrant to the conference attendee list

Rejecting a Conference Request Record

To reject a conference request record, click the Reject button from the record's upper title bar (the record must be in view-only mode). Upon clicking Reject, WebCATS automatically opens an e-mail message using its internal e-mail application, as discussed in the next section.

Note: Unlike accepted conference request records, you can still edit--or even accept--a rejected conference request record.

Sending an E-mail to Registrant

After you reject a conference request record, WebCATS automatically opens an e-mail message using its internal e-mail application. As shown in the next graphic, the e-mail is addressed to the registrant and contains some very basic placeholder text. You are strongly encouraged to expand upon this text before sending the e-mail so that the registrant is very clear on their registration status.

Although this e-mail is written from the perspective that the registration request has been declined, that may not necessarily be the case. For example, if you rejected the conference request because a contact record already existed in your database for the registrant, you're not rejecting the actual conference request, but rather, the creation of a contact record via the conference request record acceptance process. In this case, you would rewrite the e-mail entirely, modeling it after the registration confirmed e-mail that is sent upon acceptance of a conference request record. 

Manually Updating the Database

There are many instances where you may reject a conference request, but still find value in the information contained by the conference request record. For example, perhaps you rejected the request because the conference is full, but you would still like to add the registrant to your database as a contact. Or, perhaps you rejected the request because the registrant already exists as a contact in your database, but there is new or updated information in the conference request record that you would like to add to your database. In these instances, you would manually update your database with the information contained in the conference request record after rejecting the record.

Manually Adding Registrant to Conference Attendee List

As mentioned previously, there may be instances when you reject a conference request because the registrant already exists in your database as a contact and you do not want a duplicate contact record to be created via the conference request record acceptance process, but, even though you've rejected the conference request, you may still want the contact to be added to the conference attendee list. In this case, you would manually add the contact record to the attendee list.

Conference Request Record Status

The status of a conference request record is prominently displayed in the record itself and in the record type's summary view. There are four possible statuses, as explained in the following four sections.

New Status

The new status indicates a conference request record that has not yet been accepted or rejected. This status displays even if the conference request record has been edited.

Accepted Status

The accepted status displays once a conference request record has been accepted. You cannot edit or reject a conference request record with an accepted status.

Rejected Status

The rejected status displays once a conference request record has been rejected. You can edit or accept a conference request record with a rejected status.

Deleted Status

If you accept a conference request record, but subsequently delete the contact record that was created as a result of the acceptance process, the deleted status displays for the conference request record. You can edit, re-accept, or reject a conference request record with a deleted status.

 

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Working with Counseling Request Records

When a visitor requests counseling on eCenter Direct, they are prompted to provide a considerable amount of contact and company information. The information the visitor provides is sent to your Softshare 'CATS database as a counseling request record. The counseling request record is automatically assigned to the center that the visitor chose on the client signup form. 

The main purpose of a counseling request record is to provide an interface in which you can, in one easy step, convert the new client's information into a contact, company, corresponding client, and, optionally, administrative counseling session record.

Counseling request records are stored in the Counseling Requests form, available from WebCATS' left-hand navigation menu (eCenter|Counseling Requests). Assuming you have the appropriate permissions, you can view, edit, accept, reject, and delete counseling request records.

In this section, we'll discuss the following topics:

Notification of New Counseling Request Records

When a visitor requests counseling at eCenter, they immediately receive an e-mail letting them know that their request is being processed and that a confirmation message should be forthcoming in a few days. For this reason, counseling request records should be attended to in a timely manner. To help ensure that the appropriate persons are made aware of new counseling request records, two types of alerts are provided, as discussed in the next two sections:

Counseling Request Notifications

When a visitor requests counseling at eCenter, eCenter sends an automated e-mail to the chosen center's default counselor, alerting them to the new registration, as shown in the next graphic. The sender address (and reply-to address) assigned to this notification e-mail is the requestor's e-mail address so that you may quickly open a dialog with the requestor if necessary.

Counseling Request Record Alerts in MyWebCATS

As described in the Softshare WebCATS Online Help, MyWebCATS is a pop-up window that displays a listing of timely events, organized by category, that affect your user account. One of these categories is the "eCenter Records" category, which features, among other things, all pending counseling request records for the current active center that were created within the last seven days. A pending counseling request record is a record that has a status of "New" (i.e. the record has not yet been accepted or rejected).

Accepting or Rejecting Counseling Request Records

Ultimately, all counseling request records should either be accepted or rejected. If neither of these actions are performed for a counseling request record, the record remains pending indefinitely which is not a desirable long-term status.

In the next two sections, we'll discuss in detail the acceptance and rejection of counseling request records:

Accepting Counseling Request Records

There is a basic procedure that you should follow when accepting counseling request records:

  1. Check for duplicate records
  2. Double-check center and counselor assignment
  3. Accept the record
  4. Send a confirmation e-mail to new client
  5. Follow up with new client to schedule counseling session

Checking for Duplicate Contact and Company Records

Before you accept a counseling request record and create a resulting contact, company, client, and, optionally, administrative counseling session record, check to make sure that a contact and/or company record don't already exist in your Softshare 'CATS database for the requestor. You can check for duplicate records in one of two ways, as shown in the next graphic.

When checking for duplicate contact records, this feature returns contact record(s) belonging to any center that meet both of the following criteria: the contact's last name must contain the same first five characters that display in the counseling request record and the contact's first name must contain the same first character that displays in the record. When checking for duplicate company records, this feature returns company record(s) belonging to any center that contain the same first five characters that display in the counseling request record.

If you find a duplicate contact or company record, the best course of action, as discussed in detail in Rejecting Counseling Request Records, is to (1) reject the counseling request record, (2) send an e-mail to the requestor, (3) update your Softshare 'CATS database with any new information provided in the counseling request record, and (4) follow up with the requestor to schedule counseling. Using the previous graphic as an example, consider for a moment that your database already has a contact record for Evelyn P. Grant, but does not have a company record for Grantwood Printing. Following the recommended course of action, you would (1) reject the counseling request record, (2) send Evelyn P. Grant an e-mail letting her know that she is already a client, (3) manually enter a company record for Grantwood Printing, link it to the existing contact record for Evelyn P. Grant, and promote it to client status and (4) follow up with Evelyn P. Grant to schedule counseling.

Double-Checking the Center and Counselor Assigned to the Counseling Request Record

When a conference request record is created, it is automatically assigned to a center and counselor by WebCATS. The center that WebCATS assigns to the request record is the center that the visitor selected from the client signup form. The counselor that WebCATS assigns to the request record is the default counselor configured for the chosen center (i.e. the counselor that receives the counseling request notifications). When a counseling request record is accepted, the resulting client and, optionally, administrative counseling session records are automatically assigned to this center and counselor as well.

For this reason, you should ensure that the requestor selected the correct center for their geographic location before you accept a counseling request record. If the requestor selected the wrong center, you can change the record's center assignment, assuming you have the appropriate permissions. Don't forget to also change counselor assignment. Since the newly assigned counselor did not receive the original counseling request notification, it's also a good idea to manually alert the counselor to this new client.

Even if the requestor selected the correct center, you may still want to change the counselor assignment. Again, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, you should manually alert the newly assigned counselor whenever you edit counselor assignment in a counseling request record.

Accepting a Counseling Request Record

When you accept a counseling request record, you are automatically creating a contact record that consists of the contact information stored in the counseling request record, a company record that consists of the company information stored in the counseling request record, and an associated client record. In addition, you are provided with the option to create an administrative counseling session record for the new client. 

To accept a counseling request record, click the Accept button from the record's upper title bar (the record must be in view-only mode). WebCATS will not allow you to accept a counseling request record that doesn't have all mandatory fields completed. If one or more mandatory fields is missing data (i.e. the person making the counseling request didn't complete the data from eCenter), you will receive a message that outlines which fields must be completed before the counseling request record can be accepted, as shown in the next graphic. For many of these mandatory fields, you can select the "Choose not to respond" drop-down option to satisfy the mandatory requirement.

 

If all mandatory fields are complete, upon clicking Accept, you are reminded that this action will automatically create a contact record, company record, and associated client record for the requestor, as shown in the next graphic.

Note: A company record and associated client record will be created even if the requestor indicated that their company status is pre-venture. In this case, the company and client record will be created using the contact name as the company name.

Next, you are prompted to create an administrative counseling session record, as shown in the next graphic. 

The contact record, company record, and associated client record that WebCATS creates when you accept a counseling request record are built using the data found in the counseling request record. The next graphic shows exactly how WebCATS uses the data in the counseling request record to create resulting contact, company, and client records.

Of course, contact and company records contain more fields than just those fields that counseling request records are able to populate. For example, contact records have a Position field, but company position information is not collected by eCenter's training event registration form. 

For those contact, company, and client record fields that aren't completed during the counseling request record acceptance process, but that require data, such as drop-down menu fields or yes/no fields, WebCATS auto-fills them using either built-in defaults particular to the counseling request record acceptance process or your database's global configuration settings. These fields and the logic WebCATS uses to auto-populate them are listed in the following table.

             Contact Record Fields
eCenter Password The eCenter Password field is assigned a random, six-digit number
Position The Position field, present when the contact record has an associated company record, defaults to "(Undefined)" 
Owner The Owner field, present when the contact record has an associated company record, defaults to "No"

             Company Record Fields
Business Size The Business Size field defaults to the default value specified in Softshare 'CATS' global configuration settings for this field
Inc. The Inc. field defaults to "(Undefined)"
HUBZone The HUBZone field defaults to "(Undefined)"
International Trade? The International Trade? field defaults to "No" 
Distressed Area? The Distressed Area? field defaults to "No" 
             Client Record Fields
Active? The Active? field defaults to "Yes"
Case End Type The Case End Type field defaults to "(Undefined)" 
SBA Client Type The SBA Client Type field defaults to "(Undefined)" 
Referral To The Referral To field defaults to "(Undefined)" 
Funding Source The Funding Source field defaults to the default funding source that is associated with the user account of the user that accepted the counseling request record
Yes/No User-Defined Client Fields User-defined client fields configured with a response of yes/no default to "No" 

The optional administrative counseling session record that WebCATS creates when you accept a counseling request record is also built using the data found in the counseling request record. The next graphic shows how WebCATS uses the data in the counseling request record to create a resulting administrative counseling session record.

For those counseling session record fields that aren't completed during the counseling request record acceptance process, but that require data or can be intuitively completed, WebCATS auto-fills them using either built-in defaults particular to the counseling request record acceptance process or other database configurations. These counseling session record fields and the logic WebCATS uses to auto-populate them are listed in the following table.

             Counseling Session Record Fields
Type The Type field defaults to "Administrative" 
Contact Type The Contact Type field defaults to "eCenter" 
Additional Assistance The Additional Assistance field defaults to "(Undefined)"
Preparation Time The Preparation Time field defaults to "0.25" 
Language Used The Language Used field defaults to the default value specified in Softshare 'CATS' global configuration settings for this field 
Funding Source The Funding Source field defaults to the default funding source that is associated with the user account of the user that accepted the counseling request record
Reportable? As with all administrative counseling session records, the Reportable? field defaults to "No" 
Action Item The Action Item field defaults to "None" 
Total # of people The Total # of people (excl. Counselors) field defaults to "1"

Note: If you know any of these previously listed defaults to be inaccurate upon acceptance of a counseling request record, open the resulting contact, company, client, or administrative counseling session record in edit mode to make modifications.

Sending a Confirmation E-mail to New Client

After you accept a counseling request record, WebCATS automatically opens a confirmation e-mail message using its internal e-mail application. As shown in the next graphic, this e-mail is addressed to the new client and informs them of their newly assigned eCenter login information. 

You may edit this e-mail before sending in any way you see fit, but be sure that you do send some type of confirmation to the new client because the automated e-mail sent by eCenter at the time the counseling request was made informed the requestor that they would receive an e-mail in the next few days confirming their client application.

Following Up with New Client to Schedule Counseling Session

As shown in the previous graphic, the standard confirmation e-mail text states that you will be contacting the new client shortly to schedule a consultation. If you did not edit this text or add scheduling information into the e-mail, then be sure that you follow up with the new client in a timely fashion to schedule their initial counseling session.

Rejecting Counseling Request Records

You'll find that the most common reason for rejecting a counseling request record is because the requestor already exists in your database as a contact or client and you do not want to create duplicate database records for them via the counseling request record acceptance process. 

There is a basic procedure that you should follow when rejecting counseling request records:

  1. Reject the record
  2. Send an e-mail to requestor
  3. If applicable, manually update the Softshare 'CATS database with new information contained by the counseling request record
  4. If applicable, schedule a counseling session with the requestor

Rejecting a Counseling Request Record

To reject a counseling request record, click the Reject button from the record's upper title bar (the record must be in view-only mode). Upon clicking Reject, WebCATS automatically opens an e-mail message using its internal e-mail application, as discussed in the next section.

Sending an E-mail to Requestor

After you reject a counseling request record, WebCATS automatically opens an e-mail message using its internal e-mail application. As shown in the next graphic, the e-mail is addressed to the requestor and contains some very basic placeholder text. You are strongly encouraged to expand upon this text before sending the e-mail so that the requestor is very clear on their client status.

Although this e-mail is written from the perspective that the counseling request has been declined, that may not necessarily be the case. For example, if you rejected the counseling request because a contact record already existed in your database for the requestor, you're not rejecting the actual counseling request, but rather, the creation of a duplicate contact record via the counseling request record acceptance process. In fact, you'll still want to schedule counseling with the new client. In this case, you would rewrite the e-mail entirely, modeling it after the client application successfully processed e-mail that is sent upon acceptance of a counseling request record. 

Manually Updating the Database

There are instances when you may reject a counseling request, but still find value in the information contained by the counseling request record. For example, perhaps you rejected the request because the requestor already exists in your database as a contact, but there is new company information in the counseling request record that you would like to add to your database. In this instance, you would use the company information in the counseling request record to manually create a new company and client record.

Following Up with Client to Schedule Counseling Session

As described previously, you may run into instances when you reject the counseling session record, but still want to schedule initial or follow-up counseling with the requestor. In these instances, you need to follow up with the requestor by e-mail or phone to schedule counseling. 

Counseling Request Record Status

The status of a counseling request record is prominently displayed in the record itself and in the record type's summary view. There are four possible statuses, as explained in the following four sections.

New Status

The new status indicates a counseling request record that has not yet been accepted or rejected. This status displays even if the counseling request record has been edited.

Accepted Status

The accepted status displays once a counseling request record has been accepted. You cannot edit or reject a counseling request record with an accepted status.

Rejected Status

The rejected status displays once a counseling request record has been rejected. You can edit or accept a counseling request record with a rejected status.

Deleted Status

If you accept a counseling request record, but subsequently delete the client, company, and contact records that were created as a result of the acceptance process, the deleted status displays for the counseling request record. You can edit, re-accept, or reject a counseling request record with a deleted status.

 

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Working with Survey Response Records and Other Record Types Impacted by eCenter Surveys

If your center posts surveys to eCenter Direct, as described in Posting Surveys on eCenter Direct, your Softshare 'CATS database is automatically updated with new survey response records as well as "Responded to Survey" milestone records as your clients complete your online satisfaction surveys. In addition, if you post the optional jobs, awards, and/or loan questions as part of the survey, your Softshare 'CATS database is automatically updated with new milestone, award, and/or investment records when clients provide new job, award, or loan information. All this activity also causes updates to be made to client and company records.

In this section, we'll discuss the various record types that are automatically created as a result of eCenter survey completions:

Note: Unlike conference request and counseling re