Overview
Contact Info tab
Transactions tab
Cases tab
Opportunities tab
Documents tab
Add Activity tab
Add Case tab
Add Opportunity tab

Overview

1. First, the gadget verifies your identity, and which Method company account and user name your Gmail account is connected to currently.
2. Next, it locates the 'target email'. If you are viewing an email from the Sent Items folder, it is the email address of the person to whom you sent the email. If it is any folder other than the Sent Items folder, the 'target email' is the email address of the person that sent the email.
3. Next, the gadget searches all contacts of customers or vendors in your Method account for anyone with that email address.
4. If no matching contact is found with that email address, you have the following options: 
• Search for the contact using other criteria such as name or company account. This is helpful in situations where you don't have their email address on file, or when they recently changed their email address. 
• Create a new contact of an existing customer, lead or vendor account. 
• Create a brand new customer, lead or vendor, where this contact will be the primary contact.
5. If the contact is found, their contact information is loaded into the gadget. 
6. A preference check is made to see if 'Auto expand activity details' is selected. If this on, the full details of this contact will be displayed at the bottom of the email. If this off, you must click on the contact's name in the gadget to show their account details.
7. At this point you can view past activities, QuickBooks Transactions, cases, opportunities and Documents. You can also add a new activity, case or opportunity directly in the gadget.

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Contact Info tab 

Shows the contact information for the current contact.

• Portal link - generates a short URL to provide to your customer. Use this to give your customers access to their portal where they can view past invoices and/or make payments. Simply click generate, right-click, choose copy, and paste it into your email response.
• Relevant preference(s): 
• Settings > Company-wide preferences > CRM edit/view tab links > Contacts Portal Name / Contacts Portal Home - sets the name of the portal and where the link will send them to after they sign in.
• To make your URL 'single-click', so that the link doesn't require your customer to authenticate themselves with their email address, go to Customize > Portals, edit the portal and select Enable single-click sign in for emailed links. Note: there is a slight trade-off here between security and convenience for your customer. 
• Map - displays the customer's address on a Google Map. In determining what constitutes the address, it simply looks for the first field that has a numeric value in it, and uses that line and all address lines below. 
• Edit / View in Method - signs you into Method CRM and goes to this contact record. Use this when you need to see more information on this contact than is visible in the gadget. Also, to edit contact information, or to view or edit custom data on your custom screens for this contact.
• Relevant preference(s):
• If a customer, it uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > Customer edit/view tab links > Customer. 
• If a customer lead, it uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > Customer edit/view tab links > Customer lead. 
• If a vendor, it uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > Customer edit/view tab links > Vendor. 
• Search - searches for other contacts instead of the current contact. Use this to search for contacts that exist in Method, but with a different email address. Also use this when there are multiple contacts with the same email address and you need to select the correct one. Finally, this is useful for an internal email about a contact that you want to look up or log an activity for in Method. For example, imagine a staff member sends you an email about Jane Smith. The email is from your staff member, not from Jane, so the gadget shows your staff's and not Jane's information. However, you can quickly access Jane's account directly in Gmail using the Search link, without having to long into Method directly. 

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Activities tab

Shows basic details of the 25 most recent activities in the current contact's account.

• Click - clicking on the activity will take you directly into Method for that activity. 
• Relevant preference(s):
• It uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > CRM edit/view tab links > Activity. 
• Add Activity - takes you to the Add Activity tab for that contact. 

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Transactions tab

Shows basic details of the 25 most recent transactions in the current contact's account. 

• Click - clicking on the transaction will take you directly into Method to edit/view that transaction. 
• Relevant preference(s):
• If a customer, it uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > Customer edit/view tab links. 
• If a vendor, it uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > Vendor edit/view tab links. 
• Add / View Permissions - A user won't have access to more than they are able to normally see and do in Method. For example, in determining whether a user can see invoices and click Add Invoice, a check is made to see what the tab link preferences are for Settings > Company-wide preferences > Customer edit/view tab links, and whether this user is able to access that tab link when they use Method. If they are able to view the tab link for invoices, then invoices are shown in the gadget, otherwise invoices are hidden. 

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Cases tab

Shows basic details of the 25 most recent cases in the current contact's account. 

• Click - clicking on a case will take you directly into Method to edit/view the case. 
• Relevant preference(s):
• It uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > CRM edit/view tab links > Case. 
• add activity - clicking on the add activity link will take you to the Add Activity tab, and reference the specified case. 
• Add Case - will take you to the Add Case tab to create a new case. 

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Opportunities tab

Shows basic details of the 25 most recent opportunities in the current contact's account. 

• Click - clicking on an opportunity will take you directly into Method to edit/view that opportunity. 
• Relevant preference(s):
• It uses the tab link specified by Settings > Company-wide preferences > CRM edit/view tab links > Opportunity. 
• add activity - clicking on the add activity link will take you to the Add Activity tab, and reference the specified opportunity. 
• Add Opportunity - will take you to the Add Opportunity tab to create a new opportunity. 

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Documents tab

Shows basic details of the 25 most recent documents in the current contact's account.

• Documents are only shown that are assigned to the customer/lead/vendor, rather than those assigned to their cases, opportunities or transactions.
• Clicking on a document will take you directly to view that document. If you are a SmartVault user and this is a SmartVault document, you'll be taken to SmartVault to view it.

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Add Activity tab

Adds a new activity for the current contact to record the email received, as well as the ability to assign follow-up tasks. In addition, this is where you can upload documents that are attached to the email.

• Warning: the contents of the email are automatically attached to the activity, and will be viewable by your staff when they view the activity in Method. Keep this in mind in cases where there is sensitive information in the email.
• Relevant preference(s):
• Settings > Personal preferences > Activities
• Save email in plain text - every time you save an activity from the gadget, the email will be attached to the activity and be visible in Method. This determines whether you want the email saved in HTML or in plain text.
• Autofill activity comments - when a new activity is created, start the comments as the first 250 characters of the email.
• Auto expand activity details - determines whether 'Edit Details' is automatically checked or unchecked on a new activity. Ideally, you shouldn't need to edit the details since you will rarely change from your default preferences while using the gadget. It is recommended, when possible, that this is left unchecked to prevent screen clutter.
• Default dropdowns (type, status, priority, follow-up type, follow-up status and follow-up priority) - set these defaults for what you want to have appear when you add an activity or follow-up from the gadget. These are your personal preferences, so they do not affect other users.
• If an activity or follow-up is assigned to a user other than yourself, that user will automatically receive an email alert.
• Attachments - if there are attachments in the email, the gadget will give you the opportunity to upload them to Method when you add an activity.
• There may be a slight delay after the Add Activity tab opens before the attachments are loaded. This is normal.
• Only file types that are supported by Method will appear, so not all attachments are available to be uploaded to Method. 
• To upload an attachment, simply place a checkbox beside each attachment you want to upload and Method will do all the work for you when you save. It's that easy.
• SmartVault - if you are a SmartVault user, the gadget will upload to SmartVault automatically, but only if SmartVault was your most recent method of uploading while you were inside Method.

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Add Case tab

Adds a case and activity to the selected contact. A case is a customer service ticket.

• Email case notification to contact? - emails the contact a confirmation that a case has been created. In addition, it provides them with a link to the customer portal so that they can view the status of the case, add more case details, or close the case if it is resolved.
• The preference of whether this is checked on or off by default can be set, per user, in Method under the Home > My CRM Preferences tab.
• When a case is added, an activity is also created. See the Add Activity tab description above for more information.
• Relevant preference(s):
• Settings > Personal preferences > Cases
• Autofill case comments - activity comments by default is empty. But it can be prefilled with the first 250 characters of the email, if this preference selected. 
• Default dropdowns (status, origin, priority, type, reason) - set these defaults for what you want to have appear each time you add a case from the gadget. These are your personal preferences, so they do not affect other users.
• If the case is assigned to a user other than yourself, that user will automatically receive an email alert summarizing the case that has been assigned to them. 

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Add Opportunity tab

Adds an opportunity and activity to the selected contact. An opportunity is a pending sales deal that you want to add to your pipeline so that it doesn't fall between the cracks. 

• When an opportunity is added, an activity is also created. See the Add Activity tab description above for more information.
• Relevant preference(s):
• Settings > Personal preferences > Opportunities
• Autofill opportunity description - under Edit additional info, the Description by default is empty. But it can be prefilled with the first 250 characters of the email, if this preference is checked.
• Default dropdowns (stage, type, lead source) - set these defaults for what you want to have appear whenever you add an opportunity from the gadget. These are your personal preferences, so they do not affect other users.
• If the opportunity is assigned to a user other than yourself, that user will automatically receive an email alert summarizing the opportunity that has been assigned to them.

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Next step: FAQ and Troubleshooting the Gmail Gadget