Akubo Blog

iPad iOS5 update - email, notes and letters editor now functional

2011-10-25T22:18:00.000-04:00

Wonderful news for our iPad users! With the recent release of iOS5 for the iPad, the email, notes and letters editor is now fully functional on your iPad. So if you haven't installed iOS5 yet, go ahead and do so and when you login to Akubo you'll be able to compose your email in HTML format. This iOS update also applies to the iPhone and we're still testing to see how we may bring the same editor (probably with reduced options) on the iPhone with the limited screen size.

Browser Tests --- Google Chrome still fastest, Firefox 5 close second

2011-06-28T08:41:00.001-04:00

With the recent release of Firefox 5, we did our browser tests again. Tests ran on Windows 7 computer. Google Chrome is still fastest with Firefox 5 a very close second.

Logging into Akubo account with 1,500 contacts

Google Chrome - 1.62 seconds
Firefox 5 - 1.83 seconds
Internet Explorer 9 - 2.47 seconds
Internet Explorer 8 - 4.33 seconds

View All Contacts (1,500 contacts)

Google Chrome - 4 seconds
Firefox 5 - 4.33 seconds
Internet Explorer 9 - 6.31 seconds
Internet Explorer 8 - 7.34 seconds

Recent Updates - Visibility, Turning on/off Features for Login Users, Quick Refresh

2011-06-23T07:34:00.001-04:00

Visibility

You can assign visibility (ownership) for contact records.
Users that do not have Manage privileges can only see contact records that are assigned to be visible to ALL (this is the default visibility assignment).

Turning on/off Features for Login Users

You can now selectively turn on/off Akubo features for Login users (that don't have Manage privileges).
We're initially starting with Email and Transactions (Sales/Donations) functionality --- you can tun these features on/off selectively for each login user.

Creating Receipts

The create receipts page will now automatically pop-up after creating a transaction (sale/donation) that's marked for sending a receipt. The page will open when you go back to the Main page.
We added a button to mark a transaction to not require a receipt. This makes it easier to remove transactions (that are marked to receive a receipt) from the create receipts page.

Quick Refresh

Changes/updates are now automatically reflected on the contacts listing after you make a change.

Counter for selected contacts

We added a counter for your selected contacts to make it easier to track how many contacts you've selected (your selections as now preserved as you continue searching for other contacts).

Add new contacts from the contact listing page

There's now an Add New Contacts button on the contacts listing page.

Email opt-out

You can now turn off the opt-out message at the top of your email message. The opt-out message will still appear at the bottom of your message (this feature cannot be turned off to help safeguard our spam controls), but showing the message at the top is now optional.

As always, please email us at support@akubocrm.com if you have any questions.

Recent Updates - new Transaction Reports, iPad Access, Helpful Lists and more!

2011-04-12T15:39:00.005-04:00

Just a recap of some recent updates to Akubo this past quarter.

* Transactions Report:
-- #customers/donors for the month/year and #customers/donors with > 1 transaction for the month/year
-- average income, # of transactions, average # of transaction, invoiced and not-invoiced (unpaid income)
-- paid and unpaid amounts
-- transactions by City, State, Zip, Group, Org/Company

* iPad access:
-- improved iPad access and navigation with pages now optimized for the iPad.
-- you can now use single-finger scrolling on the contacts/search results (you may need to update to iOS 4.3 to see this fix).

* Helpful Lists:
-- New section under View Contacts for helpful and useful lists
-- Find Duplicates, No Email Address, Birthday this Month and Email Opt-Out

* Inactive status for contacts has been renamed to "Hidden" --- a more appropriate label since contacts that are inactive are essentially hidden from query results. You can review "Hidden" contacts by going to "View All Contacts" by Status and choose "Hidden".

* Default currency --- you can now set your default currency (for sales/donations transactions) in the Settings page.

* For business type accounts: Opportunity feature updates --- we added 3 new fields (product/info, amount and notes) and also moved the Opportunity section to its own tab.

* Contacts Report --- new report showing contacts by Group, Org/Company and Age.

* Smart groups now also show up in a contact's group membership listings.

As always, please email us at support@akubocrm.com if you have any questions.

Browser and OS stats: Firefox and Windows leads, Google Chrome gaining ground

2010-12-15T06:12:00.006-05:00

Firefox leads in browsers accessing Akubo. Almost a year ago we shared that Akubo was much faster on Firefox than Internet Explorer. Lately we've developed a liking for Google Chrome which is even faster than Firefox, which probably explains why it's gaining ground among our users.

Mozilla Firefox - 37%
Internet Explorer - 33%
Google Chrome - 22%
Safari - 5% (includes iPhone access)
Blackberry - 2%

Operating Systems

Windows - 83%
Macintosh - 14%
Blackberry - 2%
iPhone - 1%
Android - 1%

Non-Profit Tips: Plan Your Year-End Campaign in 7 Steps

2010-11-01T20:01:00.005-04:00

It's that time of year and here's a great article from Network for Good on planning your year-end campaign.

Step 1: Set a goal so you know where you're going.

Step 2: Figure out how you're going to get there (hint: tell a great story).

Steps 3-7: Map out the details.

Plan Your Year-End Campaign in 7 Steps

And also just as important is the actual appeal itself. Below is an article from Network for Good on 4 questions to answer in every appeal

Why me?
Your audience needs to care about what you are doing.

Why now?
Create a sense of urgency and immediacy in your appeal.

What for?
Where exactly is a donor's money going?

Who says?
The messenger is often as important as the message.

4 Questions to Answer in Every Appeal

For more great tips on fundraising and non-profit marketing, be sure to visit the Network for Good Learning Center.

October Updates - Sales opportunity tracking, Multiple email templates, and more.

2010-10-30T13:48:00.004-04:00

Just a recap of the updates for the month of October.

* Sales Opportunities --- For "business" type accounts we have added the sales opportunity feature to allow you to track the sales process from new leads to prospecting to negotiating to closing (wins/loses).

* Full customization for Thank You / Receipt header & footer --- You can now hide the default mailing headers that are automatically included in the thank you / receipts. You would then be able to create your own header without having the default mailing headers appearing above your custom header. We also added data merge capability for both the header and the footer so you can call up data fields in your custom header and footer.

* Activity Log entries for outgoing emails --- A log entry from "system" is now recorded for each contact for emails going out, and for receipts marked as sent (and also sent out via email) so you can easily recall if a contact was sent an email, or was sent a receipt recently.

* Save Multiple Custom Email templates --- You can now create and save multiple email templates. To create new email templates, go to the Notes section, create a new Note and click on the drop-down for Note type and choose "Email Template". Once you've created these new templates, when you create a new email, you will see a drop-down right above the message section that will allow you to choose any of your saved templates.

Please email us at support@akubocrm.com if you have any questions.

Happy Halloween!

Announcing Akubo 3 for small teams

2010-10-05T22:46:00.004-04:00

Today we're pleased to announce our Akubo 3 plan. This plan is for up to 3 users and is a nice fit between our Akubo 5 and our Akubo Solo plan for individuals. This fits the micro-teams that we've been seeing more and more signing up for Akubo, and we thought a 3-user plan would be perfect for small teams.

Akubo 3 is only $19.99 per month and if you choose to pay yearly, you get a discounted price of only $199 per year. Sign-up today!

PayPal Integration!

2010-08-25T10:36:00.003-04:00

We have some exciting news. Akubo is now integrated with PayPal. That means you can now accept payments (donations/sales) via paypal and these payments are automatically recorded in your Akubo database. In addition, if you use the invoices feature on Akubo, you can now choose to automatically include a link to pay by PayPal when you email your invoices (for pledges/sales) from Akubo.

Non-profits and Sales organizations --- If you don't have a paypal account yet, you can easily sign-up for an account and the quick instructions to link your paypal account to Akubo is in your Settings page (click on the Settings link from the main screen on Akubo)
Payments (donations/sales) via paypal are automatically recorded in your Akubo database
Automatically include a link to pay by PayPal when you email your invoices (for pledges/sales) from Akubo

This is just the first of many more payment gateway integrations we're planning to do for you. Stay tuned.

4 Fundamental Rules To Successful Email Marketing

2010-07-14T19:48:00.004-04:00

1. Strategically choose your subject line. Constructing an attractive subject line may require you to do some research on current buzzwords in your industry. However, here are a few small adjustments that can make a huge difference.

• Use numbers. Readers can easily grasp something that’s quantitative because it gives them a better idea of what to expect. For example, “3 Days Left To Purchase Tickets” or “8 Volunteers Needed for Upcoming Food Drive”.

• Include a call to action. Readers are more likely to open an email without delay if the verbiage conveys urgency. “Offer Expires Tomorrow” is an example of this. However, if your message is in the form of a newsletter, the call to action may be more subtle, such as, “Learn How To…”

• Keep it at 50 characters max. Some email accounts only display the first 15 characters so make sure the first few words in your headline provide value to the message you are trying to communicate. Furthermore, do not capitalize all your characters because it can be an indication of yelling – only caps the first letter of each word.

2. Timing is everything. Choosing the best time of day and best day of the week to blast your emails is important. Although each industry is unique, it’s safe to say that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays generally have above average open and click through rates. For the best time of day, avoid mornings. Bombarded with emails, the first thing we do is delete all the unnecessary ones to get them out of the way. The best time tends to be around lunch when people have some downtime. Try experimenting by breaking your contacts into 4 separate groups and send one at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm and observe the response (and open) rate. Determine the best time/day combination that suits your target market.

3. How many is too many? Once or twice a month is generally the rule of thumb. It pays off to keep a dialogue going so your contacts don’t forget who you are, but harassing them once a week or more will lead to a surge of unsubscribers. Most people who unsubscribe feel the information is not relevant to them so it may work to your advantage to tailor messages targeting specific groups within your contact list.

4. Sometimes, less is more. The content of your emails should be short, sweet, and to the point. A common mistake people make is trying to fit all their great ideas into one long message, which is confusing to the reader and ineffective marketing. Try brainstorming with a group to come up with several ideas and write them down on a whiteboard. Then, funnel down to the most suitable content for this particular email. Save other ideas for future emails.

Akubo Prayer House video and pictures

2010-05-30T08:34:00.004-04:00

Thank you Tapulanga Foundation for making us part of this new addition to the St. Francis of Assisi School community!

See more Pictures

"Touching" our Contacts

2010-05-25T07:44:00.005-04:00

It is important to keep a database of contacts for your organization. For small businesses, your contacts may include current, potential, or past customers, and people who refer clients to you. For non-profits your contacts include past, current, or prospective donors and grant givers. Your contacts may include your vendors, too.

Contacts are maintained for a variety of reasons. You may be running a sale or launching a giving campaign that you want to publicize – that's an obvious reason to reach out to your contacts. But an organization may touch, or connect with, their contacts at other times, too:

Help them keep you in mind for future purchases or donations.
Build loyalty and customer satisfaction to retain exiting customers.
Educate contacts about your services or products.
Survey recent purchasers or donors.
Remind referral sources that you are a good choice for their contacts.

Touch your contacts on a regular basis. How often depends on the type of organization you run and the frequency of purchase. It also depends what you promised people when they signed up to be on your mailing list. Schedule email and snail mail marketing campaigns on your calendar so you can be consistent and touch your contacts regularly.

Akubo Prayer House: Day 1

2010-04-19T20:29:00.004-04:00

Today was Day 1 of the Akubo Prayer House: a mudhouse building workshop at the St. Francis of Assisi School in Silay City, Philippines.

Akubo Updates: Synch your Gmail Contacts, Import AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail Contacts

2010-03-16T23:49:00.004-04:00

We're pleased to announce some new Akubo features.

Gmail / Google Contacts Sync

* You can choose 1-way (akubo to gmail), 1-way (gmail to akubo) or 2-way sync for your gmail contacts.
* Phone numbers, notes and organization included in the synch.
* Google apps accounts are also supported.
* Use with Google sync for your phone (Blackberry, iPhone and Windows phones supported) and you can also keep your contacts synchronized between your phone and Akubo.

Import AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail / Windows Live Contacts

* Import your contacts from these email providers.
* Updates feature --- if a contact's email address changes, you have the option to update your Akubo contact's email address upon import.

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As always, thanks for all your suggestions and feedback. We love hearing from you!

You can reach us at info@akubocrm.com or call 1-888-576-5592.

Akubo Updates: Email enhancements, New editor, Spell Checker, File Browser and more

2010-02-11T16:08:00.005-05:00

We're pleased to announce recently added Akubo features.

New editor with File Browser for Emails, Notes and Letter (Mail-Merge)

* New rich text editor that's easier to use and provides more text editing capability including
* Spell checker with spell as you type functionality
* Enhanced image upload and file browser (with rename and delete)
* File upload with file browser (to send links to files instead of sending attachments).
* Allowed files are csv, (MS Word - doc, docx), pdf, (MS Powerpoint ppt, pptx), rtf, (MS Excel xls, xlsx), txt, zip
* View HTML source is improved (you no longer have to switch back from source view to commit changes)
* Copy and Paste from MS Word (with it's own paste from Word button) reduces the extra HTML formatting characters that would typically get included when pasting an MS Word document
* Copy and Paste from Excel (preserves formatting on Excel into HTML table and cells)

File Browser with File Repository

* New file browser functionality allows you to maintain a file repository of images and files.
* Allowed image types are bmp, gif, jpeg, jpg, png.
* Allowed files are csv, (MS Word - doc, docx), pdf, (MS Powerpoint ppt, pptx), rtf, (MS Excel xls, xlsx), txt, zip.
* Upload, Browse, Rename and Delete files.
* You can use your images and files for Notes, Letters and Emails.
* Send links to files in your emails instead of sending attachments.

Email your Notes and Letters

* You can now easily email your Notes and Letters. From the view notes and view letters page, you'll see an Email button to easily send your note or letter to your contacts.

Email enhancements

* You can now email individual contacts without having to put them in a group first. This is very useful when you need to send out an email to a select group of individuals that you don't really wish to put into a group.
* Opt-out (unsubscribe) link now automatically appears at the bottom of your email messages. This will further ensure that your emails are not marked as SPAM (Junk Mail) by your recipients.
* Enhanced email delivery reports --- see Unique Opens, Total Opens and Opt-out statistics for each email address recipient (in real time as your recipients receive your email).
* Images --- We've made it easier to add images in your email. You can now add images directly from your computer and the images are hosted on our servers. You can also still continue referencing images from your website if you already have those images images on your servers.
* With new editor you get spell checking, enhanced image uploads and image browser (with rename and delete), improved view HTML source and improved copy and paste from MS Word and Excel.

Envelopes and Mailing Labels Enhancements

* Choose the font style and font size for envelopes
* We added size A7 for envelopes
* Choose fields to include in the envelope name/address label
* You can now choose the font style for mailing labels
* Choose fields to include in the name/address label

Export to .Doc (MS Word)

* Notes and Letters can now be exported as .Doc files (opens in MS Word). The exported document opens in print view (instead of web view) so you'll get the layout and view you would expect when editing MS Word documents.

Year-end Reports

* Year-end reports (in the reports section) now include a full report that shows the total sales/donation from each customer/donor. The full-year report can also be downloaded as a CSV file (opens in Excel).

Mobile browser page save password checkbox (Blackberry, iPhone and other mobile browser phones)

* You can now choose to save your password when you access Akubo from your Blackberry or iPhone web browser. Passwords expire after 2 weeks.

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As always, thanks for all your suggestions and feedback. We love hearing from you!

You can reach us at info@akubocrm.com or call 1-888-576-5592.

Akubo fastest on latest version of Firefox

2010-01-30T15:39:00.007-05:00

The latest version of Firefox (version 3.6) gives dramatically better performance for Akubo. Firefox has always been faster than Internet Explorer, but this version is the fastest we've seen.

Logging into Akubo account with 2,500 contacts
- tested on a Windows 7 machine

* Firefox 3.6 --- 1 second!
* Firefox 3 --- 4 seconds
* Internet Explorer 8 --- 7 seconds

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T20:22:00.001-05:00

The entire team at Akubo would like to wish all our customers a very Happy Holidays filled with peace and blessings for the coming year. As we celebrate the coming of the new year, we look forward to another exciting year for Akubo, with more new features in the pipeline and continuing our commitment of giving you our best service that made Akubo what it is today. Whatever you’re doing this season, enjoy yourselves and your families and thank you for being a part of the Akubo family.

Google Map links now work on your BlackBerry

2009-10-29T23:54:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Google, the map links on your Akubo address book now work from your BlackBerry. When we released this a few months ago it only worked on the iPhone, but now BlackBerry users get to have the same cool Google maps when they're checking their Akubo database on the road. There are navigational arrow links to move the map location and also zoom in and zoom out links. Check it out.

Email Templates, Receipts, Navigation Dock

2009-08-20T10:30:00.003-04:00

Product updates and news from the Akubo Team.

Email Templates

We just added Email Templates to help you craft the eye-catching email campaigns you've been wanting to do on Akubo. We're initially starting out with 9 email templates and we encourage you to try them out with your email campaigns. You also have the ability to switch to HTML view on the Compose Email window and edit the design to your liking.

Receipts

You can now easily print and email receipts for sales/donations. As you enter a sale/donation transaction, you will have the option to designate it for creating a receipt and generate a receipt for printing or emailing. Receipts can also be published in PDF or RTF (opens in MS Word) format.

Navigation Dock

The Main Page has been updated with a dock for easy access to the various features of Akubo. Check it out and tell us what you think.

Custom Fields in Letters (Mail Merge)

We added custom fields among the merge fields you can reference in your Letters.

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Testimonial from Fruition Gifts

Dorothy Vitrano from Fruition Gifts recently sent us this nice testimonial about Akubo:

"I like using Akubo. I especially like the way the groups are highlighted in different colors. Using Akubo helped me notice important trends about our business that got lost when just looking at a regular spreadsheet."

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We hope these enhancements help in making your Akubo experience even better. And, as always, we appreciate your feedback.

The Akubo Team

Email Marketing Reports - Track Open Rate and Bounces

2009-07-20T23:30:00.001-04:00

We just added some Email Marketing Reports to help you track your email campaigns.

The simple report shows the following:

Bounced Email - Shows you the email addresses that bounced back and the reason why the email address was rejected
Total Opens - How many times your email has been opened (this counts cumulative opens including the same email recipient opening your email multiple times)
Total Unique Opens - How many recipients opened your email (an email recipient who opens your email multiple times is only counted once)

Note that for Total Opens and Total Unique Opens, we can only track opening of emails from html capable email readers. Emails that are opened as text only are not tracked and some email recipients may have their email security settings set to block email open tracking. It is likely that your email open rate may be higher than what is reflected in the report.

We hope these enhancements help in your email campaigns. And, as always, we appreciate your feedback.

Akubo July Update

2009-07-01T09:05:00.003-04:00

We're pleased to announce some recent updates to Akubo.

Blackberry, iPhone - Mobile Phone Access

Mobile phone access is now available through your Blackberry and iPhone browser. The Classic full-browser interface is still available especially for iPhone users but you'll find the mobile browser version much easier to navigate and use when you're on the road. You can easily search for your contacts, initiate phone calls and emails, map the addresses (supported only on the iPhone), view/add transactions (sales, donations) and view/add activity logs.

Universal Search

You can now search Contact Notes, Transaction and Activity Log Memos. To perform a Universal Search click on the Advanced Search link (right beside the search box) and click on the Universal Text Search checkbox.

Household Members

You can now add information on household members for a contact. You can define each household member's relationship to the contact (e.g. spouse, child, parent, etc.), birthday and gender. This feature is very useful for organizations like Churches or Associations that use Akubo for their membership directory. You'll find this feature in the Details tab when you're adding/editing a contact.

Insert Data Fields in Email

You can now insert data fields in your email marketing including First Name, Last Name, Organization and Address information.

Create Form Letters (Mail Merge)

Create documents for printing (in PDF or RTF/MS Word format) with data fields in your letter including First Name, Last Name, Organization and Address information.

Importing Custom Fields

We've updated the import function to support importing custom fields into your Akubo database.

HTML View in Compose Email Editor

To give you more control in editing your e-newsletters, you can now switch the email editor view to HTML and make the changes directly to the HTML code. This is great for DreamWeaver users who want to copy and paste their HTML designs without having to go through extra steps to get their HTML code over to the Akubo editor.

Share your Notes via Public URLs

Your Notes can now be shared via public URLs so a memo can be embedded on your website and when you edit it on Akubo, the changes are reflected on your website as well. With this feature, Akubo Notes can be a great tool for website content management.

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We're all very thankful for all the feedback and suggestions you continue sending our way. As you share your daily experiences with Akubo we are encouraged to continue making it even better and easier for everyone to use.

Best wishes!

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at info@akubcrm.com or call 1-888-576-5592.

Akubo April Update

2009-04-16T00:31:00.003-04:00

We're pleased to announce some recent Akubo updates.

New Web Address : AkuboCRM.com

To better reflect Akubo's evolution as a CRM (Customer/Constituent Relationship Management) software, we're changing the website address to akuboCRM.com. Our old address akubo.net will automatically get redirected to akuboCRM.com.

Charts and Graphs : Business Intelligence

We've added charts and graphs reports on Akubo. With charts you can now see a snapshot of your contacts and transactions (e.g. sales, donations) and use this business intelligence data for your sales/marketing analysis and planning. For example, you can see a chart that shows which cities (or even zip codes) generated the most sales last quarter, or see a graph of your income and expenses over the past year.

Export Activity Logs

You can now easily export your activity logs to Excel (in csv format). Exports can be customized by activity log type, date of activity, and fields (including custom fields).

Enhancement to Export Contacts

We've enhanced the export contacts functionality to allow for more fields to choose from (including custom fields). You can now also select individual contacts to export instead of being limited to exporting groups. You can easily do this by putting a checkmark on the contacts (from the search results page or from the view contacts results page) and click on the export link at the top of the page.

Gender

You can now define gender data for your contacts to use in your demographics reporting.

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at info@akubcrm.com or call 410-988-2173.

Best Practices: Small non-profit successfully using Akubo

2009-02-28T08:29:00.005-05:00

We'd like to share with you an example of how a small non-profit organization has been successfully using Akubo.

Customer List, Groups
We maintain our entire mailing list on Akubo. This list includes our donors, supporters, volunteers and staff. The web-based access allows our various volunteers across the US to enter new donors and supporters information directly into Akubo from their locations. We have our customer list broken up into various groups reflecting geographic location, referral source, campaigns and projects. Our customer list includes addresses and with the built-in link to Google maps, we can easily map our customer's address.

Fundraising and Mailings
We enter all donor pledges and donations on Akubo. We can track donations by campaign and run reports on donations received per campaign. We also send out bi-yearly newsletters, Holiday cards and invitations to our annual fundraiser and Akubo makes it easy for us to print mailing labels for these mailings. In addition we also do an email campaign prior to our fundraiser and we can send out these emails through Akubo.

Tracking Interaction with Donors and Supporters
With Akubo's activity log, we jot down phone logs and notes about our donors and supporters and these get shared with various members of our team who all have access to Akubo.

Managing Tasks
We also use Akubo's Task Management to coordinate tasks with other members of our team. Our director creates and assigns tasks for us and we can schedule daily or weekly email alerts to remind us of open and pending tasks.

Organization Documents
Akubo's Memo feature allows us to create and share documents for the entire team. We can easily store documents we want everyone in the team to have ready access to. And these documents can be published in PDF or in RTF format (opens in MS Word).

CheckList Reminders
Akubo's status checklists allow us to set reminders for sending thank you notes, brochures, newsletters and following up via phone/email to anyone in our database. If a supporter calls and requests a brochure, one of us can go into Akubo and mark the send brochure checkbox for that person and our staff who is in charge of our mailings regularly checks for records that have an open checklist reminder.

We hope these examples give you an overview of what Akubo can do for your non-profit organization.

Akubo January Update

2009-01-29T17:45:00.005-05:00

We're please to announce some recent updates to Akubo.

Advanced Query with Smart Groups

Akubo now offers various possibilities for searching your data. You can specify multiple search parameters like finding out who had a birthday last month, lives in Seattle and didn't pay their dues. In addition to the various possible ways to search, you can save your search criteria as a smart group and Akubo will automatically update your group as your contacts meet the search parameters you defined.

Invoices

You can now create invoices for your sales (and donations/pledges) transactions. Invoices can be sent via email and can be viewed in PDF or RTF (opens on MS Word) file formats.

Memos

Create documents directly on Akubo. Cut and Paste your documents directly from MS Word and your entire team can share, edit and view documents from any web browser. Documents can also be viewed in PDF and RTF (opens on MS Word) file formats.

Task Management Enhancements

We've added enhancements to task management to allow the creator of a task to see updates to a task they originally created and assigned to another login user. This is useful for managers who create tasks and assign them to a staff or volunteer and if they want to see the progress of the task they now have permissions to do so even if they are not the owners of the task.

Security Enhancements

We've added enhancements to security including IP address filtering you can customize based on your security policies.

We're all very thankful for all the feedback and suggestions you continue sending our way. As you share your daily experiences with Akubo we are encouraged to continue making it even better and easier for everyone to use.

Best wishes to everyone!

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at info@akubo.net or call 410-988-2173.

We'd love to hear from you!

Even the Apple Genius was Impressed

2008-12-11T01:55:00.002-05:00

Wanted to share a nice story from a client --- she was at the Apple store recently getting her One2One personal training (great deal by the way for new Mac users). One of the things she needed help with was exporting her contact data from Akubo into her Apple Address Book. The Apple Genius had never encountered Akubo before and after working with her for awhile he remarked how impressed he was with Akubo that he's thinking of signing up for an account himself to help him manage his side gig.

How about that? Akubo impressed an Apple Genius :-)

Akubo Solo Plan

2008-12-01T10:52:00.004-05:00

Over the past couple months we've discovered that some of our users are really solo practitioners and although we designed Akubo to be a web contact management system for teams of users, it's been equally valuable and essential for single person organizations and businesses. We thought why not give them their own pricing plan, so today we're pleased to announce the Akubo Solo Plan.

The Solo Plan is only $9.99 per month and if you choose to pay yearly, you get a discounted price of only $99 per year. You still get all the great features of Akubo including tasks and case management, email alerts, email marketing and transactions (which has been great for consultants tracking their billable hours for invoicing --- more about this in a later blog post on Akubo best practices).

Akubo November Update

2008-11-24T17:24:00.003-05:00

New Features on Akubo: Case Management and Email Alerts

We're pleased to announce new features on Akubo --- Case Management and Task Email Alerts.

Case Management --- Create Cases for your contacts. A Case is a special task for a Contact. For example if a customer calls and has an issue you need to work on, you can create a Case for that issue, track its progress, write notes and assign a due date for completion. Another example would be if you're working on a special project for a customer and you want to keep track of the project, you can create a case and track the project as it progresses. Cases are shared across all your organization's Akubo users and everyone can collaborate and write notes on the case.

Email Alerts --- Create email reminders for tasks and cases. You can customize what kind of alert you receive and how often (weekly, daily or specific days). Set a reminder to alert you if a task or case is due in 10 days. Set a reminder if a task is overdue. Set a reminder if a new task note has been added. Set a reminder to send you a summary of all open tasks and cases once a week.

We hope you find these enhancements to Akubo useful for your organization.

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at info@akubo.net or call 410-988-2173. We'd love to hear from you!

Welcome to Akubo Blog

2008-11-23T20:10:00.002-05:00

Welcome to our blog. We hope to use this blog for announcements, tips and best practices not just about Akubo but also about contact management & simple CRM for small organizations in general.

Akubo is exciting to us because it is a tool we use almost every single day and as we make improvements to it and fix bugs we (our community of Akubo users) all benefit from it.

We owe our success to everyone who has made Akubo a part of their organization's day to day (and week to week) operations and we promise to continue working on making Akubo even better, smarter and easier --- all at an amazing price.