The SmartSimple Blog

The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on everything you've managed to accomplish during the previous 12 months. We've decided to take a look back on 2013 to bring you the ten biggest articles and most important announcements we've made on our blog! 10. Top 7 Qualities of an Ideal SmartSimple Candidate At the start of the year, we put together a list of the seven most desirable traits of a successful SmartSimple candidate. We look for these qualities every time we welcome someone aboard the SmartSimple crew - do you have what it takes? 9. SmartSimple's Best Practices and Lessons Learnt on... the Grant Application Process Based on years of feedback, SmartSimple has learned several valuable lessons on how to create and maintain a grants management solution that is truly authentic to the needs of our clients. 8. A Convenient Truth: 6 Reasons Why Your Grant Applications Need to Go Paperless We live in an increasingly paperless world. Have your grant ap

You might have noticed that all of SmartSimple's software suites are named 360°. Why, you ask? We want to provide you, our clients, with a software solution that provides a full, holistic view of the relationships and processes that matter to your organization. Contact relationship management (CRM) is an essential component of SmartSimple. Contacts can be internal, external, and adjusted to reflect their most current status (e.g. a new employer). You can create an unlimited number of relationship types as well. Everything you need to track is done as a result of your contact’s interaction with the system. For instance, once an applicant uploads a financial statement, report, or meeting minutes to your system, you can easily identify those who belong to a given organization, and those who are associated with it. The image below displays the applicant and organization attached to a sample grant application: By clicking on the applicant's name, you’ll be directed to t

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Danielle Burke is our Corporate Services Associate on the Administration team and has been working for SmartSimple since August 2011. In this week's SmartSimple Employee Spotlight, Danielle tells us about her hobbies and her best productivity tip (not to mention her guilty pleasure)! Productivity tip: Manage your time by prioritizing tasks. The easiest way to keep track of your time and tasks is to keep a to-do list. Ranking your tasks based on priority is key. This will also ensure you won't forget tasks or miss deadlines. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple? The people! Everyone works together so well, and it's a great team to be a part of. What are your hobbies? Watching TV, hanging out with my family, and my puppy Jade. What is your favouri

In this series, Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop updates us on new and updated articles of interest in the  SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Adding Styles to XML Worksheets A new page has been added containing instructions on adding CSS classes to your XML fields, complete with examples. Referencing Other Sections in XML Calculations A new page has been added with a walkthrough on how to reference other sections within XML formulas. XSL Template A description of the XSL Template section of the XML custom field is now available. Importing and Exporting Reports Did you know that you can export your reports and import them into other SmartSimple instances? This article explains how! Upgrades by Category The Upgrades by Category page has been brought up to date, current to the October 2013 upgrade . Take a moment to appreciate the evolutionary timeline of SmartSimple's different features. Questions? Comments? Don't

The SmartSimple Client Story series highlights different clients and sheds light on how they came to choose and trust SmartSimple as their management software adviser. About CFEF The Consortium of Florida Education Foundations (CFEF) is the professional association for Florida education foundations that serve over 2 million students and 295,000 educators throughout 67 county-wide school districts. The CFEF serves as the conduit for business and philanthropic investment in Florida’s classrooms by creating state and regional partnerships that directly impact student achievement at the local level. Challenges CFEF was in a position where they had outgrown their previous grants management system. As the CFEF granting program grew, the system remained stagnant. It was unable to accommodate new processes and meet evolving business needs. The grant application form, for instance, could not be edited or changed to any degree. “There was little flexibility with our old system,”

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Karim Fahmi is a Technical Resource for our Sales team and has been working for SmartSimple since March 2013. We get to know Karim better in this week's Employee Spotlight, which includes his best productivity tip, favourite movie, and his musical background! Productivity tip : When uploading data into the system, always test first by taking a sample of that data and ensuring it is loaded properly. Then, load the rest of the data. This will help you avoid unwanted records and save time. If the data is bad, you will only have to remove the sample you uploaded, as opposed to removing everything that was loaded. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple? The people I work with every day. It's almost like a little community on its own. SmartSimple is made up of

#GivingTuesday is a growing global movement that takes places today, the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. After a long weekend of shopping and deals, #GivingTuesday is a new day for giving back to charities and nonprofit organizations. As the tagline says, "Help good go viral." We at SmartSimple are lucky to be engaged with a number of different organizations, charities and active members of the philanthropic community. We've decided to share these fantastic resources so you can get involved right from your computer - and to help you make the most informed decisions about your charitable output. Google Hangout-a-thon Google is hosting an all-day #GivingTuesday Hangout to encourage users to either donate directly to nonprofits or purchase goods for good. They’re partnering with Mashable to feature over 24 charities and brands for users all over the world to support. Join the Hangout while you can, it ends at 9 pm EST! The Unselfie

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Sarah Harris is SmartSimple's Operations Manager and has been working for SmartSimple since May 2010, where she began in Administrative and Accounting Support. In this week's Employee Spotlight, we get to know her favourite movie, her diverse hobbies, and a surprising craft project from her past. Productivity tip : Work back schedules are the best way to prioritize your work and ensure you understand what's on your plate at any given time. If you're overwhelmed by having too many things to do at once, this is a great exercise. It also works well for team projects. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple?  I really enjoy working with a diverse group of people. SmartSimple employs great team players. What are your hobbies? I am a former dancer, an

In this series, Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop updates us on new and updated articles of interest in the SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Company Roles The Wiki entry for Company Roles is now complete for your perusal. Learn how to customize Company Roles in your system in any manner you see fit (e.g. name, caption, description, color coding, etc). IRS and CRA lookup Business Analyst Serkan Bilgi has prepared a page on implementing custom IRS and CRA lookup functionality. Translation Import/Export Business Analyst Lorena Ruiz has supplied instructions on the use of the Translation Import/Export functionality. Two New Articles Under JavaScript Category Two short articles have been added to the JavaScript Wiki category: Adding a given number of days to a date based on the value of a dropdown Making a field under a show/hide header mandatory Using KML Do you know the three ways that KML features can be used with Sm

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform!  Saad Khan is a Business Analyst and has been working for SmartSimple since August 2012. In this week's Employee Spotlight, we pick his brain for his best productivity tip as well as his extensive international background. Read on to find out more!   Productivity tip : What is the one thing that everyone in the world has in common? We all have 24 hours in a day. I think the most important thing is how well you utilize your time, especially working in a fast-paced environment. I for one take 5 minutes every morning to plan out my day with the tasks I want to accomplish. The most important time of the day for me is the time I take to plan it. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple?  I really like the transparency within the organization. Everyone is open to colla

In this year's Consumers Guide to Grants Management Systems by Idealware, all surveyed foundations recommended SmartSimple's GMS360° grants management solution ! These foundations are current users of SmartSimple and were polled anonymously. We've created a handy chart to show where SmartSimple has excelled in this year's report: According to Idealware, " SmartSimple’s GMS360° has undergone a major user experience redesign which complements its power and flexibility with greater ease of use ." " The system provides useful support for managing relationships, broadcast email, mail-merged letters, and reporting, as well as integrated task lists and dashboards to manage each user’s work ." Idealware went on to note, " Payment functional­ity and budgeting are particularly strong, with support for payment workflows and multiple currencies ." Visit the Idealware website to download the free report today. About Idealware Idealwar

At SmartSimple, we've been working with Google to bring Maps and Street View right to your system. With our October 2013 upgrade , all clients can now enjoy this functionality. But did you know that there's way more to Google Maps than getting the right directions? There are loads of cool ways you can use Google Maps in your SmartSimple system, you probably just don't know about them yet. That's why we're here to help! Viewing Contacts on Google Maps   Say that you wish to visit a person or organization in your system's address book. SmartSimple's integration with Google Maps will now give you a clear snapshot of their location. When you click on the address of a contact or organization in your system, a nifty little window will appear with that address on Google Maps. If you’re curious about what the location looks like, you can select the Street View tab for a more photographic point of view. Map Overlays Does your organization serve

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Oliver Lo is SmartSimple's Director of Software Development and started at the company in June 2006 as a developer. Read his interview to find out more about this veteran member of the SmartSimple crew, including his take on the Toronto Leafs! Productivity or subject matter expert tip:  Thoroughly analyze what needs to be done and what tools are available for you to implement whatever you need to. Make sure it is a correct and complete solution as opposed to a quick band-aid solution. The more preparation time put in, the less time time you need to remember it for later on. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple?  The atmosphere and the people around me. What are your hobbies?  Watching TV, sports, and videogames. What is your favourite movie?  The Lord o

In this series, Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop updates us on new and updated articles of interest in the SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Selecting an Event ID From a List of Records This article describes how to store an Event ID from a list of records in a dropdown box. Root Company Variable This article covers the use of Root Company Variables in your SmartSimple system. Configuring Ajax List Views Learn the steps associated with configuring an Ajax list view. Server-Side Validation This new article describes the use of Server-Side Validation on custom fields . Challenge Question The new Challenge Question functionality page has been created to describe this new few feature. The Password Activation Settings page has also been updated accordingly. Questions? Comments? Don't hesitate to contact us at 1-866-239-0991, email us at info@smartsimple.com , or visit our main website .

At SmartSimple, we're dedicated to informing our clients and users about any upcoming changes as far in advance as we can. That's why we've created this handsome new chart, which lays out all future SmartSimple upgrades from 2014 and 2016. Going forward, all upgrades will be released on a bi-monthly basis (i.e. every two months). Have any questions about SmartSimple or our new upgrade schedule? Please email us at info@smartsimple.com , call 1-866-239-0991, and visit our main website or Wiki .

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Yanyan Zhang is a Developer and has been working at SmartSimple since November 2012. We've asked her a few questions to get to know her better - read below for her full interview (including details on her accomplishments as a cellist)! Productivity or subject matter expert tip:  Always prioritize your tasks. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple?  The brilliant people and the cheerful atmosphere. What are your hobbies?  Playing video games, and watching anime and movies when I have time. I also love music and drawing. What is your favourite movie?  Pulp Fiction. Random fact about you that most people wouldn’t know:  I’ve been playing cello for about 15 years now, and I was the principal cellist of both my high school and university string ensembles.

The Chambers Ireland Corporate Social Responsibility Awards is celebrating its 10th year, and SmartSimple is excited and humbled to announce that we will be attending the celebratory reception on Monday, November 11, 2013 . This reception will be hosted by the President of Ireland , Michael D. Higgins, and will be held at the Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin. The Chambers Ireland CSR Awards were created to recognize the work being carried out by Irish and multinational companies to improve the lives of their employees and to enhance the civic environment in which they operate. Learn more about Chambers Ireland and their upcoming events at their official website .  For more information about SmartSimple and our grants management software , GMS360 ° , visit our website or contact us at info@smartsimple.com .

Fall is an especially busy time for SmartSimple, with incredible events such as the Council on Foundations Fall Conference and CASRAI Reconnect keeping us engaged with diverse communities across North America. In the coming weeks, SmartSimple will be attending two new and exciting conferences centered around the topics of technology, software, and philanthropy. Read on below for all the details! Technology Affinity Group  SmartSimple will be attending the Technology Affinity Group (TAG) 2013 Annual Conference from November 11-14, 2013 at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. SmartSimple will participate as an exhibitor with representation from Cameron McLean ( President of SmartSimple Ltd. ) and Gary Modlin ( Director of Business Development ). Please visit our booth in the Exhibit Hall, where we will showcase the power and flexibility of our grants management platform , GMS360°. Visit the TAG website or read our previous announcement to learn more about them. Southe

SmartSimple is proud to announce that we are participating in one of the most gentlemanly fundraising events of the year: Movember ! Several of our intrepid SmartSimple teammates will brave the cold with clean-shaven faces to grow manly moustaches and raise money toward prostate cancer research. Before the moustaches begin! From L-R: Dave, Steven, Serkan, Eric, Gaston, and Brad. If you'd like to support this cause and join SmartSimple in our moustache-growing journey, please signup on our Movember fundraising page today! Check out the official Movember site for more information on this fantastic (and scruffy) yearly event. Need some 'stache style inspo? We hope this chart will help... Visit our main website to learn more about SmartSimple, email us at info@smartsimple.com or call 1-866-239-0991.

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Bob Longworth is a Senior Business Analyst and has been working at SmartSimple since September 2011. Want to get to know him better? Read on to see his answers to our Employee Spotlight questions! Productivity or subject matter expert tip: While time management is very important, energy management is often overlooked. We all have different times of the day when we are most productive, so we should plan to do complicated tasks during those times. Save routine tasks for your after lunch slump. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple? The people. I love working with a diverse group of people that know how to work hard but also how to have fun while doing it. What are your hobbies? I love city life (live music and theatre, etc.) but also like to get out whenever I ca

We've officially released our October 2013 upgrade! Read on for a rundown of the latest enhancements, features and upgrades that have been added to your SmartSimple system this month. For more information, check out the upgrade section of the SmartSimple Wiki . Global System Upgrades These features are available immediately to all SmartSimple users with the application of the October 2013 upgrade to your server. Configuration Error Log Available under Global Settings, the Configuration Error Log is a new tool that troubleshoots errors generated by the system when configuration changes. New Calendar Format  The system calendar has been enhanced with a new look, as well as the ability to click and drag events into different days.   Google Maps & Street View Users now have the ability to view the Google Map and Street View location of a company or contact by hovering their mouse over that contact's street address.  Recent Viewed Objects List Now Enabled

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. These articles are geared toward experienced SmartSimple system users. For further information about the SmartSimple Variable Processor , please visit our Wiki page or click on any of the accompanying links in this article.  The Variable Processor is used to dynamically replace various values throughout the system with context to the current user or the object being viewed. While the Variable Processor is a very powerful and useful tool, one must understand the basics behind how it functions to configure it properly. In general, any time that you retrieve a variable for use in a calculation, evaluation, or assignment to another standard field , you need to always encapsulate it within double quotes. In Template Formulas Problem 1: @level1

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Brad Robertson is a Senior Relationship Manager and has been working at SmartSimple since October 2012. We've asked him a few questions so our blog readers can get to know him better. Brad circa high school! Productivity or subject matter expert tip: Always prepare and distribute an agenda before you facilitate a meeting and always request an agenda prior to attending any meeting. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple? I truly enjoy the diversity of my role. What are your hobbies? They’ve changed over the years. Ages 5-10: Coins and stamps 11-30: Baseball, Hockey, Golf 30+: My three sons. What is your favourite movie? Kelly’s Heroes . Random fact about you that most people wouldn’t know: I have an Orange belt in Karate. Want to know more about

SmartSimple will be hosting a free webinar to demonstrate the power, flexibility and usability of our grants management system , GMS360°. This webinar will take place on November 1, 2013 . Please email sales@smartsimple.com to register today . All participants will be sent a WebEx link and login details closer to the date. This webinar will be geared toward Community Foundations who seek a platform which manages their entire grants lifecycle from a holistic browser-based system. We look forward to hearing from you! Visit our main website to learn more about GMS360°. Don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-866-239-0991 or sales@smartsimple.com if you have any questions or require more information.

In this series, Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop updates us on new and updated articles of interest in the SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Showsave / Hidesave Implementation Specialist Sandor Dasko has prepared new pages spelling out the use of a JavaScript function. Role-Based Custom Fields A new page has been prepared which defines the use of Role-Based Custom Fields. Delete Redirect Template The Delete Redirect Template page instructs users on how to customize landing pages after an entity has been deleted UTA Provider/Consumer Relationships Our Quality Assurance Specialist Ciaran Donnelly has also provided articles defining UTA Provider/Consumer Relationships for your consumption. Questions? Comments? Don't hesitate to contact us at 1-866-239-0991, email us at info@smartsimple.com , or visit our main website .

SmartSimple will be attending the Technology Affinity Group (TAG) 2013 Annual Conference from November 11-14, 2013 at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. The TAG Conference is geared toward technologists in the field of philanthropy. Presentation and session topics include grants management, emerging technologies, cloud computing, engaging communities with social media, and the changing landscape of tech funding. SmartSimple will participate as an exhibitor with representation from Cameron McLean ( President of SmartSimple Ltd. ) and Gary Modlin ( Director of Business Development ). Please visit our booth in the Exhibit Hall, where we will showcase the power and flexibility of our grants management platform , GMS360°. About TAG TAG is an active community of professionals who are responsible for information and communications technology in the philanthropic sector. They seek to promote the understanding of how information and communications technology can help their community

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. These articles are geared toward experienced SmartSimple system users. For further information on correct data formats in your SmartSimple system, please visit our Wiki or click any of the accompanying links in this article. What are data formats and why are they important? When storing any information into any system (not just limited to SmartSimple) it's important to understand what type of information you're dealing with and how to format it accordingly. The purpose of this is to store information in a meaningful way such that you can perform calculations or analysis on it. Take the example of someone's name. The easiest way to store this would be to have a single field called "Name" for us to store our full name into. However,

Our inaugural SmartSimple NYC Community Conference on October 8th was a great success! We sincerely enjoyed meeting with our American clients and partners and hearing all of their questions, thoughts, and feedback. Our team was on hand to showcase system updates and new features, such as Quick Edit and various enhancements to Reporting functionality. For those who were unable to attend, we've provided the full agenda and list of discussed topics via Prezi : We thank all of those who made the effort to visit us in New York City, and hopefully, we'll see everyone again for our next SmartSimple conference or event. If you have any questions about the NYC Community Conference, or wish for a more in-depth exploration of the topics covered, please contact us at info@smartsimple.com or 1-866-239-0991. Visit our main website to learn more about SmartSimple. SmartSimple is heading to CASRAI Reconnect 13 from October 16-18  in Ottawa. Please read our announcement and j

In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), SmartSimple has created a Customer Service Accessibility Policy which is now publicly available for download (right click, save as). AODA is a statute that was enacted in 2005 to improve accessibility standards for Ontarians with mental and/or physical disabilities. On October 3, we partnered with Sarah Vokey of Robinson Heeney to present our policy to SmartSimple employees in accordance with AODA standards. Please visit the AODA section our website to learn more about the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and SmartSimple's compliance. For more information on SmartSimple, visit our main website , email us at info@smartsimple.com or call us toll-free at 1-866-239-0991.

Congratulations to Brian Lai (Business Analyst) for being the very first recipient of the SmartSimple Innovation Award! Left to right: CTO Keith Yau, Brian Lai, and COO Michael Reid. According to Michael Reid (Chief Operating Officer), " SmartSimple is all about innovation for everyone: our clients, our communities and our staff.  When someone discovers a new, innovative way of using the platform that benefits all, that person will receive the SmartSimple Innovation Award. " This award is given on an occasional basis by Michael and Keith Yau (Chief Technical Officer).  Anyone in the company or the community can nominate staff member(s) for this award, but the innovation must meet the following criteria: Can only use existing functionality and does not require system enhancements. Must have the potential to benefit the entire customer community across all vertical markets. Brian received the award for his stellar work on the  PDF Parser , which is capable of

Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop will be updating us on new and updated articles of interest in the SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Submit Buttons - Quality Assurance Specialist Ciaran Donnelly has prepared an excellent set of instructions on the configuration of Submit Buttons and has improved the Submit Logic page. Updated Instructions for UTA Calendar Template - Improved instructions on enabling and configuring a calendar view of activities in SmartSimple's Universal Tracking Application have been added. Workflow Task Types - The pages containing instructions for the different Workflow Task Types have been fleshed out. User Role - A page has been created spelling out the different features of the Edit Role page in detail. Aggregation UTA - An Aggregation Universal Tracking Application™ "facilitates creating reports that span multiple related applications by defining the association between equivalent fields in ea

Fall is a busy time for SmartSimple, with several exciting conferences and events related to our served markets occurring within weeks of each other. Read on for a summary of what SmartSimple has attended and upcoming conferences later in the fall. Council on Foundations Fall Conference Director of Strategic Accounts Todd Lapin and Relationship Manager Sarah Jane Nicholson attended the COF Conference in San Diego from September 22-25. Todd and Sarah Jane were on hand to demonstrate our grants management system, GMS360°, and learned the unique needs of several diverse community foundations. Todd Lapin playing cello with the COF conference band, Trio Gadjo. We had a fantastic time at COF this year and hope to pursue the many connections and relationships we were fortunate enough to foster. CASRAI Reconnect 13 Earlier this month  we announced that we will be attending CASRAI's second annual Reconnect conference, which will take place  October 16-18, 2013  in Ottawa, On

Welcome to another installment of Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. What are Template Formulas? Template Formulas provide a method for updating standard/ custom field values on an object behind the scenes upon saving. They let you perform extra calculations after saving an object. They can be handy because they let you: Update an object and perform calculations after it's been saved (i.e. support ticket subjects). Say you want to combine an autonumber field with the Level 1 subject, but when you first create the Level 1 the autonumber hasn't been reserved and stored yet until after you save. (For more information about the Universal Tracking Application ™ and the different Level Entities, read our wiki .) Affect objects at different levels (i.e. a Level 2 formula can be used to update a Level 1, an Level 1 fo