GoldMine’s Details tab has always been an area with great potential for customization and can be used to solve many common data storage problems. It makes sense to use a custom detail, rather than a custom field, any time there is a one-to-many relationship between a contact and some type of data. Each detail can have its own tab so all like details can be displayed together. Each detail also has a Reference text field, a Notes box, and up to eight additional text fields (of preset lengths) that can be renamed to suit your needs.
For many applications, a simple custom GoldMine detail is all that is needed. However, there are a few limitations that one has to live with. First, you are limited to the number of fields mentioned above (Reference, Notes, plus eight text fields). You only get one note/memo field and you cannot force proper date or numeric data entry for any of the fields. Second, GoldMine does not provide an easy way of filtering/querying contacts based on their detail data. In order to do this in GoldMine you would have to become familiar with writing complex SQL (Standard Query Language) queries, something that only computer programmer type users would likely be able to handle. Third, there is no way to change the field layout of the custom detail window. It is of a set size and shape, and the order/position of the fields cannot be changed.
Luckily, there is a GoldMine add-on product called Details Plus that gets around the above drawbacks. Not only does Details Plus resolve these issues, but it has additional features that really enhance the power of GoldMine’s details. Here’s a quick list of things Details Plus can do that go above and beyond what is standard in GoldMine:
- User configurable screen layouts for manual or web import data capture.
- 5 extra fields with user designation as character, date or numeric.
- Calculated and default field values.
- Direct merge capability to Word or email templates.
- Fast queries on any combination of details fields.
- Build GoldMine Groups
- Data export to common file formats
I’d like to quickly share a real-life example of a GoldMine/Details Plus customer who has put these features to use. Shanequa Stephens at American Business & Professional Program, a New York based insurance solutions provider, has used GoldMine details to keep track of client insurance policy information. Details Plus allows her to keep an extensive amount of information regarding each policy and enables her to layout that information on the screen exactly how she wants to see it. Shanequa also has various GoldMine reports that allow her to print and email this information to both insurance carriers and the company’s clients. And Details Plus makes it easy for her to query the information. Each month she uses Details Plus to create a group of contacts whose policies are to expire next month, to which she can send reminder Emails or printed letters for renewal notices. Details Plus takes an already good GoldMine feature and makes it great.
