Create in CRM Step - SugarCRM

  • Updated

Use a Create in CRM step to automatically add new leads, contacts or targets to Sugar when they reach a certain point in your Automated Program. You can create new records, update existing ones, or add contacts to a Dynamics marketing list. This ensures your sales team gets timely leads without manual data entry.

Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand
  • Requires Sugar sync enabled in Act-On
  • Pushes All Contacts or Marketing List fields mapped to Sugar
  • Options: create new contacts/leads, update existing, or create entities (Account, Meetings, Quotes, Cases, Tasks, Calls, Notes)
  • Insert a Wait step if using multiple Create in CRM steps

Use Cases

Use this step to:

  • Create new Sugar leads from Act-On records and assign to an owner or lead queue.
  • Push highly qualified leads to Sugar based on lead score, and create Accounts, Quotes, Cases, Notes
  • Create tasks, calls and meetings for the sales team to follow up.
  • Create Quotes from forms or lists where interest has been explicitly expressed.
  • Add notes to Sugar records to document interactions.

Before You Begin

  • Sugar Sync: A Sugar sync must be enabled in Act-On for Create in CRM steps to work. See Sugar sync setup.
  • Field Mapping: Fields must be mapped between Act-On and Sugar. Check your All Contacts or Marketing Lists setup to confirm mappings.
  • Wait Steps: If using multiple Create in CRM steps, insert a Wait step between them to prevent update conflicts.

Choose an Action

When adding a Create in CRM step, choose whether to:

  • Create new contacts - choose to create contacts or leads (including duplicates if desired)
  • Update existing records
  • Create entities (Accounts, Meetings, Quotes, Cases, Tasks, Calls, Notes)

Create New Contacts

Create new Sugar Leads, Contacts or Targets based on the email address. You can also add extra fields not present in your list, if you want to set them to a static value.

Lead creation notes:

  • Include all required fields for Sugar in your All Contacts database or on your source list. If a required field is missing, the record will not be created.   You can also manually set a value to the required field using the "Add a field to set on new records" if it is not present in your data.
  • All mapped fields will be sent to Sugar; you don't need to specifically add fields.  Use the "Add a field" option to add data to a Sugar field that is not on your source data.
  • If your source list has fields that are not explicitly mapped, for example form data fields, they will be populated in Sugar if the field name is an exact match to the Dynamics field name.

Update Existing Records

Update existing Sugar records with new data from Act-On by choosing Update existing records.

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Here you have 3 options to control how data will be updated

  • Update fields based on list's push policy will only update fields that are authorized to push.   Learn more
  • Update all fields (overwrite list's push policy) will update all mapped fields in Sugar.
  • Update only blank fields (overwrite list's push policy) will update any field that is blank in Sugar but populated in Act-On, but will not overwrite other data.

If you are pushing from a Marketing List instead of All Contacts, you'll need to configure the list with a push policy. 

  1. Navigate to your source list under Lists.
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to that list.
  3. Choose Import/Export > SugarCRM Sync Setup.
  4. Enable the Push to SugarCRM checkbox.
  5. Enable the Update existing records option.

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  1. Click Select Push-Update Fields.
  2. Identify which fields the Act-On form will be able to update in SugarCRM.
  3. Click Save.
  4. Click Save.

 

Create Entities

Use +Add Entity to create related Sugar records:

  • Account – add a new Account connected to the contact
  • Tasks – assign tasks with due dates, owners, priorities
  • Quotes – create Qotes with stage, amount, subject
  • Meetings, calls, notes, cases

Push Personalized Data

Create in CRM steps can include personalized values from your Act-On lists or segments. For example, you can customize the task subject to include the lead First Name and Last Name, as in this example.

 

Test Your Automated Program

Always test with a Test List or Test Segment from All Contacts. Then check Sugar to confirm:

  • New records are created or updated correctly
  • Entities (Tasks, Notes, Quotes) are added as expected
  • Mapped fields sync properly

See the SugarCRM help for more information.

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