Contacts Journal CRM App Reviews

This application is relatively easy to use, although I wiped the entire contact data base i’d created after downloading it onto my iPhone. The sync button deleted everything from the desktop to the iPhone state with no information (bleh bleh bleh). Nevertheless, I retyped everything again and was back on track. Would love to see some functionality and integration with Excel, a way to separate customers into distinct groups, a nice way to run reports with certain fields checked, and perhaps a time field/feature with a sync to calendar for the sake of appointment reminders. A person can dream! Oh, I have to figure out why I had to pay $39 for the desktop version; $19 for the iPad version; and another $19 for the iPhone version. That’s so not cool. And the iPad version won’t sync with the other two. Geez!

As the Send Suggestion feature in HELP is not working, I will make the suggestion here. It would be a useful option for me if the FONT choice, and the size and Bold/Regular could be a user programable feature. I find the predefined format a bit too large, and too bold for my tastes - could be because I am using the larger iMac 27”, and the larger Mac Book Pro.

This is a good CRM program with an easy to maneuver user interface. I was able to download and start using it immeidately. My only complaint is that with a $40 price tag, I feel that it should include the download for iPhone. An additional fee to have access to my information from my cell phone seems excessive. I’m hoping the developer will rethink that option because sync capabilities are important.

Works fine if you sync using DropBox, but the iCloud option fails every time. They have instructions for resetting iCloud, but if you can get it to work for awhile, it’ll eventually fail you.

CJ is excellent for my needs in making appeals for support for a non-profit organization. A few things could be better: 1)iCloud syncing doesn’t work well. I had to abandon it and use Dropbox. DB works great, you just have to remember to sync across all devices; 2) Contact info from Apple Contacts doesn’t look the same in CJ, for instance, a contact’s Job Title in Apple Contacts displays below the Notes section in CJ; and some fields don’t display at all in CJ. All in all, though, CJ is a great, intuitive program for my contact management needs.

As an Account Executive for a large auto body business, this app is AMAZING! It’s everything I needed!

I have lived on my ACT Database for 15 years, since I purchased a MAC 4 years ago I have had to use 2 computers as MAC did not support ACT. This is a basic CRM, especially for the price, the complaints I have are: There is no way to tell how many contacts you have without scrolling down to the very bottom of the contacts page, I have several thousand so this is time consuming especailly when you are trying to delete the duplicates that came over when the database was mirrored. There is also no way to search thru and delete with out manually doing so. Also I would like to have seen a contacts “title” underneath the company in the upper screen (upper portion of the page), and not at the very bottom of the page. The search function is hit or miss and you cannot search for "phone prefix" or the “City", “State". All in all its ok- it did crash more than once today- my first day using it.

After researching many CRMs over the course of the year, I found myself 1) not wanting to spend a monthly fee in trying to keep track of contact histories, and 2) I wanted something that would work not just on the Mac, but also on iOS. In spite of the bad reviews about the syncing feature not working on here, I went ahead and purchased the product anyway, first on the iPhone. I must say, although you have to “input” your logs manually for just about everything except phone calls, messages and emails, this has proven to be a viable solution for my own company. I am managing nearly 1,500 contacts, and I needed a reliable solution for both platforms. The syncing feature (via Dropbox, which is the best option) works very well. The ability to manually sync your data to Dropbox has proven to be very helpful. When you send a Message to a contact directly within the app, it will automatically place the contents of that message within a “Log,” within that particular contact. The same goes with making a phone call; however, you will need to replace the “Auto Add Phone Call” text with your own if you want to track the details of a call. But here’s the caveat: Although the email feature within the app works well, it only works with the native Mail app on the iPhone or Mac. There is no 3rd party email client integration, nor is there integration with Evernote. However, you can “work around” these issues by simply logging the “body” of an email in the form of a “Log” within a contact…. Other than that, I really like the fact that instead of paying a monthly fee for contact management tracking, this involves a one-time fee for the apps themselves, hence saving me money in the long run!! Hopefully they will continue to update this app, and integrate more features. To fully use this app’s “full” capabilities, it’s recommended to get both the Mac and iPhone apps, and then sync them via Dropbox. But again, this is a very good solution, and I’ve had no problems with it. If you’re looking to track emails, phone calls, calendar events, text messages, or any other things regarding contacts, this has been able to cover them all.

I have been using Contacts Journal for a few years on my macbook and iPhone. The synching is great between the two devices so you always have your information with you. I use CJ primarily for keeping my bands booked. CJ is great for keeping track of the club contacts. The feature that automatically copies your emails into the journal is great for keeping track of the details & prices quoted. Well worth the $39.

The interface is a little quirky due to the need to always start with a contact to create an action. Sometimes I’d like to create an action and associate with a contact. I don’t like have to switch from To Dos to the Contacts tab before adding a To Do. It’s completely unintuitive, but I can live with that. The biggest issue I have with the application is the need to import contacts into the app rather than the app just accessing the contents of your system contacts. The last thing I need is another contact list to keep up to date. Again I could live with it if there were basic contact management features to remove or merge duplicates. It also discovers any updated contact in my Mac contacts as a new contact and prompts me to import it. I have not purchased the iPhone version and will not until I’m convinced it won’t complicate contact management. If you’re desperate for personal CRM, it’s OK. Otherwise I don’t recommend.