Appointments

Appointment Types

The Activity info area provides the basis for providing personal customer support. Activity records provide valuable information about telephone calls, customer visits and similar appointments.

Activities are added for companies and persons. The Activity Overview level allows you to display your activities with all companies. Select Info > Activity Overview to access the Activity Overview level.

Use the Task info area to store tasks that are not dependent on a specific customer. Tasks are displayed in the calendar, but not in the daily overview.

Use the Absences info area to determine when certain employees are unavailable for business appointments (vacations, sick leave etc.).

Adding Appointments

To add an appointment:

1. To add an activity, switch to the company/person you wish to add the activity for. (This step is not necessary for tasks and absences, as these are independent records and are not added for a specific company or person.)
2. Switch to the Activity, Tasks or Absences info area.
3. Click on (New).The input mask is displayed. A number of fields may already be filled out with predefined default values.
4. If your name has not been entered in the Rep field, or if you wish to add an appointment for another rep, double-click on the Rep field or click on the rep icon () and select the desired rep from the rep list, see Rep List.
   Note: If you make a change to the Rep field, your name is automatically entered in the Assigned by field.
5. Enter further details (e.g. the reason for an absence, time and/or duration of the appointment).
6. Select the participants in the Participants field, see Adding Reps and Resources to an Activity/Task and Adding Customers to an Activity.
7. Switch to the To-Do tab and enable the Create To-Do check box if you want the participating reps to accept or refuse the appointment or the appropriate superior to approve an absence, see To-Dos.
8. Enable the Escal. To-Do check box if message and escalation records should be added as well, see Reminders and Messages and To-Do Escalation.
9. Enter a time period in the Reminder duration field, if you want to remind participants of the appointment, see Adding Reminders for all Participants.
10. Confirm with (Save).

Adding Reps and Resources to an Activity/Task

You can add reps and resources to activity records; you can only add reps to tasks.

To add reps and resources:

1. Click on in the Participants field in an activity or task record.
2. Use the following buttons to determine what is displayed in the list:
   • (List): All types are listed (reps, groups and resources)
   • (Rep): Only reps are listed
   • (Groups): Only groups are listed
   • (Resources): Only resources are listed
3. Enable the check boxes next to the desired participants or resources in the list. Select the Part. Type (participation type) for each participant using the drop-down list. You can choose between Required, Optional and Informational. Only "Required" and "Optional" make sense as the participation type for resources.
   Note: You cannot add resources to tasks.

   You can select up to 100 reps.

   

   Click on (Delete Current Selection) to clear the reps/groups/resources currently displayed. Click on (Delete Entire Selection) to clear all reps/groups/resources (even if they are not currently displayed in the list).

4. Click on OK.
5. Save the record.

Adding Customers to an Activity

To add further companies or persons to an activity:

1. Select Activity Participant from the context menu. The Activity Participant level is displayed.
2. Click on New ().
3. Select Company Search or Person Search from the context menu.

   The Company Search or Person Search is displayed, see Searching.

4. Search for and select the desired company or person. You are returned to the Activity Participant level.
5. Select the desired entry from the Part. Type field (Required, Optional, Informational).
6. Save and close the Activity Participant level.

You are returned to the activity you added the participating company or person to.

The list of participants to the right of the mask now includes the newly added company/person as a hyperlink.

Activity Participation Level

The Activity Participation level offers the same options as the Activity level. In addition, activities are also displayed for companies and persons that are simply entered as an activity participant (i.e. added using the Activity Participant entry in the context menu).

Double-click on an activity in the calendar to switch to the Activity Participation level.

Moving Appointments

You can reschedule appointments:

• Directly in the record by changing the date and time
• In the calendar by dragging the appointment with the mouse, see Modifying or deleting an Appointment .
• In the resource view, see Rescheduling Appointments.
• Using the Distribute option in the calendar (only for activities), see Distributing Appointments.

Messages are generated when an appointment is rescheduled:

• For all activity participants (message type: "Update")
• For all reps entered in a task (message type: "Information")
• The rep who needs to confirm an absence (message type: "Information")

The updated time is entered in the Message field.

The start and end time and dates, as well as the To-Do Until Date, To-Do Until Time, Due on and Due at fields are updated in the To-Do record and activity, task or absence. The point in time when the organizer receives a message if participants have neither confirmed nor declined to attend is also moved.

Deleting Appointments

You can delete appointments as follows:

• In the daily overview: Select the appointment and click on (Delete).
• In the calendar and resource view: Double-click on the appointment and click on (Delete).
• In the Activity/Activity Participation/Tasks/Absences info areas: Switch to the appointment and click on (Delete).

Upon deleting the appointment, the appointment and all associated To-Do, message and reminder records are deleted for all participants.

No message records are created when an appointment is deleted.

Transferring Appointments to Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes

Before you can transfer data to the calendar of Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes, you need to determine which e-mail client you are using in the Configuration info area, see Configuration Info Area (External Calendar category, External Calendar option)in the CRM.core Administrator Guide.

You can transfer an appointment (activity, task or absence) as follows:

• Select Transfer to external calendar from the context menu in the appointment record.
• Select View > All Mask Fields from the menu and enable the Ext. Calendar check box.

Appointments that are deleted in Aurea.CRM win are also deleted in the e-mail client.

You can also transfer all the appointments displayed at once, see Transferring Appointments to Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes.

Context Menu for Appointments

The following entries are available from the context menu by default (MA= activity, A1 = task, A3 = absence):

Follow-up Date

If you enter a date in the Follow-up on field and save the record, a new activity is automatically created on this date.

Aurea.CRM win automatically switches to the new activity upon saving the record. Reps and links are transferred automatically. The serial number and station number of the predecessor activity are entered in the MA_1_SerNo and MA_1_StaNo fields.

After saving the follow-up activity, Aurea.CRM win returns to the original activity.

Structuring Tasks

You can structure tasks: The sub-tasks are grouped to form projects by assigning types (sub-project, milestone etc.) and linking tasks according to the project structure.

To divide a task into projects:

1. Create a new task and select "Project" in the Type field.
2. Save the record and select Project View from the context menu.

   The Project View is displayed.

   

   The Type of task is displayed in the Text field.

3. Click on (New) to add a new sub-step to the original task, and set the Type to "Sub-Project".
4. Once the record is saved, the subdivision of the task is displayed in the Text field. Click on an entry to select and display the record in the mask.
5. You can add further sub-steps to the root task or add further sub-steps to sub-steps.

If the status is "Completed", this is also indicated by the icon; if the status is "Missed", is displayed.

If you position the cursor over an entry, the due date and time, rep and subject are displayed (providing this data has been entered).

You can edit the order by dragging entries with the mouse.