Activities

Activities can be logged against accounts, contacts and leads.

User permission: CRM

There are four types of activities you can add to an account, contact and lead.

Watch this Phocas Academy video: The 4 activity types

Another type of activity, Personal Appointment, can only be viewed by you (person who created them). They are not connected to the rest of CRM and only display in your own view of the Activities and My Agenda screens.

View a list of all activities

Watch this Phocas Academy video: View all activities

Click the Phocas menu button > Activities.

The Activities screen displays a list of what is going on across all your accounts, contacts and leads - the recent activity and what needs to be done, by whom and by when.

You can also view activities for directly within account and contact records, on the Activities tab.

On the Activities screen, by default, the activities are listed by date and the activity grid has the following columns:

• Subject - Displays the subject of the activity, such as a task, meeting, phone log or business note.

• Parent - Displays the name of the account, contact or lead, as applicable, to which the activity relates.

• Status - Is only available for meetings and tasks; will be blank for business notes and phone logs (can be customized by administrators).

• Campaign - Displays the campaign each activity is tied to.

• Date - Displays the most relevant date for each activity:

• Phone Log - The date of the phone log.

  • Business Note - The date the note was entered into CRM.

  • Meeting - The start date of the meeting.

  • Task - When the task is due, i.e. the end date of the task.

• Owner - Displays either the CRM user who entered the activity or the CRM user to whom the activity was assigned.

Find an activity

On the Activities screen, you can find a particular activity using the filter and search options above the grid or by sorting the list.

• Use the Date filter to view activities for future or past dates, or the present (today, this week, this month). In CRM, a week starts on Sunday. By default, activities are filtered on This Week.

• Use the Type filter to view activities for a specific activity type, such as Meetings.

• Use the Status filter to view activities with a specific status. Only Meetings and Tasks have a status.

• Use the Campaign filter to display only those activities that are tied to a campaign.

• Use the Team filter to display activities allocated to a specific team to which you belong.

• Use the Owner filter to display only your activities or activities that belong to another user (that you have permissions to view).

• Use the Search box to search for a specific activity by name. This performs an is like search on the name column.

• Click a column heading to sort data into ascending or descending order.

More than one filter can be applied at the same time. Filters remain active until you turn them off, so if you apply a filter and move away from screen and then return, the filter will remain. To clear any filter you have applied, select All from the dropdown list.

Learn more about filtering and searching in CRM.

Switch to a calendar view

On the Activities screen, the default view is List but you can change that view to get a different perspective of the activities. After you select a calendar view, Phocas will remember that view for the duration of your browser session.

Click the green List button in the top left corner, then select one of the three Calendar views; Month, Week or Day.

For example, if you select the Month calendar view, the current month displays.

Activity summary and status

For each activity in the selected calendar, the following information displays:

• Activity name and type, such as phone log, meeting or task.

• Related account, contact or lead.

• Scheduled time and duration.

• Status (see description of status color codes below).

Status	Color
Default
Cancelled
Completed
In Progress
Overdue

Actions

All calendar views share the following action controls:

• Select an option from the green button to switch between months, weeks and years, or use the date picker with day selected.

• Use the arrows to go to the previous or next period of time. For example, if you are in Month view, go to the previous month.

• Click Go To Today to move directly to today's date within the current view.

• Select whether to include weekends or not in the calendar.

Shortcuts

When in Month view, click on a date's number to jump to that date in Day view.

When in Week view, click on a date's header to jump to that date in Day view.

In any view, select List from the green button to return to list view.

Activity details

In any calendar view, click an activity to display a tooltip with information about the activity, a link to the activity's page, a link to the owning entity and a Delete button.

View and edit an activity record

Click on the subject to open, view and edit an existing activity.

Add an activity

Watch these Phocas Academy videos:

• Add a note
• Add a meeting
• Add a phone log
• Add an activity directly from Phocas
• Create tasks for multiple customers

Activities can be logged against accounts, contacts and leads. If you add an activity against a contact, it is a child activity of the associated account. Activities can be created from within CRM or Analytics and can be set as part of a campaign. Learn about the activity types at the top of this page.

The process for adding an activity (business note, phone log, task or meeting) is the same for accounts, contacts and leads. The general steps are: Open the account, contact or lead record and click the applicable activity button in the top right corner, then enter the activity details and click Save.

Expand the sections below for more information and examples.

Business note

Add a note to a contact

1. Open the contact record.

2. Click the Business Note button in the top right corner.

3. Type the note and click Save.

The note displays in the following locations:

• Activities screen.

• Activities tab on the the relevant contact record.

• Account record for the account that this contact belongs to. Open the account record and to go the Activities tab. Select Include child activities filter option to display any notes against contacts for the account.

  

Add a note from the Analytics grid

1. Open Analytics and filter the data to display accounts.

2. Locate and select the account row (it turns blue).

3. Click Export > Actions > Add note.

   
4. Type a subject and description, and assign a campaign if required (you can leave that section blank).

5. Click Run.

   

   The note displays in the list of account activities.

   

Phone log

Suppose a customer calls you to inquire about a promotional offer you contacted them about last month. The phone call came from Fred at 3.D. Joinery Inc. You want to record this call against their account.

1. Open the account record (3.D. Joinery Inc).

2. Click the Phone Log button in the top right corner.

3. Enter the call details (such as duration and description of what was discussed) and click Save.

   

Meeting for an account

Suppose you have scheduled an account review with your customer, 3.D. Joinery, and now you want to set up this meeting.

1. Open the account record (3.D. Joinery Inc).

2. Click the Meeting button in the top right corner.

3. Enter the meeting details:

   • Subject - Required, as the subject appears in the activity list.

   • Description - Optional, although it is useful to enter a brief description of what occurred.

   • Start and End - The start date and time, and the end date and time, for the meeting. In this example, the meeting is scheduled for 21 December, from 3pm to 5pm.

   • Status - In this example, the status is left blank. This field must be manually populated – it will not automatically switch to Completed when the meeting is finished. The options in the Status list can be edited by administrators using the CRM Picklists feature.

   • Owner - The default setting assigns the meeting to you.

   • Campaign - The corresponding campaign, if applicable. In this example, the meeting is a follow-up from a campaign that ran in Spring.

   • Location - Where the meeting is taking place. In this example, the meeting is at 3.D. Joinery's main office.

4. Click Save. This action saves the basic details of the meeting, then opens two new tabs: Attendees and Attachments.

   

1. Click the Attendees tab and enter those who will participate in the meeting. There are two options:

   • Add - Add additional people who do not already exist in CRM. A name and email address is required. In the example below, Bill Smith does not exist in CRM, so you 'add' him.

   • Search - Search all existing contacts (and accounts) within CRM, and select the correct one. Justin and Daisy already exist in CRM, so you included them. You can also search for other CRM users to add as attendees.

1. Add the meeting to your default calendar (such as Microsoft Outlook) and invite attendees:

   • This action transfers the meeting information using the standard .ics format.

   • Different browsers handle this download slightly differently but the basic process is to click the Add To Calendar button, open the resulting ICS file, then save it.

     
   • The meeting displays in your default calendar, giving you the option of inviting attendees using the typical calendar options. This is the only way to notify attendees of the meeting.

1. Add attachments, if required, via the Attachments tab. In this example no attachments are added.

2. Click Save. A message displays at the top of the screen to indicate the note has been successfully saved.

CRM users can now view this meeting in three places:

• On the Activities screen.

• On the Activities tab on the account record.

• In their own calendars, if the Add to calendar button was used.

Attachments

You can attach relevant information to activities, such as agendas, business documents, quotations, and so on. This information can be downloaded by anyone who has access to the activity. The maximum attachment size is 10MB.

1. In the activity setup, click the Attachments tab.

2. Click Upload.

   
3. Select a file, type a name and click Upload.

   

   The attachment displays in the list on the Attachments tab.

   

Add a personal appointment

Personal appointments can only be viewed by the person who created them (you). They are not connected to the rest of Phocas CRM, and only appear in your own view of the Activities and My Agenda screens.

1. Open either the Activities or My Agenda screens.

2. Click the New Personal Appointment button.

   
3. Enter a subject, status, location, start and end time (or select the All Day option), write a description and add a timestamp.

4. Click Save.

   

Delete an activity

If you do not have delete permissions, the Delete button might not display or you might see a message at the top of the screen indicating you do not have permission to delete. Talk to your administrator about your permissions. Deleted items can be restored by administrators.

You can delete activities in two ways:

• On the Activities screen > List view, select one or more activity rows and click Delete.

  
• In any calendar view, click the activity to display a tooltip with information about the activity, then click the Delete button.