Activities can be logged against accounts, contacts and leads. Activities can be created from within CRM or Analytics and can be set as part of a campaign.
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.
Enter the activity details and click Save.
Expand the sections below for more information and examples.
Add a note to a contact
Open the contact record.
Click the Business Note button in the top right corner.
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
Open Analytics and filter the data to display accounts.
Locate and select the account row (it turns blue).
Click Export > Actions > Add note.
Type a subject and description, and assign a campaign if required (you can leave that section blank).
Click Run.
The note displays in the list of account activities.
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.
Open the account record (3.D. Joinery Inc).
Click the Phone Log button in the top right corner.
Enter the call details (such as duration and description of what was discussed) and click Save.
Suppose you have scheduled an account review with your customer, 3.D. Joinery, and now you want to set up this meeting.
Open the account record (3.D. Joinery Inc).
Click the Meeting button in the top right corner.
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.
Click Save. This action saves the basic details of the meeting, then opens two new tabs: Attendees and Attachments.
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.
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.
Add attachments, if required, via the Attachments tab. In this example no attachments are added.
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.
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.
In the activity setup, click the Attachments tab.
Click Upload.
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.
Open either the Activities or My Agenda screens.
Click the New Personal Appointment button.
Enter a subject, status, location, start and end time (or select the All Day option), write a description and add a timestamp.
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.
