Activities

The system comes with a pre-defined set of Activity types. Each activity has a description and category which, by default are both:

• Task.
• Email.
• Meeting.
• Phone call.
• Requisition.

The above can be deleted or added to as new activity types with new descriptions, however the categories remain static. Activity types can be deleted, amended or created in File maintenance. For more information on that see our section on Activity types.

Task, email, meeting, phone call and any new activities follow the below format. Requisitions are a different type of activity are are typically used in conjunction with calendar bookings. For more information on that see our section on Requisitions and Calendar bookings.

Generating a new activity:

Activities can be created from within the activity tab in any of the records where that tab appears. This includes: Clients; Prospects; Leads; Client contacts; Jobs; Opportunities; Phases.

Once you select 'new' you will be presented with the activity input form:

The details tab contains five main sections:

Description
Type: This is a dropdown containing all the active types you have set up in File maintenance.
Subject: This is a short description of the action or topic of the activity; it is this field which is displayed in the activity list screens
Detail: This a text field which can be added to at length. Below is a list of topics (auto text) which the user might want to utilise in the detail field. The list of topics changes, depending on the type of activity (again set up with the activity type in File maintenance).

Checklists
Checklists are created in an ad-hoc manner as required for the activity in question.  A single activity can have multiple checklists, each checklist can have multiple items.  Click add checklist and type in a name for the checklist to get started, then add items to the checklist.  To add a second checklist to the activity just click add checklist again.

Once an item on a checklist if complete, tick the box next to it to mark it as done.  Clicking the X will delete the item.

Comments / History
A summary of the history tab is displayed here along with the ability to create follow up activities.  History items can be added manually as comments, and some actions taken on the activity will automatically create a history item - changing the activity type, status, priority, owner, watcher, start / end date and completing are all examples of actions that create auto-history comments.

Linked to
This identifies where the activity sits (Client, job, phase etc.) and provides links to those tables.

Info

Complete: Activities can be ticked as completed once finished.
Colour:  Setting a colour here determines the appearance of this activity if you choose to show it in calendars.
Priority: An activity can be set to 3 priority levels "High", "Med" & "Low"
Status/Category: These are look up fields which can be set up on site via File maintenance.
Contact: Client contact name.
Team: If you have divided your resources by team you can enter the team here. 
Owner: The owner is the primary person responsible for this activity.  The avatar icon to the right of the drop-down selects you as the owner.  The calendar / eye icon to the right of that toggles visibility of this activity in calendars.
Watchers: This is a multi select field where any watchers can be added.  The avatar icon to the right of the drop-down adds you as a watcher.  Hovering your mouse cursor over the "i" icon lists all watchers - useful if there are too many to display in the watchers box:

Custom fields
If you have set up any custom fields for activities, these will be displayed at the bottom of the info panel.  The screenshot below shows two - one logical and one tied to a text drop-down:

Alerts
Three types of alert can be used with an activity.

• An immediate alert is sent as soon as the activity is saved & closed
• A completion alert is sent shortly after an activity is marked as complete
• A scheduled alert is sent shortly after the deadline you set for it

In order to schedule an alert you must set the start / due date & time, and then in the reminder drop-down set the timing of the alert relative to either the start date / time or the due date / time.  In the screenshot below an alert will be sent shortly after 30 minutes before the activity start date / time passes.  (No immediate or completion alert is set):

The default date / time for newly created activities is to start at 09:00 am today, and due at 10:00 am today.