Tasks and Appointments

Tasks and Appointments are considered platform Activities (actions that pertain to some record stored in the database).

• Tasks can be associated with an object, and are listed in the Related Information section of a record.
• Appointments are scheduled telephone calls, meetings, presentations, or other events

Activities

Activities provide a means to track phone interactions, email communications, meetings and planned/completed work.

An Activity records an action carried out with respect to some record. It can be a Task or Appointment or one of several other kinds of actions. (When a Task or Appointment is updated, it becomes part of the Activity History, which provides a complete archive of transactions regarding any data object in the platform.)

Activities associated with an object can be found in the Related Information section of a record.

Example Activities

• Visit or call a client
• Schedule an appointment with a prospective customer
• Record an attempt to contact a customer
• Set up a team meeting
• Assign a task to a team member

What's the Difference between a Task and an Appointment?

• Appointments describe an Activity and require a date, start time and duration
• Tasks describe an Activity and require a due date

Emails as Tasks

Emails sent to an entity can be logged as activity. When an email message is sent directly from the record or if the record is part of a campaign or data policy, email messages are automatically recorded as a completed activity.

Optionally, email messages can be logged externally using the External Email Tracking feature.

Manage Activities

Log an Activity

Log Activity is the process for recording the details of any completed communication, such as an email, phone call, meeting, fax, etc., with an Account, Prospect, or Contact regarding a marketing campaign or sales Opportunity.

Completed activities appear in the Activity History section of Related Information.

You can log an activity from several locations:

• From a View, using the Log Activity icon
• In the Record Details page for an Account, Prospect, Contact or Opportunity
• Under Record Information in a Record
• Under Related Information, Activity History

To Log an Activity:

1. Navigate to the record of interest and open the details page for that record
2. Click the [Log Activity] button
3. Complete each of the fields in the Activity Details and Follow-up Activity sections, as required
4. Click [Save]

Mark Complete

To mark a group of tasks as complete using the [More Actions] button:

1. Open the Tasks object
2. Select the check box(es) next to the records you want to include
3. Optionally, click the All heading to include all visible records, or click All and then deselect those records you want to exclude
4. Click the More Actions button and choose Mark Complete
5. In the Selected Records section, review the list of records
6. Click the [Complete] button

Record Attempt

To mark an activity as attempted and reschedule it for a later date:

1. Open the Tasks object. The Tasks page opens.
2. Select the option from the Show drop-down list that will display the appropriate list of tasks. For example, the option Tasks Due This Month will display all outstanding tasks.
3. Click the Attempted button next to the task you want to mark as attempted. The Record Attempt page opens. The Subject displays the task title under Activity Details
4. Verify that the information under the Attempt Details section is correct.

   Action

   The type of action you attempted

   Additional Notes

   Enter text that applies to this action/activity

   Record this Attempt as Activity

   Marks the activity (task) as attempted

   Reschedule Activity Date

   Enter or select a new due date using the Calender button, if applicable

5. Click Save to save the record of the attempted activity.

Activity History

Activity History is a section in Related Information that tracks the following elements for a record and its associated records in Objects:

• Completed tasks
• Logged phone calls
• Expired appointments
• Outbound email
• Merged documents
• Ownership Change

The Record Owner for these activities is the User who triggered the particular action(s)

Considerations

• Tasks or Appointments can be created as independent entities (not associated with any object). Appointments of this type can be viewed from the Calendar, and Tasks can be found in Views or Reports
• The option to Track Activities is selected by default when an object is created, but can be modified from the Object Properties at any time.

Reporting for Tasks and Appointments

In Reports based on Tasks and Appointments, each activity is associated with one of the following:

• Activity Type (can be customized from Global Picklists)
• Calendar Category