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This How-To covers how to set up Control to automatically send an email for estimate follow-up.
===== Steps =====
Creating a macro is split up into 3 main parts, creating the macro and configuring the Description, the Trigger, and the Actions.
==== Creating a New Macro and Configuring the Description tab ====
- Click on **Marketing Home** on the main Toolbar.
- Click on **Macro Setup**. This will open the Macro Setup Window.
- Click on **Estimate Macros** in the left panel.
- Click on **New Macro** at the top of the left panel.
- Enter **Email Estimates Created 3 Days Ago** as the Macro Name on the **Description** tab.
==== Configuring the Trigger ====
- Click on the **Trigger** tab.
- At least for testing, we want to run this macro on the machine you are using.
- Uncheck the box **Run on the server in the background**.
- If you later want to change this please verify your email settings under Setup | System Setup are set to Internal with the proper mail server settings. If you do not set this settings correctly all emails will fail to send.
- Choose **Run this macro manually or on a schedule**. This macro will be executed based on a schedule since we only want to email estimates that were created 3 days ago and are still in a Pending status. We will create a query that identifies those specific estimates so that our macro knows who should get emails.
- Under the **Query:** choose **(Custom Query)** and click the **View/Modify Query** button.
- A Macro Query window will appear, click the **Clear** button at the top to remove any pre-existing criteria.
- Expand the **Estimate Criteria** section by clicking the + sign.
- Expand the **Estimate Dates** section by clicking the + sign.
- Click on the **Estimate Created Date** criteria, in the middle column double-click on **Equal to...** and enter **3** in the days ago field. Be sure to verify the **Shift dates if run in the future** checkbox is enabled and click **OK**. You have now added the 1st criteria to our query.
- Click on the **Status** section under **Estimate Criteria** and double-click on **Pending** to add that criteria.
- Click **OK** on the **Macro Query** window to save our query.
- If you want to be able to run this macro manually on an order from within the Order Explorer, check the **Allow this macro to appear in the menu and be manually run for an individual order** checkbox.
==== Configuring the Actions ====
- Click on the **Actions** tab.
- Add an action to send the email. In the center panel is a list of macro actions, click on **E-Mail Macro** and click the **Add** button above it. This will add a new action on the right.
- Fill in these fields in the E-Mail Macro action section:
* **Replace To: Field with the email address of:**
Set this option to the **Order/Estimate/Service Ticket Contact**. This may change if instead you wish to email the salesperson or the person that entered the order.
* **Replace contact with:**
Set this option to the **Order/Estimate/Service Ticket Contact**
* **Subject:**
Modify the subject to your liking, be sure to use merge fields where appropriate.
* **Message**:
Modify the subject to your liking, be sure to use merge fields where appropriate.
- **Optional:** Click on the **Prompt to Begin** macro action and click the **Delete** button to remove it.
- **Optional:** Click on the **Notify of Completion** macro action and click the **Delete** button to remove it.
- Save the Macro by clicking **Save** on the right-side action toolbar.
===Scheduling the Macro===
- Click on **Marketing Home** on the main Toolbar.
- Click on **Schedule Macro** and a Macro Activity window will open.
- In the **Description** field type in **Email Estimates Created 3 Days Ago**.
- In the **Macro** drop-down select the **Estimate Estimates Created 3 Days Ago** macro.
- Change the **Scheduled Date** to first date you would like the macro to run.
- In the **Automatically Run** section select **On Server (In Background)**.
- In the **Schedule to Run** section specify the time of day. I would recommend running it in the evening or morning hours.
- Click the **Make Recurring** button and click **Yes** when prompted to save the macro. A Macro Recurrence Schedule will appear in a popup window.
- Click on the **Daily** button and set the **Recur Every** to **1** day(s).
- Check the **Weekdays Only** option if preferred.
- In the **Start** field select the preferred start date for the schedule macro.
- In the **Schedule Ahead** field select to schedule ahead **1** months.
- In the **End Date** section select **No end date** and click **OK**.
===== Source =====
Contributor: Brandon, Cyrious Software
Date: 2/28/2011
Version: Control 4.0 and higher