{$page}

Control has the ability to automatically schedule an activity on your calendar to remind you to follow up on any new estimate that get created in the system.

Premise behind this is setting up a simple Estimate Macro to automatically schedule an activity on your's (or someone else's) calendar, with a reminder in a given number of days to pop-up and remind you of the call.

There is no risk of data loss. Only caution would be a spam of reminders if you created a lot of estimates in a short timeframe.

1. Click on “Marketing Home” on the top button bar

1. Click on “Macro Setup”, the right option

1. On the left side, click on the category “Estimate Macros”

1. Click on “New Macro” button at the top of this left list

1. On this first tab of Description, give the macro a name. “Estimate Followup” would be a good example

1. Click on the middle tab, “Trigger”

1. Make sure “Run this macro automatically” is selected

1. Make sure “Run on the Server in the background” is checked

1. Under the Triggering Event section at the top, make sure the radio button is set to “Estimate Change Event”

1. Change the Change Event dropdown box to be “New Estimate”

1. Click on the last tab, “Actions”

1. In the Middle List, select “Contact Activity Macro”, and click on Add above that list

1. Make sure the checkbox near the top, “Delete auto-generated activity on status change” is checked (This option will be grey until you have checked the box below it labeled “Replace Order/Estimate with the selected Order/Estimate”)
   • On the Dropdown, select who's calender the activity should be created for. Options include whoever entered in the Estimate, the salesperson for the estimate, or the salesperson for the Company the estimate is for.

1. Check “Replace Order/Estimate with the selected Order/Estimate”

1. Check “Replace Company with the selected Company”

1. Check “Replace Contact with:”
   • The dropdown has the options for the Estimate Contact, and the Primary or Billing contact of the company the estimate is for

1. Check “Replace scheduled date with available Work Assignment's date”
   • Make sure in the box below that “after date” is selected
   • Use the spinner to schedule how many days in advance to create this reminder activity.

NOTE: If the activity is created on a weekend or other day you are not in, you will still see the reminder for the next time you log in after the scheduled time of the activity

1. Click on the “Modify Contact Activity Template” button
   • On the new screen, find the “Reminder” section, and set it to “Scheduled Time”
   • Under Description, give it a generic description such as “Estimate Follow-up” or something to allow you to recognize the activity
   • Enter any generic information under the “Notes” field that you would like to display on all the followup activites that get created
   • Make sure the “Roll over if not completed” box near the bottom is checked

1. Lastly, select the tab near the top that is under the Actions tab that says “Prompt to Begin”, then click on “Delete” in the middle column, under the listing of macro types.

1. Repeat the above step for the “Notify of Completion” tab

1. Click on Save on the far right.

Contributor: kking, Cyrious (optional)

Date: 12 / 29 / 2010

Version: Control 4.5

• Backlinks include_pagepage_componentbacklinks