Record Workgroups

B2C Service helps you manage multiple open records without confusion by grouping all associated records into a single workgroup.

Workgroups apply to incidents, answers, campaigns, contacts, contact lists, documents, mailings, opportunities, organizations, surveys, and tasks. When you open any type of record and then open other records associated with the initial record, you create a workgroup. The set of records in a workgroup can be saved and closed in a single operation.

For instance, the standard incident workspace lets you add or edit other information associated with the incident, including contacts, organizations, and tasks. When you open a record associated with the open incident (for example, opening the contact record by clicking the contact name and selecting Open), the record opens on a subtab below the incident’s content pane tab and becomes the active tab. This creates a workgroup consisting of an incident and a contact record.

Tip: Typically, you will also have an incidents report open, which you will use to open each incident.

Each time you add or edit an additional record associated with the incident, it opens on another subtab and becomes part of the workgroup. You can move easily between the records in the workgroup by clicking on the subtabs.

A record tab contains buttons that correspond to the buttons on the Editor group of the ribbon: OK, Cancel, and Undock. All subtabs, except for the primary record (in this case, the incident), contain these buttons for taking actions on the individual record within the workgroup.

• OK—Clicking this button accepts changes made to the record and closes the subtab. However, it does not save changes to the database until you click Save or Save and Close on the ribbon.
• Cancel—Clicking this button closes the subtab if you haven’t made changes to the record. If you have made changes, a message asks if you want to discard your changes.
• Undock—Clicking this button undocks the record from the editor and opens it in a new window. It remains in the workgroup. You can move between working in the window and working with other records in the workgroup without closing the window. (To redock the window to the editor, click Dock on the window.)

Continuing the example of the incident workgroup, clicking the incident subtab moves the focus to the incident in the workgroup. Since the incident is the primary record in the workgroup, there are no buttons on the subtab. The initial content pane tab for the primary record shows the number of records in the workgroup in parentheses.

Expanded tooltips on Save and Save and Close buttons on the ribbon and Quick Access toolbar let you know which records will be saved by each action.

• Save—Clicking this button saves all records in the workgroup and all editors remain open.
• Save and Close—Clicking this button saves all records in the workgroup but closes all editors as well.

In addition, the save icon displays on each individual record in the workgroup when you hover over one of the save buttons, another visual indicator of which records will be saved. To create workgroups, see Create an Incident Workgroup.