Manage Appointments

You can perform the visit tasks by managing the appointments, tasks, notes, and how you check-in and check-out from a retail visit.

Check in and Check out of a Retail Visit

You can perform various tasks when you're visiting a retail store. You check in to a store to start the retail visit. You must sign in using a field salesperson or a sales manager role to check in into an appointment.

To check in or check out:

1. Go to Activities.

2. Double-click an appointment in the calendar view.

3. Click Actions > Check-In. When you have completed your visit, click Actions > Check-Out from the edit appointment page.

4. Click Save.

Schedule Appointments

You must sign in using the field salesperson or the sales manager role to create or edit appointments.

To create appointments:

1. On the springboard, click Activities.

2. Select the Calendar subtab.

3. Select a date and click Create Appointment.

4. Provide the details about the appointment.

   Among other details, you typically specify the appointment name and duration, and the account for which you're creating the appointment. The owner of the account is added as a resource in the appointment. You can also add the Store Visit Type and select the Store Visit check box. Your appointment record count is reflected in the Visit vs Target infolet.

5. Click Save and Close.

   To edit appointments:

6. Double-click the appointment that you want to edit.

   Note:

   You can select day, week, or month view to quickly locate your appointment in the calendar.

Schedule Tasks by Store Visit Type

As sales administrators and marketing managers, you manage task delegation and field operations more effectively. Using this task scheduling framework, you can assign different resources to do different tasks for the same account. For example, merchandisers are assigned with merchandising tasks and delivery representatives to deliver the products of a route or account. For example, you can schedule similar tasks to the same salesperson at account-level by store visit type or task type or activity type and more.

Here's how you can use the task scheduling:

• Create and assign visit types to the planned tasks.

• Schedule visits of specific types to the appropriate routes.

• Assign different resources to complete a different set of tasks.

• Allow the application to match the tasks to relevant planned visits.

• Improve your field operations by effective task delegation.

Based on your task schedules, your salesperson and field staff can complete the tasks.

Here's how you can schedule store visit task in an appointment:

1. Using an ESS Job: Populate store visit task (Dynamic scheduling).

   PopulateStoreVisitTask ESS job will schedule all account tasks under accounts, as store visit tasks under appointments.

2. Associate a store visit type (Static scheduling).

   All store visit tasks under store visit type will be scheduled as store visit tasks under appointment. Create a store visit type. Associate store visit task to that store visit type. Store visit task can be any task such as inventory audit promotion presentation. Administrator can also schedule targeted surveys for accounts from store visit type. For such type of tasks, administrator can specify a survey template to provide clear direction on the surveys to be executed. In such cases, administrator can conduct surveys against account. Associate this store visit type to an appointment, then all the tasks associated to type will get scheduled for the appointment. See the following steps to schedule a store visit task by type. If an administrator wants both static scheduling and dynamic scheduling for an appointment, create dynamic store visit type and associate store visit task.

   Here's how you can create a specific survey task within store visit tasks:

   1. Create a store visit type.

   2. Fill the details and click Save and Continue.

   3. Switch to Store Visit Task subtab and add task.

   4. Search and add target survey.

   5. Associate a survey template and click Save and Close.

   6. Create an appointment and associate store visit type.

   7. Click Save and Continue.

3. Create individual store visit task.

   Administrator can also create store visit task from appointment. It is also possible to create a targeted survey and associate a survey template. This survey will be executed against account.

Here are store visit task details:

• Store visit is of two types, static and dynamic.

• For static store visit type, store visit task is populated at the time of creation of store visit task.

• In dynamic store visit type, store visit task is scheduled dynamically.

• Business plan has objectives and each objective has associated objective tasks.

• When the business plan or an objective is published, these tasks are populated as account tasks.

• If a task (activity) has a related store visit type that matches the store visit type (dynamic) of a store visit appointment, the task will be scheduled for the store visit appointment.

• For an appointment that has a type value, the account objective task having the same store visit type will be scheduled for that appointment.

• If the appointment gets assigned to the account owner, the tasks of null type also get scheduled to the appointment.

• For appointments that are scheduled after business plan publish, you can schedule the task by running an enterprise scheduler service job.

• This job will find all the activities which aren't scheduled by business plan publish and associate objective task accordingly.

• Independent job will schedule all account objective tasks irrespective of objectives or status of the objective.

• This job will also check for checked out appointments and collect all completed objective tasks from these appointments.

• Then this job will mark these tasks as completed (nonrecurring task) or in progress (recurring task) at account level.

Here are appointment details:

• Appointments can be created without a store visit type.

• In such cases, account objective task with no store visit type associated will get added as store visit task for this appointment if account owner and appointment owner are the same.

• For an appointment having static store visit type, account objective task won't get associated.

• If store visit type of an appointment is changed after publish and user wants to publish again then new account objective task will be added according to new store visit type but the already published changes will remain as such.

• Store visit tasks can be recurring and nonrecurring.

• Recurring task will get scheduled as long as its duration ends.

• Nonrecurring task will get scheduled as long as it's marked as complete.

• While scheduling a nonrecurring task, job will search for the first appointment in the given duration and schedule nonrecurring task for that appointment. You can specify this duration.

• For independent job appointment, start date and end date are considered. If you specify no start date and end date then appointments from current time to 3 months are considered.

• It is possible to exclude a particular account task from Populatestorevisittask process. There's a field called Exclude Visit in account task. Mark that check box, then Populatestorevisittask won't consider that particular task for publishing.

• There's no impact on existing store visits and child tasks relevant to changing the value of the check box at account task level. It has effect only during the populate store visit task job.

• This check box could be set in objective task, contract or contract template task, or individually for an account task and where included in objective or contract or contract template task, thus the check box is populated to account task.

• Account task level changes get overwritten when you publish an objective or approve a contract.

PopulateStoreVisitTask (Independent Enterprise Scheduler Service Job)

Enterprise Scheduler Service Job Name	Job Description	Parameters Applicable
PopulateStoreVisitTask (AcoBulkProcessing)	Schedules store visit task to all appointments in a specified window.	Attribute1 (Job Name): PopulateStoreVisitTask indicates the name of the job to be executed. Attribute2 (Diagnostic Mode): Indicates if diagnostic mode is enabled or disabled. Enabling the diagnostic mode helps in collecting log and debugging as well. Run the job with this value as N. Attribute5 UseRelativeTime: If this is set to "Y", the following relative time parameters are used. In case of 'N', the existing absolute time parameters are used. Attribute3: StartDate , if Attribute5 is 'N', this field indicates the start date for which appointments need to be considered OR Relative Start Offset in Days. If Attribute5 is 'Y', this field indicates the start day of the publish store visit task expressed as number of days from the execution of the scheduled run. Attribute4: End date, if Attribute5 is 'N'. This field indicates the end date up to which appointments need to be considered OR Relative Start Time if Attribute5 is 'Y'. This field indicates Time of Day and Time Zone for the run. This should be expressed as HH:MM +00:00 where +/- 00:00 is standard time zone offset and HH is 24 hour clock as per ISO times. Attribute 6: Relative Duration in Days. This field indicates the duration of the period to cover, expressed as number of days from the start day. This field is valid only if Attribute5 is 'Y'.

To populate store visit task, schedule AcoBulkProcessing enterprise scheduler service job.

Administer Store Visit Type with Child Tasks

When you as an administrator create store visit types, you must specify if the store visit type is static or dynamic. Static types can have a set of specifically assigned child tasks that can be duplicated for any calls using the store visit type. Dynamic store visit types will have their tasks assigned as part of the PopulateStoreVisitTasks ESS job. This is not always an either or decision. For example, a market administrator may prefer to create a brief list of tasks that must always be completed for a certain type of store visit and also may want to have key objective and contract tasks assigned to calls with that store visit type. This requires removal of the restriction such that an administrator can define a store visit type that has the specifically assigned and named child tasks, and also the task will be included in the PopulateStoreVisitTasks ESS job.

Note:

Child store visit tasks are available by default for static store visit type but this can be changed during implementation by deprecating the detail page layout, ORACO Dynamic Type Layout in the store visit type (_ORACO_ActivityType_c).

Relative Dates

The relative dates concept helps you to use relative time instead of absolute time.

Along with start date and end date, the following parameters support relative dates.

• Use Relative Start Time (Argument5):

  • If this is set to "Y", the following relative time parameters are used and the existing absolute time parameters are ignored. Otherwise, the existing absolute time parameters are used.

• Relative Start Offset in Days (Argument3):

  • The start day of the publish store visit task expressed as number of days from the execution of the scheduled run.

  • The default should be zero (for same day).

  • For example: Setting a recurring scheduled process for Mondays with "Relative Start Offset in Days" being 2 would imply that the period to cover would start on Wednesday.

• Relative Duration in Days (Argument6):

  • The duration of the period to cover expressed as number of days from the start day.

  • Overlapping periods must be allowed.

  • The default should be one (for one day).

  • For example, setting 7 would indicate a week. Setting 31 would guarantee coverage for a whole month.

• Relative Start Time (Argument4):

  • Time of Day and Time Zone for the run. This should be expressed as HH:MM +00:00 where +/- 00:00 is standard time zone offset and HH is 24 hour clock as per ISO times.

If Use relative time is set to Y then Relative parameters are used to calculate start date and end date. In case of relative time, by default, tasks are scheduled for 1 day. If Use relative time is set to N, then given absolute start date and end date are used. In case of absolute time, by default, task are scheduled for 90 days.

As a part of the relative dates concept, new formats are supported for start date and end date. These are:

• "yyyy-MM-dd hh.mm.ss.SSSSSS a XXX"

• "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm XXX"

• "yyyy-MM-dd hh.mm a XXX"

• "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm a XXX"

If one of the input is wrong, the job results in error. Verify the enterprise scheduler service job logs for details.

Attribute Number	Parameter	Value
Attribute1	JavaJob Name	PopulateStoreVisitTask
Attribute2	Diagnostic mode	N
Attribute3	If Attribute5 is N Start Date (Date with time zone)	2020-08-01 11:20 AM +00:00 OR 2020-08-01 20:20 +00:00 OR 2020-08-01 11.20.20.000000 AM +00:00 (Default Value: Current time.)
Attribute3	If Attribute5 is Y Relative Start Offset in Days	Default value is 0.
Attribute4	If Attribute5 is N End Date (Date with time zone)	2020-08-20 11.20.20.000000 AM +00:00 (Default Value: Start Date + 90 days)
Attribute4	If Attribute5 is Y Relative Start Time	09:30 +5:30 (Default Value: 00:00 +00:00) (Time stamp format :'HH:MI +00:00')
Attribute5	Use Relative Start Time	Y/N (Default Value: N)
Attribute6	Relative Duration in Days	Default value is 1. No need to fill if Attribute5 is N.

The independent job ensures the following:

1. Checks for completed appointments. In these completed appointments it will check for completed store visit tasks.

2. If completed, it will mark the corresponding account objective task as completed for a nonrecurring task and as in progress for a recurring task.

3. If an appointment is created after the business plan publish, then store visit task can be scheduled by running this independent job.

Note:

The recommended scheduling exercise duration is one week.

Details to Schedule an Independent Job

• You can schedule an Independent job with and without providing start date and end date.

• Date format should be as given or else job will result in error. Enterprise scheduling service job will go to retrying status.

• You can provide either both start date and end date or don't provide both.

• You can provide negative value for duration and offset. In such cases, the resulting date will be a past date. Segment lookup code should not have any special characters.

• You can also give a past date as start date and end date. In such cases, store visit task will be scheduled for past appointments in not started status.

• If no start date is mentioned, current time will be considered as start date and if no end date is mentioned then current time + 90 days will be considered as the end date.

• If start date is provided and end date isn't provided then end date will be start date + 90 days. If one of the input is wrong, the job results in error. Check the enterprise scheduler service job logs for details.

• Changes in account objective task are pushed to appointments. For independent job, objectives with all statuses will be considered. Only published changes of business plan are populated.

• To reflect business plan level changes, you have to publish business plan.

• Appointments populated by business plan can't be changed through independent job. It can be updated only through the business plan publish.

• For efficient scheduling, already scheduled appointments won't be considered for scheduling.

Sample Set of Relative Parameters

Case 1: One month of coverage, one week in advance.

Attribute Number	Parameter	Value
Attribute1	JavaJob Name	PopulateStoreVisitTask
Attribute2	Diagnostic mode	N
Attribute3	Relative Start Offset in Days	7
Attribute4	Relative Start Time	Not applicable
Attribute5	Use Relative Start Time	Y
Attribute6	Relative Duration in Days	30

Case 2: One week of coverage, for start of business day tomorrow running at 9 pm today.

Attribute Number	Parameter	Value
Attribute1	JavaJob Name	PopulateStoreVisitTask
Attribute2	Diagnostic mode	N
Attribute3	Relative Start Offset in Days	1
Attribute4	Relative Start Time	09:00 +00:00
Attribute5	Use Relative Start Time	Y
Attribute6	Relative Duration in Days	7

Here's how you can schedule an enterprise schedule service job for AcoBulkProcessing (absolute dates and relative dates):

1. Sign in using sales administrator role.

2. Go to Enterprise Scheduler Service page and schedule AcoBulkProcessing in the Schedule New Process section.

3. Fill in parameters for Absolute dates.

4. Fill in parameters for Relative dates.

   Objective tasks are scheduled as store visit tasks.

   Edit Account: Activities page opens.

5. Click appointment name.

   Edit Appointment: Store Visit Tasks page opens. Task, name, objective, and objective task are available.

Return Products by Order

As a sales administrator, you can return the products in two ways; return any products present in the store and return any product from a single specific order. Here's how a sales representative can generate the return request for the products of an order:

Based on the configuration, a sales representative can process either a full or partial return of a specific order. Select the order and request for a return of all or some products by specifying the products name and product quantity. Pricing is averaged to ensure that accounts may not return only the highest-priced line items, though customers may, of course, add their own pricing and taxation rules in implementation with the help of mobile scripting.

1. Go to Orders.

2. Double-click an order to see the list of products and quantity.

3. Click Return Order.

   Specify the reason and click Add icon to open the product picker.

4. Select the products and quantity.

5. Click Submit to create a return for the order.