Get Started with Activities

Activities help you keep track of things you plan to do, like tasks and appointments, or things that you need to track, like customer calls.

Types of Activities

There are three types of activities:

• Tasks are to-do items assigned to people or groups.

  Tip: You can use tasks to record completed customer interactions that aren't scheduled in your calendar as appointments.

• Appointments are calendar events, for example, a meeting with another person or a scheduled phone call.

• Call reports let you record brief summaries of you phone calls. They can be created from an appointment, a task, or standalone from the Activities landing page. When created from a task or appointment, the application automatically populates all pertinent data into the call report for you.

Collectively called "activities", tasks and appointments can be meetings, calls, demonstrations, events, and so on. The difference between a task and an appointment is that a task appears in a task list and has a due date and status, while an appointment is scheduled on your calendar with a specific date and time. For all activities, the Type field lets you categorize the item. For example, when you create a task you can set the type as a Call or a Meeting.

How You Access Activities

From the home page you can use the Activities landing page, or list page, to access all of your activities. Additionally, the Activities tab in many of the edit pages lets you access the same functionality as the landing page.

Here are some things to keep in mind about the Activities list:

• Appointment and task icons make it easy to differentiate between the different types of activities.

• You can use the default search filters to quickly find a set of activities, and you can use the additional search operators to further expand or refine your search.

• Note that in the list of activities, columns may be blank if there's no applicable data. For example, some fields apply only to tasks and some only to appointments; thus, blank fields appear when there is nothing relevant to display.

To access a list of Activities from the home page:

1. Sign in as a salesperson.

2. On the home page, click Sales > Activities.

3. Click the Activities tab.

Create New Tasks and Appointments

You can create new tasks and appointments in several ways:

• In the My Calendar page, click Create Appointment to create a new appointment.

• In the My Tasks page, click Create Task to create a new task.

• In the Activities page, click Create Task or Create Appointment.

• Create follow-up tasks or appointments from existing ones: In the Actions menu for the existing task or appointment, select Create Follow-Up Task or Create Follow-Up Appointment.

• Create tasks or appointments related to opportunities or leads: Navigate to a lead or opportunity and click the Activities tab. Tasks or appointments you create automatically are associated with the related record.

Manage Your Calendar

Use the Calendar pages to keep track of all your appointments. You can:

• View your appointments in a daily, weekly, or monthly format, and either in a calendar view or as a list.

• Move appointments from one time and day to another day or time.

• Create new appointments, including recurring appointments.

• View and edit existing appointments.

• View your colleagues' appointments, if you have permission.

• Access additional calendars. Additional calendars, if enabled, are available after you click the Manage My Calendar icon.

See the Calendars section in this chapter for more topics on using calendars.

Manage Your Tasks

The Tasks landing page displays your tasks that include a due date, allowing you to see at-a-glance which ones are due on which dates. Icons help you spot overdue tasks quickly. You can use the My Tasks list to sort tasks by due date, subject, or priority.