4 Calendar and Activities

4 Calendar and Activities
4.1 Add a calendar event
4.2 To-Dos
4.3 Shared Calendar and preferences
4.4 Shared calendar access and events visibility
4.5 Import and export activities
4.6 Book me - Make an appointment

4 Calendar and Activities

The vtenext calendar allows you to award a priority to your activities, specifying the users or contacts involved and the subject connected to the activity.

A simple click is sufficient to access the related content, postpone an activity that you have been unable to start, or close an activity.

Furthermore, the calendar of each user can be shared with the calendars of the other users.

vtenext offers two different activity types:

Event: activities with clearly defined start/end times, which may involve other users or contacts. There are also some default events that are in turn classified in accordance with the activity type (call, meeting, etc.).
To-do: defines a personal activity to carry out over one or more days without any hourly restrictions. To-dos are similar to personal memos.

vtenext allows you to keep track of activities by providing suitable tools to manage the entire corporate organisation efficiently.

The Calendar module appears as shown below:

Week view

Month view

Day view

The menu at the top left allows you to choose the view type (Day, Week, Month, List and Geolocation);
The large central section shows the calendar (display of events/to-dos, drag an event to shift it in time, click for rapid creation of a new event/to-do, click to view the event details, click to file the event in completed status);
The right side of the page contains a list showing users with whom the event can be shared. When you enable one or more users their agenda will be displayed on top of yours;
The “Show/Hide Completed To-dos” button (upper left) allows you to enable or disable the display of completed to-dos; furthermore, by clicking on the toolbar you can expand the to-dos display area;
the item HOLIDAYS, in the user list on the right of the calendar (day / week / month view) has been inserted to explain to the user that the gray color indicates holidays, like a legend. For this reason, the field is disabled (not clickable also with the admin user).

“List view” mode allows you to work in the calendar using the same search, filter, and mass edit tools and so forth provided for all the other modules.

From 20.04 version, is also available events displayed by Resources.
This setting improves the user's visibility of the weekly activities planned by his team. Every user can select other users who shared the calendar with each other (see User Preferences).
The list of users is displayed based on the role scale set by the administrator.

Resources view

Select Resources view

By clicking on the SELECT RESOURCES button, on the top left, a pop-up will open. It will allow us to select the available resources according to the aforementioned rules.

4.1 Add a calendar event

In the Calendar module you can click the green create button or click on the agenda area, dragging the mouse in accordance with the event duration (drag & drop).

Activity Type	Select Call, Meeting or other customised values
Visibility	Classify an event as Public, Private or Standard
Subject	Enter a name (title) for the event
Description	You can add a brief description of the event
Status	Status is Planned by default. Defines the state of completion of the project

Priority	Set a priority level
Assigned to	Events are assigned by default to the person who creates them, but this can be changed if necessary
Event starts at” and “Event ends on”	Each event has a start and end; events can last one or more days
All day	Select if the event lasts all day. By default it has 24 hous and it is placed at the top, in the Task section.

Since events can be linked to CRM objects, they can be created also by starting from the object in question (see "Linked to" function).

Linked to

An event can be linked to standard and customised entities (generated by modules creation in Settings) within vtenext. Note that the contacts module is separate from the rest, allowing you to connect one or more contacts to the event.

Warning!

1) The following modules cannot be linked to the calendar: Documents, Reports, Services, Products, Product lines, Newsletters, Targets, Delivery Notes, Price Books, FAQs, PDF Creator, Installations, Timecards, Processes, Contract Services.

2) The relation between an event and the messages module is available only starting from the single email and not vice versa. This does not require the “linked” field to be filled in, but rather a copy of the body of the email in the “description” field.

Invite

You can invite other users or contacts to the event you are creating.

The contacts will receive a notification email with details of the event and will be given the option to state whether or not they plan to attend.

Users will receive a vtenext notification (Notiﬁcations panel) and can access the event in the CRM to indicate their intention to participate (yes/no) and display the event in their agenda as though it were assigned to them.

Reminder

Provides the facility to schedule an automatic memo (in the form of an email or notification) to be sent to all the participants. You can decide how many days/hours/minutes before the event to send the notification.

Warning! To send notification emails you must schedule the job in question in the vtenext server cron; for more details refer to the chapter CRONJOB – Processes to plan.

Repeat

Allows you to schedule events that are repeated regularly, establishing the frequency. When the settings are saved the system will create the “copy” events, which are independent from one another.

4.2 To-Dos

To-dos are always assigned to a user or a group of users; it is not however possible to invite other users or link more than one contact. The to-do can be transferred to another user by changing the assignee.

The input procedures are the same as for the events: from the related object, from the Calendar module graphic interface, or using the CREATE button.

Subject	Enter a name (title) for the to-do
Priority	Set a priority level
Description	Add a short description to the to-do
Status	By default the status is “not started”; the value can be changed if necessary
Assigned to	By default, the user who creates the task is the assignee, with the facility to change the user if necessary
Time & Date and Due Date	Each to-do has a start and end and it can proceed also over several days

The to-dos to be completed are displayed in the upper area of the calendar.

You can view the list of open to-dos from any point of vtenext by clicking on the icon in the menu on the right side.

4.3 Shared Calendar and preferences

The user can set up several fields from the calendar settings icon (accessible also from User Preferences):

Default Calendar View	Defines the default calendar view (daily, weekly, etc.)
Date Format	The user selects the date format
Reminder Interval	Frequency for activities reminders check by means of pop-ups
Day starts at	Defines the starting time of the working day (this will be the first time available in the calendar to fix events)
Disable Sunday in week view	Allows you to disable the display of Sunday, when the calendar is set as a "Week" view
First day of week	You can choose whether the week starts on Monday or Sunday
Share calendar with	Allows you to choose which users to share your calendar with
Share calendar with (only occupation)	Allows you to choose which users to share the calendar of the user you are configuring with, assuming that it is, for example, an object such as a company car or a meeting room
Show calendar users	Allows you to activate the calendar display of all those users who, in the "Share Calendar with" option, have decided to select our user (or the current user for whom the configuration is being made)
Holiday Countries	Makes it possible to display national holidays on the calendar for the selected Country (European countries)

If the admin user has set the calendar as public, all users can share their agenda with the other users, thus allowing total or partial visibility depending on user privileges (for details of privileges refer to the next section). If shared, the agendas of other users appear in the right-hand column of the calendar, each shown in its own automatically assigned colour.

Example: Agent 1 and Agent 2 users need to share their agendas. From Calendar preferences, “Share Calendar with” section, Agent 1 must select the Agent 2 user:

Now Agent 2 accesses his/her own preferences and enables Agent 1 in the “Show User Calendar” section:

Agent 2 can now see the calendar and assign activities to Agent 1. Agent 2 in turn can use the same procedure to share its calendar with Agent 1 and allow Agent 1 to view the contents and assign activities.

In addition, two new functions, which will be described below, have been added to the calendar as from vtenext version 19.10.

Users with this type of sharing option will be able to view exclusively the occupation and not the content of the events, as though they were all personal, with the exception of Public events, which are always visible to all:

Organiser Field (from version 19.10)

In event creation, this field assumes the value of the assignee, however it may occur that external plugins set it to different values. It may contain a vte user, a contact or a free email address.

There are 2 operational changes:
• If a user is invited to an event assigned to others, and the organiser coincides with himself/herself*, then the event in question is as though it had been assigned to himself/herself, with all the required privileges (edit/delete).
• If a user is invited to an event (its own event or a third party event), and the organiser does not coincide*, this user can only view the record and cannot edit/delete it, irrespective of the hierarchy of roles (in the case of an event assigned to himself/herself but not editable, this function is used to manage invitations from users external to the system)

* the match between organiser and current user is:
if the organiser is a user, a check is performed to ensure the user is the same
if the organiser is a contact, a check is performed to establish whether the contact email is the same as the user's email
if it is a free address, a check is performed to establish whether this email address is the same as the user’s email

N.B.: In the case of events with contact or email organiser, the prohibition of changing the record can be easily overcome by changing the contact or entering your own email address, or yourself, once again changing the email address.

Reminder Interval
If you have set a reminder interval in preferences (1 minute minimum), you can set it up so that the CRM generates an alert whenever an event or task is about to occur. The pop-up screen offers several functions:

Close Activity: to close an activity directly without necessarily entering from the calendar module
Open: to open the event/task of the specific calendar
Dismiss: to instruct the CRM to no longer generate alerts for a specific event/task
Dismiss All: snooze function that makes it possible to set alerts, again via pop-up, based on the previously defined time interval
Snooze All: to instruct the CRM to stop reminding us of the events/tasks present in this specific pop-up

4.4 Shared calendar access and events visibility

To manage privileges to view and edit the calendar it is essential to know the Sharing Access (from the Settings menu) and visibility of the event.

In Settings > Sharing Access there are various possible configurations for the Calendar (explained below with examples):

Private (follows hierarchy of roles);
Public: Read Only;
Public: Read, Create/Edit;
Public: Read, Create/Edit, Delete.

The combination of settings for Sharing Access, visibility of the single event and hierarchical roles, establishes the events visibility and editing privileges for the individual user.

The following are examples of behaviour in accordance with different combinations. The following hierarchy is considered in the example:

the Manager role belongs to a Manager user
the Sales role belongs to the two users Agent 1 and Agent 2 According to this hierarchy (for details refer to the Roles chapter):
a Manager can view the data assigned to its own position and to the Sales Users;
Sales Users can view their own data

Public Calendar: Read only

Event assigned to	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
MANAGER (higher)	Standard	Read Only	AGENTS (inferior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assigned to	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (same role)	Standard	Read Only	AGENT 2 (equal role)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assigned to	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (lower)	Standard	Read Only	MANAGER (superior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Public Calendar: Read, Create / Edit

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
MANAGER (higher)	Standard	Read Only	AGENTS (inferior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (same role)	Standard	Read Only	AGENT 2 (equal role)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (lower)	Standard	Read Only	MANAGER (superior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Public Calendar: Read, Create / Edit, Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
MANAGER (higher)	Standard	Read Only	AGENTS (inferior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (same role)	Standard	Read Only	AGENT 2 (equal role)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (lower)	Standard	Read Only	MANAGER (superior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Private calendar

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
MANAGER (higher)	Standard	Read Only	AGENTS (inferior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (same role)	Standard	Read Only	AGENT 2 (equal role)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

Event assignee	Event visibility	What assignee sees/does	User
AGENT 1 (lower)	Standard	Read Only	MANAGER (superior)
	Private	Only resource commitment
	Public	Read/Edit/Delete

General rules for private calendar:

Event visibility	Users see the event	Users see the content	Users edit/delete
Public	yes	yes	yes
Standard	yes	yes	according to position hierarchy
Private	yes	no	no

4.5 Import and export activities

To import or export Activities between vtenext and other applications, the standard iCalendar format is available (.ics extension).

To export the activities of the vtenext calendar, you must display it in list mode, select the records to be exported, press ,.the export button and choose the filename. Likewise, to import records from the external iCalendar file, press the import button and follow the procedure.

As an alternative to export / import in iCalendar format, vtenext supplies a series of integrations with very common systems:

Synchronisation via Active Sync protocol (extra module);
Synchronisation with Exchange calendar (extra module);
Synchronisation with GCalendar (extra module);
Synchronisation with Zimbra (extra module);
Synchronisation with Outlook and Thunderbird via plugin.

4.6 Book me - Make an appointment

Version 21.01 onward includes the new Book me function to make appointments based on the calendar slots made available by crm users. Let’s take a look at how it works and how to configure this new feature properly.

A new block entitled Book me configuration has been added to user preferences.

View of Book me configuration

Enable Book me	enable/disable the calendar booking function when compiling a new email. This function enables a flag in the email composer and makes it possible to use / not use this function with the recipients of the email in question
Events selection mode	defines event selection mode: semiautomatic, automatic, or manual (as illustrated below)
Event duration	allows you to set the duration of the event
Minimum time between events	defines the minimum time that must exist between one event and another (only in automatic mode)
Email compilation default	determines if the Book me flag in the email compose popup is enabled by default. This involves the automatic insertion of the Book me link in the signature

Semiautomatic mode
Semiautomatic mode selects "Free for appointment" type events and subdivides them into booking slots that will have the duration set in the "Event duration" field in user settings. The time slots available are: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours.

Automatic mode
Automatic mode finds spaces between events having the duration set in the "Minimum time between events" field and subdivides them into booking slots with the time set in the "Event duration" field in user settings. The time slots available are: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours.

Manual mode
Manual mode selects "Free for appointment" type events and uses the entire event duration for the booking space.
By default, the Book me function is disabled for all users. Once the specific flag is checked in user preferences, a booking link can be sent by compiling an email from the Messages module.

View of the Book me function from the email compilation window

Operating cycle
When a user sets semiautomatic mode, he/she creates a "Free for booking" type event, and an event will appear in the calendar as shown in the next image:

The user will then send an email with a "Book me" link as shown previously. When the recipient clicks on the link, he/she will access a dialog box in which to first select the date (if there is more than one date available) and then the preferred time slot as determined by the preferences set by the user in the Event duration field.

View of date selection window

View of time slot selection window

View of customer data input and booking confirmation

Once you click on CONFIRM, the page will produce an alert that shows whether or not the operation was successful.

In this page note that it was not possible to send the confirmation. It is therefore essential for the mail server to be correctly configured in the crm, in SETTINGS > MAIL SERVER.

N.B.: to check the mail server configuration, refer to chapter 5.1 Outgoing mail configuration (SMTP).

Caution: bookings are accepted for days after the current day. The calendar also sets the basic language to the language selected in user preferences!

On the crm user side, when a customer makes a booking, he/she receives a notification from the system with details of the event (which will be clickable and visible on the system).

View of crm notification with booking configuration

Conversely, the customer will receive an email with details of the booking made and a link to cancel the booking.

View of the email received by the customers with booking confirmation, and option to cancel it

If the customer decides to click on Cancel your booking, a window will open in their browser with the following page to confirm booking cancellation:

View of cancellation page (customer browser)

Once the customer user has clicked on the YES, CANCEL BOOKING button, a confirmation page will be displayed, as shown below:

View of cancellation confirmation (customer browser)

Simultaneously a notification is sent also to the crm user, informing him/her of the cancelled booking. Automatically, also the calendar slot will revert to free!

View of booking cancellation notification