Chapter 3: Working with Activities & Calendar

Activities plays a vital role in daily business operations. Activities can be either time bound calendar events, such as meetings, seminars, appointments and others or status bound tasks, such as send status report to manager, send e-mail to customer and others. In the Zoho CRM system most of the records have activities as a related list for a better 360 degrees view. You can associate activities with modules, such as leads, accounts, contacts, potentials, campaigns, and others.

You can perform the following operations in Activities module:

• Navigate activities
• Search activities
• Manage tasks
• Manage events
• Delete activities
• Customize activities

Navigating Activities

You can navigate activities from the Activity List.

To navigate activities

1. Click the Activities tab.
2. In the Activities Home page, under the Activity List section, select Tasks or Events from the View drop-down list to display the list of tasks or events respectively.
3.  In the Activity List section, click the Start, Previous, Next, or End link to access the respective list of activities.

Searching Activities

You can search the activities alphabetically or filling the required information in the Search box.

To search activities

1. Click the Activities tab.
2. In the Activities Home page, under Find Activities section, specify the search criteria in Search box and click the Go button. You can also use the alphabetical search links.
3. In the Activity List page, a list of activities is displayed as per your search criteria.

Creating Tasks

Tasks are displayed under the Zoho CRM user's home page, Activities page, and some of the related modules, such as Leads, Accounts, Contacts, and others.

List of Standard Task-related Fields

In the Task: Edit form, you need to specify the task-related information. The following table provides descriptions of the various fields in the form.

To create tasks

1. Click the New Task link. Alternatively, click the Task button from records, such as leads, accounts, contacts, potentials, cases, and others.
2. In the Task: page, specify the task-related information. Refer to List of Standard Task-related Fields section for more details about mandatory fields.
3. Click Save. Task details are displayed in Activities page under Activity List.

Creating Events

Events are displayed under Zoho CRM user's Home page, Activities home page, Calendar, and other related modules. I

You can perform the following operations in Events module:

• Create events (Form filling and quick create options)
• Search events (Alphabetical/Advanced search)
• Navigate events through Events List
• Associate events with other records

List of Standard Event-related Fields

In the Event: Edit form, you need to specify the event-related information. The following table provides descriptions of the various fields in the form.

To create events from Activities

1. In the Zoho CRM Home page, click the New Task link. Alternatively, click the Task button from records such as leads, accounts, contacts, potentials, and trouble tickets.
2. In the Task: page, specify the task-related information. Refer to the List of Standard event-related Fields section for more details about mandatory fields.
3. Click Save. Task details are displayed in Activities page under Activity List section.

To create events from Calendar

1. Click the Calendar.
2. In the Calendar page, by default, Day View is displayed. Click the time (for example 08:00 hrs), at which you have to set up a event.
3. In the pop-up dialog, select the event option, type the subject in Subject field, and click the Save button.
4. In the Activity <event Name> page, click the Edit button to update the event details.
5. In the Activity <event Name> page, enter the other event related details. Refer to List of Standard event-related Fields section for more details.
6. Click Save.

Deleting Activities

Occasionally, you may need to remove some of the unnecessary activities from the Zoho CRM system for a better user experience. You may consider removing activities that are not useful for future reference.

Warning: Deleting activities is a destructive operation, hence use this option judiciously.

To delete activities

1. Click the Activities tab.
2. In the Activities: Home page, select the activity.
3. In the Activity: <Activity Name> page, click Delete.
4. In the Confirmation dialog, click OK to delete the activity permanently.

Printing Activity Details

You can view a printable form and print the activity details using browser’s Print function.

To print activity details

1. Click the Activities tab.
2. In the Activities: Home page, under the Activity List section, select the required activity.
3. In the Activity: <Activity Name> page, click the Print Preview button.
4. In the Activity: < Activity Name> page, click the File -> Print Page button to print the document.

Customizing Activities

(Access Privilege: Customize ZohoCRM.com permission)

Customization of the activities module includes, renaming the tab name, modifying the pick list values in standard fields, adding new custom fields, and modifying activities (tasks and events separately) page layout as per activity management requirements.

For more details, refer to Chapter 24: Customizing Zoho CRM

Frequently Asked Questions

1. If I closed activities after some time, how can I track them for future reference?

Ans: The closed tasks are displayed under Closed Activities related list in each module. You can select the Closed Activities view to track the archives.

2. How to receive notifications about my tasks and events?

Ans: Select the Send Notification E-mail option while creating task/event for the user.

3. What happens to activity if I change my record ownership?

Ans: If you change the record (leads, contacts, accounts and other) owners, all the open tasks/events are assigned to the new record owner.

4. Whether I can delete activities?

Ans: Yes you can delete the activities. Use the Delete option available in the Activities home page.

5. Is it possible to customize my activities page?

Ans: You cannot customize the tasks/events fields.

6. Whether I can modify my task subject

Ans: By default, some of the common subjects, such as Call, Send E-mail, Meeting etc., are available in the Task form. You can also specify your own subject in the Subject field.

7. Whether I can assign activities to the group of users

Ans: Currently you cannot assign a task/event to group of users.

8. Whether I can create tasks/events for other users

Ans: Yes, you can create tasks/events for other users. First create a task/event and then change the user in Assigned To field.

9. If I add a task it is not displayed in Calendar, why?

Ans: In Calendar only events are displayed, as these are time bound, which you have to attend within a stipulated period. Where as tasks are status bound, which can be completed anytime in a specified day.

10. Is it possible to create recurring tasks/events?

Ans: Currently you cannot create recurring tasks/events.

11. What types of notifications are available?

Ans: You can send e-mail notification to the user to whom the tasks/event is assigned.