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# Actions

An action is a task that must be done for a specific opportunity or for a customer or prospect in general. To make progress in their work, sales people have to perform a number of actions: for example they can call a prospect, make a product demo or send a business proposal. These actions are managed directly from the portal to easily follow up on them.

An action is associated with a date: if the action is not completed when the date arrives, it is considered late. Sales people can therefore organize their calendars and their work days depending on the actions that must be completed each day.

There are different categories to differentiate actions, for example a category for phone calls, another for meetings, and so on. The different categories can be set up in the Application Desktop. To use a category in the portal and customize the associated icon, you must set up the categories from the Application Desktop.

Each action is categorized with a different icon depending on the category. As well as being easily recognizable and customizable for each company, these icons are color-coded to show the action's status:

- Green for actions that must be completed but that are not late;
- Red for late actions.

Actions can be managed from the record sheets of an opportunity, a customer and a prospect. They can also be managed from the Actions menu to access a specific to-do list interface.

Creating actions

Actions can be created:

- From the opportunity pipeline so the action is directly associated with an opportunity;
- From a record sheet to associate the action with an opportunity, but also with a contact, prospect or customer depending on the needs;
- From the Actions menu to quickly create a new action and manage it from a to-do list.

Notes

When an action is created from an opportunity, it is associated with the opportunity's company. Actions can be managed by users even if they have not been created for the same company as the one used for connection.

When an action is created from an opportunity, it is also displayed on the record sheet of the customer or prospect associated with the opportunity. However, if an action is created from a customer or prospect record sheet, it will not be displayed for the associated opportunities.

From the opportunity pipeline

The opportunity pipeline can be accessed from the Opportunities menu and displays all the opportunities that match the search criteria and the filters used. Each opportunity is identified by a card.

For each opportunity, the most recent action is displayed with an icon on the top right of the card:

- Actions to be completed are displayed in green.
- Actions that are late are displayed in red.
- If an opportunity has no scheduled actions, the icon is displayed.

| 1 | From the opportunity pipeline, click on the icon on the top right of the desired opportunity.

| 2 | Click New action. If there was no scheduled actions, the creation window opens directly.

| 3 | In the creation window, fill in the following fields:

Field | Description
--- | ---
Task | Select the category from the drop-down list. The category's name is filled in automatically. Modify this name if needed. Depending on the selected category, the following fields can be different.
Start (only for tasks) | Fill in the start date and time of the action. A task will be considered late if its due date has passed. However, if there is no due date specified, the task will be considered late if its start date has passed.
Due date (only for tasks) | Fill in the due date and time of the action. A task will be considered late if its due date has passed.
Date (for notes and appointments) | Fill in the start date and time of the action. A note or an appointment will be considered late if its start date has passed.
Duration (only for appointments) | Fill in the end time of the action. This end time is used to determine the appointment's duration.
Completed (for tasks and appointments) | If the box is checked, the action will be completed as soon as it is created. This way, you can quickly create and complete actions that have already been done, for reference purposes.
Assigned to | Fill in the first letters of the employee in charge of the action. The help list is displayed automatically with the relevant employees. Select the desired employee from the help list. By default, the employee creating the action is already filled in.
Comment | Enter a comment to give more details about the action.

| 4 | Click Save.

The action is added to the opportunity. It can be viewed directly from the opportunity pipeline by clicking on the icon on the top right of the relevant opportunity to open the list of scheduled actions.

From a record sheet

An action can be associated with an opportunity, a contact, a prospect or a customer. The scheduled actions can therefore be found in the corresponding record sheets.

The list of scheduled actions is displayed in the Actions tab of a record sheet. Actions are ordered from the most recent to the oldest one. There are two ways to create a new action from a record sheet: from a dedicated frame in the Actions tab or by clicking on from any tab of the record sheet.

To create an action from the Actions tab:

| 1 | In the first frame on the screen's left, click on the icon corresponding to the desired action category. Hover over each icon to know which category it is.

The category's name is filled in automatically.

| 2 | In the Subject field, modify the name if needed.

| 3 | In the field, fill in the due date and time of the action. When the date arrives, the action will be considered late if it has not been completed yet.

| 4 | Click New.

The action is created. It can be viewed directly from the list of actions in the Actions tab of the record sheet.

To create an action from any tab:

| 1 | Click on on the right of the screen.

| 2 | In the creation window, fill in the following fields:

Field | Description
--- | ---
Task | Select the category from the drop-down list. The category's name is filled in automatically. Modify this name if needed. Depending on the selected category, the following fields can be different.
Due date | Fill in the due date and time of the action. When the date arrives, the action will be considered late if it has not been completed yet.
Completed | If the box is checked, the action will be completed as soon as it is created. This way, you can quickly create and complete actions that have already been done, for reference purposes.
Assigned to | Fill in the first letters of the employee in charge of the action. The help list is displayed automatically with the relevant employees. Select the desired employee from the help list. By default, the employee creating the action is already filled in.
Comment | Enter a comment to give more details about the action.

| 3 | Click Save.

The action is created. It can be viewed directly from the list of actions in the Actions tab of the record sheet.

From the Actions menu

The Actions menu displays all actions in one screen, instead of having to go through the opportunity pipeline or a record sheet. This way, a sales person can create, manage and complete actions from one screen using a to-do list interface.

| 1 | From the first frame on the left, fill in the action's name in the Topic field.

| 2 | In the Organisations & Contacts field, fill in the first letters of the contact, prospect or customer that is associated with the action. The help list is displayed automatically with the relevant results. Select the desired contact, prospect or customer from the help list.

| 3 | In the Date field, fill in the due date and time of the action. When the date arrives, the action will be considered late if it has not been completed yet.

| 4 | Click on + Action.

A list opens to display the different action categories available.

| 5 | Select the category from the list.

The action is created. It can be viewed directly from the list of actions in the Actions menu.

Searching for and filtering actions

The Actions menu displays all the existing actions of the connected user, of a team or even of another employee. This menu also enables employees to display actions depending on their due date.

Note

The search and filter features only apply to the actions displayed on the screen. Akuiteo does not look for all the actions of the database, which is convenient if there is an important number of actions.

Searching for actions

In the search field, fill in the first letters of the action's name, the customer, the assigned sales person, and so on. The actions matching the search criteria are updated directly so it is easy to find the desired action.

From the screen's header or the list of actions, it is also possible to narrow down the actions displayed to easily find the desired one:

Field | Description
--- | ---
Assigned to | Select an employee, a team or a department from the drop-down list to only display the actions linked to the selection. Me - your actions All - all existing actions My team - your actions and your team's actions My department - your actions and your department's actions Other employees - the actions of the selected employee
Due date | Select the actions to be displayed depending on their due date: Late - the actions that are not completed and that are overdue Today - the actions scheduled for the current day This week - the actions scheduled for the current week Next week- the actions scheduled for next week Upcoming weeks - the actions scheduled for the following weeks All - all actions with all due dates The number of actions is displayed in brackets for each category.
Sort by | Select how the actions are sorted from the drop-down list. Date - actions are sorted by due date, in ascending or descending order Customer - actions are sorted by customer, in alphabetical or reversed order Employee - actions are sorted by the employee assigned, in alphabetical or reversed order

Filtering actions

| 1 | From the list of actions, click Filter.

The Advanced filters window opens.

| 2 | In the window, check the relevant boxes for the filters that should be applied. You can combine as many filters as necessary.

| 3 | Click Apply.

The actions matching the filters applied are displayed. The other actions are hidden.

To delete the filters applied, click Filter then Remove filters.

Managing actions

Note

Actions can be managed from multiple access points and the features available depend on the access point. The features that are shared with all access points are described in this chapter. For more information about the features specific to the Actions menu, refer to Managing actions from the Actions menu.

Opening actions

To modify an action or add items to it, you must open the action itself:

- Click on the desired action in the list of the Actions menu.
- From the record sheet of an opportunity, a contact, a prospect or a customer, click on the Actions tab then click on the desired action name.
- From the opportunity pipeline or the signature schedule from the Opportunities menu, click on the icon on the top right of the opportunity's card then click on the desired action.

Modifying actions

From the action details, modify the necessary values then click Save.

All the fields can be modified at any time. You can modify the information specified when creating the action, but also change the associated contacts or customers, the assigned employees or the linked opportunities.

Adding documents to an action

Documents can be added to an action from the details:

- By clicking on the Upload document frame.
- By dragging and dropping the document in the Upload document frame.

The documents added to an action are displayed in the details. When a document is associated with an action, this document is created for the action's company.

This document can be viewed from the Application Desktop in the documents associated with the action (if the user has the required DMFs) or from a documents search.

To open a document, click on it to download it.

To remove a document, click on then Delete.

Completing actions

When a scheduled action is carried out by a sales person, for example calling back a prospect, the action can be completed to indicate it has been done and the sales person can move on to the next step.

From the action details, check the Completed box then click Save to complete the action. From the Actions menu, you can also check the right box in the list of actions.

When an action is completed, it is removed from the list of actions in the Actions menu and it is no longer displayed in the opportunity's card from the Opportunities menu. However, completed actions can be retrieved using filter criteria in the Actions menu and they are always displayed in the record sheets' Actions tab.

Managing actions from the Actions menu

The following standard features are available from the Actions menu: creation, modification, completion, and so on. However, additional features are also available to help employees better manage their schedules and be more productive.

Note

Actions can be managed from multiple access points and the features available depend on the access point. The features that are specific to the Actions menu are described in this chapter. For more information about the shared features, refer to Managing actions.

Creating actions on the fly

When a sales person wants to complete or delete an action, he/she can create a new action on the fly that retrieves all the information of the source action. This way, the sales person does not have to fill in the same information again and only has to modify what is necessary: the due date, the action category, and so on.

| 1 | From the Actions menu:

- Select the desired action, then drag and drop it in the Complete and create new action or the Delete and create new action frames.
- Click on the desired action to open its details. Click on on the top right then click Complete and create new action or Delete and create new action.

| 2 | Confirm the completion or the deletion.

The action is completed or deleted and is no longer displayed in the list. A new action is created automatically with a due date set to the current date. The other fields of the new action are retrieved from the source action.

Rescheduling actions

An action's due date can be rescheduled.

From the Actions menu:

- Select the desired action, then drag and drop it in one of the Reschedule frames. The dates available are determined automatically using the current date and the due date.
- Click on the desired action to open its details. Click on on the top right then click Reschedule.... Select a new due date then click Validate.

The action's due date is updated. Depending on the search and filter criteria, the action can no longer be visible in the list.

Reassigning actions

The employee assigned to an action can be modified.

| 1 | From the Actions menu:

- Select the desired action, then drag and drop it in the Reassign frame.
- Click on the desired action to open its details. Click on on the top right then click Reassign.

| 2 | In the Employee field, fill in the first letters of the employee in charge of the action. The help list is displayed automatically with the relevant employees. Select the desired employee from the help list.

| 3 | Click on Validate.

The employee is updated. Depending on the search and filter criteria, the action can no longer be visible in the list.

Deleting actions

Important

Deleting an action cannot be reversed.

From the action record sheet, click on Actions in the header, then click Delete and confirm the deletion.

From the Actions menu:

- Select the desired action, then drag and drop it in the Delete frame. Confirm the deletion.
- Click on the desired action to open its details. Click on on the top right then click Delete. Confirm the deletion.