Use ‘Enter to Diary’ to remind yourself (or anyone else) to do something at some future date, or to enter something that you have done. ‘Action Codes’ are used to record what the task is to be. Don’t use it to confirm that existing Diary items are now done - use ‘View Diary’ or one of the other options described below to find existing Diary Items and enter what are termed ‘Result Codes’.
On the Access Rights screen of Personnel setup, there is a check box ‘Check Diary Macros and Messages’. If switched on, this user will always have an extra process (launched on startup) that periodically checks to see if there are any Macros in the Diary that need to be performed. If switched off, then Macros in the Diary for that user will simply be ignored.
The same background process is also used to periodically check whether any messages have come in that need responding to. There is a setting in the Core Data Section of Preferences to define the ‘Message Action’. This Action is searched for in the Diary once every minute, and a message will appear informing you if any are found. If just one is found, it says who the message is from and gives a brief version of the Description text. If more than one is found, you are just told how many items there are, and asked ‘Do you wish to see them?’.
The information held on the Diary entry screen is as follows:
Done
Every Diary Item has a status of Done or To Do, meaning whether it has been completed or not. If the task has been finished, this check box will be switched on. This occurs automatically when you enter a Date Done. When you enter a new Diary Item, the system assumes that its status is To Do - change this if you are entering historical information.
Company Code
The Company refers to the Company or address for which the current Diary Item is relevant - call Enterprise 6, visit a Client etc. Enter the first four letters of a Company (or surname for private individuals). If there is only one Company in your database starting with the characters typed, the details will be brought up; if there is more than one you will need to choose from a selection on the right of the screen; and if there are none you will be prompted to [Create it]. After creating a company you will return to the same spot in the Diary.
Note that you can also enter the Postcode or Telephone Number of the Company to this field and the details of the appropriate Company will appear.
Contact Name
Either after or before entering the Company, you can specify the Contact the Diary item relates to. If you have put in the Company and enter an @ sign here and there is only one Contact at that Company, his/her full name will be confirmed immediately. If more than one exists, you can select from a list that appears, or create a [New] Contact. You may also enter a Surname or Forename into the box and the system will search by these.
Alternatively, you could leave the Company Code field blank and straightaway go the Contact field to type in a Surname or Forename. On pressing <Return> or <Tab>, a list of all matching Contacts will appear. Click on the appropriate one, or click the [New] button. On returning to the Diary screen, both the Contact and the appropriate Company will be brought in.
Date Do To/From & Date Done To/From
Record here the Date on which the Diary Item should be carried out and, if appropriate, the Date on which it was completed. You can specify start (From) and end (To) Dates for both the ‘To Do’ (or planned) and the ‘Done’ (or completed) sides of the Diary equation. The Date Done should only be filled in once the Diary Item has been completed, and is filled automatically with the current date if you enter a Result Code. The ‘Done’ check box is also switched on automatically if there is a Result Code and/or a Done Date.
The From and To Dates intelligently update one another if the From is set to greater than the To, or the To to less than the From. The Dones have no effect on the Dos or vice versa - they can be maintained completely independently of one another.
Note that the title at the top of the screen reflects the date of the Diary Item, with examples of text that can appear here being Last Wednesday through to Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, This Thursday and from there on to Next Friday and Saturday Week (2 weeks away this Saturday). The title reacts to the Date Do From unless the Date Done is also entered. An old item that is still ‘To Do’ will be considered part of Today’s Diary, since you still haven’t done it!
In fact, rather than typing in the date in the Date Do From field and having Enterprise 6 show you the day, you can equally do the operation in reverse - highlight the text describing the day and change it. This will update the Date Do From if the Diary item is To Do, or the Date Done if it is Done.
Note that if you use the [Global Change] button to alter the Date fields, there is no check to prevent the setting of a To Date to before a From one.
The values in these fields can also be altered by clicking on the arrow buttons to their right.
Time Do/Done From & Time Do/Done To
Time is optional - you may not mind most Diary Items being at any time of day, but you can be very specific for Appointments etc. Always use the 24 hour clock, and the format 00:00:00. Time Done is filled in automatically once the Call has been completed.
The Time fields interact in the same way as the Date fields, providing that the equivalent From and To Dates are the same.
The Time Do field must be completed if you wish to make use of the ‘Check Time Conflicts’ function. If this is switched on, when saving the record (ie when [√] has been clicked), Enterprise 6 will check that the Person is not being double-booked. Alternatively, you could force this check using the item on the Functions menu. Full details of this function are given below in the Functions menu section.
The values in these fields can also be altered by clicking on the arrow buttons to their right. If you have access to the Job Costing volume, the operation of these arrow buttons can be customised using the Time Units per Day and Day Start Time fields in the Job Costing section of Preferences. These Preferences are used, if defined, to determine the time that is added or subtracted to these Time fields when the Arrow Up/Down buttons are toggled.
Priority
The large number 1 to the right of the time refers to the Priority level of the current Diary item. 1 is the highest priority, and the figure can be changed to 2 or 3 (or indeed any other character for added flexibility). This will become more and more necessary as your use of the Diary expands because while, for example, you don’t want to forget that you promised six months ago to call XYZ this month, it may not be as important as the appointments you have tomorrow.
The Priority will be altered to a default value on entry of an Action Code.
Person
The system will assume that you want to enter an item to your own Diary, so puts in your Initials based on your choice of name on starting the database. You can equally, though, enter an item to someone else’s Diary - use the @ sign to see a list of the people available.
You can place Items in anyone else’s Diary. You will be able to view these Items later even if you don’t normally have the clearance to view the appropriate Person’s Diary, since you can view all Diary Items of which you are an Originator. These clearances are set up using the Personnel function in the Data Manager.
Status
This field defaults to the Status of the Company, although it can be altered without changing that of the Company. It can be used as a mark of progress through the sales or other processes. The wildcard can be used to bring up a selection list.
Originator
If this Diary Item has been created for you by someone else, possibly using the Message to Personnel function (see below), their initials will appear here. Otherwise, your initials will appear here.
Macro
You can use the Diary as a means of initiating macros. For example, you may have a macro to send letters, make a booking or record an order for Companies as they are entered. Enter the appropriate Macro Code here, or use a wildcard to bring up a list. If you have filled in a Time Do, the macro will begin at that time, if there are no other processes open.
Note that a Diary Item does not necessarily need a Company Code. You can therefore create Diary Items simply to initiate macros at certain times, for example to create a Nominal ledger Posting. Although not essential, it would be a good idea for an Action type MACRO to be set up and allocated to these Diary Items for clarity.
The Company, Contact, Order, Job, Product, Service Call and Booking codes within the Macro Diary item can optionally be filled in, and then used within an Evaluate Command in the Macro, by means of the following codes: ◊CompCode; ◊ContCode; ◊OrderCode; ◊JobCode; ◊ProdCode; ◊CallCode; ◊BookCode. The ◊ character is obtained using the
On the Access Rights screen of Personnel setup, there is a check box ‘Check Diary Macros and Messages’. If switched on, this user will always have an extra process (launched on startup) that periodically checks to see if there are any Macros in the Diary that need to be performed. If switched off, then Macros in the Diary for that user will simply be ignored.
Diary Macro Processes will only be launched if the user has no current processes (other than Palettes), a check for which is done approximately every 2 minutes. Once a Diary Macro Process has been started, whether it is interrupted by the user or not, the Diary will record it as Done, with a Result of OK and the Done Date and Time filled in appropriately.
Full details of the Macro facilities can be found in the Macros chapter in the Core Functions manual.
Action
The function of a Diary Item is essentially to remind you to carry out a certain task and, once you have done it, to provide a reminder of when you did it and what the result was. The Action Code is a code representing the task to be carried out. Examples might be C - Telephone Call, MLET - Mailing Letter etc. You should have already set up a complete set of Actions using the appropriate function in the Data Manager. Use the @ sign to list those available. Note that if you enter a code here that doesn’t exist yet, you will be offered the option of creating it, if your Personnel record has been granted appropriate privileges in the Data Manager. Do so only if you have made sure that a suitable Action doesn’t already exist.
Once you have entered an Action Code, default suggestions for the Action Description, Priority and Document Code will be brought in from the Data Manager Action record.
Action Description
You may type in as much or as little description as you like about the reason for the call. Note that in long ‘text’ fields such as this the <Return> key simply adds a new line to the description - <Tab> is required instead to move on to the next box.
If this Diary Item has been created using the Next Action function or by the Sequences companion volume, some text will automatically be placed in this field summarising the Diary Item from which it was created. Otherwise, if the Action record in the Data Manager has a suggested Default Description, that text will be brought in on entry of the Action Code.
To obtain a larger version of this field, ensure your cursor is within it and use the ‘Expand Text’ item on the Functions menu.
Document
If the Action Code were eg MLET (Write a letter) or MQTN (Write a quotation), you may specify here a code referring to the standard letter or document you wish to use as a template. Use the @ sign to list them. See the section below about the Documents menu for accompanying functions. A default code may be brought in when the Action Code is specified.
You can find all Standard letters by typing “S” or “s” in this field. This presents the list of Documents automatically sorted by Code, and can optionally be sorted by Heading. As an alternative to selecting all Standard Documents with the initial “S”, one can also search on, for example, “LET”, which brings up a list that shows all documents with this prefix, then click on the ‘Standard Only’ check box to reduce the list to just Standard Documents. Click on a line to select one. A final alternative is to type “S:LETCODE”. Enterprise 6 will remove the “S:” and search for “LETCODE”. “LETCODE” could, of course, be such as would find more than one document. In this case, the search is restricted to Standard Documents only.
Document Heading
When a Document Code is entered, this Heading is automatically taken from that stored for the Document itself. It can be modified if required.
Result
Fill in the Result when the Diary Item is completed, coded for analysis such as ‘OK’ - Completed, ‘CANC’ - Cancelled etc. When you type it in, the Date Done defaults to the current date, and the Done check box turns on. Alternatively, switching on the Done check box or entering a Date Done causes the Result Code to default to ‘OK’.
When you click [√] to accept this Diary Item, the Sequences companion volume will check whether the Action and Result Code combination conform to a pre-set Sequence record (set up in the Data Manager). If so, Enterprise 6 will then take the appropriate action (such as creating a new Diary Item) as determined by the Sequence record. Please refer to the Sequences section of this manual for more information.
Result Description
Again, enter any text you like about the Result. Note that when you use the ‘Next Action’ function (see the section about the Functions menu below), the text entered here is transferred to the Action Description of the next item so that you don’t lose track of the sequence of events.
To obtain a larger version of this field, ensure your cursor is within it and use the ‘Expand Text’ item on the Functions menu.
Time Units
Once this Diary Item has been completed, the time spent achieving the Result should be entered here. If the Diary Item has a related Service Call or Job, they will be able to pick up this information for invoicing purposes. Note that Time Units, not Hours should be entered to this field. The Time Unit is defined in the Job Costing section of Preferences in the Data Manager volume. It will usually be an hour, but care must be taken to enter the correct figure or mistakes could occur.
Job/Stage
This is only available if the Job Costing Volume is installed. You may use this field to note that the Diary Item is relevant to a particular Job. If so, use the @ sign to list those available. The Job will automatically be filled in if you are entering items to the Diary via the View Diary Items menu item on the Job entry screen, if you have Entry Defaults switched on.
Booking
Only available if the Applicants Booking volume is installed. Type @ to see a list of available Booking codes, click to select one. Alternatively, the Booking Code will automatically be filled in if you are entering items to the Diary via the View Diary Items menu item on the Bookings entry screen, if you have Entry Defaults switched on. This field provides the link between the Diary and the Applicants booking volume.
Product
Each Diary Item can refer to a single product by using the code here, for example when logging enquiries. Use the @ sign to list Products, or the Group Code element if you know it. Thus COM or COM@ might bring up a list of different types of computer.
Order
A Diary Item may be relevant to an Enquiry or Sales Order. Use the @ sign to list Orders if you are unsure of the codes. The Order Code will automatically be filled in if you are entering items to the Diary via the View Diary Items menu item on the Sales Order entry screen, if you have Entry Defaults switched on.
Event
This is only available if the Events Manager volume is installed. A Diary Item may be relevant to an Event. Use the @ sign to list Events if you are unsure of the codes. The Event Code will automatically be filled in if you are entering items to the Diary via the View Diary Items menu item on the Event entry screen, if you have Entry Defaults switched on.
Call
Only available if the service centre volume is installed. Type @ to see a list of available call types. Alternatively, the Call Code will automatically be filled in if you are entering items to the Diary via the View Diary Items menu item on the Service Call entry screen, if you have Entry Defaults switched on. This field provides the link between the Diary and the service centre volume.
The ‘Calculate Labour’ function of the Service Call screen, when activated, will look for Diary Items carrying the same Call Code as the Service Call on screen and with the correct Service Labour Action. It will then calculate the number of Time Units recorded in those Diary Items and create a Charge Item appropriately. Enterprise 6 is informed which is the correct Service Labour Action in the Service section of Preferences.
Value
If the Action was, for example, TAPP - Appointment and the result was SALE, you can enter a Value amount to this field for Sales reporting. At other times and as a default, it is set to 1, since this allows Graphing of the Diary data, perhaps by Action or Result.
View Menu
As with all Entry screens, the View menu of ‘Enter Diary’ can be used to view or create items in related files related to the Diary Item being entered or viewed, providing you have access to the relevant volume. The View menu is one of the major methods used by Enterprise 6 to achieve full inter-volume integration.
For example, selecting ‘View Company’, if you have already specified a Company Code for the Diary item, you will be taken to the Company’s entry screen (See ‘Enter Companies’) for modifications or viewing. If no Company Code is specified, the function operates like ‘View Companies’, with the possibility of searching by more flexible criteria than the four-character Company Code.