CRM tasks

CRM tasks are a special type of tasks that help to organize the work of sales managers with leads, deals, companies, and so on. Any task associated with sales, for example, making a call, holding a meeting, sending an email, organizing a webinar, etc. — can be scheduled and viewed in BRIX. You can monitor all stages of working with an app item and view all completed and active tasks.

CRM tasks can be categorized into:

• Preset. Tasks available in the system by default: Call, Email, Meeting, and Webinar. They can be scheduled directly from a lead, deal, company, or contact page. The system administrator can change the task type settings: define the name, fields, and buttons, and make such tasks available to other system apps.
• Custom. Additional CRM tasks added to the company by the administrator.

Preset and custom CRM tasks can be assigned manually or in a business process. Assigned tasks are displayed on the page of the associated item, in the employee's personal calendar, and in the Tasks workspace.

The assignment and execution of preset CRM tasks are recorded in the system by default and added to the activity log for a contact. This helps easily track sales reps' interactions with clients. This information is also used to determine a client's readiness to purchase, i.e., their nurturing stage. Data recording can be enabled for custom tasks.

You can also configure event processing in CRM tasks so that specific actions are automatically triggered when a task is assigned, modified, canceled, or completed. For example, after sending an email, you can assign a manager a task to review its details.

How to assign a CRM task manually

There are two ways to create a CRM task:

1. On the page of the app item for which CRM task creation is available, click the +Task button.
2. In Tasks > CRM tasks, click +Task. If the Calendar view is active, double-click on the cell with the task execution start date.

In the window that opens, specify the parameters of the new CRM task:

1. When creating a CRM task, select an app in the Tasks workspace, such as Deals, and specify the app item the task is associated with.
2. Select the task type from the drop-down:

The task’s name is generated automatically. You can edit it.

3. Enter information about the task. Please note that the list of available options may be different depending on the task type.

• Description. Add a detailed description of the task to show the goals of the call, meeting, etc.
• Start date*, Complete by*. Set the deadline for the task. After the deadline, the task will become overdue.
• Executor*. By default, the current user is assigned as responsible for the task, but another employee can be specified.
• Priority. Set the urgency of the task. Choose an option from the list or select the Number option to enter any value, for example, from 1 to 100. Employees will be able to find incoming tasks with high priority and work with them first.
• Show in the shared calendar. When this option is disabled, the task will not be displayed in the personal calendars of employees.
• Contact to call/To/External participants. Specify the client from the Contacts app with whom you need to communicate or for whom you are organizing a meeting or a webinar. To quickly find a contact, start typing their name in the field. The drop-down list will display:
  • For a lead or deal, contacts linked to the company that is indicated on the lead or deal page. If the company is not specified, the search is performed across all contacts.
  • For a company, contacts linked to this company. If there are no related contacts, the search is performed across all items in the Contacts app.

To choose from the full list of contacts and use the search by parameters, click on the magnifying glass icon.

For Meeting and Webinar type tasks, you can also specify the following information:

• Participants. Specify employees who will participate in the task. People you select will receive a notification in the #Activity stream about participating in the webinar or meeting. The assigned task will be displayed in the Assisting section, as well as in the personal calendar of the employee.
• Send notifications by email. Enable this option so that everyone working with the task, including external participants, receives a notification about it by email. The email will contain an .ics file with all the details of the event. Notifications will be sent to the email addresses specified on the contact page in the Work email field and in the user profiles.
• Place. This option is only available for the Meeting type task. Specify the location.
• Link. This option is only available for the Webinar type task. Insert a link related to the webinar, for example, an invitation link.

4. After filling out the fields, click Save. If there is an overlap between the task you created and another event from the user’s calendar, you will see a notification.

How to assign a CRM task during a process

By default, the business process designer includes activities for preset tasks: Task “Call”, Task “Meeting”, Task “Webinar”, and Task “Email”. When the administrator creates a custom task type, a graphical element with its name is automatically created.

To automatically assign a CRM task to a user during a process, the system administrator places the required activity on the diagram and configures its settings. Custom CRM task activities are configured in the same way as the blocks of preset CRM tasks.

Where CRM tasks are displayed

App item page

The new task immediately appears on the app item’s page. To make tasks easier to distinguish, calls, webinars, meetings, emails, and other types of CRM tasks have their own icons. Completed tasks are crossed out, and overdue ones are highlighted red.

Calendar

If the Show in shared calendar option is enabled when a task is created, it automatically appears in the responsible employee’s personal calendar. Both the employee and their manager can see it there.

The Meeting and Webinar type tasks are also shown in their participants’ calendars. This ensures that all tasks connected with clients can be viewed in one place.

You can select different calendar views and choose the one most convenient for you.

By clicking on a task’s name in the calendar, you will immediately open its page. There you can, for example, mark the task as completed or edit its data.

Tasks workspace

CRM tasks are also displayed in the My tasks list of the user assigned as the responsible employee. Users specified as the tasks’ participants will see the task in the Assisting section.

You can search by CRM tasks in the Tasks workspace. To find all tasks of a specific type assigned to you, open the search by parameters window. In the Associated object field, select Business process, specify the task’s type in the Business process field, and click Search.

You can also configure CRM tasks to be displayed separately from other tasks assigned to you. To do this, in the user profile settings:

1. Enable the Show CRM tasks separately from others option. In the left menu of the Tasks workspace, the CRM tasks section will appear. It includes all tasks specified in the CRM task type settings.
2. Select which task deadlines should be included in the counter next to the CRM Tasks section.
   

Please note that if a regular Task is created from a CRM app item page, it will not appear in the CRM Tasks section and will be available in the My Tasks section.

You can choose one of the following view options for CRM Tasks: 

• Table. You will see the name, type, and due date of the task as well as the app item the task is associated with.
• Calendar. Tasks will be placed in calendar cells, and you will be able to see their start and end dates as well as their name.
• Task list. Tasks will be displayed with a list of executors scheduled for a specific time during the day, week, or month.
• Kanban board. CRM tasks are divided into columns:

• • Earlier. All pending tasks assigned to the user before the current date.
  • Today. All tasks set for the current date.
  • Tomorrow. Tasks that must be completed the next day after the current date.
  • Week. Tasks that must be completed within seven days from the current date. Tasks for Today and Tomorrow are not displayed here.
  • Later. Tasks that must be completed within more than eight days from the current date.

In the task columns, tasks are automatically sorted by their start time: tasks with the closest planned completion date will be displayed at the top of the column.

You can reschedule a task by dragging it to another column. Information about the rescheduling is recorded on the task page in the associated activity stream. Please note that it is not possible to move tasks to the Earlier column.

To change the display, use the switch in the upper right corner of the task page.