Creating and Managing Activities

Activities are a feature in the Opportunities Interface that let you track the steps taken or planned towards an Opportunity as well as other day-to-day tasks. In this article, we’ll guide you creating and managing Activities.

Before taking a look at this article, read:

• Introduction to Activities and Activity Types

This article will cover:

• Creating an Activity
• Adding Multiple Activities
• Editing and Completing Activities
• Deleting an Activity
• Reporting on Activities

VIDEO: Jump ahead to our Spektrix Training: On-Demand video - Activities for a guided walkthrough of this process.

Creating an Activity

Activities are added in the Opportunities Interface in the Activities tab of the Pinboard.

TIP: Adding an Activity takes place in the Opportunities Interface. User Accounts will need the Opportunities User role. If you don’t have this user role, contact a Settings Administrator in your organization to edit your User Account and add the Opportunities User role.

In the Pinboard, click on the Activities tab with a checkmark icon to see an overview of the Activities assigned to you.

To add a new Activity, click the New Activity plus sign icon.

This will open the Activity Editor. Fill in the Activity Editor with the following information:

1. Subject (Required): Enter the name of the Activity. Make the subject clear and specific, for example, “Lunch with the Director of the Foundation.”
2. Notes: The large text field lets you enter notes to provide specific details for the Activity, for example, a brief agenda, discussion points, grant timeline or helpful context.
3. Date (Required): Enter the date of the Activity. For past Activities, this can be the date the Activity took place. For Activities in the future, this can be the due date.
4. Type (Required): Select an Activity Type from the dropdown list.
5. Priority (Required): Select a priority. The default priority is medium but you can choose low, medium or high.
6. Assignee (Required): Select the User assigned to this Activity. The default assignee is the User creating the Activity.
7. Completed: Check this box when the task has been completed. When creating Activities that have already taken place, you can immediately check this box.
8. Time and money spent: Click the plus symbol to display optional fields for Time Spent (in hours) and Cost of Activity to help measure return on investment (ROI).
   

   

9. Upload attachments: Click this button and follow the prompts to add any file attachments, with a maximum file size of 20MB. This can include grant applications, letters, etc. Attachments can be any file type as long as within the file size limit.

Adding a Customer and an Opportunity to the Activity

You can add a Customer and an Opportunity to an Activity.

Add a Customer and Opportunity

To add a Customer, search for the Customer in the People Dashboard. From the search results or from their Customer Record, drag and drop the person icon into the Activity.

You’ll be prompted to select an Opportunity:

• To add a Customer without an Opportunity, you can select Do not select an opportunity.
• If the Customer already has an Opportunity, you can select the Opportunity.
• You can also create a new Opportunity by clicking the Add New Opportunity button, which will take you to the New Opportunity Pop Up Screen.
• You can view and add closed Opportunities by checking the Show closed opportunities box.

Adding Organizations and Contacts

When adding an Organization to an Activity, as well as choosing an Opportunity, you also have the option to add one or more Contacts.

Click the Add Contact button under the Organization in the Activity. A pop-up will appear where you can add a Contact from the Organization’s Relationships. Click on the Contact to add to the Activity or Cancel to not add any Contact. You can repeat the process until all desired Contacts have been selected.

You can view the Contact’s Customer Record by clicking on their name. You can remove the Contact from the Activity by clicking the red X next to their name.

Adding Opportunities Directly

You can also add Opportunities directly into the Activity. From the Opportunities Dashboard or the Opportunities tab in the Customer Record, drag and drop the Opportunity into the Activity.

TIP: You can add more than one Customer and/or Opportunity to an Activity. For example, you may meet multiple Executives for a Corporate Sponsorship meeting. Drag and drop each of their Customer Records and/or Opportunities.

Including Time Spent

Time Spent boxes are included with each Activity.

You can also calculate Time Spent for each linked Opportunity and/or Customer. 

Below each Opportunity and/or Customer you’ll see a Time Spent box that can be expanded and edited.

You can enter the time and cost you have spent on each Opportunity/Customer related to this Activity. For example, you may have a video call with two members of a foundation and have a follow-up call with one of the members. You may want to calculate the time spent between the members accordingly.

Click Save to save the new Activity and keep the Activity open for further edits. Click Save & Close to save the new Activity and close the editor. Click Cancel to discard and not save the new Activity.

TIP: If you click Back or another tab in the Pinboard, the Activity will be unsaved but will still be available on the Activities Tab under Unsaved Activities.

Adding Multiple Activities

You can add multiple Activities for multiple Opportunities.

REMINDER: When you add Activities in bulk, the Opportunities will have identical Activities with the same details.

In the Opportunities Dashboard, click the Add multiple Activities button at the top right of the list of Opportunities.

The Add Activities for Multiple Opportunities screen will pop up.

Select the Opportunities to edit from the left by highlighting the Customer’s Name and clicking the > (right arrow) button.

TIP: You can exclude Opportunities by selecting Exclude the following opportunities from the dropdown on the right and moving the Opportunities you want to exclude from the left to the right.

TIP: The Opportunities you’ll see on the pop-up screen will include only the Opportunities available on the screen that you’re viewing in the Opportunities Dashboard. For example, if you filter all Opportunities to those assigned to you, the Opportunities available for selection will only include those assigned to you.

Once you’ve selected the Opportunities you want to add Activities to, click the Next button and add details to the following fields:

1. Subject
2. Date (Required)
3. Type (Required)
4. Priority (Required)
5. Assignee (Required)
6. Completed

Click the Finish button to make and save the updates. Click Back to reselect the Opportunities, or click Cancel to discard and not save any changes.

These Activities will be applied to all of the Opportunities you’ve selected. After you’ve updated them, you can edit the Activities individually.

TIP: You can also bulk add Activities when bulk creating Opportunities using a Customer List. For more information, read Bulk Creating Opportunities.

Recording Emails in Activities Using the Bcc Functionality

You can create new Activities from emails using the Bcc function. This works by sending an email from your own email account and including a Bcc to a specifically-created Spektrix email address.

The system will then automatically create a new Activity which will include the subject and body of the email. If the email recipient has a Customer Record using that email, the Activity will be attached to the Customer Record of the main email recipient.

For more information on setting up and using the Bcc functionality, read Automatically Record Emails in Activities Using the Bcc Functionality.

Editing and Completing Activities

After an Activity has been created, you can edit it with further details or mark it complete.

Select the Activity you would like to edit from wherever you can view it (except the Donor Profile Report). Click on the Activity to open it in the Pinboard. Click the Edit button in the top right corner of the Activity to make any changes.

You can then make any changes, check Completed or upload any attachments.

Add Opportunity

If the Activity is not yet associated with an Opportunity, you can edit the Activity to add an Opportunity. To do this, click Pick Opportunity.

If an Opportunity exists, the Select Opportunity pop-up will appear where you can select a new Opportunity. If an Opportunity doesn’t exist, the New Opportunity Pop Up Screen will appear.

You can also create a new Opportunity by clicking the Add New Opportunity button, which will take you to the New Opportunity Pop Up Screen. From here you can view and add closed Opportunities by checking the Show closed opportunities box.

Change Opportunity

You can change the Opportunity linked to the Activity. To do this, click Change Opportunity to change the Opportunity but keep the Customer linked to the Activity.

From here the Select Opportunity pop-up will appear where you can select a new Opportunity. You can also create a new Opportunity by clicking the Add New Opportunity button, which will take you to the New Opportunity Pop Up Screen. You can also view and add closed Opportunities by checking the Show closed opportunities box.

Delete Customers and Opportunities

Click the red x button to delete the Customer and Opportunity linked to the Activity. You can then add a new Customer and Opportunity to the Activity.

TIP: If you’d like to remove an Opportunity but keep the same Customer, you will need to delete both the Customer and Opportunity and re-add the Customer and select Do not select an opportunity.

Click Save or Save & Close to save the changes. Click Cancel to cancel any changes.

REMINDER: If changes are not saved or canceled and you navigate away from the Activity, the Activity will be considered an Unsaved Activity. The Activity may continue to report on information from its last Save.

Deleting an Activity

You can also delete an Activity.

Select the Activity you would like to delete from wherever you can view it (except the Donor Profile Report). Click on the Activity to open it in the Pinboard. Click the Edit button in the top right corner of the Activity. Click the Delete button in the lower left to delete the Activity. If opening an Activity with unsaved changes, you can click directly on the Delete button.

WARNING: Deleting an Activity is permanent and any record of the Activity won’t be found in Reports, Donor Profile Report or Timeline.

Reporting on Activities

You can track Activities with two Standard Reports, the Activities Report (detailed) and Activities Timeline with User breakdown (Excel - Formatted).

TIP: An Activities Report Type is also available for Custom Reports. Activities reports show a row for each Activity and for each link to an individual/organization.

• Activities Report (detailed)

• The Activities Report (detailed) groups Activities by due date (month) and complete/incomplete status. Includes information on Opportunities, Campaigns, Stages and Opportunity values.

  

• Activities Timeline with User breakdown (Excel - Formatted)

• The Activities Timeline with User breakdown Report is a Gantt chart grouped by Activity Type and linked record including user breakdown.

  

On-Demand Training Video - Activities

In this section of our Spektrix Training: On-Demand video on Fundraising and Opportunities, we cover Activities.

This chapter is a guided walkthrough of:

• What is an Activity
• Activity Types
• Creating an Activity
• Managing Activities
• BCC Email Activity

VIDEO TIP: With our Spektrix Training: On Demand videos- you can stop, restart or move to specific chapters. Click the CC option to turn on captions. Click in the Settings menu cog icon to control speed, captions and quality.

Further Reading

You now have the information you need to create Activities and link them to Customers and Opportunities. For more information on features in the Opportunities Interface, check the section on Donor Pipeline and Stewardship in the Support Centre.