How to Create an Activity Against a Customer | Latner Software Documentation

An Activity records an interaction with a customer - a site visit, a phone call, a quote follow-up - and creating one straight from the customer's record keeps that history where the rest of your dealings with them already live.

Overview

Your team already talks to customers all day. An Activity is how that conversation becomes something the next person can see.

Create an activity from any customer record with Options › Create Account Activity - the customer is filled in for you and can't be changed.
Log something that has already happened, or schedule something that still needs doing, by setting the Status.
Narrow it down with a Site, Contact, Opportunity, Sales Order, Rental Quote or Rental Contract - each of these only offers records belonging to that customer.
Assign a Sales Rep so the activity counts as their work, and tick Add to My Calendar to have the invite emailed out.
Completing an activity updates the Last Contacted Date on the customer, the contact and the site.
Every activity you create shows on the customer's Activities tab.

Before You Begin

You need two permissions and at least one activity type to choose from.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Create Activity permission	Security › Configuration - under the Sales module, Option permissions
Customers screen permission	Security › Configuration - under the Customers module, Screen permissions
At least one active Activity Type	Sales › Configuration › Activity Types

Activity Types under Sales › Configuration › Activity Types. Only types with a status of Active can be picked, and the Email Calendar Invite tick here sets the default for new activities of that type

Without the Create Activity permission the Create Account Activity option simply isn't in the customer's Options menu. If you can open the customer but can't see the option, that's the permission to ask for.

Creating the Activity

Step 1 - Open the customer

Go to Customers › Customers and select the customer you've been dealing with. The list opens filtered to Active customers, so clear the quick filters if you're looking for an inactive one.

The Customers list. The Active and Customer quick filters are on by default, so prospects and inactive accounts are hidden until you clear them

Step 2 - Choose Create Account Activity

On the customer record, select Options and then Create Account Activity. On the CRM, contact, opportunity, sales order, quote and contract screens the same option is simply called Create Activity - it opens the same form.

The customer's Options menu. Create Account Activity sits third, above Create Site and Create Contact

Step 3 - Check the Account and set the type

The Create Activity form opens with Account already filled in with the customer you started from. It's greyed out on purpose - an activity created this way always belongs to that customer. Pick your Activity Type and confirm the Due Date.

Activity Type (required) - only types with a status of Active are offered.
Due Date (required) - defaults to the current date and time in your branch's timezone.
Add to My Calendar - ticks itself on or off to match the activity type you chose. It's unavailable once the status is Completed.
Sales Rep - defaults to your own sales rep record if you have one. This is who the calendar invite goes to.

The Create Activity form as it opens from a customer. Account is pre-filled and read-only; every other linking field is still yours to fill in

Step 4 - Link the activity to the right records

The remaining lookups all filter themselves to the customer on the form, so you only ever see that customer's records. Fill in whichever apply - none of them are required.

Site - the customer site the interaction relates to. Only sites with a status of Active appear.
Contact - the person you dealt with. If they're not there yet, use Create New at the bottom of the search to add them without leaving the form.
Opportunity, Sales Order, Rental Quote, Rental Contract - link the activity to a specific piece of work, so it also shows against that record.

Then write the Activity Description. This is required, and it's what your colleagues actually read, so say what was discussed or what still needs doing.

A site visit filled in against the customer's Walkway Extension site and their contact Grant Smith

Step 5 - Set the status

Choose the Status that describes where the activity stands:

Not Started - the default. Something scheduled that hasn't happened yet.
In Progress - under way.
Completed - already done. Choosing this reveals a required Completed Date, pre-filled with the current date and time, and greys out Add to My Calendar (there's no point inviting someone to something that has already happened).

Setting the status to Completed adds the Completed Date field and disables Add to My Calendar

Step 6 - Save

Select Save. A confirmation message appears with a link straight to the new activity, and Latner then asks whether you'd like to create another one against the same customer - handy after a visit that produced two or three follow-ups. Choose No to finish.

After saving, Latner offers to open a fresh form against the same customer

After Creation

The activity appears on the customer's Activities tab, and on the detail page of any opportunity, sales order, quote or contract you linked it to.
Select the activity number to open it. Its General Details can be edited in place, and the Options menu lets you move it between statuses or choose Complete Activity.
Completing an activity - now or later - stamps the Completed Date and rolls the Last Contacted Date forward on the customer, the linked contact and the linked site, but only when this activity is more recent than what's already recorded there.
The Last Contacted Date is shown on the customer's CRM account record at Sales › CRM, and on the CRM Map the site's own Last Contacted Date is what colours a marker as recently visited.
If Add to My Calendar was ticked and the activity isn't Completed, the assigned Sales Rep is emailed a 30-minute calendar invite starting at the Due Date.

The customer's Activities tab, with the new site visit at the top of the history

The activity itself. Account Details on the right shows the customer, contact and any linked opportunity, order, quote or contract

The same customer's CRM account record - Last Contacted Date has moved to the date of the completed site visit

There's no option to delete an activity - it stays as a permanent record of contact. If one was logged in error, edit its details or change its status instead.

FAQs

Why is the Account field greyed out?

Because you started from a customer, so the activity belongs to that customer. If you need an activity against a different account, start from Sales › CRM instead, where the Account field is yours to choose.

The Activity Type I want isn't in the dropdown. Why?

Only types with a status of Active are offered. Types set to Inactive, and internal ones such as EzyCollect, are hidden. Ask an administrator to add or reactivate the type under Sales › Configuration › Activity Types.

Why can't I find the site or contact I'm after?

Those lookups only show records belonging to the customer on the form, and the Site search is limited to sites with a status of Active. If the contact simply doesn't exist yet, use Create New in the Contact search to add them without leaving the form.

What does Add to My Calendar actually do?

It emails a calendar invite - a 30-minute event starting at the Due Date - to the activity's Sales Rep, so set the Sales Rep before you tick it. The invite is sent when the activity is created, and only while the activity isn't Completed. The tick defaults to whatever Email Calendar Invite is set to on the activity type you chose.

I logged a call from last week. Why didn't Last Contacted Date change?

The Last Contacted Date only moves forward. If the customer, contact or site already has a later date recorded, backdating an activity leaves it alone.

Can I change an activity after saving it?

Yes. Open the activity and edit its General Details in place, or use the Options menu to choose Update to In Progress, Update to Not Started or Complete Activity. What you can't do is delete it.

Where else can I create an activity from?

The same form opens from the CRM account, account contact, lead, opportunity, sales order, rental quote and rental contract screens, and from the CRM Map and Mobile CRM. Wherever you start, that record is pre-filled and locked on the form.

Watch the Demo

Prefer to watch it? Step through the same flow here.