Automatically Group’em before they slip through the cracks!

Using the Groups feature in ACT! can be an effective way to review contacts that you have edited today. An edited ACT! contact is anyone that you have added information to, such as a new note, recorded an activity with, updated a field such as adding a zip code, or sent an email, for instance. At the end of the day or any time during the day you can quickly view a list of Contacts that you edited so far today.

You can create a Lookup of those contacts, or go directly to one of the contacts by clicking on the blue hyperlinked contact name.  To create a Current Lookup of all the contacts in the group, right click in the Groups Contacts Tab window.

If you are new to using ACT! Groups – view your Groups by clicking the Groups icon on the left side of the ACT! screen. Click the Act Groups button and view the group called “Contacts Edited Today”. Opps, you don’t have that Group to choose from do you, unless of course you have already created the group yourself. As an example you may already have several groups that are dynamically filled with contacts. ACT! 2007 databases and newer already have several groups such as “Recently Edited Contacts” and “Recently Added Contacts. The “Recently Edited Contacts” group is dynamically(automatically) filled with Contacts that have been edited in the last 30 days.

You can check to see if a rule is setup by clicking on Add/Remove Contacts button.  If you see a rule in the membership rule box you are looking at a Dynamic Group in Act. Members are automatically added and removed based on the rule. Members of groups are your contacts, which are people in your Act database.

You can create your own dynamic Act Groups based on what ever criteria your little heart desires. Contacts edited today, in the last 7 days, in the last 3 months, last year, or yesterday for example.

How To Make a Dynamic Membership Group
So let’s make that new Group “Contacts Edited Today”. Click on Groups then “New Group” from the Group menu. Now type in a name for your new group. In this example try “Contacts Edited Today”. Your group name is pretty descriptive so you probably don’t need to add a description, but there is a place for the description. Next, please notice the Tabs similar Tabs in the “View Contacts Window”. See the Groups “Contacts Tab”? Click on the Contact Tab to select it, and then click on Add/Remove Contacts button. You are now presented with a Window where you can create a rule for Dynamically adding and removing Contacts to this group. Act Groups go way back to Act 6 and before when we could manually add contacts, but since Act 2005 we can now add contacts dynamically. Click the “Edit Criteria” button, now we can add a rule to our Group. The Group Criteria window should now be open. In the Type: Box we want to see Contacts, in the “Field Name Box” click the down arrow and scroll until you see “Edit Date” field, in the “Operator” field select “Equal To (=)” and in the “Value” field select “Today”. Click “Add to List” and then click the “Preview Button”. If your formula is correct, and you have edited some contacts today, you will see some familiar names, at least I hope they are familiar names in the Preview Pane. Now you know how to create a Dynamic Group in Act.

Shared DB Tip: If you are using a shared database with other Act Users put your intials in front of your group names. Example “AGR-Contact Edited Today”.

Groups are listed in alphabetical order your groups would be grouped together starting by your intials. If you are sharing an Act database you will also need to add another rule to your group which would include the “Record Manager Field” or “Assigned Sales Person” field for instance. Skys the limit hope you found this information useful. Catch’em before they slip through the cracks. How do you use groups? What criteria do you use to automatically fill your Act Groups.

Tagged as: ACT Groups