Auto-Enter Future Date

[puma55]

trying to find a way to auto-enter a future date upon creation

example: client not only wants to track a creation date of the customer record but also wants to contact them in 3months and then again in 6 months

my thought was to have auto-complete fields set 3 and 6 months out and then have a log on script remind them off a range of those date fields in case it happens to land on a weekend or holiday

have a radio button for yes or no as far as have been contacted and then omit in the search

any better thoughts or could someone please explain the date/calc function a little further

thank you in advance for your time

[LaRetta]

I would suggest a related table called FollowUps instead. Each customer contact is a record. So you add a record for the next upcoming contact. You can adjust the 'date assigned' if need be and it can remain 'overdue' until complete and it allows additional information, such as what was discussed, who contacted the customer, and the followup can be set (by creating a new record) immediately when that one is flagged complete. In this way, customer contacts becomes your team's Things To Do.

You can have a portal on your main menu and, as customer's follow-up dates comes due, they will appear in the portal automatically and once checked as 'complete' they will disappear. Of course you can search as well to produce a list for printing.

ADDED: Also, puma55, it provides a trail of activity for the customer ... who contacted them and why, what was their energy and input. You can even chart sales versus followups to determine how well each sales rep is doing. Your data can tell you whether frequency of contact should be increased or decreased as well. By keeping each 'action' as a record, it provides invaluable information. :^)

Edited January 16, 2012 by LaRetta

[puma55]

laretta

thank you first off...

im looking to stay much simpler... just looking for some help in the date functions of calculations. is there a way to add (+) time in the calculations?

ex

i already have a creation date field set up

in the auto-complete calculations i want something like this :

Creation_Date + (90 days)

------------------------------------------------------------

the end user is below novice in all computer areas... simple simple

thx

[LaRetta]

No problem ... try:

Creation_Date + 90

... adding a number to a date adds days. Adding a number to a time or timestamp adds seconds. :^)

[puma55]

i thought i had tried that... that worked thank you

[Lee Smith]

Automatic message

This topic has been moved from "Database Schema & Business Logic → Custom Functions" to "Database Schema & Business Logic → Calculation Engine (Define Fields)".