Calendar

Your Redtail Calendar is most likely one of the areas you'll visit frequently within your database.  Below we'll provide a detailed explanation of all of the functionalities available on your Calendar within Redtail.  Quick links to each section are provided below:

Main Calendar Area
Calendar Navigator
Actions
Users
Types
Categories
Calendar Preferences 

Your primary Calendar is accessible from the Left Menu Bar within Redtail CRM: 

 

After clicking Calendar, dependent upon how you've set up your Site Preferences, you'll then see either a Day, Week or Month view of your Calendar.  The example below displays a partial Day view: 

This is the main body of your Calendar.  There is a menu above your Calendar with additional options which we'll look at later in this post.

Your Calendar has several navigation options directly above it:

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  The left/right arrows allow you to move forward or backward one Day, Week or Month at a time, dependent upon your current Calendar view on display.
  
  The "TODAY" button only comes into play if you are currently viewing a date range on the Calendar that doesn't include today's date.  Clicking it then refreshes your Calendar to the same type view (Day, Week, or Month) but to that particular view that includes Today's date.  As an example, if today were November 14, 2019 and you were currently looking at a Week view of December 16, 2019, clicking the "TODAY" button would carry you to a Week view of November 10, 2019 (week view always begins on Sunday). 
   
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   The DAY, WEEK and MONTH buttons allow you to quickly change the timeframe of your Calendar view.  Note: the Calendar has a memory feature built-in so that if you leave your Calendar and come back to it during the same login session you will be on the same view and day as you were when you last visited it.
   

 Now, let's take a look at the body of the calendar itself: 

Here, we are looking at a Day View for January 12, 2017 for database user Paul Cantrell (logged in as himself).   If you are looking at your own calendar, no name will display in parenthesis for activities that are only assigned to you, i.e. your activities will not display your name when logged in as yourself.  So, in the example above, the 11am Activity "Client Review" is assigned to Paul Cantrell only, while some of the other Activities throughout that day are also assigned to database users Jonathan Lethem and Ken Kesey. Let's take a look at what the same section of calendar might look like if Ken Kesey (who shares that 1:30pm Onboarding meeting with Paul Cantrell) were logged in looking at it: 

One item that might immediately jump out at you is that the color scheme is different when logged in as this user.

Color preferences for Activity Types are configurable for each user so, dependent upon how you set up your color preferences for your Activity Types, your calendar may look different from other users' calendars.

Your Calendar's default start and end times are also configurable so these may appear differently from other users.  

But, you should also see that, with the exception of the 1:30pm Onboarding Meeting which is also assigned to database user Paul Cantrell, the only activity assigned to Ken on this page is the 9:30am call to Bruce Wayne. Again, Ken's name doesn't show in parenthesis in that Activity because he is logged in as himself looking at this Calendar.

For now, note that prior to the timed portion of the Calendar there is a section for those activities that have been marked as All Day events.  While using the All Day designation for an item can mean that it will literally take up all of your day (Vacation Day, Conference, etc.), users also mark those items that don't necessarily have a specified time as All Day events, meaning they will get to them during the day as they can get to them.

You can also see at a glance whether or not an Activity has any Linked Contacts with a glance at your Calendar. For our example below, let's consider this section of Calendar: 

 

The first activity has five linked contacts, while the three others have one linked contact each.

If you click a Linked Contact's name from within the Calendar, you will be directed to their Contact Overview. If you click anywhere (other than the Linked Contact's name) inside an activity on the calendar, an Activity Details screen will open, allowing you to make edits to or complete the activity.  

You should also be aware that you can add activities directly from the calendar interface.  Just click anywhere within the Calendar and a "Create Activity" modal will open, preset with the date and time where you clicked on the calendar.  This will function the same as it does when you are adding an activity from elsewhere within your CRM:

 

If you want the full Activity Details screen, just enter a Subject  and then click the create & edit button in this modal and you can add everything you want. If all you need to enter can be entered within the modal itself, just enter your info and click create activity.

Finally, also note that you can drag and drop activities from one location on your Calendar to another, whether it be to another time on the same day or another day altogether.  To do so simply click the activity, drag it to its new location and release it.  

Now, let's take a look at the menu items above your Calendar.  

Calendar Navigator

First, you'll see your Navigate menu which, when clicked, will display a mini-Calendar you can move through to select a specific date for viewing on your main Calendar: 

The Navigator allows you to quickly move to other dates.  Once you've moved within the Navigator to the Month and Year you want to view, just click the specific date you want to see.  As with the "TODAY" button above the Calendar, this will open up that date from your Navigator within the current view (Day, Week or Month) that you're using with your Calendar.   

Actions

Next, you'll see your Actions menu: 

Change Colors - Instructions for using this Action to change different Calendar items' colors can be found here.

Show / Hide All Day Events - If you only want to see your timed calendar items, you can select Hide All Day Events.  You can then click Show All Day Events to restore your All Day items.

Show / Hide Completed Activities - by default your Completed Activities will not display on your Calendar.  If you would like to display them, just click Show Completed.  Then to remove them from display again click Hide Completed.  Also, if you click on the subject line of a Completed Activity on display here, you can restore the Activity from the Actions widget on its Activity Details page.

Show / Hide Client Reviews - by default Client Reviews will not display on your Calendar.  If you would like to display them, just click this Action.  Then to remove them from display again click Hide Client Reviews.  Note: Client Review Reminders are also available on the Reminders tab of your Today's Overview page.

Show / Hide Seminars - Selecting this option will display any Seminars for the date(s) you are looking at.  These will display in the All Day area.

Show / Hide Workflow Target Dates - if you would like to see Workflow Target Dates displayed on your Calendar, you can select this action.  You can select Show/Hide Workflow Target Dates again to hide them from view on your Calendar.  

Show / Hide Workflow Tasks - if you would like to see any Workflow Tasks you currently have due, you can select this action.  Any Workflow Tasks due for you will show up in the All Day area of your Calendar. You can click any of these to go to the Workflow area for the contact to whom the Workflow is attached.  You can select Show/Hide Workflow Tasks again to hide them from view on your Calendar.  Note: Workflow Task Reminders are also available from your Today's Overview.

Show / Hide Client Birthdays - Selecting this option will display any contact Birthdays for the date(s) you are looking at.  These will display in the All Day area.

Show / Hide Client Marital Anniversaries - Selecting this option will display any Wedding Anniversaries for the date(s) you are looking at.  These will display in the All Day area.

Show / Hide Holidays - Selecting this option will display any Holidays for the date(s) you are looking at.  These will display in the All Day area.

Show / Hide Weekends - this controls whether or not Saturday and Sunday are displayed on your Calendar.

Subscribe to iCal feed - more information on using this option is available here.

Print Calendar - this will download a .pdf file of your current view of your Calendar, suitable for printing. Note: when printing a Week View of your Calendar, you won't see any more than three items across in any given row due to space limitations. This is why we also include a list view on the next page, in order to make sure that you still see those items over three on those occasions where those exist.

Users

Next, you'll see your Users menu: 

 

This menu allows you to choose whose Calendar you are viewing. You can search for specific database users, use the Select All option to select all users, the Me option to select only your Calendar, or you can click beside individual database users to handpick whose Calendar items you would like to view. 

Types

Next is your Types menu: 

 

Activity Types allows you to choose which Activity Types you want to view on your Calendar. 

Categories

This box displays all of your activity Categories, which can be assigned to activities when you create or edit them: 

 

Categories allows you to choose which Activity Categories you want to view on your Calendar.

Calendar Preferences

You can set certain preferences for your Calendar under Manage Your Account —> Change Site Preferences in the Activity Management section: 

Activity Management preferences all apply to working with your main Calendar in Redtail. Your options here are:

• Default to Create All Day Events can be set to Yes or No. If you set this to Yes, when you create an Activity, it will automatically be set as an All Day Event unless you edit it to reflect a specific time.  Note: if you have this set to Yes, the setting will be overridden if you click within your Calendar to add an activity.  In those cases, the time for the activity will be set to the time period in which you clicked to bring up the Add Activity dialog.
• Default Activity Type allows you to choose which of your Activity Types will populate that field by default when creating an Activity. Of course you can edit this during the creation process. But, if you find that you most frequently create activities with a Type of Task, setting that as your default Activity Type can save a little time. You can see this post for instructions on how to add new Activity Types to your database.
• You can set your Default Calendar View to Day, Week or Month.
• You can set your Default Calendar Start of Week to any day of the week you would like.
• You can set your Default Calendar Start and End Times to your desired times.
• You can set your Default Calendar Time Slots to 15, 30 or 60 minute slots.
• Default to Show Completed Activity can be set to Yes or No. If set to Yes, Completed Activities will still show up on your main Calendar. If you set this to No, they will not. You can temporarily override either setting from the Calendar page itself by clicking on Show Completed or Hide Completed in the Actions menu.
• Default to Show Client Reviews can be set to Yes or No. If you set this to Yes, your Client Reviews will show up on your Calendar. This setting can be temporarily overridden from your Actions menu above the Calendar.
• Default to Show Client Birthdays can be set to Yes or No. If you set this to Yes, your Client Birthdays will show up on your Calendar. This setting can be temporarily overridden from your Actions menu above the Calendar.
• Default to Show Client Marital Anniversaries can be set to Yes or No. If you set this to Yes, your Client Marital Anniversaries will show up on your Calendar. This setting can be temporarily overridden from your Actions menu above the Calendar.
• Default to Show Seminars can be set to Yes or No. If you set this to Yes, your Seminars will show up on your Calendar. This setting can be temporarily overridden from your Actions menu above the Calendar.
• Default to Show Workflow Tasks can be set to Yes or No. If you set this to Yes, your Workflow Tasks will show up on your Calendar. This setting can be temporarily overridden from your Actions menu above the Calendar.
• Allow iCal Access provides you with a means of syncing your Redtail Calendar to Google Calendar or your iCal program. More information is available here.