🔵 Calendar Autopilot using CloudExtend
With the release of the Calendar Autopilot, there is no need to associate with NetSuite manually.
Creating events in Outlook will effortlessly sync with NetSuite in real-time. No more selecting records or worrying about duplicates.
Once configured, events in Outlook will automatically synchronize to NetSuite, whenever there are updates, deletions, and declines with the event in Outlook including changes in the attendee list, time date, or agenda, all of those will be reflected in NetSuite.
For Outlook Events with attendees, CloudExtend will sync the event to all relevant entity records in NetSuite. The order of preferences followed while searching for entities in NetSuite is as follows:
Employee > Contact > Customer > Vendor > Lead> Prospect > Partner > Job
Users can still manually associate the same event with another contact or transaction record.
💡 Note:
Go to your Outlook Calendar and open the event from there. Calendar sync works in Edit Mode and Read Mode of Event.
Calendar sync is disabled in Compose mode when Event AP is enabled as we would not get the event details while the user is composing the event.
How Manual Calendar Sync Works when Calendar Autopilot is Enabled
Having the capability to save events automatically and manually is a game-changer!
The problem we had before is when a user has an Event where Autopilot has been enabled, the event will be showing in NetSuite in a few seconds but if the same user, uses the Outlook add-in and manually associates the same event to a different Contact or Transaction record, this event is created again in NetSuite - making it appear twice in the NetSuite calendar.
To prevent the duplicate event creation, we came up with the solution below!
Maintain the Attendee list in NetSuite for Each Event
Maintain the Attendee list in NetSuite for Each Event
CloudExtend Attendees tab
This will have the attendee email, associated entity
Synced by user custom field
Manually associated entity
Change to the external Id
Change to the external Id
The external Id has been updated where the user details have been removed so that it can be used to uniquely identify whether the event was synced manually or by Autopilot.
💡 Note:
External Ids are backend identifiers used by CloudExtend when emails or events sync to NetSuite
Show Associated Records in Add-in
Show Associated Records in Add-in
Show all attendees and any other records that were manually associated.
Show Warning in the Portal when User is Enabling Event Autopilot
Show Warning in the Portal when User is Enabling Event Autopilot
Show a warning to the admin in the subscription portal when they enable Event Autopilot. If users in your org need to mnaully associate events they should use the latest version of the CloudExtend App (as of February 2024 this is our beta app which users can switch to by clicking "try new version" in the app. Failure to use the latest app may cause duplicated.
Disable Manual Event Association in compose mode when Event Autopilot is enabled
Disable Manual Event Association in compose mode when Event Autopilot is enabled
When the Event Autopilot is enabled, we took the precaution of disabling the manual associating feature in Compose mode to prevent duplicate entries in the NetSuite calendar. To manually associate the event simply open it after saving it.
If this precaution is not in place when a user tries to compose an event in Compose mode then later save the event, the event Autopilot will run in the background and after the event has been sent and create a duplicate.
Calendar sync is disabled in Compose mode when Event AP is enabled as we would not get the event details while the user is composing the event.
🔵 Manually Saving Events to Entities
If a user tries to associate an event to any entity record, that record will be added as an attendee and a duplicate will not be created.
If a user tries to associate it with a Contact, the Contact field in Related Records will be updated along with the Company.
🔵 Manually Saving Events to Transactions
If a user tries to associate an event to 1 transaction, the transaction and company field in Related records would be updated.
If a user tries to associate an event to more than one transaction, duplicates would be created as NetSuite itself does not allow more than one entry in the transaction field.
🔵 Manually Saving Events to Support Cases
If a user tries to associate an event with 1 support case, the support case field and company in Related records would be updated.
If a user tries to associate an event to more than one support case, duplicates would be created as NetSuite itself doesn’t allow more than one entry in the transaction field.
💡 Note:
In cases where a user attempts to link an event to more than one contact, transaction, or support case, duplicates will be created. However, in an upcoming update, we will address this issue to ensure that when the same event is updated, duplicates will no longer be created.
Shared Association Feature for Calendar Autopilot
Associations to NetSuite records when done by you or another user CloudExtend user within the organization will be showing in the application as well. The purple indication means someone associated the event with NetSuite so no need to do any linking.
If both users, A and B are invited to an event, and B manually links the event to a record in NetSuite, when A views the event in Outlook it will show a purple indication to signify that the event has an existing association.
If A and B were invited to an event, and the event was synced via Event Autopilot, when either A or B logs into the application and checks the event in Outlook, users would see the AP icon on the associated records.
REQUIREMENTS TO ENABLE CALENDAR AUTOPILOT
A subscription to the Enterprise edition is required
Additionally, your organization must subscribe to Calendar Autopilot separately
Advanced CALENDAR AUTOPILOT feature is currently FREE through October 1st, 2024. Learn about the fees associated here!
Admins should install the CloudExtend SuiteApp and add users to the subscription portal.
Check out the guide here! 📅