Transferring calendar items between Outlook and Autotask

Configuration

When you install the Autotask MS Outlook plug-in, calendar integration is initially disabled. For information on how to enable and configure calendar integration, refer to Calendar tab.

General principles

The following general principles apply to calendar item transfers:

  • The Outlook calendar is considered the user’s private calendar, and only calendar items that are explicitly and manually transferred to Autotask will be shared with the Autotask Calendar.
  • Once an Outlook calendar item has been sent to Autotask, Autotask is considered to be the master database, and changes made in Autotask will be synced to Outlook. The exception are recurring Outlook appointments.
  • If changes are made in Outlook, they must be manually synced. Click Send to Autotask > Calendar Items, and update the master calendar in Autotask, otherwise the next GET will override the Outlook calendar with outdated data.
  • You cannot create new Autotask recurring appointments in Outlook. You can only send recurring appointments created in Outlook to Autotask. Refer to Sending Outlook calendar items to Autotask.
  • Service Calls cannot be created as an Outlook Calendar Item first. There simply is no equivalent in Outlook to a Service Call (which is the calendar item part) that contains work assignments (tickets or tasks). The Service Call calendar item that is displayed on the Outlook calendar is simply the schedule info, location, and the ticket and task information entered as plain text in the Calendar Item description field (identical to the info that is displayed when you hover over a Service Call item in the Autotask Calendar.)
  • If a Service Call is deleted in Autotask, it is also deleted from Outlook the next time a GET is triggered.

Comparison of calendar items in Outlook and Autotask

In Outlook, Appointments are activities that you schedule in your calendar that do not involve inviting other people or reserving resources.

A Meeting is an appointment you invite people to or reserve resources for. You can create and send meeting requests and reserve resources (a room, computer, or any equipment needed at a meeting) for face-to-face meetings or for online meetings. When you create a meeting, you identify the people to invite and the resources to reserve, and you pick a meeting time. Responses to your meeting request appear in your Inbox. You can also add people to an existing meeting or reschedule a meeting.

An Event is an activity that lasts 24 hours or longer. Examples of an event include a trade show, a vacation, or a seminar. Usually, an event occurs once and can last for one day or several days, but an annual event, such as a birthday or anniversary, occurs yearly on a specific date. Events and annual events do not occupy blocks of time in your calendar; instead, they appear in banners.

Any item type can also be set up as a Recurring item in Outlook.

In Autotask, Appointments are time slots scheduled for non-company related activities such as meetings or personal appointments.

The other Autotask calendar items do not have direct equivalents in Outlook, because they involve additional Autotask entities:

  • To-Dos and Notes are used to schedule and track non-billable company or sales activities in the CRM module, and are always related to an Autotask company. Only users with the required CRM security level permissions can create a to-do. A user must have access to the CRM module to be assigned to a to-do.
  • Service Calls are a little more complex than Appointments or to-dos, which consist of one item being scheduled. A Service Call is a time reservation on the Calendar or Dispatch Calendar for a specific customer that can contain multiple issues or agenda items, each represented by a task or a ticket.

NOTE  Service calls from Outlook cannot be sent to Autotask; therefore a Service Call must be edited from within Autotask. Refer to Creating new Autotask calendar items from Outlook for more detailed information.

The only recurring calendar items generated in Autotask are recurring Service Calls, which can be created for recurring tickets. Autotask will, however, display recurring appointments transferred from Outlook.

For an in-depth description of Autotask calendar items, refer to Adding and managing calendar items.

Transfer options

NOTE  When you initiate an action that causes you to access Autotask, you will need to authenticate, unless you are already logged into Autotask on the same device.

NOTE  Calendar items must be manually transferred to Autotask. There is no setting that will effect an automatic transfer.

To transfer Outlook calendar items to Autotask, do the following: 

  1. Select one or many (press the CRTL key to multi-select) Outlook calendar items.
  2. In Outlook, select the Autotask menu.
  3. On the Autotask menu, from the Autotask group, select More > Send Calendar Items.

Depending on your Outlook security settings, you may see an MS Office Security Warning.  Check Allow Access and click Yes.

  1. The Calendar Item Mapping page appears.

  1. Accept or change the default Autotask Calendar Item Type.
  • If you selected To-Do for any items, you must also select the Autotask company Name the To-Do will be associated with.
  • If you selected To-Do for any items, the default Action Type configured on the Calendar tab of the Options window will be displayed, but can be edited. Refer to Calendar tab.

NOTE  For recurring Outlook appointments, the item type is set as Appointment and cannot be changed.

  1. Click Save to close this window and complete the transfer.

Items transferred for the first time will be added to the Autotask calendar, and an Autotask ID number will be added to the item in Outlook.

If an item is being re-sent, the item type and company (if applicable) will pre-populate on the Calendar Item Mapping page, and the item will be updated on the Autotask calendar.

Outlook fields will be mapped to Autotask as shown in the following table.

Outlook Appointment, Meeting, or Event Autotask To-Do Autotask Appointment
Subject --- Appointment Name. Private Outlook appointments will appear with the name "Appointment".
Location --- ---
Label --- ---
Start/End Time Start/End Time

Appointment Start/End Date & Times

NOTE  While not a mandatory field in Autotask, Start Time and End Time is required for calendar synchronization for calendar items such as Time Off or Vacation.
All Day Event Will block out entire day Will block out entire day
Reminder --- ---
Show time as --- ---
Description Description Appointment Description
To prevent the Outlook description from displaying in the Autotask calendar, set the Outlook appointment to Private.
Contacts --- ---
Categories --- ---
Logged In User --- Resource

IMPORTANT  When you send Outlook Meetings to Autotask, only your own calendar will be updated, not the calendars of the other invitees.

For detailed information on managing single and recurring appointments on the Autotask calendar, refer to Adding and managing appointments. For information on managing To-Dos, refer to Adding and managing to-dos.

Recurring Outlook items that are sent to Autotask are identified with a unique occurrence identifier and a series identifier. When additional occurrences are added to the Autotask calendar with subsequent transfers, the later occurrences will be linked in Autotask to previously sent occurrences of the same series.

Since recurring appointments can only be sent to Autotask (no GET) all edits should be made in Outlook. Any updates made in Autotask will not be reflected in Outlook.

Any deletions made in either Outlook or Autotask will not be reflected in the other program. Therefore, deletions need to be done manually in both places. The recurring items series identifiers in both programs do make the deletion of one or all instances of the recurring item an easy process.

To manually pull Autotask calendar items to Outlook do the following: 

  1. On the Autotask menu in Outlook, go to Autotask group > More > Get Calendar Items.
  2. Subject to your configuration settings, Autotask will update Outlook with: 
  • New calendar items (to-dos or notes, appointments, and service calls) that were created in Autotask and were not previously downloaded to Outlook.
  • Changes made in Autotask to existing calendar items that also exist in Outlook (were previously downloaded from Autotask or created in Outlook and sent to Autotask). The data from Autotask (the master database) will always override the information in Outlook.
  • Calendar items that were deleted in Autotask and also existed in Outlook will be deleted from Outlook.
  • Only Calendar Items scheduled during the user-defined time window (the Get Past Calendar Items and Get Future Calendar Items fields on the Options > Calendar tab) will be added or updated.

NOTE  Recurring appointments created in Outlook and transferred to Autotask are NOT updated. Deletions and changes to these must be made in Outlook.

  1. Autotask calendar items are mapped to Outlook as follows:
Autotask Calendar Outlook Calendar
To-Dos  
company/Contact Name Added to Subject line
Opportunity Name Not mapped
Action Type Added to Subject line
Assigned To Not mapped
Start/End Dates and Times

Start/End Times

NOTE  While not a mandatory field in Autotask, Start Time and End Time is required for calendar synchronization for calendar items such as Time Off or Vacation.
Description Description
Appointments  
Resource none
Appointment Name Subject Line
Appointment Start/End Dates and Times Start/End Times
Appointment Description Description
Service Calls  
company Name Subject Line is Service Call: company Name
Service Call Start/End Dates and Times Start/End Dates and Times
Description On top of Description Page with header "Service Call Description:"
Tickets/Tasks Description Page followed with statement: Any changes made to service call information in this Outlook calendar item will not be returned to Autotask. To make changes to the service call or the tickets contained therein, use Autotask.

NOTE  If an existing item is being updated from Autotask, Outlook's Subject, Description, and Start/End Dates and Times will be updated appropriately.

Working in Outlook, you are able to add new calendar items to Autotask without separately logging into Autotask. To add new calendar items from inside Outlook, do the following:

  1. In Outlook, go to Autotask > Add to Autotask > More > Appointment (To-Do, Service Call).
  1. The Autotask New Appointment, New To-Do, or New Service Call) page will open.
  2. Complete all required fields. Refer to Adding and managing appointments, Adding and managing to-dos, and Adding and editing service calls.

The new calendar item is added to Autotask, and an automatic Get Calendar Items from Autotask process will be triggered. All Autotask calendar items that match the current filtering settings on the Options > Calendar tab will be updated from Autotask to Outlook.

The field mapping is as follows:

Autotask Calendar Outlook Calendar
Appointments
Resource none
Appointment Name Subject Line
Appointment Start/End Dates and Times Start/End Times
Appointment Location none

Appointment Description

NOTE  When you transfer Appointments from Outlook to Autotask, the appointment created in Autotask automatically displays any notes or other text added to the details area of the Outlook appointment. To prevent this information from appearing in the Autotask calendar, set the Outlook appointment to "Private".

Description

 
To-Dos  
company/Contact Name Added to Subject line
Opportunity Name Not mapped
Action Type Added to Subject line
Assigned To Not mapped
Start/End Dates and Times Start/End Times
Location none
Description Description
Service Calls  
Company Name Subject Line is Service Call: Company Name
Service Call Start/End Dates and Times Start/End Dates and Times
Description On top of Description Page with header "Service Call Description:"
Location The address of thecompany associated with the Service Call.
Tickets/Tasks Description Page followed with statement: Any changes made to service call information in this Outlook calendar item will not be returned to Autotask. To make changes to the service call or the tickets contained therein, use Autotask.