BigContacts includes a full featured group calendar. It is designed to make it easy to track your meetings as well as the events for everyone on your team.
You can determine whether or not you want the meeting reminder featured activated - based on how you personally prefer to handle your meetings. You will determine three things in setting up this feature:
Do you want the meeting reminder feature on or off?
How far in advance do you wish to have the system begin reminding you?
Do you want the reminders to repeat?
(The system can be set to remind you in as little as 5 minutes to as long as 120 minutes in advance of your meeting.)
After these settings are determined, the calendar will "default" to this configuration for every meeting that is scheduled, UNLESS you choose otherwise. When scheduling a meeting you will have the option to adjust any of these three settings.
For example, you may NOT want a reminder for certain meetings. Or you may want to be reminded further in advance for one meeting or another. And finally, you may not want to get a repeating reminder for a certain meeting.
Views
You can see your calendar in four different views - One-Day, Seven-Day, 31-Day and 31-Day Group. There are tabs on the calendar to allow you to easily switch between views. While on any of the views, if you click on a date, you will be taken to the one-day view for that date. From the one-day view you can easily schedule meetings and events.
1 day view
You can schedule meetings by selecting any time slot that is open. After you click on the open slot a detailed scheduler will open up that will allow you to enter the details of the meeting. Meetings can be scheduled to recur in various intervals and for varying lengths of time. Any meeting that is scheduled as recurring will have a circular arrow next to it.
When looking at your schedule you can hover over the "I" button for a quick description/ detail of the meeting. Next to this button you notice an icon for a calendar. Clicking this icon will update your meeting in Outlook. You can click on the contact name to be taken directly to the contact record. You can hover over this icon to view the details of how often and for how long this event recurs.
On the right hand side of the calendar you will notice an "x". This allows you to delete a meeting from your calendar. It the meeting is a recurring meeting, you will see two "x" symbols. You can choose to delete just that meeting OR the entire sequence of meetings form you calendar.
At the bottom of the 1 day view, you will see "view 24 hours". You can select this to view the entire day. In the "my account" tab, you can select "my calendar customizations" to determine the default hours you want to appear on your calendar and the default view. (1, 7, 31, 31 group) These settings will appear by default every time you go to this section.
7 day view
This will allow you to see an entire week at a time and to move back or forward one week at a time by using the arrows at the top of the page. You can click on a given day to be taken to the 1 day view for scheduling a meeting.
You can select any given contact to be taken directly to their contact record. At the top of the page, you will notice a print icon that will allow you to print a hardcopy of your schedule.
At the top of the page, you will notice a print icon that will allow you to print a hardcopy of your schedule.
Team
On each of the views, you can see anyone on your team's calendar. Each of your team members is listed along with a button. By clicking on the button you see their calendar. For example, if you are on the one-day view, and you click on another team member, you will see their calendar for the day and you can schedule a meeting for them.
Scheduling Meetings
You can easily schedule meetings and events right on the one-day view. There are boxes shown for each available time slot during the day. Clicking on a box next to a time slot brings up a number of scheduling options. You can type in the name of a contact and it will search your contact list for a matching contact. Click on one of the names and it will link this meeting with that contact - and show that meeting in that contact's history. If the meeting is not related to a contact, you can type in anything here, such as "Staff Meeting".
You can add a subject for the meeting, a location, the specific time, a long description and a list of attendees from your team who will attend. You can add default subjects and locations on the Admin page. These are then listed below where you would type in the subject and location. Then, you only need to click on a subject or location - you don't have to type it in each time. When you schedule a meeting you will see a list of each of your team members. There are checkboxes next to each of them to allow you to select specifically who on your team will attend the meeting. This meeting will be on the calendar for each member of your team that you select. This way, you can easily schedule meetings for other people on your team.
31 day view
This will allow you to see an entire month at a time and to move back or forward one month at a time by using the arrows at the top of the page. You can click on a given day to be taken to the 1 day view for scheduling a meeting. You can hover over any of the time slots that are highlighted for a quick view of the details of that meeting.
At the top of the page, you will notice a print icon that will allow you to print a hardcopy of your schedule. By clicking on the print icon, the calendar is instantly converted into a detailed schedule of all meetings.
31 day group view
This will allow you to see an entire month at a time for your entire team. You can move back or forward one month at a time by using the arrows at the top of the page. You can click on a given day to be taken to the 1 day view for scheduling a meeting. You can hover over any of the color coded time slots that are highlighted for a quick view of the details of that meeting.
At the top of the page, you will notice a print icon that will allow you to print a hardcopy of your schedule. By clicking on the print icon, the calendar is instantly converted into a detailed schedule of all meetings for all members of your team.
Creating New Contacts from the Calendar
Many times you are scheduling a meeting with someone who is not an existing contact in the system. With BigContacts you can create a new contact form the Calendar. Pick a time on the one-day view and type in the name of your new contact. Then just check the box next to "Create a New Contact". When the meeting is scheduled a new contact is created with the name that you typed in. You don't have to create a contact first and then add a meeting - this is much easier and more efficient.
Recurring Meetings
Many times we want to have meetings that take place on a regular basis. With BigContacts, you can schedule a meeting and have it recur on a regular basis. When scheduling a meeting, click the box next to "This meeting repeats". This can be for a meeting with a contact or for an event that is not specific to a contact. There are a number of options to select from. For example, if you want to schedule a "Kiwanis Club Meeting" on the third Tuesday of each month for the next 6 months, you can easily do that.
