Registration of scheduled tasks

 

APP: The tasks are part of the activities that the field employee performs at the point of sale and are directly related to the survey forms. After the forms have been configured, the next step is scheduling, sent to the team as tasks. PREREQUISITES: Configuration of forms, Task Scheduling.

 

Scheduled tasks are those that occur frequently and can be repeated automatically in the system. For example, if your operation has weekly price survey tasks for products A, B, and C on networks X, Y, and Z, scheduling is an ideal option so that the process is repeated every week automatically.

Task scheduling begins on the Web, using the path: Menu > Surveys > Task Scheduling. On this page, you can view all the schedules already set up in the system.

 

 

To schedule a new task, click on the New button, in the bottom right-hand side of the screen. On the Task Scheduling page there are two tabs, where the first tab registers the scheduling data and the second tab registers who will receive the task.

See more on the particulars of each field that must be filled out on these pages and the relationships between them. Remember that some fields are enabled or disabled depending on the type of task sending and the form chosen. And that all those with an asterisk (*) are required.

 

TASK SCHEDULING

 

STATUS OF THE SCHEDULING

You can keep a task active or inactive in the system, preventing it from being deleted and any data from being lost. However, for it to be seen by the field employee it must be marked as Active.

 

WHICH FORM?

In this field, you select the form that will be the base of the task. This field influences the information available in the Survey Items section.

• Remember how to set up a survey form

 

WHICH ACCESS PROFILE WILL BE ABLE TO ANSWER?

In this field, you indicate which access profiles will be responsible for handling the task. The displayed list will only contain the profiles already selected when creating the form.

 

CAN ITEMS BE SELECTED?

This option, when selected, allows the field employee to choose Survey Items that they will answer on the task within the form objective and within the items that the back office selects right below.

One scenario where this makes a lot of sense: small retail stores usually do not have a well-defined product assortment. Often, the back office has no way of knowing exactly which products the neighborhood grocery store is working with. So in this case, permitting items to be selected will give the field rep the freedom to only answer about the products that are in the store.

 

NAME OF THE SCHEDULING

In this field you define the name of the schedule. Use simple, easy-to-understand titles, as this will be how the field team will see the task in the App.

 

TASK GROUPS

Involves Stage allows tasks to be grouped together for easy organization in the app. Unlike Report, scheduled tasks do not have a flow option. The groups then function as folders, where tasks with a similarity can be grouped together. In the task groups field, therefore, you will only choose which group the scheduling will belong to. If you wish to group them, just leave this field blank.

• Learn how to create a task group

 

SEND TASKS TO

In this field you choose the recipient of the task, which can be:

• All selected POS: Surveys are sent to all points of sale selected in the Task Recipient tab, including those that are not in any itinerary. If an employee takes on a POS with tasks, they will receive the survey.
   
• Types of Itineraries: The survey is sent to the points of sale that are selected in the itinerary of one or more employees, even to a POS with duplicate itineraries. In other words, if two employees serve the same point of sale, both will receive the survey. This is the only scheduling format that can be combined with Mobile Scheduling. 
   
• Only POS with Itinerary: Surveys are only sent to the points of sale that are on the itinerary of at least one employee. If two or more people have the point on their itineraries, the system randomly chooses just one to perform the task.
   
• Selected itineraries: It is similar to sending the itinerary to everyone. However, the recipient of the tasks is not the points of sale, but rather the employee's exact itinerary. In other words, there isn´t a sending frequency, but rather specific days to send the tasks are selected.
   
• Each POS in the employee´s itinerary: The task is sent only once to each point of sale that is on the itinerary of one or more employees, within the determined frequency. For example, on a weekly frequency, if an employee visits the same POS more than once, they will only receive the task on the first visit. If two employees visit the same store in the same period, both receive the task.

 

The type of task sending also changes the list of Task Recipients.

• Understand the registration flow according to the type of task sending
• Understand the practical effect of each type of task sending

 

MOBILE SCHEDULING?

This field is activated when All Itineraries task sending is selected. If this field is checked, the employee can search for a point of sale in the app and include it in their itinerary. When they check-in (if the form requires it) they can answer the task.

 

START DATE

In this field, you select the date in which the schedule will become available in the system. It will be visible for employees in the field to execute according to the combination of the start date and the information in the send frequency field.

You can even schedule long-term tasks: you can schedule tasks for June while in January, for example. Task scheduling is processed at 12:30 am the next day on Involves Stage´s servers. So if you want to create a task for the same day, use separate tasks.

 

Attention! For daily tasks, the selected day will be the same day the task is generated. When we get to the frequency, it will make more sense. For tasks every fifteen days, every week or every month, the task generation will also depend on what sending frequency is selected and the day of the week or month selected in the field that appears right after - we will see an example below.

 

END DATE

The end date determines the end of the period for sending the task to its destinations and is mainly used for seasonal campaigns. For example, before Brazilian Valentine's Day, your company works with specific merchandising material that needs to be checked by the field team. This action ends on June 13 and will only be repeated the next year. In this case, fill out the end date.

If your operation expects the task to be long term or it does not have an expected end date, you can leave it blank, so it will keep repeating according to the frequency cycle you define (monthly, weekly, every fifteen days).

This field will determine when the scheduling will no longer repeat. Be careful not to confuse the end date with the deadline to answer the task. If you have a task that starts on June 1 and has an end date of June 13, but the answer deadline is 15 days, the task will still be available even after the end date.

 

HOW OFTEN SHOULD THE TASKS BE SENT?

In this field you define the task sending cycle. You can choose whether the frequency will be Daily, Weekly, Every fifteen days or Monthly.

If the frequency of the form is Daily, the task will be sent every day of the week, including weekends and holidays. Therefore this field is related to the type of task sending, because if it is sent to all itineraries or all POS with itineraries, care must be taken so that employees have their itineraries registered with special attention paid to weekends, holidays and absences, so that the task is not compromised.

 

Note If the task is generated for an employee who is absent on the date of the task, it will still be assigned to them when they check in at the point of sale.

 

DAY OF THE WEEK/MONTH

The Day of the Week and Day of the Month fields appear on the page according to the frequency. If it is a weekday, the options are Monday through Sunday. Monthly frequency, on the other hand, opens the list of days of the month.

 

Note The start date for scheduling will be determined by the information entered in the Start Date, Frequency and Day of the week/month fields. The system will do the calculation in real time and this information will be visible on the Scheduling Status bar.

 

ANSWER DEADLINE

The deadline to answer the task is the number of days that the task will be available for the employee to answer it. If not completed, the task will expire and will no longer appear in the App. The deadline starts the moment the system creates and sends the task to the app.

Image the following scenario, for example: You are registering a task to be sent with a weekly frequency, with the task being created on Monday and with a start date of June 01. However, this date lands on a Thursday. Therefore, the answer deadline starts on June 05, the first Monday after the task start date.

For daily tasks, we recommend only filling out the deadline as 1 day. If you set a deadline of 7 days for a daily task, the system will keep generating the task every day, even if it has already been answered. This deadline will be valid even after the end date, if it is filled out.

 

DO YOU WANT TO USE A PRODUCT ASSORTMENT?

Here you choose whether you want to use a product assortment that is already registered in the system. It is available for the All selected POS, All Itineraries, All POS with itinerary and Each POS in the employee´s itinerary types of task sending.

If you choose not to use the assortment, a new section is made available on the page, where you choose which items (products) you want to link to the task.

 

SURVEY ITEMS

 

 

This section shows the list of items that can be part of the survey. If the objective of the Form for this task is related to products, lines, brands, categories or supercategories, you must select the items at the bottom of the screen. Involves Stage will create tasks for the items you select. If the purpose of the Form for this task is Product-independent, the system will not display this table.

 

WHO WILL RECEIVE THE TASK

 

 

This tab is where the tasks are sent to the recipients, who are the target of the scheduling and can be either employees or points of sale. The recipient list is defined in the configuration of the form, in the Related to the point of sale field, remembering that:

• If it is selected, the recipients will be the points of sale.

When directing a scheduling to a POS, the information collected during the visit will be linked to the point of sale, regardless of which employee answers the task. This is the most common scenario.

• If it is not selected, the recipients will be the employees.

When scheduling is directed to the employee, it is because you want information about their itinerary, such as tasks to report travel expenses. In these cases, the objective of the form should be marked as Other - information determined in the configurations of the form.

 

Attention! If you have selected to send the task with Selected Itineraries, you will choose the specific itinerary as the recipient. In other words, you select the POS and the employee at the same time.

 

It doesn't matter if the recipients are employees or POS, either way they can be selected in two ways, separated by tabs within the page. Through manual selection, all listed employees and points of sale are ready to be selected. Through selection under conditions, you have the possibility to filter the points of sale under specific conditions.

 

COPY RECIPIENTS

You can copy recipients from another scheduling. Just click on the Copy recipients, next to the selection options.

• Learn how to copy recipients from another task

 

MANUAL SELECTION

 

 

To include, simply select the point of sale or employee by marking a check next to the name. In this type of selection, you can use filters to list the recipients:

• Name
• Macroregional
• Regional
• Banner
• Chain
• POS type
• POS Profile
• POS Channel

This selection allows you to apply various filters. For example, a task will be directed to the POS of banners X and Y. Then select the X banner filter and search. Select the points of sale for this banner that will receive the schedule, and then filter the other banner and, with the search result, select the POS. 

During the selection there is a counter showing how many recipients have been selected so far. After selecting them, there are also three filters to display the list: The All Items button shows a general list of recipients, the Only Selected button shows those that have already been selected Items not selected shows those that have not been selected.

 

Note With this type of selection, insertion of the recipients occurs only once. If one or more recipients need to be entered, you need to do this manually.

 

SELECTION UNDER CONDITIONS

 

 

This type of selection is very similar to the first type, but the main difference is creating the selection conditions that apply even after the task has been created. In other words, if new points of sale are included in the operation after scheduling, they will automatically be integrated into the recipient list.

The condition forms present on the page act as the search filters:

• Macroregional
• Regional
• Banner
• Chain
• POS type
• Point of Sale Profile
• POS Channel

 

In this type of selection, you can only choose one filter at a time. For example: you can only filter on one banner and all POS that are part of this banner will receive the scheduling. If you need to send the scheduling to a different banner, you must create a new scheduling.

 

Note In this type of selection, it is not possible to select two different parameters within the same condition. In other words, it is only possible to select one item on each filter. The result of the filtered points of sale will be a cross-check of all the information. For each condition used, you delimit the result of the POS or employees that will receive the scheduling.