planio tricks One of the coolest aspects of Planio is its versatility and flexibility. In addition to its inherent project management capabilities, which are awesome, you can expand Planio’s functionality by taking advantage of our unique integration-partnerships. Basically, we’ve teamed up with some of the most innovative solution providers on the software scene and worked with them to enable you to include unique functionality within the Planio environment.
One of these providers is Pidoco, a software-as-a-service solution that makes it easy for you to quickly create wireframes, interactive software prototypes, and rich specifications without any programming. Thanks to Planio’s integrative features, you can import your wireframe creations directly into your wiki pages! This gives you the opportunity to share development concepts with members of your project team within the Planio environment.
So if you want to save money in terms of development costs while fostering UI collaboration within a singular environment, then Planio + Pidoco is definitely the way to go. Given all this coolness, today’s post will discuss how to configure your Planio environment so that it can use Pidoco wireframing technology. So, without further ado, let’s get to it…
Configuring Planio and Pidoco
Our first step will be to enable Pidoco for your Planio project:
- Browse to your project.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Planio Apps tab.
- Select the Pidoco check box.
- Click Save.
If you haven’t already set up an account with Pidoco, then go ahead and create one now (if you need any assistance with how to use Pidoco, just check out their Support Page).
The last step involves connecting Planio and Pidoco; we do this by telling Planio the “API Key” from Pidoco. Here’s a walkthrough of how to copy the API Key:
- In Pidoco, browse to a prototype page.
- Hover your mouse cursor over the Share envelope icon and click Get a Link to this Prototype.
- The Grab a Link to Embed this Prototype window appears.
- In the PNG field, highlight and copy the provided URL (<CTRL-C>, <Command-C>, or right-click and select Copy). When done, click Close.
…and how to paste the API Key into the Planio environment:
- Browse to your project.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Pidoco tab.
- Click New pidoco API Key.
- In the pidoco API Key field, paste the URL copied from the Pidoco environment (<CTRL-V>, <Command-V>, or right-click and select Paste).
- Click Create.
- If done correctly, the message “Successful creation.” will appear at the top of the screen.
Don’t want to mess around with API Keys? Check out method #2…
- In Pidoco, browse to a prototype page.
- Hover your mouse cursor over the Share envelope icon and click Get a Link to this Prototype.
- The Grab a Link to Embed this Prototype window appears.
- Click Or use this prototype in an external application.
- The Pidoco Partners Apps screen appears.
- Click Add to plan.io.
- Your Planio project list screen appears — click on a project name.
- The Pidoco wireframe will be assigned to your selected project and will be available for use in your project’s wiki.
- All done!
How to Import a Wireframe
Pidoco-made wireframes can now be imported directly into your wiki pages for easy sharing with your team members. Here is a walkthrough of how to do it:
- Browse to your project.
- Click Wiki.
- Enter edit wiki page mode (if you are not already).
- Navigate to the location on your wiki page where you want the wireframe to appear.
- Click the Pidoco icon — the Choose a page drop-down menu appears.
- Select a Pidoco wireframe from the drop-down.
- After selection, the relevant import code will automatically appear on your Edit Wiki Page interface.
- When done editing, click Save.
- The Pidoco wireframe graphic will appear on your wiki page. It’s as easy as that!
We hope that this information has been useful! In our next blog post we’ll introduce the newest member of the Planio team and, in the future, we’ll explore how other integrations work (e.g., invoicing in Planio using SalesKing).
Until the next time!
Update from 3 weeks ago… Brian now knows all the names of the My Little Pony ponies and has memorized the lyrics of 5 cartoons for children. When not playing with his soon-to-be 6 year old daughter, Brian enjoys wearing Lord of the Rings t-shirts and constantly endeavoring to remain a geek (or is it nerd?).
Have you tried out Pidoco wireframes in your projects? If so, tell us about your experiences via a comment below. Remember to share a Like and Tweet while you’re at it! Share the love!!
planio tricks Over the last year we’ve discussed many exciting features within Planio, many of which are brand new (CC Additional Contacts, New Mini Features), several are quite Project Manager-friendly (Milestones & Roadmaps), and others are just downright awesome (E-Mail Drop Box).
Today I was thinking that it may be a good time to step back and look at a subject that we’ve never discussed here on the blog AND affects every new user: how to create a new project. Yep, believe it or not, we’ve never done a walkthrough of this, the most instrumental of actions for all Planio users.
So, grab some snacks, open a beer, call up all your friends who are new Planio users, and check out the process of creating a new Planio project…
- After launching and logging on to Planio, from your Home screen, click Projects.
- The Projects screen appears — this interface lists all available projects. Click New project.
- The New project screen appears — this interface is used to configure your project’s settings. Note that although the only required fields are Name and Identifier, it’s still good practice to complete as many fields as possible so that your project is meaningful to its members.
- In the Name field (required), enter a name for the project.
- Note that, as you enter a name, the text also appears in the Identifier field; it will be formatted for standardization purposes.
- In the Subproject of field, select a parent project for the new project, if applicable.
- In the Description field, enter a meaningful description of the new project.
- As mentioned, the Identifier field will be populated with formatted text derived from the Name field — the text here can be modified, if needed. Note that, after the project settings are saved, the project identifier can no longer be modified. The Identifier is used to, you guessed it, identify the project in a standardized manner… for example, it is used in the project’s URL address and is also used when configuring Planio’s Firefox toolbar.
- In the Homepage field, enter a URL that is associated with the project (e.g., a relevant company Web page). This information is displayed on the Overview tab when a member browses to your project on Planio.
- In the Public field, select the check box to indicate that the project should be available to every user of the Planio account with a non-member role. Leave the check box unselected to indicate that users need to be a member of a project in order to view/modify its contents. You can visit How to Create a New Role to learn more about roles.
- In the SalesKing client field, select a SalesKing client from the drop-down list. SalesKing is an integrated 3rd party feature within Planio that enables you to export time-tracked activities as line item invoice entries in the SalesKing application. One aspect of the configuration process involves creating clients and products within the SalesKing interface and then associating them in Planio — this particular field is used to associate a SalesKing client with your new project.
- In the Planio apps section, select all applications that you’d like to activate for use within the project. Note that, if you selected a SalesKing client above, then you should likewise select the SalesKing check box.
- In the Trackers section, select all trackers that you’d like to use in your new project. To learn more about trackers, please see Selecting and Editing Trackers and Viewing and Grouping Trackers.
- When done, click Create or click Create and continue to proceed with the creation of another new project.
- After clicking Create, the Settings interface for your new project will appear. You can explore the other project settings tabs (e.g., Planio Apps, Members, Forums, CRM & Helpdesk) or proceed to creating issues for your project (see Got Issues? for assistance).
How to Delete a Project
Tired of your project and want to start fresh? Here’s how to delete a project:
- From the Home screen, click Administration.
- Click Projects.
- Click Delete on the row that corresponds to the project you wish to delete.
- The Confirmation screen appears requesting affirmation of the deletion. To delete, in the Yes field, select the check box.
- Click Delete.
- The project will be permanently deleted from the Planio environment.
How to Archive a Project
Okay, so you’re not really using a project at the present time, but you might use it down the road… what to do? Archive it! Planio offers an archiving function that essentially stores project data and keeps it in reserve for you until you need to access it in the future. The primary benefit is that archived projects do not count towards your plan limit… so you can archive projects, as needed, without worrying about using up the allotted projects for your particular Planio pricing plan.
Here’s a walkthrough of how to archive a project:
- From the Home screen, click Administration.
- Click Projects.
- Click Archive on the row that corresponds to the project you wish to archive.
- A browser window appears requesting confirmation of the archive — click OK.
- Your project is now archived.
…and how to view archived projects and unarchive a project:
- In the Status field of the Projects screen, change the status from active (default) to all.
- Click Apply.
- Click Unarchive on the row that corresponds to the project you wish to unarchive.
- The project’s status will become active and it will be available for use.
We hope that this oft-overlooked information has been of some help to our newer users. For you veterans out there, we’ll have a deeper look at the integration and configuration of Planio apps in upcoming posts. Until then, cheerio!
When not reading, writing, or breathing, Brian is busy playing manly games with his 5-year old daughter… like coloring My Little Pony pages and debating the virtues of pink vs. lavender. Sigh…
Are you a new Planio user? If so, has this article been helpful? Please feel free to share your experiences or Planio wish lists via a comment. Toss us a Like/Tweet as well!
planio tricks A new set of mini-features have been added to Planio and we’re excited to tell you about them! The focus of these new features is the recognition of additional contacts; essentially, Planio now supports the specification of secondary contacts (and CC e-mail recipients) in the CRM & Helpdesk feature.
By the way, if you want to get up-to-speed on all the cool things our CRM & Helpdesk can do, be sure to check out these articles from the Using the CRM & Helpdesk series:
So, let’s kick off today’s blog post with a discussion of our new mini-features:
Auto-Addition of CC Recipients as Additional Contacts
One of the great features of Planio is its capability to use the Issue Management function as a customer communication tool. As many of you already know, when an e-mail is sent to a project’s dropbox address, an issue is automatically created; Planio then examines the e-mail address from the sender and creates new company and customer records (or associates the issue with an existing company and customer, if appropriate).
We’ve expanded on this feature to include CC recipients. When a CC recipient is specified in a dropbox-bound e-mail, the name will also be added as a new customer record and associated with a company if one exists.
Check out the graphic below to see it in action:
Specifying Additional Contacts
Additional contacts works the other way as well: when you are creating or updating an issue, you can specify additional customer contacts — these will be included in outgoing CRM e-mails as copied (CC) recipients. Note that only customers within an indicated company will be available for selection.
Here’s a quick walkthrough:
- Navigate to a project.
- Click New Issue; or,
- Navigate to an existing issue and click Update.
- Ensure that a company is selected.
- In the Additional customer contacts field, click Add contact.
- A text-entry field appears. Enter the first three letters of a contact name — a list of all contacts that match the text will appear.
- Click on the appropriate contact name to specify him/her as an additional contact.
- If necessary, click Add contact to select an additional customer contact.
- Additional contacts will be copied (CC’d) on all outgoing CRM e-mails.
No More Company Drop-Down List!
Lastly, we’ve brought some user-friendliness to the customer company selection field. You no longer need to navigate through a long drop-down list when selecting a company within an issue. Now it’s as simple as typing the first few letters and selecting an appropriate match from a results list, as seen in the graphic below:
Tell us what you think about these improvements to Planio! Also feel free to share a Like/Tweet if you enjoyed this update.
When not writing about Planio, Brian enjoys gardening, although his thumb is definitely (so far) not green.
planio tricks We’ve recently introduced a trio of new mini-features that are designed to aesthetically please (image attachment thumbnails), keep you up-to-date on upcoming issue due dates (day setting for e-mail reminders), and provide more flexibility with a project parameter (new option to calculate percentage done).
So, without further ado, let’s check them out:
Image Attachment Thumbnails
When attaching an image to your issues, a thumbnail of the image can now appear on your Issue Details screen. This is particularly handy when “role-diagram-2013-v5-5.png” just doesn’t give you that sense of satisfaction that you may expect (or give a clue about what it looks like). A snapshot of the graphic, on the other hand, may make all the sense in the world…
Here’s a walkthrough of how to turn on this spiffy new feature:
- Click Administration.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Display tab.
- In the Display attachment thumbnails field, select the check box.
- Click Save.
Advance Issue Due E-Mail Notification
This new mini-feature enables you to specify the number of days to receive an advance e-mail reminder for upcoming issues that are due. This is a great feature for project managers who just don’t have enough hours in the day to keep track of multiple issues — advance e-mail reminders ensure that you will be notified of due dates in a timely manner. Specifying a value for this feature enables it for both existing and new issues.
Here’s how to turn it on:
- Click My account.
- Take note of the Preferences section.
- In the Due issue email reminders field, enter the number of days preceding an issue due date to receive e-mail reminders (e.g., enter “3” to receive e-mail reminders three days before issues are due). To turn off this feature, leave the field blank.
- Click Save.
Calculate Percentage Done Based on Time
One of the most popular issue parameters on Planio is the % done field — it enables you to easily keep track of issue progress on both the Issues screen and the Gantt chart.
Traditionally, % done has been configured using either the issue field directly or the issue status parameter. We have now expanded te capability of % done so that it can be calculated using the number of logged hours (spent time) and estimated hours, whereby % done = logged hours / estimated hours.
If your users make ample use of Planio’s time tracking capabilities, then using this new feature will enable you to get the most out of the % done parameter.
Here’s how to activate this feature:
- Click Administration.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Issue tracking tab.
- In the Calculate the issue done ratio with field, select Use the logged and estimated time.
- Click Save.
Do you plan on using one or more of these mini-features? Feel free to tell us about it and how they’ve made an impact on your organization. If you liked this article, please share a Like and Tweet as well!
Brian is currently reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. A great tome if you like history or a thorough bore-fest if the mere thought about the long slow decline of an Empire puts you to sleep. Either way, it’s either fun or a great paper weight!
planio tricks The number of calendars we see in our day-to-day lives can be quite ubiquitous; they’re just everywhere! Although it’s important for all of us to (at least) have a general idea of what day it is, Project Managers in particular need to keep a constant eye on their calendar… juggling the myriad number of tasks and assignments requires a level of dedication quite difficult for most of us to master.
This week we’d like to bring to your attention the Planio Calendar. No, we’re not needlessly trying to introduce yet another calendar into your busy life; rather, the Planio Calendar provides a useful option to help facilitate the management of multiple project issues. It’s a great standalone web-based project calendar (especially when you rely on Planio for all of your project management needs) and it’s also a great exportable iCalendar (.ics) that can be integrated into your preferred client (e.g., Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Yahoo, IBM Lotus Notes, and Microsoft Outlook, to name a few).
So, let’s check out some of the spiffier features in the Planio Calendar…
Interface
The calendar’s appearance looks as you may expect—a monthly view organized into daily segments. At the top of the calendar, an Add Filter drop down menu enables you to add new filters to the calendar; the Filter Selection area displays all current filters. The Filter Selection area also includes a month & year selection drop down menu which allows you to jump to a desired month and year combination.
The day cubes are comprised of issues that satisfy your filtered criteria. Text within a cube can be clicked (to navigate to the issue’s Details screen) or you can hover your mouse over text for a brief rundown of the issue.
Let’s have a closer look…
Add Filter Drop Down Menu
The Add Filter drop down menu is used to add a new filter to the Planio Calendar. Simply click the drop down arrow and select a filter—that’s it! After selection, its name will appear in the Filter Selection area along with an operator field; more on that below.
Filter Selection Area
The Filter Selection area is comprised of all current filters. When you select a filter in the Add Filter drop down menu, it will appear here and be automatically selected/active.
To apply a filter:
- Select the check box to the left of the filter name.
- In the operator field(s), select or enter a desired parameter in order to define the filter.
- Click Apply to submit your filter(s).
Examples:
- Status: Select open|is|is not|closed|all, as needed. If is or is not is selected, then a second operator field appears enabling you to select a status type (e.g., “Status is Waiting for review”, “Status is not Complete”, etc.).
- % Done: Select is|>=|<=|between|none|all, as needed. If is, >=, <=, or between is selected, then additional operator fields appear enabling you to define the percentage done (e.g., “% Done >= 50”, “% Done all” [includes all values], “% Done between 50 100” [includes values between 50 and 100 percent], etc.).
Calendar Task Entries
Tasks that begin 
, end 
, or begin & end 
on a given day will appear in the Planio Calendar. To view a summary of the task, simply hover your mouse cursor over the yellow-shaded task entry. In addition, you can also navigate to the task’s Details interface by clicking on the “Task #” text, as shown below:
Exporting the Calendar
The Planio Calendar can be exported as an iCalendar (.ics) file, which is a widely-accepted calendar format that can be used in multiple applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple Calendar.
- To export the calendar as a feed (so that it updates automatically): On the bottom-right corner of the Calendar interface, right-click on ICS, copy the link to your clipboard, and then paste it as a feed source to your favorite calendar application.
- To save a static view of the calendar: Click ICS, save the file to a local or network location, and then apply/import the calendar file to your favorite calendar application (shown in graphic below).
Was this article helpful? Do you rely on the Planio Calendar for your project management needs? Tell us about what you like (or don’t like) in a comment below! If you liked this article, please feel free to share a Like and Tweet as well!
Brian is currently reading Himalaya, by Michael Palin, a great travel author and quite a funny guy (many of you may remember him from Monty Python). He’s also growing tomatoes… Brian, not Michael.
planio tricks The Planio Gantt Chart is a schedule management tool for visualizing multiple issues and projects in terms of overall progress, time spent, and current status. Thanks to Planio’s filtering capability, coupled with the chart’s tight integration with the issue management features, the Gantt Chart gives you an opportunity to view mission critical data on-demand.
We’ll start by taking a brief tour of the interface, after which we’ll look at how to work with filters. We’ll also touch on the great zoom and export functionality. So, let’s start with a look at the Planio Gantt Chart:
Interface
Current Filter Section
The graphic below features the Current Filters section, which is where all current filters are listed — we will discuss how to add filters in a moment. Each filter, after being selected, can be toggled on or off so that you can see their effects on the Gantt Chart. Examples of the types of filters available include tracker, priority, assignee, due date, and percentage done.
Milestones and Tasks Section
On the left side of the Gantt Chart is the milestones and tasks section. As its name implies, this area lists the project name 
, milestones 
, and the tasks (gravatar icon of the assignee - 
) that are associated with each milestone. Each task is clickable and links back to its Issue Details page.
Gantt Chart Content
The Gantt Chart uses colored bars to represent the progress of individual tasks, as shown in the graphic below:
Additionally, a tooltip box appears showing task details when your mouse cursor hovers over a bar:
How to Use Filters
There are 20 filters available for use in the Planio Gantt Chart, which means you can have hours of fun refining your charts while determining the exact configuration that works best for your organization. Selected filters work alongside a static date filter that enables you to specify the number of months to display from a set month/year.
Creating a Filter
Here’s a walkthrough about how to create a new filter:
- In the Add Filter field, select the new filter from the drop-down list — in the graphic below, we selected Priority.
- The filter name, a conditional operator, and a selectable/definable field appear. The types of operators vary depending on the filter — they may be as simple as “is | is not” or more complex, such as “>= | <= | between | in less than | in more than” and so on. Select the most appropriate operator — for this example, we selected is.
- In the selectable/definable field, select or enter a criteria to filter by. In the example graphic, we selected Urgent to create a Gantt Chart that will only display tasks that have an “Urgent” status.
- In the text field, enter the number of months to display in the Gantt Chart.
- In the month and year fields, select the month & year combination that correlate with the number of months you just entered. In this example, we will display the last 3 months from December, 2012.
- Click Apply.
- The Gantt Chart will update with your defined filter. If you wish you can add more filters using the process just described.
To toggle a filter on or off, simply select (or de-select) the check box to the left of the active filter.
Using the Zoom
The Zoom In|Out tool enables you to view different time periods within the Gantt Chart. The different zoom interfaces include:
Year and Month (Maximum Zoom Out)
Year, Month, and Week of the Year (Default view)
Year, Month, Week of the Year, and Day (Narrow view)
Year, Month, Week of the Year, and Day (Wide view: Maximum Zoom In)
Export
The Planio Gantt Chart can be exported to both PDF and PNG (image) formats. Simply click either PDF or PNG, as appropriate, on the bottom right corner of the Gantt Chart screen. The current view is exported, so be sure to confirm that your Gantt Chart looks the way you want it to prior to exportation.
Was this article helpful? What other Planio functionality would you like to see discussed? Tell us about it via a comment below. Feel free to share a Like and Tweet as well!
When not enjoying a great dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant, Brian enjoys cooking, writing, and relaxing by the beach.
planio tricks Today’s post is dedicated to Project Managers — those hard-working individuals tasked with managing the ebb & flow of projects, teams, and deadlines. Although Planio’s features can be used by all, there is a pair of tools that PMs will particularly enjoy: milestones & roadmaps.
In the world of project management, a milestone represents an achievement of some sort… whether’s it’s completing a product deliverable or finalizing upgrade code. If a milestone is considered a tactical step, then a roadmap is the overall strategy; in short, it’s the high altitude view of all milestones and how they integrate with the project as a whole.
In this post we’ll discuss how to create a milestone, how to associate a milestone with an issue, and how to visualize progress via a roadmap and gantt chart. Let’s start with the first step: a walkthrough of how to create a milestone.
How to Create a Milestone
- Navigate to a project (Projects → Click project name).
- Click Settings.
- Click the Milestones tab.
- Click New milestone.
- In the Name field (required), enter a name for the new milestone. In the example below, we are creating a milestone called “Re-design Welcome Page”.
- In the Description field, enter a brief yet meaningful description of the milestone.
- In the Status field, select Open (active) for a new milestone. Other options include Locked (cannot be associated with an issue) and Closed (the milestone has been completed).
- In the Wiki page field (optional), enter the name of the wiki page that has content related to the milestone.
- In the Date field, enter the starting date of the milestone in yyyy-mm-dd format or click the mini-calendar icon to select a date.
- In the Sharing field, select either Not shared (milestone is not shared with any other projects), With subprojects (milestone is shared only with subprojects), With project hierarchy (milestone is shared only with direct ancestors and descendants), With project tree (milestone is shared with the root project and all of its descendants), or With all projects (milestone is shared with every Planio project).
- Click Create.
- The milestone is created.
The Settings → Milestones interface displays the new milestone along with its defined parameters:
Alternatively, you can also create a new milestone on-the-fly within the Issue Detail screen. Simply create a new issue, or view an existing issue’s details, and click the green plus icon adjacent to the Target milestone field:
Associate a Milestone with an Issue
Assuming that you created a new milestone via the Settings interface, the next step will be to associate an issue with a milestone.
When creating a new issue, or updating an existing issue, select a milestone in the Target milestone field, as follows:
Now that a milestone has been created and associated with an issue, you can use the roadmap and/or the gantt chart tools to visualize your milestones.
Viewing Milestones in the Roadmap
- Navigate to a project (Projects → Click project name).
- Click the Roadmap tab.
- The Roadmap interface will display a list of milestones along with a bar graph conveying the average progress of all issues associated with the milestone.
- Click on a milestone name to view a list of all related issues.
Viewing Milestones in the Gantt Chart
- Navigate to a project (Projects → Click project name).
- Click the Gantt tab.
- The project name, its milestones (conveyed by a block icon
), and all issues associated with the milestones will appear in the gantt chart as well as a visualization of the progress of each item.
- The gantt chart enables you to quickly visualize the overall progress of a project in terms of specific milestones — note that each milestone header also includes a percentile value showing the average progress of all related issues.
In our next Planio Tricks article we’ll delve into the Gantt chart in more detail, as there is a lot of cool functionality… especially with the filtering options!
Was this article helpful? What other Planio functionality would you like to see covered? Tell us about it via a comment below. Feel free to share a Like and Tweet as well!
Brian wishes everyone a very Happy Holidays and a profitable New Year!
planio tricks In our final installment of the Using the CRM & Helpdesk series, we’ll talk about how to use your own custom e-mail address in Planio’s CRM feature and also look at how to turn your CRM templates into FAQ Q&A entries!
As you recall from Part 3, the power of the CRM & Helpdesk was finally revealed in terms of its ability to fully automate the customer interaction experience. Default headers, footers, and selectable templates — coupled with the built-in E-mail Drop Box capability — combine to make Planio a powerful helpdesk solution.
The Custom E-mail Address
You may have noticed that the default e-mail address assigned to your projects, robust though it is, may be a bit aesthetically-challenged… yes, even we have to admit that dropbox+greyhawk+da0f+documentation-project@plan.io isn’t exactly the most appealing of addresses.
Thankfully, our developers were well-aware of this potential obstacle and have implemented a custom e-mail handling feature that enables you to integrate your own e-mail address with your Planio project.
Here’s a walkthrough of how to do it:
- Take note of your project’s e-mail drop box address (it is provided on the Issues List interface).
- Configure your e-mail account (e.g., support@yourcompany.com) so that it automatically redirects all incoming e-mail to your project’s drop box address.
- In Planio, navigate to your project, click Settings, and then CRM & Helpdesk.
- In the From email address field within the Sending emails section, enter your custom e-mail address.
- In the From name field, enter the name from whom all e-mails will be sent.
- Note: This field can also make use of Planio’s built-in variables, such as {{current_user.name}}, {{current_user.firstname}} and {{current_user.lastname}}.
- In the Tracker for emails|tasks|notes fields, select a tracker to automatically assign to e-mails, tasks, and notes. This is entirely optional — you can also proceed with default selections.
- Click Save.
What happens now? If you configured and used “support@yourcompany.com”, for example, then every e-mail sent to that address will automatically become a new project issue. In addition, all replies sent via the issue detail interface will also be sent from the support@yourcompany.com address.
In short, the bulky default project e-mail address will never be seen by your customers — they will only interact with your custom e-mail. The process will be seamless and work behind-the-scenes. You can now use your project to manage all of your custom support e-mails… or any other type of e-mail you wish (e.g., feedback@yourcompany.com, projectname@yourcompany.com, and so on)!
Serving Double Duty: The CRM Template
In addition to their role as selectable body text when creating a reply, CRM templates can also serve a double duty as Q&A entries on your project’s FAQ page.
Here’s a walkthrough:
- Create a selectable template (see Part 3 for full instructions).
- In the FAQ Question field, enter a frequently asked question — the template body will serve as the answer.
- In the For all projects field, select the check box to indicate that the FAQ question should be placed on the FAQ page for all projects — leave unselected if the question applies only to the project.
- Click Save.
Assuming that your FAQ will not be an internal resource, our next step is to make sure that your FAQ is publicly-accessible and easy to find:
- If this is the first FAQ you’ve created, a new FAQ tab will appear for your project.
- First, we will make your project public: Navigate to your project and click Settings. Under the Information tab, in the Public field, select the check box to make your project accessible to Planio users who are not members in this project.
- Click Save.
- Next, we need to ensure that “Non members” (i.e., users in your Planio who have an account but are not members of the project in question) and — optionally — “Anonymous” users (i.e., users who have no user account in your Planio) have permission access to the “View FAQ” setting: Navigate to Administration and click Roles and Permissions. Click Non member and, in the CRM & Helpdesk section, select the View FAQ check box.
- Click Save and repeat the process for the Anonymous role.
- Lastly, if you would like anonymous users (who have no user account in your Planio) to be able to see the FAQ, we need to modify an authentication setting: Navigate to Administration, click Settings, and then click the Authentication tab. In the Authentication required field, de-select the check box to turn off the authentication requirement. This ensures that your customers can navigate directly to the FAQ page and not a log on screen.
- Attention: Please make sure that the other settings in your Anonymous role are configured properly. Allowing access without authentication means that anyone on the Internet can access the public projects in your Planio.
- Click Save.
Your FAQ section is now accessible to the public.
Facilitating FAQ Accessibility
In order to make your FAQ more accessible to your users, you may wish to include links to the FAQ page within your CRM templates (e.g., Default Auto-reply). Planio supports this through the use of variables; some useful ones include:
- {{faqs.uri}}: Displays a link to your FAQ page.
- {{faqs.top1_question}}: Most frequently asked question.
- {{faqs.top1_uri}}: Link to the most frequently asked question.
- …replace “1” with “2” or “3” to display the second and third most commonly asked questions.
For those of you who missed the first few posts, you can view parts 1-3 via the following URLs:
Was this series helpful? What other Planio functionality would you like to see discussed? Tell us about it via a comment below. Feel free to share a Like and Tweet as well!
Brian survived a typhoon, an ingrown toenail, and an odd yearning for dark chocolate… and that was just this week! Join us next time for the further adventures of our Blogger-in-Chief.
planio tricks Today we’ll pick-up where we left off in Part 2 and discuss how to define some useful CRM & Helpdesk settings. These steps will typically be done by your organization’s Planio Administrator.
First, we need to navigate to the correct location within Planio:
- Navigate to a project.
- Click Settings.
- Click CRM & Helpdesk.
How to Create Header, Footer, and Auto-Reply Templates
All templates are simply blocks of text that can be accessed from within Planio’s CRM functionality. CRM templates have several uses within Planio, including:
- Default header: Default introductory text that is placed before a custom reply.
- Default footer: Default ending text that is placed at the end of a custom reply.
- Auto-reply text: Sent automatically to a non-Planio user when they send an e-mail to a project.
- Selectable template: A block of text that can be used in the body of a custom reply.
- FAQ entry: A question & answer that can be included in a project’s FAQ section.
The first template we will make will be a default header, after which we’ll proceed to a default footer and an auto-reply.
Creating a Default Header
- After navigating to the CRM & Settings interface, in the CRM Templates section, click New CRM template.
- The New CRM template screen appears.
- In the Title field, enter: Default Header
- In the Content field, enter the introductory text that will be used to preface your customer replies. Here’s an example:
Dear {{contact.name}}:
Thank you for your e-mail.
- You’ll notice that, below the Content field, there is a listing of all the variables available for use in your messages. By entering a variable (such as the {{contact.name}} mentioned above), you enable the Planio system to retrieve information based on a specific situation. In this case, we’ll be displaying the full name (first & last) of the person who sent an e-mail to the project.
- In the FAQ Question field, leave it blank for now — we will discuss the FAQ functionality in Part 4 of this series.
- In the For all projects field, select the check box to indicate that this template should be available for use in all projects. Leave unchecked to use this template in only this project.
- Click Save.
- The new template (Default Header) will be listed in the CRM Templates section.
Creating a Default Footer
Next, follow the above instructions to create a default footer — simply title the template “Default Footer”. Your text might look as follows:
Best regards,
{{current_user.name}}
This variable enters the name of the current Planio user. Remember to save the template when done.
Creating an Auto-Reply
The auto-reply does exactly as the name implies: when implemented, the text will comprise the body of an automatically-generated e-mail that is sent to anyone who sends a message to the project.
As above, follow the instructions to create an auto-reply with a meaningful title; “Default Auto-reply” works nicely. The text can be as simple or as complex as your needs require… here’s an example of an auto-reply that makes creative use of variables:
Dear {{contact.name}}:
We hereby confirm that we have received your message. We will make every attempt to reply to your e-mail within 24 hours.
Subject of your request: {{issue.subject}}
Case ID: {{issue.identifier}}
You can access the current status of your request via this link: {{issue.tracking_uri}}
The variables listed above do the following:
- {{issue.subject}}: Subject used in the e-mail initially sent to the project. Note that this subject becomes the subject of the newly-created issue (hence, issue.subject).
- {{issue.identifier}}: Unique code assigned to the issue that is appended to the issue.subject. All issue identifiers include the task number — this enables Planio to identify the issue for CRM tracking purposes. When the e-mail is replied to (and assuming the subject is not changed), then all content will be tracked in the issue’s history.
- {{issue.tracking_uri}}: This displays a URL that, when clicked, displays the current issue status and assignee (viewability of these fields is configurable). The tracking URL gives your customers an opportunity to visit the Planio interface and quickly see how their issue is progressing — the customer does not need a Planio account.
There are lots of other fun things you can do with variables, such as including links to FAQs… but we’ll save that particular subject for a future post! After saving these three templates, you’ll see them listed in the CRM Templates section as follows:
Implementing the Header, Footer, and Auto-Reply Templates
- To “turn on” your new templates: In the Header field in the Special CRM templates section, select the name of your header template (in this example, we used Default Header).
- In the Footer field, select the name of your footer template (i.e., Default Footer).
- In the Auto-reply field, select the name of your auto-reply template (i.e., Default Auto-Reply).
- Click Save.
Usage of the Header & Footer
Like the auto-reply template, header & footer templates are automatically used by the Planio system after they are implemented (as above). You probably saw them in action back in Part 2 but, if not, here’s a re-cap:
- Navigate to a project.
- Navigate to the externally-generated issue’s detail screen (i.e., click on an issue’s subject on the Issues screen).
- Click Update.
- Below the Notes section, select the Send this note via email check box.
- The header & footer will appear.
How to Create a Selectable Template
Next we will create a selectable template. These kind of templates can increase your productivity significantly, as they enable your teams to quickly respond to frequently asked customer questions without having to manually enter full replies (if needed, text can always be added or edited to a selected template for customization purposes).
- As with the default templates above, navigate to the CRM & Helpdesk settings interface and click New CRM template.
- In the Title field, enter any title that is appropriate for the template you are creating. In this example, we’ll create a “Forgot Password” selectable template.
- In the Content field, enter applicable text — feel free to use the rich text editor and variables to take full advantage of Planio’s messaging functionality. In the graphic below we entered some basic instructions as they relate to retrieving a lost password.
- Although we’ll discuss the details of CRM & Helpdesk’s FAQ-creation capability in our next post, we’ll include a sneak peek here. Notice in the graphic below that we entered the FAQ question, “I have forgotten my password. How do I retrieve a new one?”. By entering content here, we are telling Planio to include this template in our customer-facing FAQ screen for support purposes.
- Click Save.
- The new template appears in the CRM Templates section.
Usage of a Selectable Template
- Navigate to a project.
- Navigate to the externally-generated issue’s detail screen (i.e., click on an issue’s subject on the Issues screen).
- Click Update.
- Below the Notes section, select the Send this note via email check box.
- In the note’s drop down menu, select a template to include as the body of the message. Modify/customize the text, if necessary.
- Click Submit.
- The reply will be sent to the customer.
The finished product:
In our final CRM & Helpdesk post we’ll explore the usage of the FAQ functionality and also look at how to specify a custom e-mail for your CRM needs!
Do you use Planio’s CRM functionality? If so, tell us about your experiences in a comment below. If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share a Like and Tweet!
Brian enjoys fishing, biking with his daughter, and eating burritos. He also enjoys fishing with his daughter and eating burritos while biking. As you can see, it’s a very complicated situation.
planio tricks As you recall, in our last Planio Tricks post we enabled CRM & Helpdesk for use and demonstrated how Planio automatically created a new contact record (customer and company name) when an e-mail is received by a first-time sender.
Today we’ll have a closer look at e-mail generated issues and explore how the Issue Detail interface can be used as your own Customer Communications Center. So, let’s dive in…
Specifying a Custom Reply
- Use the techniques demonstrated in Part 1 to send an external e-mail to a Planio project and, consequently, create a new issue.
- Navigate to the issue’s detail screen.
- Click Update.
- The Update section appears.
- In the Send this note via email field, below the Notes section, select the check box to indicate that your message should be sent to the e-mail sender (i.e., customer).
Using Automated Content
The Header & Footer
You will notice that, as soon as you select the check box, the Notes section expands to include header & footer text and a Select template… drop down list.
The header & footer is text that is defined in the CRM & Helpdesk settings section (more details on how to do this in Part 3 of our series). This text is 100% configurable and is automatically placed at the beginning and end of all customer messages. Check out the graphic below to see an example — note that a variable is used to automatically insert the customer’s name (i.e., “Dear {{contact.name}}:” = “Dear Brian Sheehan:”).
Selectable Templates
In addition to the header & footer, you can select a pre-defined CRM template to quickly answer common customer questions. Like the header & footer, CRM templates are defined in the CRM & Helpdesk settings interface.
For the purpose of this walk-through, we’ll select the “Forgot password” CRM template — it explains how to create a new Planio password. As you can surmise, your imagination is the limit here when it comes to creating templates for use when replying to customers.
When done, click Submit to send the e-mail. Remember that you can also associate a file with the issue — it will be attached to the customer’s e-mail.
Here’s an example of how the completed e-mail looks from the perspective of the recipient:
Using the Issue Tracker Link
You’ll notice that the e-mail includes a tracking URI. When the recipient clicks this link, he/she will see a summary of the issue that includes your conversation history, its status, and the assignee (inclusion of status and assignee can be toggled on & off in CRM & Helpdesk settings). This provides a convenient way for a customer to keep track of the issue — note that a Planio login is not required by the customer to see this content!
In our next post you’ll learn how to define CRM & Helpdesk settings, including the ones referenced in this week’s posts (auto reply, header & footer, CRM templates, and status/assignee toggles). We’ll also look more closely at personalizing messages using variables.
Lastly, in Part 4, we’ll talk about how Planio can use your custom e-mail address (e.g., support@yourcompany.com) to handle your CRM communications. We’ll also touch on CRM & Helpdesk’s hidden persona… as a FAQ Management system!
Imagine handling all of your CRM and helpdesk requirements from a web-based interface… your organization can, feasibly, be anywhere in the world. How do you feel about a portable corporate entity? Share your thoughts and insights in a comment below. Also, feel free to send a Like and/or Tweet if you enjoyed today’s blog post!
