Notes Overview

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Where to find Notes

There are two different routes available to view and add Notes in your accessplanit platform:

1. The main Notes DataGrid can found on the left side panel on the platform, this page contains every note created within your accessplanit platform, this main Notes DataGrid is therefore a great central location to keep an eye on activity and look for trends! 
   
   

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2. You can also view and add Notes directly from each Course, Delegate, Invoice, Opportunity (etc.), this route will only show you the Notes relevant to the object that you are looking at (such as only Notes that are mapped to a specific Invoice), this route therefore provides you with a decluttered view, and a timeline of the updates for this specific object.
   
   You can access these object specific Notes pages by finding the object in it's DataGrid, right clicking on it to see the context menu, and selecting the 'Notes' option.
   
   

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Notes Best Practice

Here are some top tips to allow you to get the most out of Notes within your accessplanit platform! 

1. Here at accessplanit we strongly recommend that you define useful and relatable Note Types to categorise your Notes.
   
   Note Types can be invaluable when it comes to quickly filtering your Notes DataGrid and building reports, to add your own Note Types go to the Custom List Items page. You can return to this page to add more or edit your existing Note Types at any point!
   Here are some common Note Types:
   
   

   1. Positive Feedback

   2. Complaint

   3. Notes for Trainer

   4. Payment Chase

   5. Delegate Requirements
      
      

      
      
      

2. As Notes allow you to share information transparently across your team; once you have established your Note Types, create some useful filters and share these with your team to allow them to find the information they want quickly, to save time and be more productive!
   
   Here are some example filters that you could create and share:

   1. Logged by me - only Notes that you have added

   2. Logged this week - only see Notes that have been added within the last 7 days

   3. Trainer Notes - only see Notes that your trainers have logged with the Note Type 'Trainer Notes & Feedback'
      
      

      
      
      

3. Automate your Note creation using Workflows!
   
   To make logging information & updates even easier, you can use your accessplanit platform's Workflows tool to automate adding Notes for you when events happen within your platform. For example:

   1. When a Venue changes on a Course

   2. When a Course is marked as Fully Booked

   3. When a customer Account is updated to be inactive 

While it is rarely possible to automate all Notes, as so many Notes are useful because they are a way for administrators to explain why an action or update has happened, if there are any generic Notes that you can add via Workflows this is a great way to automate that boring task, and save time!

Common Uses for Notes

Here are the most common ways that other training companies & departments use Notes to improve their processes within their accessplanit platform:

1. Logging the reason for updates, such as changes to Courses and Opportunities
   If an important change is made to an Opportunity, such as a alternative rate offered, or a Course, such as a date or venue change, an administrator can very quickly edit that Opportunity or Course and save the change. What this edit does not help with, is letting the rest of the team know why this change was made!
   
   

   
   
   For example, for an upcoming in-house course, a key contact has contacted you and asked you to send a different trainer this time as they did not like the previous trainer's style. Logging this as a Note against the Course once you have changed the trainer gives your team visibility of why this update has happened, and could prevent the original trainer being switched back mistakenly by another administrator!
   
   Logging a Note against the Course explaining why the Course has been updated, gives your team real-time visibility of that information. Keeping them informed the next time they need to speak to the customer or delegates, so that they can better support them, and make better decisions.
   
   While this information could be shared in an email, your Note doesn't have the risk of being lost in an inbox! Notes are reliably stored directly against the object that you are looking at (the Course or the Opportunity), they are more collaborative, transparent, and permanent than emails.
   
   
   

2. Sharing Delegate information with your admin team and your trainers
   
   

   A lot can change between a new customer registering with you, to them booking onto a course, to them finally attending your course.

   Having a location where you can log any additional or different needs, any positive or negative experiences they may have had in the lead up to the course, which can be shared with other administrators and (possibly more importantly!) their trainer, can be invaluable for providing excellent customer service.
   
   

    

3. Notes like the above can be logged very quickly against delegates to capture any extra information, these Notes are then available to your team and the trainer(s) for that course.
   
   

    

   To get even more value out of this feature, you can also allow your trainers to add their own notes to communicate any updates back to you and your team!

   To decide which of your trainers can access delegate-based notes, edit those notes, and add their own, simply 'Edit' each trainer resource and select which options that trainer should have within their 'My Teaching' options.

   
   
   

4. Staying on top of your poor & late payers
   
   

   The best way to stay on top of poor and late payers, is through organisation and auditing! Utilising your platform's Workflows to automate the first few emails out to late payers, reiterating your bank details, and reissuing their invoice, is a great first step. This provides your customers with easy access to invoice and payment information, without any admin from yourself!

   However, once you need to get involved, having a central location to log the progress you are making with your customer can make the world of difference with your admin overhead.

   This is where Notes allow your team to log and keep track of when the customer was chased and by what method, what their response was / why payment hasn't been received, when the expected payment is.

   Giving the rest of your team visibility of the progress being made, an audit trail of your interactions, and avoids two people chasing up the same customer.
   
   

    

   Add your own Note Types of 'Chasing Payment' or 'Finance' to better categorise, filter and report on your notes.
   
   
   

5. Manage complaints
   
   

   The way that you handle a complaint can make or break the long term relationship that you have with that customer.

   Having a central location to log the initial complaint, and the progress/actions that your team have completed can make a big difference to the final outcome. This reliable location gives you an all in one view for following the progress made so far, actioning next steps, keeping the customer in the loop, and avoiding two people completing the same action.

   Although hopefully you won't have to log too many!

   
   Notes are an excellent way of quickly recording important information, which can then be accessed by the rest of your team - for better, transparent, collaborative working.
   
   

    

   Create your own Note Type of 'Complaint' to better categorise, filter and report on your notes.

FAQs

Is it possible to see when a Note was updated?

It is possible to see when a Note was updated by adding the 'Date Updated' column into your Notes Datagrid.

Can I see the content of the Note on the Notes DataGrid?

Yes! There is a column available to add to your Notes DataGrid called 'Note', this will display the plain text version of your Note on your DataGrid. The plain text version means that any formatting that is included in the Note (such as bold text, colours, images) will be ignored in the DataGrid.

Is there a character limit on Notes?

There is no character limit for Notes, the biggest Note that we have ever seen was 80,000 characters! However, we strongly recommend sticking to under 1,000 characters per note so that you can include your Note content in your DataGrid without causing your DataGrid to be stretched.

Can I retrieve Notes that have been deleted?

It is not possible to undo the Delete action for Notes, therefore only Notes that should be removed forever should be deleted.

It is possible to add a Note Type called 'Archived', which old Notes can be logged against, and then pre-filtered out of your DataGrids.

Further Reading

• Using Notes to improve communication across your training business [12 EXAMPLES]

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