Fast Tip Friday: Birthday List (and more) using Groups in ACT! by Sage 2010 -- #actFTF #act2010 [ Edited ]

[tmergel]

Birthday List (and more) using Groups in ACT! by Sage 2010 Did you know that you can use ACT! 2010 to group together your contacts who have a birthday coming up? This is great way to show your valued contacts that you are thinking about them and not just their checkbook! Here's how: Click on Groups from the Navigation Bar, then click the New button to create a new Group for birthdays Click Add/Remove Contacts under the Contacts tab for the new Group Click Edit Criteria under "Dynamic members". This brings you to an advanced query screen Choose "Contact" for the Type; choose "Birth Date" for the Field Name You have 2 options at this point. You can either create 12 groups (one for each month) or create 1 group that shows who has a birthday in the next X number of days For the monthly group, the item you would choose for "Operator" is "Month Equals (number)", and the Value would the month number for that group. So if the group is "May Birthdays", then the Value would be 5. Repeat this process for each month of the year. For the "Within Next X Days" group, the Operator would be "Within Next [days]" and the value would be the number of days out that the birthday occurs. So a value of 60 would include people who have a birthday within the next 60 days of the current date. Because this is a dynamic group, the membership will change according to what the current date You can then create a lookup from the members of your birthday group(s) and schedule a call, write them letter, or send them an email. This process can be used for more than just birthdays. You can use a similar group membership criteria for any date field, such as Last Reach, Last Meeting, Last Edit Date, or a custom date field. This is an excellent way to help you stay on top of your contact's activities and make sure no one slips through the cracks. Download this week's Fast Tip to learn more. QuickStudy guide pp 242-252, 255-257

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Message Edited by tmergel on 04-20-2010 12:57 PM

[glklein]

I can't get this to work.  I have several contacts in my database with a date in the Birth Date field. When I run a query where Birth Date Contains Data, they come up.  But when I run the query on Birth Date Within Next 365, it tells me no records were found. Any suggestions?

[glklein]

Some more info: when I do a Lookup for Annual Events, birthdays in the selected date range DO show up.

I am using ACT! by Sage 2010 Version 12.1.181.0, Hot Fix 1.

[gmartin]

Hello Glklein,

Welcome to the Sage ACT! Online Community!

There was an issue found with ACT! 2010, where the Lookup using 'Within Next (days)' would not display any results if the period (days) crossed into the next year.  For example: a Lookup done on 12/22/2011 with days of 365, would cross into 2012 and no results would be displayed.  If the search is done today (1/5/2012) Within Next 359 days (not into 2013), it will display results.  This issue was resolved in the Sage ACT! 2011 product.