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HELP: Tracking expiration dates with CRM + Automatic Reminders RRS feed

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    Hello,

    I am trying to determine if this product would meet my business needs and was wondering if someone could provide some answers! We need a system for tracking customer's "license expiration date." Ideally, there would be a text-field in the system where we could enter the expiration date for the product the client has purchased. We would also need the system to track these dates, maybe provide automatic monthly reminders of upcoming expiration dates? Is there any way to achieve this using this software?

    I would appreciate any help, tips, tricks, etc! 

    Thank you :)

    Friday, January 11, 2013 8:58 PM

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    For a start you would probably want to create a custom entity for the Licences so you can see not only the current one and it's expiry date, but all previous ones to retain some history. You could add the expiry date as a date field (not a text field) so you can track this. Your custom entity could have different statuses to suit your process. "Active", "Expired" and possibly "Cancelled" would be most obvious, but you might also want options such as "Pending" when a sale has been closed but not yet paid, and possibly "On hold" if it has been ordered but not paid for after the invoice is due.

    You could easily set up a view to show all Licences which are due to expire in the next month so you can try to get renewal sales. You probably want to avoid reminders in the sense of sending emails etc, as this can quickly start to annoy users and a filtered view is more useful to people to work their way through..

    You could also use workflows to create new Opportunities for Licences which are due to expire so that you can follow these up to try and win more renewal business.

    Hope this helps.
    Adam Vero, Microsoft Certified Trainer | Microsoft Community Contributor 2011
    Blog: Getting IT Right

    Saturday, January 12, 2013 12:10 AM
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    Hi,

    Dynamics CRM allows you to add custom fields and entities to represent exactly the data that is important to your business. Adding a date field to the account entity would allow you to track expiration dates, and then you can use a Workflow to wait until 1 month before that date and send a reminder email, or create a task for someone etc.

    So the short answer is YES! More info can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg328235.aspx

    Scott Durow
    Read my blog: www.develop1.net/public     Follow Me on Twitter
    If this post answers your question, please click "Mark As Answer" on the post and "Mark as Helpful"


    Friday, January 11, 2013 11:45 PM
    Answerer

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  • Question
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    1
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    Hi,

    Dynamics CRM allows you to add custom fields and entities to represent exactly the data that is important to your business. Adding a date field to the account entity would allow you to track expiration dates, and then you can use a Workflow to wait until 1 month before that date and send a reminder email, or create a task for someone etc.

    So the short answer is YES! More info can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg328235.aspx

    Scott Durow
    Read my blog: www.develop1.net/public     Follow Me on Twitter
    If this post answers your question, please click "Mark As Answer" on the post and "Mark as Helpful"


    Friday, January 11, 2013 11:45 PM
    Answerer
  • Question
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    For a start you would probably want to create a custom entity for the Licences so you can see not only the current one and it's expiry date, but all previous ones to retain some history. You could add the expiry date as a date field (not a text field) so you can track this. Your custom entity could have different statuses to suit your process. "Active", "Expired" and possibly "Cancelled" would be most obvious, but you might also want options such as "Pending" when a sale has been closed but not yet paid, and possibly "On hold" if it has been ordered but not paid for after the invoice is due.

    You could easily set up a view to show all Licences which are due to expire in the next month so you can try to get renewal sales. You probably want to avoid reminders in the sense of sending emails etc, as this can quickly start to annoy users and a filtered view is more useful to people to work their way through..

    You could also use workflows to create new Opportunities for Licences which are due to expire so that you can follow these up to try and win more renewal business.

    Hope this helps.
    Adam Vero, Microsoft Certified Trainer | Microsoft Community Contributor 2011
    Blog: Getting IT Right

    Saturday, January 12, 2013 12:10 AM
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    Thanks to both of you for the great answers! :)
    Monday, January 14, 2013 3:40 PM