Category Archives: Anywhere

Importing Options on a per-user basis

This enhancement is intended for administrators and API developers who regularly import user data in portatour®.

The user import now allows the import of the following options per user in supplementary columns, in addition to the home location:

  • Working hours
  • Work break settings
  • Overnight stay settings
  • Driving speed
  • Standard scheduling parameters of the user’s customers
  • Standard business hours of the user’s customers

You can see a description of the individual fields and the permitted values in the import wizard by clicking the (i) symbol of the corresponding field. Alternatively, you can find the description in the API documentation for ImportUsers.

It is not possible to export these fields.

New Maps February 2021

Today we have updated the map data and traffic flow data on our servers.

Changes in the road network and driving speeds may affect driving times between customers, so we recalculated them for you in portatour®. Some users might notice the change when updating the schedule next time.

In addition, when displaying maps in portatour®, the loading times might take a little longer since the map details need to be downloaded to your device again.

December 2020 Update

Shortly before Christmas we published a minor update for portatour®. Below you will find a description of the new features.

Map: More colors for displaying customers

It was already possible to color customers on the map not only according to urgency, but also according to other criteria, e.g. industry.

As a reminder, here’s how to proceed:

  • In the main menu, click Customers.
  • Click the map icon.
  • In the top right corner, click the cogwheel icon.
  • In the color selection box, select the desired criterion according to which you want to set the colors.

The assignment of colors to the different crtieria occurs automatically, whereby the limit was previously 5 colors. With this update, the color palette has now been extended to 20 colors. Here is an example:

Map: Hide customers by color

Regardless of which criterion you used to color the customers on the map, you can now hide or show all customers of the same color with a single click.

This is useful if you want to focus on individual colors on the map and avoid them being concealed by others.

Proceed as follows:

  • If the legend with the color overview is not yet open, click the legend icon at the bottom right.
  • To hide or show the customers of a certain color, click the eye icon to the right. The icon toggles between gray and blue.
  • To hide or show all customers, use the eye icon in the all row.

Edit customer reference of appointments and tasks

To edit the customer reference of an appointment or task retroactively, open the edit window. The current customer reference is displayed at the top.

Click the pencil icon to create, change or delete a customer reference. When changing the customer reference, the subject and address of the appointment can also be updated, if desired.

Typical use cases:

  • The appointment was imported and does not have a customer reference yet.
  • The appointment was mistakenly assigned to the wrong customer when it was created.

Note: If portatour® is connected to data sources in Salesforce, Dynamics CRM or Veeva CRM, the customer reference cannot be edited retroactively. Make the change in the source system or delete the appointment and recreate it with the correct customer reference.

New filters in the extended customer search

The following filters have been added to the extended customer search:

  • Call block: not blocked today
  • In “My Places”: any| no | yes
  • Accommodation : any | no | yes

Major November 2020 Update

After an intensive development period, we have rolled out a major update of portatour® today. To read details about the new features, scroll down or use the following links:

Extensions especially for administrators of company accounts:

We wish you much success with using the new features and are looking forward to your feedback at feedback@portatour.com.

Logging of telephone calls made in lieu of visits

Now, during the Corona pandemic, many representatives have encountered some customers who may not be visited in person, whereby contact is only possible by telephone.

Such telephone calls are a forced substitute for a visit. The call interval should be reset upon conclusion. To log this in portatour® there is a new menu item By phone instead of in person, when you click New report on the customer detail page.

Now what are the differences compared to the normal call report? The report is of type “Other” with the subject “By phone instead of in person”. In addition, this report does not affect the departure point if the schedule is subsequently updated.

Analogous to the normal call report, the date of the last visit is updated for the customer, i.e. the call interval is reset. This telephone call has taken place in lieu of an in-person visit.

Here is a table summarizing the characteristics of the different reports:

Call Missed By phone instead of in person By phone Other
Report type Call Missed Other Other Other
Prefilled subject “Call” “Missed” “By phone instead of in person” “By phone” (empty)
Date of last call at customer Will be updated Remains unchanged Will be updated Remains unchanged Remains unchanged
Departure point for next schedule Will be updated if necessary Will be updated if necessary Remains unchanged Remains unchanged Remains unchanged
Geotag Possible Possible Not possible Not possible Not possible

Note: Which menu items are actually visible depends on the settings in the Options under “Reporting”.

Export data of all user accounts at once

To export the data of all user accounts, you used to have to log in to each user account individually and export from there, or use the API. This process is now much easier with this update.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Open the Options as administrator or supervisor.
  2. Click Export data in the company-wide section Data management .
  3. Select from the menu which data you want to export (Customers, Appointments, Tasks, Reports, Users).
  4. If you have user groups, select whether you want to export the data of all users or only of a specific user group.
  5. If necessary, change further export settings (Format, Time period, …).
  6. Click Download .

You will now receive the data in a file as a download in your browser.

Bear in mind:

  • This process may take longer if there are a large number of users or data records. Leave the browser open during this process and remain on the page.
  • The limits for the download are 100,000 rows and 100 user accounts. If these limits are exceeded, the process is aborted. In this case, restrict the export to a user group, for example, or use our API scripts for automatic download from the individual user accounts.
  • The export functionality is not available if you use portatour® in combination with Salesforce or Dynamics CRM. Export the data directly from there.

Import data for multiple user accounts at once

To import customer data into portatour®, it was previously necessary to split the customer data: one file per representative with their respective customers. These files then had to be uploaded individually. Fortunately this is no longer the case.

As of this update, it is now also possible to upload a single file with all customers of all representatives. The only important thing is for the file to contain a separate column for each customer with the corresponding representative – either an e-mail address or employee number.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Open the Options as administrator or supervisor.
  2. Click Import data in the company-wide section Data management .
  3. Select from the menu which data you want to import (Customers, Appointments, Tasks, Reports).
  4. Follow the steps in the import wizard, which you already know from importing data for an individual user (see the online help for more information). If you have already saved an import configuration, you can use it now.
  5. On the new User Assignment page, select whether to assign customers to users by email or employee number. Note: if you use employee numbers, make sure that they are saved correctly for the individual users in the portatour® User Management.
  6. On the new page User Selection check that the users found and the number of rows to be imported are correct.
    • If the assignment did not produce the desired result, check the correct spelling of the e-mail addresses or preciseness of employee numbers both in the import file and the User Management.
    • You will also receive a message if there are no rows in your import file corresponding to users in portatour®.
  7. Uncheck the Import checkbox for those users you wish to exclude from the import.
  8. Follow the steps of the import wizard that you are already familiar with.
  9. You will now see the preview for the first user. Check this in the usual manner.
  10. Decide how you wish to proceed:
    • Click Back if you encounter problems in the preview and want to make changes to the settings.
    • Click Import once the preview is correct and you are ready to import the data for this user. You will see the result of the import for this user in a summary. The preview for the next user follows.
    • Click Skip if you do not wish to execute the import for this user and to continue with the preview of the next user.
    • Click Import all users if you want to perform the import for all other users as well without checking the preview per user.
      • Tip: use this option only once you have thoroughly checked that the data and settings are correct for several users having imported them.
  1. After the last user, you will see an overall summary. There you can also download the import configuration.

Bear in mind:

  • When you upload an Excel or ODS file, all rows must be on a single spreadsheet. The assignment of customers to users must be made by means of a column (e-mail address or employee number) as described above, and not by means of separate worksheets.
  • The limits for the import are 100,000 rows and 100 user accounts. If these limits are exceeded, the process is aborted. In this case, manually split the import file into several files. Alternatively use our API scripts for automatic splitting and uploading.
  • A company-wide restore point is created for all user accounts before the import process. If the import process produces an unexpected result, for example due to an incorrect import file or incorrect field mapping, revert to this restore point, either company-wide for all users or for individually-affected user accounts. Bear in mind that any data entered by users in the meantime will be lost.
  • The import functionality is not available if you use portatour® in combination with Salesforce or Dynamics CRM. The data is automatically synchronized from there.

Filtering when importing data for a user account

To import the customer data for a user, the import file could previously only contain the customers for said user.

As of this update, the import wizard allows filtering by e-mail address or employee number. This means that the import file may also contain customers of other representatives provided there is a column with an e-mail address or employee number.

To do this, after uploading the import file in the import wizard, change the setting on the new Filtering page to indicate that the file contains data for multiple users instead of exclusively for me (= the affected user).

Then select whether the filtering should be done by email or by employee number, and which column of the import file contains the user identifiers.

Note: Alternatively, you can also use the new company-wide import and leave only the user for whom you actually want to import data checked in the user selection.

Manage saved searches centrally

With saved searches, each user can filter or sort their customer list differently depending on the purpose, and subsequently call them up again at any time at the push of a button.

As of this update, administrators can now create saved searches centrally, which can be employed by all users.

Here’s how it works:

    1. If you are an administrator and do not have customers of your own, first log in to a user account that has customers.
    2. Navigate to the customer list.
    3. Use the Advanced search to set the desired filters and sorting.
    4. Click Saved.
  1. Click Save search organization-wide…
  2. Enter a name.
  3. Click Save.

This saved search is now available to all users.

Bear in mind:

  • Only administrators can create and delete organization-wide saved searches.
  • This functionality is available not only for the customer list but also for all other lists, i.e. also for appointments, tasks, reports and users. Just click the “Search” icon above the respective list.

Translate custom fields and saved searches into other languages

Do you have users with different languages in your portatour® company account? Do you use custom fields? Then you will be thrilled with this functional extension: you can now translate these fields into other languages.

Here’s how it works:

  1. As administrator, open the Options.
  2. Click Translations in the Data Management section.
  3. In the menu, select the language for which you want to enter translations.
  4. You will now see an alphabetically sorted list with all names, values and descriptions of your custom fields. In addition, the names of organization-wide searches are also included.
  5. Enter the translations in the respective language. Leave translations blank if you want to continue using the original text.
  6. Click Save.

Users with the respective language will then see the translated texts in portatour®.

Bear in mind:

  • The modification of an original text causes its translations to be discarded. As such do not forget to add translations when you make changes to custom fields. You will be reminded when you save the custom fields.
  • When you translate the values of selection fields, saved searches based on those field values might not work. For organization-wide saved searches, use the key of the selection field value by employing an “equals” search filter. In users’ saved searches, we recommend using the translation of the selection field values in the user’s language.
  • The translations of field names are also used in the column headings when exporting data. Take this into account when you process exported files in other systems.
  • The translation functionality is not available if you use portatour® in combination with Salesforce or Dynamics CRM. The translated field names are obtained from there.