Everything You Need to Know About Dynamics 365 Calendar

Do you ever feel that your day is about to end and you have not completed any tasks? Some job profiles include doing multiple tasks in a day. When you are about to finish one task, the other one with high priority arrives. You start doing the other task leaving the first one unfinished.

There is a way that can help you organize your day so that you do not miss any deadlines and your work goes smoothly. Even after being busy the whole day, it might make you feel unproductive without any proper schedule. Also, doing tasks randomly can affect your speed, quality, and efficiency of doing work.

Calendars 

Calendars are a great way to organize your day. They help plan meetings and tasks by sending reminders via email and pop-ups. Calendars like Dynamics 365 Calendar integrate with the CRM to use all the CRM entities while scheduling your day.

What is Dynamics 365 Calendar and the Benefit of Integrating With the CRM?

Dynamics 365 Calendar is a plugin that integrates with Dynamics 365. It helps in scheduling appointments and meetings and assigning tasks and activities. With Dynamics calendar, you can create a calendar for yourself as well as your team members.

As this calendar integrates with the CRM, it becomes easy to select projects, assign tasks, update task status, etc. Any update in the calendar simultaneously updates the same in CRM and vice versa.  It saves time that goes into updating task or activity details at two different places. 

There are a lot more functionalities in the Dynamics calendar. Let us have a look at its features.

Task and Activity Management

Some employees often struggle to understand the time it takes to complete the task as they have to complete the high-priority tasks first and then continue with the other. Also, there are chances that they are or have to overwork because there is no clear calculation of task and time.

But with Dynamics Calendar, you can create tasks and activities for your team members, or they can do the same. The task would have each and every detail with time so that the employee knows when to deliver it. Thus they would have track of both tasks and time.

Managers can create schedules for events and activities and share them with the employees, so everyone has it marked on their calendar and plans their schedule accordingly. You can add employees’ birthday and work anniversary days to the calendar for everyone to view and pass their warm wishes.

Shareable Calendar

How difficult is it to schedule a meeting? Ask a manager, and they know how difficult it is to find a time that works for all. They often have to reschedule or cancel the meeting because some invitees were busy with other meetings or appointments. Asking everyone personally for their availability and then finalizing the time that works for all consumes a lot of time, maybe more than the time of your meeting. 

But if you have a Dynamics calendar, then everyone can easily share the calendar internally or with clients or customers outside the organization. So, if someone is looking to schedule a meeting, they can check the other person’s availability and then schedule it.

The calendar also notifies if you try to schedule a meeting at the same time as another meeting. You would only schedule when everyone is available without clashing with other meetings.

Manage Leaves and Daily Schedules

If a manager is planning a week’s task and someone is on leave, how would they know? Well, with the Dynamics 365 calendar, it is not an issue. Employees can apply for leaves, and the managers can accept or reject them from the calendar.

It is easier for the company to track employee productivity with Dynamics Calendar. This would benefit them while assigning tasks. They would not mistakenly assign tasks to someone who is on leave. So, managing resources becomes easier. At the end of the month, the managers can easily track the working days of their team members and whether the tasks assigned to them are complete or not.

Total Customization

The calendar dashboard is customizable. You can add whatever entities, schedules, modules, etc., you want so that it is easier for you while schedule meetings, appointments, or assign tasks. You simply have to drag and drop the entities you want on the preferred timeline. You can resize and color code it to make it easier to visualize.

You do not have to create entities as the calendar would fetch all the entities from the CRM. So when you assign a task, the status of the task can be updated in the calendar, and it would automatically update in the CRM.  Thus, your employees would save time from all these mundane tasks.

Multiple Calendars

Some of your employees would be handling multiple posts. For example, a team lead is also head of the cultural events in your company. Your company is having a whole week of celebration and has some events and activities every day. They have made a calendar for all the events with details. The lead would also have their own tasks in the same calendar. This would mess up their calendar. It would be confusing when they want to know their tasks or productivity because of the cultural event tasks. 

But with Dynamics 365 Calendar, you can create multiple calendars and save them. So, the TL would have its calendar and one for the cultural events. This way, they would have clarity on the tasks.

Similarly, you can create a calendar for various other tasks like schedules for interns, clients’ schedules for office visits, or it could be anything. Having multiple calendars means that other entries would not mix up with their calendar. Having a different calendar would bring in more clarity.

Reminders/Notifications

What is more embarrassing than reaching late to the meeting because it slipped your mind? Or someone calls you to join a meeting as you forgot you had one. Everyone has to wait for others who have not joined the meeting. 

Reminders or notifications are the best way never to miss an appointment. Dynamics 365 Calendar sends pop-ups and email notifications, reminding you before meetings, appointments, any specific task, etc. So when you have a pop saying your meeting is in 10 minutes, you have time to prepare for the meeting and close down the ongoing tasks.

Multiple Language Support

The calendar (your schedule) would be visible to everyone you share it with. If the person you are sharing with does not know your calendar’s language, how would they understand it? Well, it is not necessary that all your employees and clients would know the same language as you do.

Similarly, employees might be unable to make the best use of the calendar if they are not comfortable with the language. If they stop using it, you will again be in the same loop as earlier.

However, if you are using Dynamics 365 Calendar, you get multiple language support. The user can choose the language of their choice. Thus, the one who creates the calendar and the one with whom it is shared can have it in their preferred language.

Mobile Compatibility

If one of your team is out to meet clients, how would they view, manage, and update their schedule? Every time it might not be feasible to open their laptops and look at their calendars. If you are investing in a calendar that is not mobile-compatible, then you might not be able to make the best use of it.

 

The Dynamics 365 Calendar is compatible with mobile phones. It operates the same way as a desktop so that any user can access their calendar from their phones. The calendar has mobile responsive features, and this plugin can be accessed with model-driven apps or a unified user interface.

Final Words

Planning your day does help in increasing productivity and managing multiple tasks. Without planned schedules, it gets difficult for you to track your work and your employees/team members. The calendar gives visibility to you and others. 

It helps the most when working remotely. The employees working on the same project would be able to see who else is working with them so that they can discuss issues and solutions with each other. It helps them understand who is working on what task and how much they have completed it. It creates a positive competitive vibe between team members. This feature simplifies the daily struggle of managing tasks and meetings. 

To make the best use of the calendar plugin, you must ensure it has all the features discussed above.