How do I add products to a service activity?

Ryan C. Price

Hi,

I want to record product consumption as part of recording a 'Service
Activity'.

I assumed I'd need to add a 'Product_Activity' entity, which would allow
selection of a product and specification of a quantity, and that this would
then be added as a 1:N relationship to the 'Service Activity'. But I've
discovered that you can't add new 1:N relationships (or N:N relationships) to
an activity.

Any suggestions welcome.

regards,

--
Ryan C. Price
Senior Developer

Donna

Try using the N:1 on the Service Activity rather than the 1:N. You should be
able to select Product as the Primary Entity.

"Ryan C. Price" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I want to record product consumption as part of recording a 'Service
> Activity'.
>
> I assumed I'd need to add a 'Product_Activity' entity, which would allow
> selection of a product and specification of a quantity, and that this would
> then be added as a 1:N relationship to the 'Service Activity'. But I've
> discovered that you can't add new 1:N relationships (or N:N relationships) to
> an activity.
>
> Any suggestions welcome.
>
> regards,
>
> --
> Ryan C. Price
> Senior Developer
>

Ryan C. Price

Thanks Donna, but unfortunately, all that does is give me a single 'product'
lookup that I can put on my activity form, which is not really what I'm after.

We have field technicians who are consuming parts from stock in their
vehicles (could be 'many' parts), and we'd like to record that consumption as
part of recording the details of the work, rather than through an 'Order' or
'Invoice' process, which I think is the way CRM is designed to handle product
consumption.

At this stage it looks like I either need to create my own 'activity' entity
from scratch to do what I want (which is a shame, because I really want to
use service activity, which is the natural place for what I want).

thanks anyway.

--
Ryan C. Price
Senior Developer



"Donna" wrote:

> Try using the N:1 on the Service Activity rather than the 1:N. You should be
> able to select Product as the Primary Entity.
>
> "Ryan C. Price" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I want to record product consumption as part of recording a 'Service
> > Activity'.
> >
> > I assumed I'd need to add a 'Product_Activity' entity, which would allow
> > selection of a product and specification of a quantity, and that this would
> > then be added as a 1:N relationship to the 'Service Activity'. But I've
> > discovered that you can't add new 1:N relationships (or N:N relationships) to
> > an activity.
> >
> > Any suggestions welcome.
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > --
> > Ryan C. Price
> > Senior Developer
> >

Donna

The other option is to create several N:1 but I am not sure how many parts
they use per service. You can name them Part 1, Part 2, etc.

Have a good day. I hope you find the right solution. One of the developers
in the room might have a good custom solution that would work.

Best Regards

"Ryan C. Price" wrote:

> Thanks Donna, but unfortunately, all that does is give me a single 'product'
> lookup that I can put on my activity form, which is not really what I'm after.
>
> We have field technicians who are consuming parts from stock in their
> vehicles (could be 'many' parts), and we'd like to record that consumption as
> part of recording the details of the work, rather than through an 'Order' or
> 'Invoice' process, which I think is the way CRM is designed to handle product
> consumption.
>
> At this stage it looks like I either need to create my own 'activity' entity
> from scratch to do what I want (which is a shame, because I really want to
> use service activity, which is the natural place for what I want).
>
> thanks anyway.
>
> --
> Ryan C. Price
> Senior Developer
>
>
>
> "Donna" wrote:
>
> > Try using the N:1 on the Service Activity rather than the 1:N. You should be
> > able to select Product as the Primary Entity.
> >
> > "Ryan C. Price" wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I want to record product consumption as part of recording a 'Service
> > > Activity'.
> > >
> > > I assumed I'd need to add a 'Product_Activity' entity, which would allow
> > > selection of a product and specification of a quantity, and that this would
> > > then be added as a 1:N relationship to the 'Service Activity'. But I've
> > > discovered that you can't add new 1:N relationships (or N:N relationships) to
> > > an activity.
> > >
> > > Any suggestions welcome.
> > >
> > > regards,
> > >
> > > --
> > > Ryan C. Price
> > > Senior Developer
> > >

Nangard

Ryan,

Interesting problem. I think you are wise to stick with the Service
Activity Features. This stuff is really powerful and you will never be able
to duplicate what it does. You could create an entity that was used to link
parts to activites Or, with the new N:N features, you can also link them,
most probably.

We have similar challenges at various levels. Engineers could be waiting for
parts to come in before going out on a service request, parts could be in
house (less often for us). We have chosen to make an N:N relationship
between Service Requests and orders. We then associate whatever orders are
needed with the Service Requests.

Works quite well. If you are in a Service Request, you have Orders in your
tree view, you just pop it up and put the parts in. If you are in Orders and
need to open an SR to execute them, you do the same.

Of course, in my Scenario, the Orders are associated with overall Service
Request, not the specific Activity. Not sure if that matters in your case or
not.



"Donna" wrote:

> The other option is to create several N:1 but I am not sure how many parts
> they use per service. You can name them Part 1, Part 2, etc.
>
> Have a good day. I hope you find the right solution. One of the developers
> in the room might have a good custom solution that would work.
>
> Best Regards
>
> "Ryan C. Price" wrote:
>
> > Thanks Donna, but unfortunately, all that does is give me a single 'product'
> > lookup that I can put on my activity form, which is not really what I'm after.
> >
> > We have field technicians who are consuming parts from stock in their
> > vehicles (could be 'many' parts), and we'd like to record that consumption as
> > part of recording the details of the work, rather than through an 'Order' or
> > 'Invoice' process, which I think is the way CRM is designed to handle product
> > consumption.
> >
> > At this stage it looks like I either need to create my own 'activity' entity
> > from scratch to do what I want (which is a shame, because I really want to
> > use service activity, which is the natural place for what I want).
> >
> > thanks anyway.
> >
> > --
> > Ryan C. Price
> > Senior Developer
> >
> >
> >
> > "Donna" wrote:
> >
> > > Try using the N:1 on the Service Activity rather than the 1:N. You should be
> > > able to select Product as the Primary Entity.
> > >
> > > "Ryan C. Price" wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I want to record product consumption as part of recording a 'Service
> > > > Activity'.
> > > >
> > > > I assumed I'd need to add a 'Product_Activity' entity, which would allow
> > > > selection of a product and specification of a quantity, and that this would
> > > > then be added as a 1:N relationship to the 'Service Activity'. But I've
> > > > discovered that you can't add new 1:N relationships (or N:N relationships) to
> > > > an activity.
> > > >
> > > > Any suggestions welcome.
> > > >
> > > > regards,
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Ryan C. Price
> > > > Senior Developer
> > > >