Using notes in Autotask

IMPORTANT  In this topic and its sub-topics, we are only addressing notes that are associated with:
• Devices
• Contracts
• Projects, Tasks and Issues
• Tickets, Recurring Ticket Templates
• Time Entries
• Knowledge Base article and document notes

CRM organizations, contacts and opportunities also have a Notes feature. But CRM notes are structurally different from the notes associated with contracts, projects, tasks, tickets and time entries. CRM to-dos and Notes are used to assign, schedule, and track non-billable organization or sales activities.
For additional information about CRM notes, refer to About to-dos and CRM notes.

About notes

Notes are used to track additional information, update the status of the parent entity, and communicate with resources and customers.

  • They appear on the Activity tab and the Notes table of the parent entity
  • On some entities, they support email notification, which allows you to send the text of the note to selected recipients
  • You can attach supplementary documents to a note
  • You can search for notes from Home > Search > Global Notes Search
  • You can generate a report using the LiveReports > Note category
  • All notes are time stamped

Knowledge Base article and document notes are not exposed on the Global Notes Search page, and don't have a note type. They are also not exposed in the API or LiveReports.

About note types

Notes have a property called Note Type. Selecting a Note Type populates the Publish To field of the note, but this default can be overridden. Notes published to All Autotask Users are visible to customers. Notes published to Internal Users, referred to as internal notes, are never visible to your customers.

Your Autotask instance comes with a list of Note Types, and you can create additional ones. Refer to Note types.

How to...

You can manually enter notes for:

  • Contracts
  • Projects, tasks and issues
  • Tickets
  • Time entries on tasks and tickets
  • Knowledge Base article notes and Document notes

Refer to:

A number of events in Autotask automatically generate notes that are attached to the parent entity.

NOTE  Automatically created notes cannot be deleted.

Here is an overview of the note types available for the various entities, and how they are created.

Entity Note Type Can be created manually? Is automatically created when…
Device Device One device is swapped out for another, created from a Project, Ticket or Contract Charge, or imported.
Contract Contract Notes Changes are made to the contract (unit cost, unit price or number of units are changed) or when the contract is set to "Out of Compliance."
Project Email An email is sent to the Project Team.
Project Status Project Status or Description are changed, or a Change Order is applied to the project.
Project Notes  
Workflow Rule Note - Project   A Project Workflow Rule fires.
Task or Issue Task Detail  
Task Summary  
Task Notes  
Workflow Rule Note - Task   A Task Workflow Rule fires.
Ticket Task Detail  
Task Notes Ticket was completed and Merged, ticket has absorbed other tickets, or ticket is copied to a project.
Task Summary Quoted products, shipping fees, charges or one-time item discount items are converted to ticket charges.
Duplicate Ticket Note   Incoming Email Processing detects a duplicate ticket.
RMM Note   Your company uses Datto RMM and has configured the Autotask integration. An RMM Note is created when the corresponding Datto RMM alert clears or is completed, if the same alert has been repeated within a defined time frame, or if other Datto RMM alerts have been created for the same device. RMM Notes are published to internal users only.
Workflow Rule Note - Ticket   A ticket workflow rule fires.

Workflow Rule Action note

 

A ticket workflow rule with a Create Ticket Note action fires.

Outsource Workflow Note   A ticket is outsourced to a Service Partner.
Survey Note   A survey is sent to a ticket contact.
Client Portal Note   A ticket created in the Client Portal is auto-transferred to the Service Provider, based on its Request Type. A ticket note is entered by the client in Client Portal.
Taskfire Note    
Time Entry   The Summary Notes and Internal Notes on Task and Ticket Time Entries don't have a Note Type, but count as notes and can be searched on the Global Notes page. Internal Notes are optional and are never seen by your customers.

Knowledge Base Article, Document

Knowledge Base Article Note and Document Note

 

You can search for any note, including CRM notes, on Home > Global Notes Search, assuming your security level does not restrict this. Refer to Running a global notes search.

For reporting on notes, refer to Reports on Autotask notes.