Once you activate the link with Catermonkey, the quotations you have created there will be automatically forwarded to CrewPlanner. This happens as soon as you change the order status to what you have set for these quotations to appear in CrewPlanner. These quotes appear as project requests in the Dashboard module External approved quotes in CrewPlanner and must be approved by a manager.
How do you create the link?
To create a link with CrewPlanner, you first need an account. More information can be found on the website www.crewplanner.com. You can schedule an online demo with them yourself, without obligation, or ask us for a contact person.
Once you have created an account, navigate to Links & Integrations in Catermonkey via Settings(gear icon at the bottom left) . At the bottom, you will find the option to generate an API key and use the CrewPlanner link.
To make the link work, open the LINKS page in CrewPlanner from the SETTINGS menu. There you will find the Catermonkey link under the heading Essential .
Click on this link, and then on the ENABLE button.
This will open the page below, where you can enter the necessary settings:
Here, enter the API Key that you copied from Catermonkey.
Under statuses, you can determine which quotes from Catermonkey may be sent to CrewPlanner by ticking the permitted statuses and clicking OK. In CrewPlanner, you can then approve these quotes as a project.
As soon as you press SAVE, the link will be activated.
Sending a quote from Catermonkey to CrewPlanner
A quotation you create in Catermonkey is not automatically sent to CrewPlanner; a number of conditions must be met for this to happen.
First, you must enter at least one customer and one date on the quote to send it to CrewPlanner. You do not have to fill in all the information, but more on that later.
In addition, you must always select EVENT as the type in order to convert it to a project in CrewPlanner.
Finally, the quotation will only be sent once you change its status to one of the statuses you have set up in the link in CrewPlanner. So you can take your time preparing your quotation and only change its status once you are ready to send it to CrewPlanner.
Once a quotation meets all the requirements, it will appear in the EXTERNAL APPROVED QUOTATIONS module of the DASHBOARD in CrewPlanner.
Which fields are linked?
When drawing up a quotation in Catermonkey, there are various fields you can use. In this chapter, we discuss which fields in CrewPlanner these correspond to and are linked to.
As mentioned earlier, you do not need to enter all the information to send a quotation to CrewPlanner, but you must enter at least a customer and a date.
CrewTip! As long as a project has not yet been approved in CrewPlanner, you can still add additional information to your quotation in Catermonkey and it will be automatically uploaded to CrewPlanner. All quotations with an event date up to 30 days in the past are taken into account. This means you can even add quotations for events that took place in the past.
Please note: to create a project in CrewPlanner, you need at least the following information: customer company name, project name, date, and at least one shift.
If this information was not entered on the quotation, it will have to be added manually in CrewPlanner in order to approve and create a project.
Let's go over which fields in Catermonkey you can use to send information and which fields they are linked to in CrewPlanner.
1. Customer = Company
Please note that CrewPlanner can only recognise the customer for whom the quotation was created if the name is exactly the same. If the name is not recognised, no project request will be created.
2. Location = Project address
If you enter an address in the Location field, it will be recognised in CrewPlanner as the Project address. If you leave this field blank, the Address unknown option will be selected for the project.
3. Event date = Project date
No information will be sentwithout a date. The Event date will be used as the Project date in CrewPlanner.
4. End date = Creation of recurring project
If you enter an End date on your quotation, a project will be created for each day between the Event date and the End date. This allows you to request multi-day projects in CrewPlanner.
5. Event name = Name of the project
The name you give to the assignment will be used as the name of the project.
6. Number of people = Additional information
The number of persons entered on a quotation refers to the number of guests. In CrewPlanner, this is displayed in the Additional information field.
7. Reference = Additional information
The information you enter in the reference field will appear in the Additional information field of the project (this field only appears if you select the pencil icon next to the assignment and then click on more options ).
8. Event planning = Project timing + shift times + shift functions
Via the Event planning section, you can add both project timing and shifts to the project. You can read how to do this in the next chapter.
Adding event planning
Using the event planning feature in Catermonkey, you can add both the project timing and shifts that you want to transfer to the project in Crewplanner.
Creating event planning in Catermonkey
Scroll to the event planning section in the assignment . Click on it and add a time block by clicking on Add row .Then open More options for this planning time block. You will see the following:
1. Create project timing
To correctly display the event planning from Catermonkey in the project timing of the projects in CrewPlanner, fill in the following fields:
Enter a time
In the box to the right of the hours, note the activity that will take place at that time. If you want to use existing formulas from CrewPlanner, you will need to enter them here exactly as they are known in CrewPlanner.
You can add a comment using the Internal comment box .
2. Add shifts
Enter the start time of the shift.
Also enter the end time of the shift.
Here, you can enter the number of employees you need.
Under Role, select the function of the shifts you want to add. The names of these roles must correspond one-to-one with the shift functions in CrewPlanner in order to be linked. You can manage the roles in Catermonkey via the settings, and scroll to Staff roles.
Where can you find confirmed quotes in CrewPlanner?
Once you have activated the link in CrewPlanner, as a manager you can add a new module called EXTERNAL APPROVED QUOTES to your dashboard. Read how to do this here.
Once the status of a quote in Catermonkey is changed to a status you selected when setting up the link, the information is sent to CrewPlanner and the quote appears in this dashboard.
CrewTip! Quotes are sorted by Event or Project date, starting with the quote or event that takes place first. Use the arrows in the top left corner to navigate to later quotes.
In this screen, you have three options:
Accept: select the plus sign to accept the quotation, after which you can create the project.
Ignore: use the icon below to ignore the quote. Please note that once you confirm, the quote will disappear from the module and you will no longer be able to create a project for it.
View quotation: select the desired quotation and a pop-up will open where you can view more information. Select the black bar with VIEW IN CATERMONKEY to reopen the quotation in Catermonkey, if you have access to it. Or use the buttons at the bottom to create the project or ignore the quotation.
Creating a project from a confirmed quotation
As discussed in the previous chapter, you accept a quotation by selecting the plus sign or the CREATE PROJECT button in the EXTERNAL APPROVED QUOTATIONS dashboard module in the pop-up. This opens the project, displaying the information entered in Catermonkey in the linked fields.
You can read how to continue creating a project here.
In the DOCUMENTS tab of the project, you will find the order overview with the information from Catermonkey.
Changing, deleting or cancelling a quotation
If a quotation is changed, deleted or cancelled in Catermonkey, it will only be automatically adjusted or deleted from CrewPlanner if it has not yet been accepted and a project has not been created.
Once the quotation has been accepted and a project has been created, the project will be linked to this quotation and the quotation will NOT automatically be adjusted or disappear from CrewPlanner, so this will have to be followed up manually.
As soon as a change has been made in Catermonkey, this will be indicated in the project in CrewPlanner by a red dot next to LOOK HERE.
CrewTip! If you have just made changes in Catermonkey and these are not yet visible in CrewPlanner, navigate to the dashboard page in CrewPlanner and refresh it to push through the changes.
When you select this, the quotation pop-up will open:
Here you can see when the quotation was last changed.
You can see what has been changed in the assignment overview, which you will find in the DOCUMENTS tab. This document is constantly updated with the most recent information.
We hope this article has been helpful!
If you have any questions about CrewPlanner's features, please take a look at CrewPlanner's Crew Academy first. You may find the answer in one of their articles, or contact their support team!
Do you have any questions about the features in Catermonkey? Feel free to contact us!
Kind regards,
The Catermonkey Team 🍌