Service callouts are used to schedule and send automatic messages to customers about upcoming service needs on their products. The feature is particularly relevant for businesses that rent out, sell or service products with ongoing maintenance — for example machines, appliances or technical equipment with serial numbers.
Each workflow step can send a message to the customer (via email, SMS or report) when service is started and/or when service is completed. Linking of service types to specific products and serial numbers happens automatically based on the configured rules.
The screen appears both as a standalone overview and as a tab directly on serial-number item cards.
From Financial, select "Service callouts". If you cannot see the menu item, you probably do not have permission for it. Contact support.
The list shows all scheduled and historical service callouts. The column selection feature allows you to hide or show columns as needed. The grid supports export.
Service type: Name of the workflow type the callout belongs to, e.g. "Annual inspection".
Serial number name: Localized name of the product instance.
Serial number: The serial number of the product that requires service.
Customer: Customer identifier and name from the actor register.
Send to: Email address or phone number the message is sent to.
Step: Description of the current step in the process, e.g. "1st reminder".
Scheduled for: Date for scheduled sending. A default filter is set automatically, limiting the display to callouts up to a number of days into the future. The range can be adjusted via the filter.
Approved on: Date for when the callout was approved for sending.
State: Status of the callout. See the section "State explanation" below.
Completed on: Date for when the service was performed and marked as completed.
Org. unit: The organizational unit (department/branch) the callout is associated with.
Created on: Creation date. This column is hidden by default and can be enabled via column selection.
All significant columns support filtering: Service type, State, Scheduled for (date range), Approved on, Completed on, Customer, Step description and Org. unit. The default filter on "Scheduled for" is set automatically when opening and shows callouts up to a preset number of days ahead.
Awaiting approval: The callout is scheduled and awaits manual or automatic approval before it is sent.
Approved: The callout is approved and ready to be sent on the scheduled date.
Sent: The message has been sent to the customer.
Completed: The service process is marked as performed.
Cancelled: The callout is cancelled and will not be sent.
Failed: Sending failed. Use "Show error" to see the cause, and "Resend selected messages" to reschedule.
Failed at completion: Sending the "On completion" message failed.
Blocked due to customer's allowed communication method: The customer has communication settings that prevent sending. Use "Update recipient information" to resolve the block.
SMS setup is missing: The SMS settings are not configured for this step. Configure the service type, or reschedule after correction.
Email/report settings are missing: The email or report settings are missing for the step.
Preferred communication is not possible: The customer's preferred communication method is not supported in this step.
There are no messages to send: The step has no active communication template configured.
Select all: Selects or deselects all rows on the current page. Always active.
Approve: Approves the selected callouts with the state "Awaiting approval". The button is only active when at least one selected callout is in the state "Awaiting approval" and not yet approved. Affects only the rows you have checked.
Approve all: Approves all pending callouts that match the active filters. Respects the filtering but requires no selection. Always active.
Send now: Approves and immediately sends the selected callouts. Combines approval and immediate sending in one step. Active when at least one selected callout is in the state "Awaiting approval" or "Approved".
Mark as completed: Sets the state to "Completed" for the selected callouts. Active when none of the selected ones are in the state "Completed" or "Cancelled".
Cancel: Cancels the selected callouts. Active when none of the selected ones are in the state "Cancelled" or "Completed".
Open serial-number item: Opens the product instance popup for the selected callout. Always visible.
Show message: Opens the message dialog with the generated customer communication. Shows a warning if no message has yet been generated for the selected callout. Always visible.
Show settings: Opens a dialog with the template settings used for the selected callout. The dialog shows the content in two columns: "Initial" (initial communication) and "On completion" (communication at completion). For both columns, Email subject, Email message, SMS message, Report and Print tag are shown. Active when a callout is selected.
Show error: Shows a description of the error that occurred during processing or sending. Active only if the selected callout is in an error state.
Update recipient information: Opens the actor dialog for the selected callout and then attempts to remove any block. Active in the states "Failed" and "Blocked due to customer's allowed communication method".
Resend selected messages: Reschedules sending for the selected callouts. Active in the states "Failed", "SMS setup is missing", "Email/report settings are missing", "Preferred communication is not possible" and "There are no messages to send".
Right-click (or touch-hold) on a single row shows a context menu with two actions:
Synchronize communication info: Updates the recipient details from the actor register without opening a dialog. Available in the states "Sent", "Failed", "Awaiting approval" and "Approved".
Update recipient and synchronize communication info: Opens the actor dialog and then synchronizes the recipient details. Available in the same states.
The same overview appears as a "Service callouts" tab directly inside a serial-number item card. The tab has the same columns and actions as the standalone list, but in addition contains an extra button:
Recalculate messages: Recalculates the workflow messages for the given serial-number item. Useful if the product instance's data has changed and the callouts need to be updated accordingly. The button is only visible on the tab — not on the main list.
Service types are templates that define which service processes should be generated for serial-number items. They are managed under the "Service types" screen, which is reached via the navigation system under "Service callouts".
Display name: The name shown in the user interface for the service type.
System name: A technical, unique name for internal identification.
Enabled: Checkbox that indicates whether the service type is active and will generate callouts.
Approval method: Controls whether generated callouts are approved automatically ("Approve automatically") or require manual action ("Manual approval"). If "Approve automatically" is selected, the state changes from "Awaiting approval" directly to "Approved" without user intervention. If "Manual approval" is selected, a user must explicitly click "Approve" or "Send now".
Print tag: Report tag associated with the service type at the overall level.
A new service type is created with the plus button. An existing type is selected and edited via the edit button or by double-clicking the row. Deletion is done with the remove button and requires confirmation.
Each service type can have one or more steps. Steps are added with the "Add" button in the step panel on the service type, and edited by double-clicking.
Description: Name or description of the step, e.g. "First reminder" or "Service inspection".
Price incl. VAT: Price for the service associated with the step.
Initial — Email subject: The subject line of the email sent at initiation.
Initial — Email message: Body text of the email sent at initiation. Supports placeholders — a hint with available parameters is shown in the field.
Initial — SMS message: SMS text sent at initiation. Supports placeholders in the same way.
Initial — Report: Report attached at initiation.
Initial — Print tag: Report tag associated with the initiation communication.
Initial — Print text: Free text that accompanies the report at initiation.
On completion — Email subject, Email message, SMS message, Report, Print tag, Print text: The same fields as under "Initial", but they are sent when the service process is marked as completed.
Scheduling: Defines when the step is scheduled. The options are:
"Never" — the step is not scheduled automatically. "After [period]" — the step is scheduled a specific number of time units after an event. "Exact date" — the step is scheduled on a specific date. "Monthly" — the step recurs on day X of the month. "Yearly" — the step recurs on day X of month Y every year.
Span: Number of time units (used with the scheduling choice "After").
Period: The time unit for the span — Days, Months or Years.
Event: Specifies where the time calculation starts from. The options are "Startup" (from the workflow's initiation) or "After step [name]" (relative to another step in the same service type).
Repeat every: Checkbox that enables repetition. When enabled, an interval and time unit for repetition is specified.
Limit repetitions to: Checkbox that sets a maximum number of repetitions. The field on the right specifies the desired number.
Exact date: Date picker that is available when the scheduling choice is set to "Exact date".
Each service type can be linked to one or more products via service links. These define which products automatically initiate the workflow. Links are added with the "Add" button in the services panel on the service type and edited by double-clicking.
Main product: The primary product the service type applies to. Searched for via the product search field.
Pre-code: Dropdown with action codes that further specify when the link takes effect.
Related products: Grid with any additional products that are triggered together with the main product.
Should be applied to main product: Checkbox that indicates whether the link should apply directly to the main product — in addition to the related products.
Service callouts are closely linked to serial-number items. Serial-number item cards have a "Service callouts" tab that shows all callouts for the given instance. In addition, service types are used as a filter choice in the serial-number item list and as a field in serial-number item editing, where a specific service type can be linked to a single instance.
If you have questions, you are welcome to contact support.
Want to know more?
You can customize how this area works under the settings:
Settings for service callouts
Walkthrough of the settings under Communication workflow settings in the Inventory module. Here you configure the time window for automatic sending of service callout messages to customers.
