ConnectWise Manage

Connecting ConnectWise Manage lets your processes work with your live ConnectWise data: people pick real companies, contacts, and tickets from your ConnectWise system while they work, and your processes create tickets and log time back into ConnectWise without anyone rekeying it.

What you get

Live ConnectWise fields

Process fields that list your real companies, contacts, boards, members, agreements, tickets, and more, searched live from ConnectWise as the user types.

Lists that narrow each other

Pick a company and the contact, opportunity, ticket, and agreement lists on the same form show only that company’s records.

Tickets created for you

An automated action can open a service ticket in ConnectWise at any point in a process, and save the new ticket number back into the process.

Time logged automatically

Log a time entry against a ticket, with work type, work role, agreement, notes, and billable option, as a step in the process.

Before you start

You need three pieces of information from ConnectWise, which your ConnectWise administrator can create for you:

• Company ID - the company identifier you use to sign in to ConnectWise

• Public Key and Private Key - from an API key created for an API member in ConnectWise (in ConnectWise: System > Members > API Members, then the API Keys tab). The private key is only shown once, when the key is created

Caution

Whatever the API member is allowed to see and do in ConnectWise is exactly what ProcessPlan can see and do. If the API member cannot see agreements, for example, your agreement lists come back empty. Give it access to the areas you plan to use: companies, contacts, service and project tickets, members, agreements, and time entries.

Note

The integration works with ConnectWise Manage accounts on the North America cloud. If your ConnectWise is hosted elsewhere, contact support before setting this up.

Connect ConnectWise

1. Click Administration > Integrations > Integrations.

2. Click New Integration, and give the integration a name.

3. Set Integration Type to ConnectWise Manage.

4. Enter the Company ID, Public Key, and Private Key, then save.

Once the integration is saved, the ConnectWise field types and the Automate ConnectWise action type appear where you build your processes.

Tip

Keep one ConnectWise integration on the account. Process fields use your account’s ConnectWise integration automatically, while automated actions ask you which integration to use.

ConnectWise process fields

ConnectWise field types appear in the Field Type list when you add a process field, below the standard types. Each one is a search box: the user starts typing, ProcessPlan searches ConnectWise live, and they pick a record from the results.

1. Open the template, click the Process Field icon, then New Process Field.

2. Name the field and pick the ConnectWise field type you want.

3. Save, then add the field to the tasks that need it.

The field types

Field type	Lists	Narrowed by
ConnectWise Company	Your ConnectWise companies
ConnectWise Contact	Active contacts	Company
ConnectWise Opportunity	Open opportunities	Company
ConnectWise Service Ticket	Open service tickets, shown as number and summary	Company, Board
ConnectWise Project Ticket	Open project tickets, shown as number and summary	Company, Board
ConnectWise Agreement	Active agreements (not cancelled or expired)	Company (required)
ConnectWise Member	Active ConnectWise members
ConnectWise Board	Your service boards
ConnectWise Ticket Status	Statuses on the board	Board
ConnectWise Ticket Type	Types on the board	Board
ConnectWise Ticket Sub Type	Sub types on the board	Board
ConnectWise Ticket Item	Items on the board	Board, Sub Type
ConnectWise Work Type	Active work types
ConnectWise Work Role	Active work roles

Searching matches the obvious thing for each list: companies by name, contacts and members by name, tickets by ticket number or by words in the summary.

How the fields work together

The narrowing in the table above happens automatically when the fields sit in the same process, and it happens the moment the parent field is answered. It saves people scrolling past thousands of irrelevant records, and it stops them attaching a contact from the wrong company.

• Choose the company and the contact, opportunity, service ticket, project ticket, and agreement lists all narrow to that company

• Choose the board and the ticket status, type, sub type, and item lists narrow to that board, along with the service and project ticket lists

• Choose the sub type and the item list narrows again to the items that sub type allows

Order the fields on the task the way they narrow, company and board first, so people answer them in the order that does the most work for them.

Caution

An Agreement field needs a Company field on the same process, and the ticket status, type, sub type, and item fields need a Board field. Without the parent answered, those lists have nothing to search and stay empty.

Note

ConnectWise fields search your ConnectWise system as the person answers them, so they only work for someone signed in to ProcessPlan. On a public form, where the visitor is anonymous, these lists have nothing to offer. Collect what an outside requester knows (their name, their email, the problem) in ordinary fields, and match it to ConnectWise on a task inside the process.

What the field stores

The user sees the ConnectWise record’s name, and ProcessPlan quietly keeps the ConnectWise ID behind it. That matters when you reference the field elsewhere with a field token:

• The plain token prints what the user saw, such as the company name or 1234 - Server will not boot

• The (Value) token gives you the ConnectWise ID, which is what the ConnectWise automated actions expect when you feed them a value from the process

Automate ConnectWise

With the integration connected, automated actions can create tickets and log time in ConnectWise. Add the action to a template, choose Automate ConnectWise as the Action Type, then choose what it should do:

• Create Ticket - opens a service ticket on the board you choose, with a summary and description built from the process, and saves the new ticket number into a process field of your choice

• Create Time Entry - logs time against a ticket, with the member, work type, work role, agreement, notes, minutes, billable option, and what the time is charged to

Each ConnectWise setting in the action can be picked from a live list (Select From List) or supplied from the process with a field token (Use Field Token or Enter ID Manually).

ConnectWise Action TypesEvery setting on the Create Ticket and Create Time Entry actions.

A worked example

A support request process that ends with billable time logged in ConnectWise:

1. Capture the request. The process has a ConnectWise Company field, a ConnectWise Contact field, and a text field for the problem. The person taking the request picks the company and the contact, and the contact list is already narrowed to that company.

2. Open the ticket. A Create Ticket action on the first task points its ConnectWise Company ID setting at the company field’s (Value) token, builds the Ticket Summary from the process fields, and saves the new ticket number into a text field called Ticket Number.

3. Do the work. The technician’s task shows the ticket number, and a ConnectWise Work Type field and a numeric Minutes field collect what they did.

4. Log the time. A Create Time Entry action on task completion points its ConnectWise Ticket ID at the Ticket Number field, its ConnectWise Member ID and Work Type at the fields collected in the previous step, and its Minutes at the Minutes field.

Nobody opened ConnectWise, and the ticket and the time entry are both in it.

When something is not right

• The ConnectWise field types are missing from the Field Type list. The account has no ConnectWise integration yet, or it was saved without all three credentials. Check Administration > Integrations > Integrations

• A list comes back empty. Most often the API member in ConnectWise cannot see that kind of record. It can also mean the list is waiting on another field: contacts, opportunities, tickets, and agreements need a company, and statuses, types, sub types, and items need a board

• A ticket you expected is not in the list. Closed tickets are left out on purpose, as are inactive contacts and members, and cancelled or expired agreements

• A ConnectWise field is empty on a public form. These fields need a signed-in user, so put them on a task inside the process rather than on the public form

• A Create Ticket action does not run. The company, board, and summary are all required. If any of them is supplied by a field token that resolves to nothing at the moment the action runs, the action stops. Field tokens for ConnectWise settings must be (Value) tokens, since ConnectWise needs the ID rather than the name

• Time is logged to the wrong place. Check Charge To Type, which decides whether the entry belongs to a service ticket, a project ticket, or a charge code