Record the comparison value in an alert

An alert must always relate to unique data, or a unique combination of data. To achieve this, set the comparison value for the alert.Sometimes it is sufficient to specify the code for a person (employee, sales contact, 'IB' client, etc.) as the comparison value. Unless data appears multiple times for a person.

If data appears multiple times for a person, select another field. After all, an alert cannot be generated if the combination of fields that is supplied appears multiple times. In that case, Profit will display a message when the alerts are being generated. The combination of fields that makes an alert unique may vary per data collection. Usually this would be a combination of a code field and a sequence number or a start date.

A few examples:

• Customer since

  The combination of the code for the sales contact and the Customer since field is unique.

  Use this comparison value in an alert that notifies you that the sales contact has been a customer for 10 years, for example.

• Contracts per employee

  A employee can have multiple contracts. The combination of one contract number and one employee is unique.

  Use this comparison value in an alert on the (upcoming) end date of a contract for the employee, for example. This alert gives timely notification of the expiry of the employee's contract.

Repeating alert

A repeating alert is when you have arranged for the alert to recur regularly, birthdays and anniversaries for example. In the case of a repeating alert include the reference date in this year in the comparison value also. This may mean that you have to calculate the reference date yourself!

Example: 

You create an anniversary alert and the comparison value is Employee. Once this alert has been read it no longer recurs in the subsequent year, because the alert with the employee code has already been read.

That is why you use the employee code + reference date in this year (=Date of birth this year) as the comparison value. This combination is unique every year.

Configure comparison value:

1. Go to: General / Management / Alert / Definition.
2. Open the properties of the alert.
3. Go to the tab: Comparison value.
4. Select the check boxes that form a unique combination.
5. If necessary, change the data collection to add even more fields to the view. Go to: Actions (F8) / Modify data collection.