Google

This article last updated 12/17/2015

Google Integration with Act seems to work haphazardly at best.  One recent error I dealt with for a while involved unable to sync activities with google calendar.  The Act integration would fail, and the error message would read something to the extent of “Value cannot be null.”

Some people reported that disabling duplicate checking in the database solved their problems – in my instance, this did not work.

The solution was to delete a corrupt activity off of the Google calendar.  The activity in question was a recurring activity that happened every week in perpetuity.  My hypothesis is that Google allows activities to repeat for eternity, whereas Act wants recurring activities to have an end date.

Nonetheless, deleting this activity series solved the problem.  Hope this works for you.  Good luck, and call me if you want remote assistance!  716-837-5727.

[box style=”note”]All ACT! Quick Tricks are pulled verbatim from the Sage Community Boards. Full credit goes to the original authors of the posts, in most instances Brian Whalen. Please consider viewing the original article on the ACT Community Board here.[/box]

With Sage ACT! 2012, you don’t have to check two different places or manage two different calendars for a complete view of your business and personal lives. Sage ACT! works seamlessly with tools like Google Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar, so you can keep all or just a subset of your emails, contacts, and activities updated in both places. In this tip, you’ll learn how to integrate your Sage ACT! and Google Calendar, so you are always aware of upcoming tasks and activities!

Configuring Google Calendar Integration:

After you have verfied the Sage ACT! database you want to integrate with Google is correct, and you have authorized Sage ACT! to access your Google account, you may proceed to configure your integration preferences. For more information regarding authorizing Sage ACT! to access Google, refer to last week’s tip: Getting Started with Google Integration.

1. From within Sage ACT!, select Tools > Integrate with Google > Google Integration Preferences.

2. On the “Synchronize Calendar” tab, select the Enable Calendar Synchronization with Google check box. This activates the other options on the tab.

3. After this has been enabled, use the following options to configure the behavior of Google Calendar Integration:

• If the same activity has been updated in both Sage ACT! and Google and a conflict occurs, select which change should be saved (Sage ACT! or Google). By default, the option to Keep the Sage ACT! activity is selected.
• If an activity is cleared (completed) in Sage ACT!, select what should happen to the activity in Google when sync occurs. By default, the option to Delete the activity from the Google calendar is selected. You can change this to leave the activity on your Google calendar.

4. To set or change default calendar sync options, such as selecting the types of Sage ACT! activities and date ranges of scheduled activities to sync, as well as alarms, click Advanced Preferences.

• In the Activity Type list, select or clear the check box for each Sage ACT! activity type that you want to sync or not sync between Sage ACT! and Google. Some activity types are selected by default, but you can clear them.
• Use the Select days on calendar to synchronize drop-downs to determine a past and future time frame of the activities to sync. Activities that occurred in the past will no longer be updated once they are outside of the selected range. Activities that occur in the future will be synchronized once the activity scheduled date is within the future range. You can select from future dates of 7 days up to 2 years.
• Use the Specify where activity alarms will ring drop down to select the application that will display the activity reminder alarm. By default, the alarm is set to ring in both Sage ACT! and Google. The alarm lead time is based on your preference settings for the activity type. For example, if you set a meeting activity type to ring an alarm at 15 minutes before the scheduled time, then it will ring at 15 minutes before the scheduled time in the selected application.
• Click OK.

5. After setting your preferences, click OK again to exit the Google Integration Preferences window. When prompted to Integrate Sage ACT! and Google now, click Yes to start the initial sync.

As you can see, setting up Google Integration only takes a few minutes, and is well worth the time saved because you can look to one location to see all of your personal and business appointments!