# Set up Phone Call Activity Creation

Phone call activities let you keep a record in Dynamics 365 CRM (Customer Relationship Management, the system that stores your contacts and their interaction history) of every call your team places to or receives from an external number. You can have the integration log these calls on its own, or leave logging in your hands and fill in the details manually. This page walks through both approaches.

## Choose how activities are logged

1. Sign in to the Cloud Voice App for Dynamics 365 plugin, then click the preferences icon ![Preferences](/images/pbx/preferences.png).
2. Open the **Dynamics Integration** tab.
3. (Optional) Turn on **Open "Phone Call Activity" Page When Entering a Call**.

   ![Setting that opens the phone call activity page on answer](/images/pbx/open-phone-call-activity.png)

   With this enabled, answering an inbound or outbound call brings up a **Phone Call Activity** page right away so you can capture the call details.

4. Decide whether activities are created automatically or by hand.

   To have the integration create an activity for you on every external call:

   ![Automatic phone call activity settings](/images/pbx/auto-create-phone-call.png)

   1. Select **Auto Create Phone Call Activity**.
   2. From the **Call Type** drop-down, pick when the activity is generated:
      - **Inbound**: the moment an incoming call is answered.
      - **Outbound**: the moment an outgoing call is answered.
   3. (Optional) Select **Auto-Save During Editing** so your edits are written as you type. Leave it off and your changes are stored only after you click **Save**.

      :::tip
      Turning on **Auto-Save During Editing** is good practice for busy call handlers: notes are captured continuously, so nothing is lost if the call ends abruptly or you forget to click **Save**.
      :::

   To log calls yourself instead, clear the **Auto Create Phone Call Activity** checkbox.

5. Click **Save**.

## What happens on a call

When an inbound or outbound call is answered, a **Phone Call Activity** page opens inside the call window so you can record what was discussed.

![A phone call activity opening alongside an active call](/images/pbx/auto-create-call-activity.png)

- With automatic creation on, the activity record is written to Dynamics 365 as soon as the call is answered. Anything you edit in the call window syncs back to that record.
- With automatic creation off, you enter the call details yourself, and the matching activity record is created in the CRM when you save.

:::note
If the page does not appear on its own because **Open "Phone Call Activity" Page When Entering a Call** is turned off, click **Phone Call Activity** in the call window to open it manually.

![The phone call activity button in the call window](/images/pbx/manually-open.png)

For details on filling in the record, see [Add or Update Phone Call Activity](/pbx/integrations/dynamics-365/add-or-update-phone-call-activity/).
:::