How can I complete dependent milestones automatically?

Set up a milestone template to include an action to complete another milestone in the same tracking plan.

Motivation

When a milestone has been reached, it is sometimes implied that another milestone is completed, too, or will be completed within a given time frame. Ideally, each milestone would be completed automatically by an event registered in Scope, e.g. a message by the airline or the local warehouse, but there are areas within the international transport chain where event coverage is suboptimal.

Creating an action to complete a dependent milestone

1. Create a tracking template or open an existing one.
2. Select the source milestone, i.e. the milestone whose completion implies that another milestone is complete, too. In this example, the source milestone has the code RCF (Received from Flight).
3. Navigate to the Actions tab and create a new action.
4. Select Complete milestone as action type.
5. In the lower part of the tab select the target milestone, i.e. the milestone that is implied to be complete, once the RCF milestone is complete. In this example, the target milestone has the code ARR (Arrived).
6. Save your changes.

Whenever a RCF milestone is completed, the corresponding ARR milestone will be completed, too, unless it was already completed before.

Creating an action to mark a future dependent milestone for completion

In the example above, we formulated an action to complete a milestone that usually happens prior to the source milestone. Now we are looking at the different direction: Completing a certain milestone implies that a dependent milestone will be completed within a given time range in the future.

1. Create a tracking template or open an existing one.
2. Select the source milestone, i.e. the milestone whose completion implies that another milestone will be completed, too. In this example, the source milestone has the code ARR (Arrived).
3. Navigate to the Actions tab and create a new action.
4. Select Complete milestone as action type.
5. In the lower part of the tab select the target milestone, i.e. the milestone that is expected to be complete, after the ARR milestone is complete. In this example, the target milestone has the code NFD (Arrival notification sent).
6. Navigate to the Delay tab.
7. Choose either constant or fuzzy delay and enter the parameters for the expected offset between source and target milestone's completion.
8. Save your changes.

Whenever an ARR milestone is completed, Scope will check around four hours later if the corresponding NFD milestone is already complete. Else it will be completed automatically.