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As you manage your business, you want to ensure all the tasks for a project are identified, assigned, and tracked. In Business Contact Manager for Outlook, you can use Business Project (Business Project: A project that is created in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. A Business Project is made up of one or several project tasks.) records (record: A completed Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity form. The record contains Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity information, plus the other records and items that are linked to it.) to manage these project tasks (task: A personal or work-related project, assignment, or errand to track through completion.).

• Create a new Business Project

• Add project tasks

• Manage your Business Projects

• Edit a Business Project

• Add a history item

• Delete a Business Project

Create a new Business Project

You can use the Business Project form to track the work needed for a single project, such as a sales meeting or seminar.

 Tip   If the Business Project is likely to result in increased sales or interest, you may want to create a Marketing Campaign (Marketing Campaign: A marketing program that uses many communication vehicles, for example, ads and direct mail, to accomplish a specific result, such as increasing marketing share, introducing new products, or retaining customers.) to track the results of your actions.

1. On the Business Contact Manager menu, click Business Projects, and then, on the Standard toolbar, click New.
2. Complete the following information.
   • On the General view, in the Project information section, in the Project name box, type a name for your project.
   • In the Linked account or business contact section, click the Link To button and, in the Link to an Account or Business Contact dialog box, select a single Account (Account: A business or organization with which you do business. If a service is being provided, such as dental or medical, an Account can also be a customer.) or Business Contact (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.).

      Note   A Business Project record is assigned to a primary Account or Business Contact, but you can add other Accounts and Business Contacts involved in the Business Project, in the Related accounts and business contacts section.

You can complete the rest of the form by using the General, Details, History, or the User-Defined Fields views.

 Note   User-defined fields (user-defined field: A field that you can create and define to track information specific to your business.) are only available if you, or one of your team members, have customized this form.

To get assistance while entering information on the form, click the Help   button.

 Note   Journal items cannot be linked to Business Projects or project tasks

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Add project tasks

A Business Project has one or more subsidiary project tasks that you can assign to the Business Project owner or other members of your team. For example, if your Business Project is a sales meeting, there may be project tasks such as arranging for the meeting space, delivering refreshments, or creating, producing, and delivering presentation materials. You can add all of these to the Project tasks section of the Business Project record.

• In the Project tasks section, click New.
• Complete the Project Task form. Type a name for the project task. You can also assign the task to an Account or Business Contact, and set the due date, priority, and other details.

 Note   Journal items cannot be linked to Business Projects or project tasks

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Manage your Business Project

You can track the progress of your Business Project, on the Business Project form, in the General view, through the following sections:

• Project overview   Includes a summary of tasks that are completed, overdue, incomplete, or important. You can also see the days remaining to the completion date that was set when the Business Project was created.
• Status information   In the Project Status field, select the current project status in the list, for example, Not Started or In Progress. Click Edit this list to customize this list.
• Project tasks   Includes a list of project tasks linked to this Business Project. After each task is updated in the database, the latest information appears here.

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Edit a Business Project

1. On the Business Contact Manager menu, click Business Projects.
2. In the Business Projects list, double-click the Business Project record that you want to edit.
3. Make the changes.
4. On the Ribbon (ribbon: An element that replaces most menus, toolbars, and task panes. The ribbon features task-based tabs that contain tools and options organized into logical groups.), click Save & Close.

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Add a history item

 Note   Communication History items that you can add to a Business Project include business notes, phone logs, mail messages, appointments, and files.

1. On the Business Contact Manager menu, click Business Projects.
2. In the Business Projects list, double-click the Business Project record that you want to add a history item to.
3. In the Communicate group, click New History Item.
4. Click one of the following:
   • Business Note
   • Phone Log
   • Mail Message
   • Appointment
   • File
5. Add the information for the communication history item.

   The item is automatically linked to the Business Project.

6. On the Business Project record, click Save & Close.

    Note   Attachments to e-mail messages are not linked to records along with the e-mail messages. You can save an attachment as a file and then you can link the file to the communication history of the Business Project record.

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Delete a Business Project

When you delete a Business Project record, Business Contact Manager for Outlook deletes all its linked communication history items (communication history item: An item such as an appointment, business note, e-mail message, file, or task that is linked to an Account, Business Contact, Opportunity, or Business Project.).

Before deleting an Business Project record, verify that you have saved any of its linked items that you want to keep.

1. In the Business Projects list, click the Business Project record that you want to delete.
2. On the Business Contact Manager menu, click Business Projects.
3. On the Edit menu, click Delete.

A deleted linked item can still be available after a Business Project record is deleted if:

• The item is saved in another location on your computer

  • A linked Outlook item—an e-mail message, appointment, or task—was deleted together with a Business Project record in Business Contact Manager for Outlook, but is still intact in your Outlook folders.
  • An item was deleted from its original location outside of Business Contact Manager for Outlook, but is linked to a Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.) record in Business Contact Manager for Outlook.

• Business Contact Manager for Outlook is the only location where the item is saved on your computer, and the deleted item is a dependent link

  • The item was unlinked (unlink: To disconnect an item from a record, or a record from another record.) before the Business Project record is deleted.
  • The item was linked to another Business Project record before it was deleted with the linked Business Contact record.
  • The item is an Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity, which are independent records.

• The Deleted Items folder has not yet been emptied

   Note   Only the database owner (database owner: The person who created the database, and has full control, including granting access permissions or deleting records. When a database has been restored, then the person who restored it becomes the owner.) can permanently delete items in the Deleted Items folder (Deleted Items folder: A folder that stores items deleted by the user. Only the database owner can permanently delete these items.).

The following table shows the dependent linked item types for Business Project records and whether they are saved in Business Contact Manager for Outlook.