Track Outlook email by choosing a button in Dynamics 365 for Outlook

To get the most out of Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement, it’s important to keep track of all your customer interactions, and email communications are key. Create a central repository of your Outlook email communications by “tracking” them in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook. When you track an email message in Dynamics 365 for Outlook, the email is saved as an activity record in Customer Engagement. Then you, or anyone who has access to your activity records, can view that email message along with all other customer activities in Customer Engagement, Dynamics 365 for Outlook, or on a mobile device.

Tracking email in Dynamics 365 for Outlook is a manual process. This gives you the ability to keep your personal email separate from your customer email. You can also set an option to automatically track email messages. More information: Set an option to automatically track incoming Outlook email in Dynamics 365 for Outlook

Tip

If your organization synchronizes email through server-side synchronization, you can track email automatically by dragging it to a tracked folder. Folder-level tracking is a powerful and intuitive way to track email messages directly from virtually any device. More information: Track Outlook email by moving it to a tracked Exchange folder

Requirements for tracking email messages

To track email in Dynamics 365 for Outlook, your Outlook email address must match your Customer Engagement email address. You can’t synchronize to or from multiple email addresses.

Which records are associated with the email activity?

By default, when you track an email message, Dynamics 365 for Outlook uses the Customer Engagement address book to link the message to Customer Engagement contacts on the To, From, and Bcc lines. You can also link the email message to a more specific record, such as a specific account, opportunity, or case. It’s usually best to link a message to a more specific record, if possible. This will make the record easier to find.

Track an email message

1. In Dynamics 365 for Outlook, select the email message you want to track.

2. Do one of the following:

   • To track the email message without linking it to a particular record in Customer Engagement, on the Home tab, in the Customer Engagement group, click Track.

     -Or-

   • To track the email message and link it to a particular record in Customer Engagement, on the Home tab, in the Customer Engagement group, click Set Regarding, click More, and then search for the record in the Look Up Record dialog box. After you find the record you want, click Add.

     When you click the Track button or the Set Regarding button, a Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement pane (also known as the “tracking pane”) appears at the bottom of the email record. This pane shows that the record is tracked and provides links to related records. If you set a “regarding” record, the tracking pane also provides a link to that record. More information: Overview of tracking records in Dynamics 365 for Outlook

     You can also tell that a record is tracked by looking in the Outlook folder. You’ll see the Tracked in Dynamics 365 apps symbol next to any tracked records.

3. To modify the Customer Engagement activity record (for example, to change the regarding record), open the email message in Outlook, and then, in the Customer Engagement group, click View in Dynamics 365 apps.

What else to I need to know about tracking email records?

• Customer Engagement address book. The address book is installed automatically when Dynamics 365 for Outlook is installed. This makes it possible to search for a Customer Engagement contact from the To field of an email message or appointment when you create it. By default, Dynamics 365 for Outlook only searches for contacts you own. You can set a personal option to broaden this search. More information: Set address book options in Dynamics 365 for Outlook

• Working offline. Email messages you track when you’re offline are saved as activities when you go back online. More information: Work offline with Dynamics 365 for Outlook

• Replies to tracked messages. You can set whether replies to tracked messages are also tracked. More information: Set personal options that affect tracking and synchronization between Dynamics 365 apps and Outlook or Exchange

• Editing tracked email messages. After an email message has been sent, you can’t edit it, but you can set or change a regarding record for it.

• Attachments. Any tracked email message can be accessed by anyone who has permission to view your activities. If the email has attachments, the attachments are included in the activity. If you don’t want to make an attachment available, delete it from the email activity.

  Your administrator can block messages from being saved if they contain attachments of specific file types, such as .exe files. Any messages stored in locations other than the default Microsoft Exchange location can’t be linked.

See also

Overview of tracking records in Dynamics 365 for Outlook
Deleting records that have been tracked with Dynamics 365 for Outlook
Set personal options that affect tracking and synchronization between Dynamics 365 apps and Outlook or Exchange
Create templates for email Frequently asked questions about synchronizing records between Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps and Microsoft Outlook