Use Outlook to Track Telephone Calls

Q. A friend told me I could use Outlook as a way to keep track of my client telephone calls. Is that right?

A. It sure is. It’s a very handy function in Outlook’s Journal. Here’s how it’s done:

When you’re about to make a call, go into Outlook’s Contacts for the phone number. Double-click on the contact, which will evoke this screen:

Now go up to the toolbar and click on Actions and then on New Journal Entry for Contact. That will bring up this screen:

Notice that the top of the screen contains a stopwatch and start and pause buttons. When you begin the call, click on the Start Timer button and on the Pause Timer button when you’re finished with the conversation. Notice, too, that you have room to take notes about the conversation. When you’re done, click on Save and Close.

Now when you want to check back to see your notes and how long the phone call took, go to your Journal folder and click on View, Current View and then on Phone Calls. You’ll get a screen that shows not only when you made the call, but also the length of the call and any notes you made.