Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Tracking outgoing email automatically

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Posted on by Robert50

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We're on D365 in the cloud with O365 and Outlook 2016 along with the new D365 plugin. Here's our settings currently:

Process Email Using: Server-Side Synchronization

Server Profile: Microsoft Exchange Online

Incoming Email: Server-Side Synchronization or Email Router

Outgoing Email: Server-Side Synchronization or Email Router

Appointments, Contacts, and Tasks: Server-Side Synchronization

Track Email messages from Dynamics 365 Leads, Contacts and Accounts

Currently when an email comes in from a contact that is in CRM, it will show up under activities. If I reply to that email or send the contact a new email, it doesn't show up under activities unless I manually track using the outlook plugin.

We would like all incoming and outgoing email to show up under activities as long as the contact is in CRM. Is there anyway to achieve this and shouldn't my reply to a tracked email at least show up?

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Radu Chiribelea 6,667 on at

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Hi Robert,

This is by design i'm afraid. Outgoing emails that originate from Outlook are not automatically tracked in CRM, unless they are manually tracked.

If you want Outgoing Emails to be tracked into CRM, you need to send the replies from CRM directly and not Outlook.

Hope this helps,

Radu

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Michel van den Brink 4,697 on at

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Hello Robert,

Dynamics 365 (CRM) will only track outgoing emails that have been sent from Dynamics itself, using the email entity. If you read and reply to an email within Dynamics (in the browser or an app) and use the email entity to compose and send your email, it will be tracked.

When you reply to an email using Outlook, this behavior is different and depends on which add-on you are using.

There are two add-ons for Outlook: "Dynamics 365 App for Outlook" and "Dynamics 365 for Outlook", the second one is also known as the "Outlook Client"

The "Dynamics 365 App for Outlook" is a lightweight app that adds a blue "Dynamics 365" button to your Outlook. When composing an email in Outlook when this add-on is installed the email is not tracked by default when you use the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook. You will always have to explicitly click the track button. This can (currently) not be changed. A work-around is to always CC yourself or another mailbox that gets synced into Dynamics.

The benefit of this add-on is that it works for Outlook on desktop, mobile and in the web experience for Outlook.

"Dynamics 365 for Outlook" / "Outlook Client" is a heavy add-on that only works for Outlook on Windows machines and has more features than the lightweight app. One of the features is that it can automatically track outgoing emails (configurable option)

The downside of this add-on is that it has to be installed for every user, on every Windows machine where they want to use Outlook with Dyamics. It is also far slower than the app.

Hope this gives you the insight you need. If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

If you found my answer helpful, please help the community by marking it as such/verifying it :-)

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Robert50 212 on at

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"A work-around is to always CC yourself or another mailbox that gets synced into Dynamics."

That sounds like it may work for us. We have the new "Dynamics 365 App for Outlook" installed.

I could set up an email rule in exchange to BCC all sent email to a mailbox that gets synced into Dynamics. How would I configure this mailbox to make sure any message it receives are tracked in CRM as long as the contact already exists? Any problems with doing it this way? Thanks

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Community Member on at

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Hi,

If you want to track outgoing E-mails automatically, you could configure Dynamics CRM for Outlook.

Then, customize your Personal Options in Dynamics 365.

Please notice, Dynamics 365 App for Outlook and Dynamics 365 for Outlook are different.

Hope it helps.

BR,

Judy

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Radu Chiribelea 6,667 on at

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Hi Judy,

The option you underlined refers to Incoming emails only I'm afraid.

Outgoing emails need to be manually tracked or sent from CRM.

Regards,

Radu

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Robert50 212 on at

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[quote user="Robert50"]

"A work-around is to always CC yourself or another mailbox that gets synced into Dynamics."

That sounds like it may work for us. We have the new "Dynamics 365 App for Outlook" installed.

I could set up an email rule in exchange to BCC all sent email to a mailbox that gets synced into Dynamics. How would I configure this mailbox to make sure any message it receives are tracked in CRM as long as the contact already exists? Any problems with doing it this way? Thanks

[/quote]

Does anyone know if this will work and could anyone give some tips on how to set it up? I've also read about Forward Mailbox Monitoring but not sure if I should set up the way I described or try to use this feature? docs.microsoft.com/.../forward-mailbox-vs-individual-mailboxes

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Radu Chiribelea 6,667 on at

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Hi Robert,

The if you CC yourself or another mailbox, I think you also need to configure the system to track emails between users as separate activities. This way you will have a sent email (outgoing) and a received one (incoming)

To track all e-mails you need to configure in the personal options of the receiving user under the Email Tab - Track All Incoming messages. (Note: for the EMail tab to be visible, you need to set a synchronization method between CRM and Exchange for that user - this can be don via the associated CRM Mailbox record - see technet.microsoft.com/.../hh699668.aspx)

To track emails between CRM users as separate activities - you can check this link under Step 3 - System Settings: community.dynamics.com/.../understanding-the-different-options-for-tracking-e-mails-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm

I'm not sure the forward mailbox will help you in this scenario as this relates to Incoming emails. (The way the FW Mailbox works is that all emails sent to the CRM user are forwarded as attachments to the FW mailbox. Then the attachments are scanned and created as incoming emails against the CRM Users account in CRM).

Hope this helps,

Radu

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Robert50 212 on at

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Currently I've selected the Track option: "Email messages from Dynamics 365 Leads, Contacts and Accounts"

This works fine for incoming email as we want to track all incoming messages for contacts that are already in CRM so I don't think I need to use the "All email messages" option.

The problem is with outgoing email and reply's. If we reply to a tracked incoming email, the reply is not tracked. Why not? New outgoing messages are also not tracked automatically even if the contact is in CRM.

I could create an exchange rule to BCC an message sent to an external recipient to a shared mailbox. Could CRM somehow monitor that shared mailbox and track the messages under the corresponding contacts they were sent to? Michel van den Brink do you think this would work?

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Radu Chiribelea 6,667 on at

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Hi Robert,

As mentioned previously - outgoing emails are not automatically tracked from Outlook to CRM - regardless if you are using Server Side Synchronization, Email Router or Outlook Client. This is a limitation of CRM.

If you want those emails to appear in CRM as outgoing (sent) you need either to:

- manually track the emails

- reply to the email from CRM and not from Outlook.

Also, CRM does not track BCC information. Only To and CC. If a recipient is in BCC, CRM will not track the email activity against that party.

Regards,

Radu

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Robert50 212 on at

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That's very disappointing, it seems like there must be a way to auto track. Anyway, according to Michel van den Brink above, we could do this if we switch to the older "Dynamics 365 for Outlook" / "Outlook Client"?

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