Contacts, Projects & Tracking Time

[Chipster457]

I need to know if BCM will provide the following functionality:

Write emails, letters, etc. from templates that I can edit.
Organize contacts into a project group, where one contact can be associated
with multiple projects.
Record activities (phone calls, meetings, to do's) with time spent and
associate each activity to a specific project.
Generate monthly reports for the time spent on each project, showing details
of the activities.

I have been using ACT! for over 10 years, and it used to provide this
functionality. However, a recent "upgrade" elimated the ability to generate
a report showing only the history deliberately associated with a "group"
(project).

I run a one-man financial consulting business and bill by the hour. This
issue is very important to me.

Please let me know if MS OCM or some other software would handle my needs.

Thank you.

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Chipster:

You can come pretty close to what you want with BCM and Office Accounting.
Check out my eBook, Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager, that will
give you an idea of what BCM is like.

Yes, you can write all the emails you ever need, using multiple templates,
and best of all, they automatically link to the BCM contacts.

Yes, you can create Business Projects and associate contacts with multiple
projects.

Yes, you can record activities with time spent -- check out Phone Logs. You
can also track time in tasks. These can then flow through to Office
Accounting with a few clicks. You can then create an Invoice for your
clients with a few more clicks.

There are reports available in both BCM and Accounting and they can export
their results into Excel or Access for further slicing and dicing. This
might be the most challenged area for you but it should work OK...

HTH,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[ocbizlaw]

The timer in the phone log is great but I dont' see a timer in tasks, email
or any other window. This is one of the many horrible limitations to BCM.