Including CRM Tasks in Project Totals
CRM tasks are "to do" activities that need to be completed. An independent record for each CRM task tracks what must be done and who needs to do it. CRM tasks can be assigned to an employee, partner, or vendor for completion.
CRM tasks can be associated with a project, but are not considered part of the project's cost and time data unless they are explicitly included using the Include CRM Tasks in Project Totals check box. CRM tasks associated with a project do not display in the project schedule.
The Include CRM Tasks in Project Totals check box on project records allows CRM tasks to contribute to the costs, work, and actual work for a project. This check box helps accommodate existing, open projects which depend on CRM task records created prior to the 2008.2 release.
When you enable the Include CRM Tasks in Project Totals preference on a project, be aware that task hierarchies can be set up only within each distinct set of task types. A CRM task can be defined as a parent or a child task of a CRM task only. A project task cannot have a CRM task set as a parent or child task. Likewise, a CRM task cannot have a project task set as a parent or child task.
After the 2008.2 release, it is strongly recommended that you use project task records for costs, work, and actual work.
You must customize project forms to show the Include CRM Tasks in Project Totals check box.
To customize a project form to use CRM tasks:
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Go to Lists > Relationships > Projects and click Edit next to the project.
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On the project form, click Customize.
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Enter a name for the form.
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Click the Fields subtab.
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Click the Info subtab.
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Check the Show box next to Include CRM Tasks in Job Totals.
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Complete other fields on the form as needed.
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Click Save.
Be sure to use this form for all projects that need to include CRM tasks. When you use the customized form to create a project record, you can check the Include CRM Tasks in Project Totals box.
If you have enabled the Gross Profit feature and Include CRM Tasks in Job Totals is also enabled, then the gross profit values will be inaccurate on the Financial subtab of the project record and on the sales order. This is because CRM tasks do not have prices associated with them. Only cost and time data is sourced from CRM tasks. As a result, the gross profit values that show are less than the actual gross profit.
Using Saved Searches for Project Tasks and CRM Tasks
You can create saved searches to review combined data from project tasks and CRM tasks. Select the Project Task and CRM Task search type when defining the search parameters.
Other search types available for project information are Project, Project Task, and Task. For information on how to create a saved search, see Defining a Saved Search.
You can create saved searches to provide project information to help you manage your projects and resources. If you want to view project data by employee across projects or project tasks, create a saved search that joins project task records to project task assignment records and select the fields to filter out the data you are looking for.
Additional data for project task assignment records, not exposed in the application at the resource level but available for search, include Actual Work and Estimated Work Baseline. These fields provide useful information for creating advanced searches for resource exposure and profitability by resource.
For example, you can create saved searches for:
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Actual hours worked per resource for a specific task
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Estimated work, estimated work baseline, and actual work performed by resource
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Unit cost, unit price, estimated revenue, and gross profit by project or by resource
For a list of the project related record types available for creating advanced searches that join fields from different records, see Related Records Fields Available for Advanced Searches.