InLoox for Outlook Features

Create, assign and organize your To Dos in personal tasks without having to create a timed project plan. Leave a comment on the task to share details in a quick and easy way. Define clear responsibilities by assigning tasks to team members.

Tasks can be easily assigned to an activity in the project time planning via Drag’n’Drop. Tasks are in synch with the project schedule and the progress in the project is updated automatically as soon as a task is completed. For an even greater ease of use, you can also link tasks with Outlook tasks or appointments.

Create check lists for your projects in a list or a card view. This makes it really easy to organize project information in a clearly structured way even before generating tasks or a project schedule.

InLoox adapts flexibly to the project planning methods used in your company and is able to map even complex planning models. Choose between forward and backward scheduling and incorporate planning chains true-to-reality by using dependencies, constraints and different calendars.

Record the current state of the project time planning and compare it at different times. With just a few clicks you can go back to an older planning status.

Interconnect the project plans of two interdependent projects. This allows you to see appointment dependencies, bottlenecks in the resource utilization and to get a consistent overall time planning.

Use planning elements also in other projects – e.g. to incorporate elements from an annual planning into departmental plans.

Create working time calendars in InLoox for Outlook according to your individual needs. So, you can incorporate different working time models, such as shift work or part-time work and enter working times, holidays and duration of work at different company locations into InLoox.

If your team is scattered across times zones, the tedious converting of local times is now over. InLoox for Outlook automatically uses the time zone settings on the device you’re currently working on.

You can easily exchange project schedules between InLoox for Outlook and Project. InLoox users do not need any additional software - neither is Microsoft Project necessary. Thus, you generate project files without any previous knowledge respectively read existing data in and use them - in a very simple user interface.

Define work groups and departments and monitor their real-time workload. On a group level, you can see how the workload and spare capacities are distributed across teams and departments. (Enterprise Feature)

All expected internal costs for resources are calculated automatically. Fixed cost rates are kept on file by InLoox for Outlook according to cost center or activity. Supplementary and special costs are added by the project manager. Regular plan/actual comparisons are carried out automatically. Cost planning is therefore based on project time planning. As a result, you have conclusive costing.

Assign tasks to another resource at the push of a button to create a balanced work load for all team members in your projects.

Enter the skills of your team members into InLoox PM PM, such as language skills, special industry knowledge or certifications. So, you can easily localize employees with the required skills inside your company, contact them directly and deploy them systematically according to their skills at the suitable project position.   

Format mind map nodes in InLoox for Outlook in a fast and easy way. You can not only interlink the key words within the mind map to each other, but also with the time planning and with project documents. So, you can access the project plan and the respective project documents directly out of your mind map.

Mind maps can be transferred conveniently to the project time plan. Mind map nodes can also be turned into tasks. The result is a seamless planning process – from the first brainstorming to implementation.

Templates enable users to reuse Mind Maps or use them in other projects at the push of a button Import MindManager© files to edit them directly in InLoox for Outlook. Export mind maps to a graphic or in other formats in order to insert them to PowerPoint, Word or e-mail.

Team members can track their personal working times precisely to the minute by using the integrated stop watch. As soon they start to work on project-related tasks, they can start the stop watch. After having stopped the time tracking, the working time can be assigned directly to the project. So, they can fully concentrate on their tasks and still exactly document their working time.

Project teams are able to post costs and working hours in a very simple way. The system assigns the effort to the project plan automatically and stores a separate cost record. Recording actual hours couldn’t be easier.

Completed tasks will be automatically updated in project plan. The project manager can see, without a need for further reconciliation, whether all persons involved in a phase have completed their tasks and take appropriate measures in good time.

Compare planned and actual time and expense values on a real-time basis. View single activities, resources or even entire projects – you won’t lose deviations of your project anymore.

Besides project-specific documents, you can also organize files that are independent of projects or even private. It is up to you whether you keep them private or make them visible for your team. This helps you to store all your documents in one place – in a clearly structured way.

InLoox creates project folders according to the rules that can be centrally configured. Predefined subfolders can be created automatically (optional). The file system is therefore clearly structured and well organized for users.

InLoox for Outlook accelerates your work with project documents. The document preview enables you to have a quick look at your project documents without even having to open them. Send documents directly out of the InLoox document storage as e-mail and use synergetic effects in interaction with Microsoft Outlook.

InLoox for Outlook interconnects project plans, time tracking entries, mind maps and documents. Create project documents directly out of the time planning, time tracking or mind maps or establish a shortcut to a stored document. InLoox stores newly created documents at the same time in the document storage. So, you have a central collection of all project documents and at the same time a complete overview of the elements in InLoox for Outlook that the respective document is linked to.

InLoox for Outlook saves storage space and avoids duplicate records simultaneously. As InLoox works with file and object links, documents are not saved in Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server. If you choose to use InLoox now! your documents can be uploaded to the Cloud.

Only authorized users have access to the budget planning. Project managers and executives can give and deny access to the budget management features in the software. 

InLoox for Outlook continuously compares planned and actual expenses and revenues. The level of detail that your budget is broken down into is completely up to you. Budget overruns are highlighted in color, making it easy to identify unplanned additional expenses. The graphic representation gives you an instant overview of your budget status. Budget deviations can be identified in advance, making it possible to react in time.

Control the development of your project costs. InLoox for Outlook graphically illustrates your project costing based on budget, time planning and project time tracking. Various diagram and tabular options give you an instant overview of your budget status.

InLoox for Outlook enables you to create, send, and follow-up project-oriented offers and invoices. Also, ongoing billing is possible based on project time tracking. The automatic billing numeration avoids forgetting any expenses or charging them twice.

Team members can submit project requests and have them approved by their supervisor. Project managers and executives can easily keep track of the company’s project portfolio and team members have more planning security for their projects.

If you want to you can have InLoox inform you about upcoming and pending tasks. It is up to you how and when you receive a reminder. This makes it easy to synchronize all processes within the project and all team members can start their tasks at precisely the right time.

InLoox improves the flow of information between project team members and decision makers with professional e-mail templates and boilerplates. When writing a new e-mail, InLoox for Outlook automatically provides all available text modules, saving a lot of time in the process.

Forget your routine work. With InLoox for Outlook, you can write e-mail, register working hours, and file project-related documents - all these with one step.

File E-mails in the right project - directly from Microsoft Outlook. You can even save attachments separately or together with an e-mail in a project. Beyond that, you can create a folder structure with folders and subfolders directly from the quick access panel. The system display a relation to a project directly in the e-mail if it has already been assigned to a project.

You can easily turn appointments in your Outlook calendar that are related to a project into project tasks and/or time tracking entries with InLoox for Outlook. It is very handy to effortlessly track the time effort that an appointment produces in your project.

With InLoox, you can use your Outlook contacts directly for your projects - e.g. as project managers, team members, customers or partners - no need to enter data in two different address books and you have all important contact information at hand.

The InLoox Report Designer issues reports of any level of detail, e.g. by single activities, on a project level or for the entire company. Consolidation, aggregating and filtering of project data ensure detailed reports for authorized users.

InLoox provides you with a wide range of different types and templates like planning and budget overviews, plan-actual comparisons, cross-projects time sheets, memos, status reports, cover letters, billing and quotation templates. With this, you are well equipped for your daily project work from the very first moment.

The Report included in InLoox for Outlook allows you to customize the layout and appearance of your project reports without needing programming skills. You can customize templates according to your corporate design and predefined structures - even sophisticated requirements can be met.

Role permissions are defined according to the function carried out by each person involved in the project, be it as project manager, team member, customer, partner or any other activity. InLoox for Outlook then assigns the correct permission to each person assuming a given role.

User account oriented permissions apply to all projects. This allows, for example, senior management insights into all current and finished projects, whereas the operational responsibility remains in the hands of the project manager and the project team.

InLoox for Outlook connects with Active Directory and Exchange accounts so that the user accounts have to be created and stored only once. This allows for an effortless inclusion of freelance employees, trainees or suppliers.

The InLoox authorization master record is finely structured and freely definable. The system allows the assignment of specific read-only or update permissions, for example to separate those for planning elements from those for the recording of activities or budgeting.

InLoox for Outlook enables project managers to provide InLoox contacts with the necessary authorizations. The InLoox contact can be, for example, allocated as a resource in a project and be notified of upcoming project tasks. InLoox offers a contact view and InLoox address books that allow users to manage InLoox contacts in a fast and easy way.

InLoox can be used with full functionality without Microsoft Exchange Server and can, also, be combined with alternative groupware servers. Administrators can activate or deactivate the InLoox contact manager in the InLooxoptions, according to their individual requirements.

Use InLoox when disconnected from the SQL server or InLoox Cloud, for example for sales staff in the field or for giving a presentation at a customer's office. InLoox will synchronize your data automatically, as soon as you reconnect to the server (InLoox PM Enterprise Server) or the Cloud (InLoox now!). The last-update-wins principle applies, i.e. the last change is saved as the current data record. Requirement: InLoox PM Enterprise Server or InLoox now!

InLoox for Outlook is multilingual and was designed especially for the use of international project teams working across national borders. Local character sets, units of measure, date and time formats are all supported. Regional and local adaptations are supported, be it a matter of numeric formats, date formats, units of measure or currencies. The free-of-charge InLoox resource editor allows the translation of the entire user interface, including all messages, formats, screen layouts and forms, into any language. All ISO 639-1 codes are supported.

The inclusion of remote branch offices and freelance employees to the project management platform is very simple. InLoox supports secure Internet tunnels („Virtual Private Networking“, VPN), dial-up connections („Remote Access Service“, RAS) as well as data exchange and replication between servers (Replication, Clustering) located in different places of your company.

InLoox PM is designed for robust operation with Windows Terminal Server, e.g. in conjunction with Citrix. Reduce your IT infrastructure costs by choosing a project management solution that integrates seamlessly with large terminal server farms and that is tried and tested by numerous reference customers over many years.

InLoox for Outlook adapts to your company – not the other way around. Define custom fields and views for optimizing your workflows. Customize your templates for reports, project plans, mind maps, and message boilerplates to suit your corporate identity. Translate dialogs or adjust the terminology in the software to your company policies. The database architecture enables you to create interfaces to other systems, in order to integrate and consolidate databases.