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Any good suggestions for tracking “tricky” mileage usage in Outlook?

Alice Bumgarner, Moderator

Alice Bumgarner, editor of Administrative Professional Today and contributing writer for Executive Leadership, has been writing about workplace and family issues for 13 years. Her articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including http://Salon.com, http://MSN.com, Continental magazine, Southern Living and Town & Country. She lives in Durham, N.C., with her husband, two daughters and dog Milo.

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Question: I need tips for keeping up with my boss’s mileage using Outlook. What’s recorded in Outlook is then used to complete a mileage form. I usually record meetings requiring travel in purple. But there are times when meetings are on the boss’s calendar in purple that she does not attend; she just wants to know the meeting is taking place. By the end of the month, it’s hard to remember if she did or did not attend those meetings. Also, she wants me to accept meetings tentatively that she may or may not attend. This shows meetings taking place at the same time or around the same time. I need to keep track in a better way. Should I print her calendar and highlight the meeting she actually attends? — Anonymous

Comments

Do you use the borders, there is a striped border, a solid blue a solid white and a violet.

Perhaps striped could be used for tentative
Blue for attended
white for held not attended...

Posted by: Gail | November 02, 2007 at 03:29 PM

Print the daily calendar for the week ahead then discuss her meeting attendance for that week with her. Afterwards, you can alter the subject line on each meeting to read anything you like. For meetings that my boss is not attending, I disable the reminder bell, change the time to show as available and change the subject line to read:
FYI ONLY: Shareholders Meeting, for example.

Posted by: Marie | November 02, 2007 at 03:35 PM

Can you not change those she doesn't attend to "Tentative" status?

Posted by: Karen Doval | November 02, 2007 at 03:35 PM

I understand your issues as I have the same ones. I have found it easiest to print the previous week's calendar and review it with bossman when I meet with him. After he tells me which meetings he did not attend, I go back into the calendar invite and put UTA (Unable To Attend) in front of the meeting title. I also change the meeting color back to white. Then when I look at the monthly calendar it is clear to me which meetings he did or did not attend. It makes mileage tracking a month later much easier. I, too, wish it wasn't such a cumbersome process!!

Posted by: Nylla | November 02, 2007 at 03:36 PM

I always kept a "mock" mileage log for my boss as an Excel spreadsheet. The 1st column would have the date, the 2nd column contained the start mileage (made up number to start with, of course), the 3rd column would contain the actual mileage count, and the last column contained a formula to add the 2nd column to the 3rd column. I would then use a general guess for the next starting mileage based on the final mileage from the previous entry.

Perhaps your problem with deciphering which meetings your boss attends can be resolved with the use of the "label" option of the event. There are several options under this drop down menu. It appears that you might not be familiar with this option. You can change what the "label" indicates when you are just in the main calendar. On to the top menu, click on "EDIT" then click on "Edit Labels" and you can chose one of the label colors to indicate which meeting your boss actually attended.

Posted by: Jill | November 02, 2007 at 04:04 PM

Under MSOutlook calendar there is several places to either change the Category (even customize it) or change the Label (again customize). Then at the end of the month you can create a custom view - click on the certain category or label that refers to the mileage. Only mark the ones that they attend :)

Posted by: Sheryl | November 02, 2007 at 05:00 PM

Previously written in another response, was to mark the meetings she doesn't attend as tentative. I did extensive "calendaring," and I know what meetings to accept as tenative.

Perhaps better communication is needed between the two of you. She needs to specify the tentative meetings to you, my boss did. He did so many times just to block that time on his calendar.

Posted by: Helen Dugger | November 03, 2007 at 10:10 PM

Tags: communication, meetings, mileage log