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You can integrate your accounting system (accounting system: The accounting program.) with Business Contact Manager for Outlook so that you and your co-workers can access your customers' (customer: A person or company to whom your company sells products or services.) financial information while using Business Contact Manager for Outlook. The financial information remains in your accounting system.

 Important   To integrate your accounting system with Business Contact Manager for Outlook, you must be the database owner (database owner: The person who created the database, and has full control, including granting access permissions or deleting records. When a database has been restored, then the person who restored it becomes the owner.) for the Business Contact Manager database that is integrated. You may also be required to be an administrator (administrator: The person in charge of managing a Windows computer. The administrator is responsible for installing software, assigning passwords, and managing files.) or system administrator on the computer where your accounting system is installed.

For more information about how to integrate your accounting system with Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see Help in your accounting system.

When your accounting system and Business Contact Manager for Outlook are integrated, your Account records (Account record: The location for storing Account information, including information that is entered on the Account form, linked records, and communication history items.) are added to your accounting system as customer records, and your product and service items (product and service items: Goods and services that you purchase or sell, or offer for purchase or sale.) list is also integrated.

 Note   Product and service items from the Items list in your accounting system are integrated into the Product and Service Items List in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. Product and service items from Business Contact Manager for Outlook are not integrated into the Items list in your accounting system.

After you integrate financial data by using your accounting system, you can perform the following tasks:

• View the financial history and financial summary of Account records in Business Contact Manager for Outlook that are linked to your accounting system's customer records. The financial history includes the date, type, and amount of the transaction. The financial summary includes your customers' balance and payment information, a sales summary, and other financial details.
• Edit individual transaction records as you view the financial history. The edited transaction record is then updated in your accounting system.
• Update your product and service items list with items (item: An item is a product or service that your company buys or sells.) from your accounting system so that you have an up-to-date price and inventory list while working with Accounts (Account: A business or organization with which you do business. If a service is being provided, such as dental or medical, an Account can also be a customer.) or Opportunities (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.).
• Create quotes, sales orders, and invoices from your Accounts and Opportunities.
• Track billable project tasks, appointments, phone logs (phone log: The details of a phone call which may be linked with the communication history of an Account, Business Contact, Opportunity, or a Business Project.), or tasks (task: A personal or work-related project, assignment, or errand to track through completion.) , and then submit the items to your accounting system so that you can create time entries or bills, or invoice your customers.
• Create and view time entries from project tasks, appointments, phone logs, or tasks, so that you can pay your employees or invoice your customers.

 Note   The preceding features may not be available with your accounting system. For more information, see Help in your accounting system. Currently, supported accounting programs include Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 and 2007, and Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006.

Accessing accounting data by using a shared database

If you have shared your Business Contact Manager database (Business Contact Manager database: The database that stores information about Accounts, Business Contacts, Opportunities, Business Projects, and other items.) with other co-workers, they can also access any financial data from your accounting system if they are listed as users in your accounting system. For more information about how to grant users access to the financial data, see Help in your accounting system.