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Introducing Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003
While continuing to use Outlook to store your personal information, you can keep track of your business information in Business Contact Manager for Outlook. This topic provides an overview of the business items you can create and track, and how to set up and view relational ties among these items. These sample business cases provide a quick glimpse into the powerful business tool that Business Contact Manager for Outlook can be for you.  If you are a service business working with individuals
Enter all your clients as Business Contacts (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.), or as 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.) if you plan to integrate with an accounting program. - Enter all your clients as Business Contacts, which allows you to keep track of multiple phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and also link appointments, notes, and e-mail messages from your clients.
- Enter all your clients as Accounts, which allows you to keep track of multiple phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and also link appointments, notes, and e-mail messages from your clients. In addition, you can import data from your accounting program, to add to 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.).
If you are a sales business working with companies Enter information about the companies you sell to as 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.), and enter information about the people you sell to at these companies as Business Contacts (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.), which you can then link to the Account record of the company they work for. Enter potential sales as Opportunities (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.), which can be linked to 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.) and Business Contacts, and enter product information or import data from your accounting program, to add to your Account and Opportunity records (record: A completed Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity form. The record contains Account, Business Contact, or Opportunity information, plus the other records and items that are linked to it.).Store information about:
- The companies you work with in Account records, including Business Contacts, Opportunities, e-mails, appointments, and other historical and financial data.
- Your Business Contacts in Business Contact records, including multiple contact information, and linked history information.
- Potential business in Opportunity records. You can link an Opportunity to a Business Contact or Account.
- Your products and services as Product and Service items (product and service items: Goods and services that you purchase or sell, or offer for purchase or sale.).
- Your customers’ financial history from an accounting program such as Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006.
The following table is a summary of the types of records, what they contain, and what records they can be linked to. | Type of record | Can link to | Can contain |
|---|
| Account (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.) | Business Contacts, Opportunities | Business notes,
Mail messages,
Opportunities,
Tasks, Appointments,
Phone logs,
Files
| | Business Contact (Business Contact: A person with whom you do business at a company or organization.) | Accounts, Opportunities | Business notes,
Mail messages,
Opportunities,
Tasks, Appointments,
Phone logs,
Files
| | Opportunity (Opportunity: The chance to sell your products or services to an Account or Business Contact.) | Accounts, Business Contacts | Product and Service Items,
Business notes,
Tasks,
Appointments,
Phone logs,
Files
|
Track your progress by using views (view: Different ways of looking at the same information in a folder by putting it in different arrangements and formats. There are standard views for each folder. You can also create custom views.) and reports. The Navigation Pane (Navigation Pane: The column on the left side of the Outlook window that includes panes such as Shortcuts or Mail and the shortcuts or folders within each pane. Click a folder to show the items in the folder.) helps you view or sort your records to make them easier to use. For example, you can: - For more information about views, see About Views in Business Contact Manager for Outlook.
- For more information about viewing all your business history items, see About history items in Business Contact Manager for Outlook.
You can generate reports and then modify them to contain just the information you want. Once you have run a report with all your business contacts, you can sort by specific information on the report, and also filter the report to show selected business contacts. You can also add a header and footer to your report, and you can save your reports in many formats, such as a Microsoft Word (.doc) file, as an Microsoft Excel (.xls) file, as a Web page (.htm) file, or a Rich Text (.rtf) file. You can import data from spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access, accounting programs such as QuickBooks, and contact and customer management software such as ACT!, or online services such as Microsoft List Builder. For more information about Microsoft List Builder, see Using Microsoft List Builder. You can export your Business Contacts and then define and track marketing communications with these prospects and customers, such as easily sending your customers personalized, professional-looking e-mail newsletters. For more information, on the Business Tools menu, click Business Services. Accessing financial information from AccountingIf you are linked to an accounting program such as Small Business Accounting, you can: - View your customers' financial history and financial summary from their account records.
- Edit individual transaction records that are available when viewing the financial history of a record, which can be updated to your accounting system.
- Create quotes, sales orders, and invoices that you can send to your accounting program.
- Create time entries from phone logs, calendar appointments, and tasks, so that you can pay your employees or invoice your customers.
- Refresh your list of products and services from accounting.
- For more information about using accounting programs with Business Contact Manager for Outlook, see About accessing accounting data.
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