Account form in Business Contact Manager

On an Accountform, you can enter extensive information about an Account, including contact, source, and company profile information. You can also link Business Contacts and communication history items, and add customizable details. This information is then stored as an Account record.

The form contains four views: General, Details, History, and User-Defined Fields. Each view contains one or more sections.

To enter multiple entries in a field, such as more than one address or e-mail address, click the down arrow     next to the field.

The General view

The General view contains the following sections where you can enter or edit information about the Account.

• Account

  Type the name of the Account (required) and its associated office (optional).

• Phone numbers

  Type the Account's phone numbers.

• Address

  Type the default business address to associate with this Account. If you have more than one address for an Account, to establish which address is used during mail merge*, select the This is the mailing address check box.

  *Mail merge requires Publisher or Word. The stand-alone edition of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager can be used with the 2007 or 2003 versions of Publisher and Word.

• Source information

  Select the source of this Account and the area of interest. To add a new item or edit an existing item in the Source or Area of interest lists, click Edit this list.

  For more details, click the Initiated by button. In the Select a Campaign, Business Contact, Opportunity, or Business Project dialog box, from the Folder, select a list, and then select a list item that best describes how the first interaction happened with this Account. To link the item to the Account record, click the Link To button. To create a new item, click New.

• Business Contacts

  To link one or more Business Contacts to this Account, click the Add button, and then select it in the list. To unlink a Business Contact from this Account, select the Business Contact, and then click the Remove button.

  Note: Because a Business Contact can be linked to only one Account, the list displays only the Business Contacts that are not yet linked to an Account. If all the Business Contacts are linked to corresponding Accounts, the list is empty because there are no available, unlinked Business Contacts to show.

• E-mail and Internet addresses

  Enter the e-mail address or addresses associated with this Account, and the Web page address. To specify how an Account's name is displayed in the To: line of a message, type the name in the Display As box.

  To add a picture for this Account, click the picture frame.

  

  In the Add Contact Picture dialog box, locate the folder that contains the picture, and then double-click the picture file to add it. The picture is automatically sized to fit.

• Classification

  Select or clear the Status check box to mark the Account as Active. Click the down arrow    next to the fields to select who the Account is assigned to, the rating, and payment status.

Note: In the General view, the Source, Area of interest, Account rating, and Payment status fields are customizable.

The Details view

The Details view contains company profile details, communication preferences, and comments. You can paste comments from other files or add comments directly to the Account record.

• Company Profile

  Enter the Account number, ticker symbol (if applicable), annual revenue, and number of employees. Click the down arrow     next to the fields to select the Account's type of business and territory.

  Note: You can edit the list of options associated with Type of business and Territory.

• Communication

  Click the down arrow     in the Preferred method field to select the preferred method of communication for this Account, or click Edit this list to add, edit, or remove items in the list. Select the Do not call, Do not e-mail, Do not fax, or Do not mail check boxes to indicate forms of communication that should not be used for this Account.

• Comments

  You can paste comments from other files or add comments directly to the Account record. Click the Add Time Stamp button to date your comments.

The History view

The History view contains all the communication history items linked with this record. Click the down arrow     in the View field to select a view type for the list. Double-click a communication history item to open it. You can create more detailed history about the Account by clicking the New button and then linking an item—such as a business note, phone log, appointment, or task—to the record.

The User-Defined Fields view

The User-Defined Fields section contains custom fields that you create and organize. Fields are organized by group and displayed in two columns.

On the Ribbon, in the Options group, click the Customize Form button to either create or manage groups and fields.

The Financial History view

If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system and this record has financial transactions, you can view transactions on this view. Double-click any transaction to view it.

• Transaction list

  Date     Click the column header to sort the list by the transaction date.

  Document #     Click the column header to sort the list by the document number.

  Type     Click the column header to sort the list by the type of transaction.

  Business Contact     Click the column header to sort the list by the name of the Business Contact.

  Total Amount     Click the column header to sort the list by the total amount of the transaction.

The Financial Summary view

If Business Contact Manager for Outlook is integrated with your accounting system, and this record has financial transactions, you can view a summary of these transactions on this view. This view displays information about the financial transactions for the account, balance and payment information, amount of sales, financial details, and terms.

• Balance due

  Current    Displays the current balance.

  Overdue    Displays the amount overdue, sorted into categories of 1-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days, and over 90 days.

  Total balance    Displays the total balance.

• Payment information

  Average days to pay    Displays the average number of days that the Account took to pay.

  Average days to pay (YTD)    Displays the year-to-date average number of days that the Account took to pay.

• Terms

  Preferred shipping method    Displays the preferred shipping method.

  Preferred payment method    Displays the preferred payment method.

• Sales information

  Month-to-date    Displays the monetary amount of sales to the Account for the current month.

  Year-to-date    Displays the monetary amount of sales to the Account for the current year.

  Last year    Displays the monetary amount of sales to the Account for the previous year.

  Lifetime sales    Displays the total monetary amount of sales to the Account, for the life of the Account.

Ribbon navigation

The form contains the following icons — located on the Ribbon, which is part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface — that are specific to Business Contact Manager for Outlook.

In the group	Click	To
Show	General	Display the General view on the form, which allows you to enter basic information.
Show	Details	Display the Details view on the form, which allows you to enter more personalized information.
Show	History	Display all communication history items for this specific record.
Show	User-Defined Fields	Display all user-defined fields that have been customized for this form.
Communicate	New History Item	Add a new business note, phone log, Opportunity, Business Project, task, e-mail message, appointment, or file to the Communication History of the record.
Options	Customize Form	Add user-defined fields to this form.
Options	E-mail Auto-link	Automatically link e-mail messages to and from the e-mail address in this record. Note: If there is no available e-mail address, this icon appears dimmed.
Options	Check Names	Resolve the e-mail address or linked record, and ensure it is valid.

Note: To access the Account form, on the Business Contact Manager menu, click Accounts, and then double-click an Account.