Creating and Using Accounts

Business Contact Manager also adds accounts as a new type of Outlook 2007 item. An account is generally synonymous with a customer, but you might have different accounts for a single customer. To create a new account, double-click in an empty area of the Accounts folder. You can also click New on the toolbar with the Accounts folder open or choose File, New, Account.

As Figure 19-18 shows, the General page for an account includes a name to identify the account, address, phone numbers, and several other items. An account also includes the same Classification information as a contact, including the name of the primary contact assigned to the account. It also enables you to associate multiple contacts with the account. Finally, the General page includes an Account History area that lists all the items (e-mail, tasks, notes, and so on) that are linked to the account.

Use the General page to set account name, primary contact, and other general fields.

Figure 19-18. Use the General page to set account name, primary contact, and other general fields.

Note

When you send an e-mail to any contact associated with an account, Business Contact Manager links the e-mail to the contact. The list on the account’s History page shows all items linked to all the account’s contacts, not just for the primary contact. This automatic tracking is one of Business Contact Manager’s most useful features.

The Details page, shown in Figure 19-19, provides additional fields to track other information about the account, such as Type Of Business and Territory, and provides a comments field in which you can record comments about the account.

Specify additional information and comments on the Details page.

Figure 19-19. Specify additional information and comments on the Details page.

Many of the fields are the same for an account as they are for a contact. For example, contacts and accounts both have Address fields, Phone Number fields, and Classification fields. However, the fields are unique. For example, the Phone Number field for an account can be different from the Phone Number field of the contact assigned as the primary contact for the account. Keep this in mind when creating accounts and contacts.

The History page for accounts (see Figure 19-20), like the History page for business contacts, tracks the items that are linked to the account, such as projects, opportunities, tasks, and meetings. If you set up a business project or define an opportunity related to the account, Business Contact Manager automatically links the items to the account and includes it in the list on the History page.

Projects, opportunities, and other items are automatically added to the History page of an account.

Figure 19-20. Projects, opportunities, and other items are automatically added to the History page of an account.

Performing Actions with Accounts

You can also perform many of the same actions for an account as you can for a contact. For example, you can right-click an account and choose Call Account to open the New Call dialog box with the account phone number displayed. Or you might right-click an account, select Create, and choose New Message To Account to start a new e-mail message to the address specified in the account’s E-Mail field.

As with a contact, you can access these actions from the Actions menu or by right-clicking an account and choosing the desired action. However, understand that Business Contact Manager performs the action using the information associated with the account, not with the contacts that are linked to the account. For example, if you right-click an account and choose Call Contact, Business Contact Manager shows the account’s phone number in the New Call dialog box, not the phone number assigned in the Primary Contact field. The same is true for an e-mail message—Business Contact Manager addresses the e-mail to the address specified in the account’s E-Mail field, not the primary contact’s e-mail address. If you need to work with a contact’s information instead, either open the contact directly from the Business Contacts folder or double-click the contact in the Business Contacts area on the account’s form and then use the Actions menu in the resulting contact form to perform the action.

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