> Joel,
>
> This bizarre and potentially confusing design quirk that BCM / Office
> Accounting presents an end user is something I wrestled with initially myself.
> I have all the empathy in the world for your post to start this thread.
> Looking at strictly the "Contact-management" function of BCM, the Account
> Record is encouraged by MS to be used as an "all-in-one" repository to join
> various Business Contacts into a "super-contact" record whereby all the
> linked contact history conveniently rolls up into the one central Account
> record location. Life is good so far. (as long as you don't need to link a
> Business Contact to more than 1 Account Record!!!) The above is what I
> personally think of and refer to as the "Super Business Contact" function of
> the Account record.
>
> Now comes the second tricky part: This second part I personally think of and
> refer to as the "Accounting function" of the Account record. The BCM Account
> record is the only current item through which it is possible for BCM to share
> a link to Office Accounting (and ONLY to Customers, not Vendors). This
> certainly seems logical enough on the receivables side of things. However,
> if your particular business sales activity (like mine) involves a Business-to-
> Person process rather than a Business-to-Business, your integration with
> Office Accounting is potentially limited and confusing to work around. My
> consulting service sales opportunities are always linked to a single person
> using an individual Business Contact record (because MS documents and
> educates us that Business Contact records are for Individuals... and "Trixs
> are for Kids!").
>
> Once my individual sales opportunity closes, I then had to evolve the
> opportunity by creating an additional Account record to link the individual
> Business Contact and opportunity to in order for my sale to have any relevant
> connection to Office Accounting. Although this now linked Account record
> shares the same title of "Account Record," this newly created Account record
> is NOT for the same functional purpose of "super-business-contact-linked-by-
> ORGANIZATION" relationship I mentioned above. My closed opportunity linked
> Account record has NOTHING to do with a company or an organization. This
> Account record relates to a PERSON not an ORGANIZATION. Confused yet? Well
> I sure was for a long while until I stopped blindly following the MS
> documentation and started logically thinking for myself.
>
> I believe the problem lies in the semi-contradictory manner of how MS
> documents the intended purpose for the Account record as an organization
> related data entity. My own personal solution was to mentally purge from my
> head the oft stated idea by MS that the Account record be a named company or
> organization entity (The Super Business Contact Function). This shift in my
> thinking allowed me to open up to flexibly understanding and adapting the
> Accounting function. I now just use the BCM Account Record as appropriate
> for either a single person AND/OR for an organization. The common purpose of
> use for me is that the Account record be named for either the person or the
> organization that is ultimately going to buy something from me. If you do
> not choose to link BCM to the use of Office Accounting, this confusion does
> not exist. Understanding and use of the "super-business-contact" function
> will then suit the Account record just fine as a stand alone convenience.
>
>
> The problem lies inherent in the fact that BCM has 1 separate and distinct
> functional data purpose for the Account record which can be separate and
> different from Office Accounting's purpose. It seems almost as if the
> Accounting link to the BCM Account record was an after thought by MS quickly
> put together and not thoroughly thought out completely! They can seem
> contradictory depending upon how you look at and choose to use the BCM
> Account record.
>
> If I were King of the BCM design world I would consider rectifying this via
> either more well thought out documentation and tutorials about the existing
> design reality AND, in a future release, I would consider creating a separate
> "Company" record from the Account record that would allow equal Account
> linking status and function for an organization in contrast and compliment to
> the separate Business Contact record for individuals. This could also enable
> sub-company linking for divisions or various organization branch locations,
> etc. Another design solution would be to enable Office Accounting to connect
> its Customer record also to an individual BCM Business Contact in addition to
> just the BCM Account record. Another nicety would add additional Accounting
> to BCM item links beyond just the Office Accounting Customer record. Many of
> my Business Contacts in BCM are Vendors in Office Accounting that I regularly
> communicate and transact payables with. Having a vendor payables to business
> contact link would be great. There is currently no way to link these 2 in
> Office 2007.
>
> Wow! Is this post long enough yet?!!
>
> A final comment: BCM linkage to Office Accounting is not yet "seamless" and
> my lengthy commentary here is intended as honest, real-world, end-user
> feedback for consideration by whomever makes the design decisions for BCM. I
> would encourage as much real world input as possible from folks who are NOT
> just programming techs but rather, they are average Joe users like myself
> that simply want a well designed, stable, and reasonably simple, yet robust
> tool for common everyday usage. There are some glaring BCM omissions in
> existance that really need to be more thoroughly thought out before next
> release in order to make this Office combo a truly terrific rather than a
> sometimes frustrating or confusing experience for its target market.
>
> Best regards,
>
> -THP
>
>
>
> JoelHaggar wrote:
> >Problem: MS Accounting only integrates to Business Contact Manager under
> >"Accounts". "Accounts" don’t sync to a PDA.
> >
> >Suggestion: Allow options to integrate Accounting to either "Accounts" or
> >"Business Contacts" in Business Contact Manager.
> >
> >And/or Allow Accounts to be synced to a PDA.
> >
> >I just forked out a lot of money for the whole Microsoft package for the
> >reason of being able to share data between all my programs. I actually
> >switched from QuickBooks (which is a much better program) to Microsoft
> >accounting simply so I could easily sync my info and have my customer
> >contacts with me on my PDA phone.
> >
> >I am very disappointed in Microsoft at this point and feel this problem
> >needs to be fixed ASAP or I feel there advertising has been very misleading.
> >
> >Thanks,
>
> --
> Message posted via OfficeKB.com
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http://www.officekb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/outlook-bcm/200706/1>
>