Lesson 6: Synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange Server

Part 2: Configuring User Authentication with

In this lesson, you will learn how to configure the Acumatica ERP instance integration with an Exchange Server instance. Microsoft Exchange Server is one of the most popular email-based collaborative communication servers for businesses. By integrating Acumatica ERP with Exchange Server, you can seamlessly and transparently synchronize contacts, tasks, appointments, and emails across platforms. You can control the synchronization process by setting up synchronization policies and assigning those policies to your users. Automatic synchronization ensures that updates are delivered on time.

System Requirements Acumatica ERP can be integrated with Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 or later. The license for your Acumatica ERP instance must include the following features, which must be enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form:

Exchange Integration: Required for configuring and managing integration with Exchange Server
Scheduled Processing: Required for setting up synchronization schedules
Customer Management Module We recommend that you enable the Customer Management module in your Acumatica ERP instance. Even though your employees can work with emails, tasks, events, and contacts by using other Acumatica ERP capabilities, the Customer Management module provides a single entry point for your employees. On the Contacts (CR302000) form, they can view and manage all emails, tasks, and appointments grouped by contacts.
Lesson Objectives You will learn how to do the following (you do not need to perform the steps to pass the training):
Configure synchronization policies that define synchronization settings, such as the directions for synchronization and the types of records that would be synchronized across platforms.
Set up an account for your Exchange Server in the Acumatica ERP instance.
Set up synchronization for your Acumatica ERP users. | Step 6.1: Adding a Synchronization Policy | 65

Step 6.1: Adding a Synchronization Policy Synchronization policies define the settings for synchronization between your Exchange Server and Acumatica ERP instances, such as the record types to be synchronized, the synchronization direction, and the way the synchronized records will be marked. You can create different synchronization policies to meet the needs of the employees of your company. Rather than configuring synchronization individually for each employee, you define the synchronization policies and assign them to employees. Changing a synchronization policy changes the synchronization settings for all employees with this policy assigned.

Record Types For a synchronization policy, you can select the types of records to be synchronized. The following table shows how record types are mapped between Acumatica ERP and Exchange Server.

Supported Record Types

Record Types in Acumatica ERP Record Types in Exchange Server

Contact Contact

Email Email

Event Appointment/Meeting

Task Task

Category Any synchronization policy includes a category to be used to mark records exported from Acumatica ERP. A category includes a color and a word (or a phrase) that you have entered for the policy.

Synchronization Direction A policy defines the direction for synchronization. You can select either unidirectional or bidirectional synchronization for tasks, contacts, and events. Email synchronization is bidirectional only.

Conflict Resolution If a policy includes bidirectional synchronization of any type of records, you need to define how the system is to resolve possible conflicts that may arise if records of the corresponding type have been updated since the previous synchronization. You can give priority to records from a particular system, or you can choose to keep copies of records from both systems.

Contact Synchronization For a synchronization policy that includes contact synchronization, you have to decide the following:

Which contacts will be synchronized: all the available contacts, or specific contact groups (such as the contacts associated with the user or the user’s workgroup)
Whether a specific folder will be used for synchronized contacts
Email Synchronization For a synchronization policy that includes email synchronization, you have to decide the following:
Whether a specific folder will be used to store synchronized emails
Whether a new contact is to be created each time an employee receives an email from an unknown address | Step 6.1: Adding a Synchronization Policy | 66
Whether you want to synchronize attachments

You add, delete, and manage synchronization policies by using the Exchange Synchronization Policies (SM204010) form. To add a synchronization policy, follow these instructions:

Sign in to your Acumatica ERP instance.
Navigate to the Exchange Synchronization Policies form (SM204010; Configuration > Email > Manage).
In the Policy Name box, type the name for the new policy.
In the Description box, type the policy description.
On the Synchronization Settings tab, in the General section, do the following (as shown in the following screenshot):

In the Category Name box, type the name of the category that will be used for marking the synchronized records in a user’s mailbox.
In the Category Color box, select the color.
In the Conflict Resolution Priority box, select how conflicts will be resolved in the case of a bidirectional synchronization.
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  Figure: The process of creating a synchronization policy
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Specify the settings for contact synchronization. In the Contacts section, do the following:

To synchronize contacts, select the Synchronize Contacts check box. | Step 6.1: Adding a Synchronization Policy | 67
If you want to store the synchronized contacts in a specific folder in user mailbox, select the Use Separate Folder for Contacts check box and type the name of a folder in the Folder Name box.
If you want to avoid duplicating contact accounts in Acumatica ERP, select the Merge Contacts by Email check box.
If you don’t want to mark the exported contacts in each user’s mailbox, select the Synchronize New Items without Category check box.
In the Direction box, select the direction for synchronization.
In the Filter box, select the option that indicates which contacts are to be synchronized: all contacts, the contacts associated with a user or the user’s workgroup.
In the Contact Class box, select a contact class to be assigned to the contacts imported to Acumatica ERP.

Specify the settings for email synchronization. In the Email section, do the following:

To synchronize emails, select the Synchronize Emails check box.
In the Folder Name box, type the name of a folder in each user’s mailbox to be used to store emails that are exported from Acumatica ERP.
If you want to synchronize attachments, select the Synchronize Attachments check box.

Specify the settings for task synchronization. In the Tasks section, do the following:

To synchronize tasks, select the Synchronize Tasks check box.
If you want to store the synchronized tasks in a specific folder in each user’s mailbox, select the Use Separate Folder for Tasks check box and type the name of a folder in the Folder Name box.
If you don’t want to mark the exported tasks in each user’s mailbox, select the Synchronize New Items without Category check box.
In the Direction box, select the direction for synchronization.

Specify the settings for event synchronization. In the Events section, do the following:

To synchronize events, select the Synchronize Events check box.
If you want to store the synchronized events in a specific folder in each user’s mailbox, select the Use Separate Folder for Events check box and type the name of a folder in the Folder Name box.
If you don’t want to mark the exported contacts in each user’s mailbox, select the Synchronize New Items without Category check box.
In the Direction box, select the direction for synchronization.

On the form toolbar, click Save.

You can use the synchronization policy you have added to specify synchronization settings for the employees. | Step 6.2: Setting Up a Connection with an Exchange Server | 68

Step 6.2: Setting Up a Connection with an Exchange Server Acumatica ERP uses delegate access to connect to an Exchange server. For each delegate mailbox on your Exchange server, you create an account in your Acumatica ERP instance on the Exchange Server Configuration (SM204015) form and specify the connection and synchronization settings. The delegate must have full access to the managed mailboxes. For the server account, you also specify the synchronization and logging settings. For details on configuring delegate access in Exchange, refer to your Exchange Server documentation. For details on configuring delegate access in applications that synchronize with Microsoft Exchange, see the application documentation. You can specify the quantity of records sent or received during each performed synchronization, limit the synchronized attachment size, and specify the synchronization policy to be used by default. Also, to speed up the connection, you can specify the URL of the mail server. Additionally, you select which events will be recorded in the synchronization log. You can select one of the following logging levels:

None: Nothing is recorded.
Default: Errors and warnings are recorded.
Informational: Errors, warnings, and basic events are recorded.
Verbose: All events are recorded. You can access the event log from the Exchange Synchronization Process (SM204030) form.
To set up a connection with an Exchange server, you add an account for the Exchange Server instance to your Acumatica ERP instance by using the Exchange Server Configuration (SM204015) form. Before you start, you have to set up a delegate mailbox to be used for synchronization between the Exchange server and the Acumatica ERP instance. The delegate must have full access to the mailboxes of the users whose accounts should be synchronized. Add an account for an Exchange Server, perform the follows:

Sign in to your Acumatica ERP instance.
Navigate to the Exchange Server Configuration form (SM204015; Configuration > Email > Manage).
In the Account Name box of the Summary area, type the name of the Exchange server account.
In the Email Address box, enter the email account to be used for synchronization.
In the Password box, enter the password of the email account to be used for synchronization.
In the Logging Level box, select Default.
Clear the Is Active check box.
In the Default Policy Name box, select the synchronization policy to be used if a synchronization policy is not selected for an employee account, as you can see in the following screenshot. | Step 6.2: Setting Up a Connection with an Exchange Server | 69
Figure: Adding a new account for an Exchange Server
Optional: In the Mail Server (Optional) box, specify the URL of your Exchange server instance.
On the form toolbar, click Save to save the account.
On the form toolbar, click Test Server to test the account settings. The green check box on the form toolbar indicates that the connection is set up.
Select the Is Active check box to allow synchronization with the Exchange server.
On the form toolbar, click Save to save the account. | Step 6.3: Configuring Synchronization for the Employee Accounts | 70

Step 6.3: Configuring Synchronization for the Employee

Accounts

Management of synchronization with Exchange Server includes the following basic tasks:

Selecting the employee accounts for which synchronization is to be performed
Scheduling synchronization You configure synchronization for an employee account by associating the employee account with the Exchange server account and assigning a synchronization policy for the employee account. After you configure the employee account, you can perform synchronization manually to check the settings, as described in Step 9.4. After you have configured synchronization with an Exchange server, you can schedule synchronization to be performed automatically, as described in Step 9.5. A system email account of the Exchange type is automatically added when you enable synchronization of the employee account with an Exchange server. You can view and edit the automatically generated accounts on the System Email Accounts (SM204002) form. If you disable Exchange synchronization for an employee account, the corresponding system email account is automatically deleted. You can associate the employee account with the Exchange Server account to be used for synchronization by using the Exchange Server Configuration (SM204015) form. The synchronization settings are defined by the synchronization policy you assign to the employee account. Each newly created Exchange Server account must be initiated on the Exchange side before it can be synchronized with an employee account in Acumatica ERP. Also, the Send on behalf permission must be assigned to each of the mail accounts on the Exchange side. To configure synchronization for employee accounts:

Sign in to your Acumatica ERP instance.
Navigate to the Exchange Server Configuration form (SM204015; Configuration > Email > Manage).
In the Account Name box, select the Exchange Server account to be used for synchronization.
Make sure that the account is active (the Is Active check box should be selected).
For every employee for whom you want to configure synchronization, do the following (see the following screenshot):

In the table, select the Sync Account check box in the row with the employee.
In the Policy Name column, select a synchronization policy. If you do not specify a policy, the default synchronization policy will be applied when synchronization is performed. | Step 6.3: Configuring Synchronization for the Employee Accounts | 71
Figure: Configuring synchronization with Exchange Server

On the form toolbar, click Save. | Step 6.4: Setting Up Synchronization with Exchange Server | 72

Step 6.4: Setting Up Synchronization with Exchange Server After you specify the synchronization settings, as described in the previous step, you synchronize accounts manually on the Exchange Synchronization Process (SM204030) form to check the configuration. To synchronize employees' accounts with their Exchange mailboxes manually, do the following:

Sign in to your Acumatica ERP instance.
Navigate to the Exchange Synchronization Process form (SM204030; Configuration > Email > Schedule).
In the table, select the Selected check box in the row of the employee whose account you want to synchronize, as shown in the following screenshot.
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   Figure: Synchronizing employee account with Exchange mailbox
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On the form toolbar, click Process. If the system performs synchronization as it should, you can schedule automatic synchronization for the employee account. | Step 6.5: Setting Up Automatic Synchronization with Exchange Server | 73

Step 6.5: Setting Up Automatic Synchronization with Exchange

Server

To set up automatic synchronization with Exchange Server, you can use the Exchange Synchronization Process (SM204030) form to select the employee accounts for synchronization, and then you use the Automation Schedules (SM205020) form to specify the schedule you want to use for automatic synchronization. To schedule synchronization with the Exchange Server for the employee accounts, do the following:

Sign in to your Acumatica ERP instance.
Navigate to the Exchange Synchronization Process form (SM204030; Configuration > Email > Schedule).
For each employee whose account you want to synchronize, select the Selected check box.
On the form toolbar, click Schedules (see the following screenshot), and then click Add to open the Automation Schedules form as a pop-up window.
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   Figure: The Schedule button
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Create a new schedule for synchronization or select an existing one. The selected employee accounts will be automatically synchronized according to the schedule you have set up. | Record Synchronization | 74

Record Synchronization

After you have set up integration with the Exchange server, synchronization of all relevant records is performed automatically in accordance with the configured schedule and applied policies. In this topic, you will find information about the basic principles that users should follow to ensure seamless synchronization of records.

Contact Synchronization In Acumatica ERP, all contact records available for synchronization are listed on the Contacts (CR302000) form. These contacts are synchronized with the contacts stored in the mailbox on the Exchange server, as specified in the synchronization policy settings. The following synchronization scenarios are possible:

A new contact has been created in the system—as a result, an identical contact is added to the user mailbox on the Exchange server.
An existing contact has been modified in the system—as a result, the corresponding contact from the user mailbox on the Exchange server is updated accordingly.
A contact has been deleted from the system—as a result, the corresponding contact is deleted from the specific public folder on the Exchange Server.
A contact has been added to the specific public folder on the Exchange Server—as a result, an identical contact is added to the system.
An existing contact has been modified in the specific public folder on the Exchange Server—as a result, the corresponding contact is updated accordingly in the system.
A contact has been deleted from the specific public folder on the Exchange Server—as a result, the corresponding contact is deleted from the system.
Email Synchronization In Acumatica ERP, each contact can have associated email activities listed on the Activities tab of the Contacts (CR302000) form. These emails can be synchronized with emails from a specific email folder on the Exchange server; the name of this folder should be specified in the synchronization policy settings. Email attachments can also be synchronized. If an email contains new contacts specified as recipients, the corresponding contact records are created automatically.
Task Synchronization Tasks listed on the Tasks (EP404000) form are synchronized with Exchange tasks included in a specific category that should be specified in the synchronization policy settings. New tasks assigned to a particular contact can be synchronized in both directions. Any shared task information, if updated, is also synchronized. If a task has been deleted in the system, the corresponding task is deleted on Exchange Server; likewise, if a task is deleted on Exchange Server, the corresponding task is deleted in Acumatica ERP. Task statuses, which indicate the task processing stages, are mapped as shown in the table below. No synchronization is performed for any task whose status has no corresponding status.
Correspondence of statuses
System Task Status Exchange Task Status
Open Not Started
Draft N/A
In Process In Progress | Record Synchronization | 75

System Task Status Exchange Task Status

Canceled Completed

Completed Completed

Approved In Progress

Pending Approval Waiting On Others

Rejected N/A

N/A Deferred

Event Synchronization Events listed on the Events (EP404100) form are synchronized with Exchange appointments. Appointments that correspond to canceled events are deleted from the Exchange Server. Completion of an event does not require synchronization with the corresponding appointment. Also, the following synchronization scenarios are possible:

A new event has been created in the system—as a result, an identical appointment is added to the initiator’s calendar on the Exchange server.
The list of attendees has been updated for an existing event—as a result, the list of attendees is updated accordingly for the corresponding appointment; invitations are automatically sent to attendees.
An event has been deleted—as a result, the corresponding appointment is deleted from the initiator’s calendar on the Exchange server.
An appointment has been deleted from the initiator’s calendar on the Exchange server—as a result, the corresponding event is deleted in the system.

All updated event information is synchronized with appointment information, and the reverse is true as well.

 Event synchronization has the following limitation: If an employee (event owner) whose events are
 not synchronized with Exchange appointments creates an event in the system and invites an employee
 (attendee) whose events are synchronized with Exchange appointments, no corresponding appointment will
 appear on the attendee’s calendar on the Exchange server. This happens because an appointment has to be
 created before an attendee is assigned to it, and if event synchronization is disabled for the event owner,
 no appointment is created at all. The best way to bypass this limitation is to enable event synchronization
 for all employees in your company.

| Additional Information | 76

Additional Information

The following concepts are outside of the scope of this course but may be useful to some readers. You can use the links below to get additional information.

Synchronization with Salesforce Acumatica ERP supports bi-directional real-time synchronization of data between Acumatica ERP and Salesforce, so users can work simultaneously in both systems with changes in one system being reflected in the other. For more information about a synchronization solution, see Synchronization Solution Overview in the Acumatica ERP User Guide, and to learn how to configure both of the systems, refer to Quick Configuration Steps.

Acumatica Add-In for Outlook The Acumatica add-in for Outlook processes the incoming and outgoing mail in your Outlook mailbox and searches for leads, contacts, and employees in Acumatica ERP that correspond to the sender and recipient addresses in the emails. With this add-in, you can do any of the following:

View details on lead, contact, and employee records that already exist in Acumatica ERP.
Create new leads and contacts right from your mailbox; create opportunities and cases associated with existing contacts.
Log your communication activities.
Customize the appearance of the Acumatica ribbon button in Outlook in accordance with your company’s branding.
For more information about a synchronization solution, see Acumatica Add-In for Outlook in the Acumatica ERP User Guide.
Scheduled Processing In any ERP system, such tasks as the processing of documents or the validation of accounts require significant time and system resources. As such, they should be processed at times when there are no employees at work, such as weekends or nights. Other processing, such as releasing or posting documents, takes less time but also should be performed regularly, with a frequency determined by your business needs. In Acumatica ERP, if the Scheduled Processing feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, you can set up automated processing for most processing forms instead of initiating the processing manually. For more information about the scheduling, see Scheduled Processing in the Acumatica ERP User Guide. | Lesson Summary | 77

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned how to configure and manage synchronization between Acumatica ERP and Microsoft Exchange Server. Review Questions:

How would you add a synchronization policy?
How would you set up a connection with Exchange Server?
How would you perform synchronization manually?
How would you set up automatic synchronization with Exchange Server? | Part 3: System Security | 78