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You can set up contact synchronisation so that your contacts in Business Central have the same information as your contacts in Microsoft Outlook. For example, if you're a sales person, you might work in Outlook and Business Central at the same time. If the contacts are the same in both places, your work is more straightforward.
By default, the contacts you're syncing are kept in a Business Central folder in your Favourites on the Folder Pane in Outlook. The Business Central folder can make it easier to identify which contacts you're syncing. You can set filters to sync only specific contacts from Business Central to Outlook. After you set up synchronisation, you can synchronise manually or automate the process to synchronise on a scheduled basis.
Prerequisites
Your user account in Business Central must specify your Microsoft 365 email account.
You can check this setting in the Microsoft 365 section of your User Card, which you open from the Users list.
With Business Central on-premises, you set up contact synchronisation as described in Set Up contact synchronisation with Outlook for Business Central on-premises.
Set up synchronisation
You set up how you want to synchronise contacts with Outlook on the Exchange Sync. Setup page in Business Central.
On the Exchange Sync. Setup page, you can validate that the connection to Exchange is working and then set up contact synchronisation. From the Exchange Sync. Setup page, you can open the Contact Sync. Setup page and start the synchronisation. Optionally, set a filter to specify which contacts to synchronise. For example, you can filter on name, type, company, and so on. You can also change the default name of the folder in Outlook that the contacts synchronise to.
Each of your coworkers can also set up their own Exchange synchronisation and set their own filters on which contacts to synchronise.
After you set up synchronisation, sync changes manually. Business Central versions 2023 release wave 2 and earlier support automated synchronisation. Learn more about automation in the next section of this article.
Synchronise contacts
To sync contacts, select one of these actions on the Exchange Sync. Setup page:
Sync with Microsoft 365
Synchronise all changes from Business Central to Microsoft 365 that were made after the last synchronisation, based on the last modified date. Also, new contacts from Microsoft 365 are synchronised to Business Central. Typically, this action is faster than a full sync.
Full Sync with Microsoft 365
Synchronise all contacts in both directions, regardless of the last sync date and last modified date.
In both cases, contacts are only synchronised from Outlook if they have the required fields filled in. The required fields to synchronise to Microsoft 365 are Name, Email address and the contact must be of the type Person. Business Central is the source of the contact information, so the Business Central contact information is saved if there are duplicates.
Note
If you delete a contact in Outlook, but keep it in Business Central, the contact will be recreated in Outlook the next time you sync.
Automate synchronisation (background synchronisation)
Important
Starting in 2024 release wave 1 (version 24), you can't turn on background synchronisation anymore. If it's currently on, it works as expected. If you turn it off, you can't turn it on again.
To automate sync, if the Enable Background Synchronisation toggle is on, create a job queue entry to sync contacts on a schedule you set. Learn more in Use Job Queues to Schedule Tasks.
The following table lists the settings on the Job Queue Entry Card page for syncing contacts:
| Field | Setting for contact sync |
|---|---|
| Object Type to Run | Codeunit |
| Object ID to Run | 6700 |
Related information
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Sales
Purchasing
Use contacts (People) in Outlook on the web