Microsoft Outlook (stand-alone or as an Exchange client) is the most widely used messaging client in the business world. The collaborative functionality of Outlook in a group makes it a highly efficient time and process management tool. Professionals in a wide variety of industries track their appointments, phone calls, project tasks, and journal items in Outlook.

TimeOut is an add-in to Microsoft Outlook 2007 and higher, which allows the user to turn those appointments, journals and phone calls into billable time.

TimeOut connects to the client accounting application, pulling in customer, billing code, and project lists and populates date, duration and narrative fields from the Outlook item, then maintains a link between the item and the accounting record. The user simply selects the customer (and optionally the project and activity code depending on the client software) and saves the record, and the item is ready for billing.

TimeOut currently works with Sage Simply Accounting 2010 Premium and higher, and interfaces with other accounting packages are in the works. Download TimeOut for a free 30-day trial.