I've been reading many posts here and just want to clarify: If I already have cat5 and phone cable run, I can terminate both of them to a standard cat5 patch panel, so long as I observe each's pin outs. Then from the patch panel I can patch data to the switch and phone to the phone board. Is that correct?

You could run POTS and cat5 on the same board but don't! If you mix up the connections and somehow disable phone service to some person in need you can get charged but legally and $$$. Don't do it. Use the correct devices to connect each type of service. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

We frequently use Cat5e/Cat6 terminated in an A standard on a patch panel to jumper phone connections. It is smarter and simpler to run them separately because no matter what you do, at some point, your phone lines will have to connect to a BIX or whatever it is you're using for the phone connections. So it only makes sense to go directly there when you can. When we terminate to a network Patch Panel here at work, it's generally because we've wired for VoIP in that area. We still have need for analog lines though for fax, and in some cases dialup, so those are jumpered from the patch panel to the BIX block. It's worth noting, we use a special BIX block in this case that has RJ-45 outputs connected to it. So you plug the jumper from PP to that port, and then punch the actual analog phone lines in the appropriate BIX block. You didn't specify if this is in your home or in a work environment. That would be helpful to know.

HI, this is a business, small showroom and 3 offices.

Ok, a business is likely to have business class hardware in it. This means you're likely to have a BIX block. I would just run your phone lines to the bix blocks. In the long run, it's the sensible thing to do. We use Cat5e for phones here exclusively. When it comes to analog/digital lines, this means 4 possible phone lines per cable (each phone line uses one pair). Once terminated at a BIX block, this makes it a simple matter to add an additional phone line to any outlet. We use the blue/not blue pair as the primary phone line and then green - orange - brown for subsequent lines. So the BIX end should be punched in that order.

Thank you for the excellent responces! J