Integrating CRM and Accounting systems, Part 2

In our previous article we discussed the idea of integrating CRM systems with Accounting systems and highlighted the benefits associated with providing your staff with access to the business's data and functions they need across multiple systems.

Today we will delve deeper into the integration process and demonstrate the benefits of having your different business systems talk to each other, we will be using the ACT! CRM system, The QuickBooks accounting system and our own Accounting link for ACT! and QuickBooks.


First we will describe the concept of integration, within ACT! you can store the information related to a contact within a Contact Record, A contact is not necessarily a customer, a contact can be a Prospect, a customer, a supplier a colleague or a family friend (or anything else you wish to classify them as).

In an accounting system you usually have records for Customers, Suppliers and Employees, singling out customers we can see that they exist in both CRM systems and accounting systems. As mentioned in our previous article CRM systems excel at storing the non quantitative customer information while accounting systems were designed to store quantitative information.

The idea here is to provide access to both sets of  information for a given customer from one place thereby eliminating the need to jump between multiple systems in order to see the big picture, this is done through the process of linking a customer record in the CRM system to their equivalent record in the Accounting system.

In the screenshot above we have a view of Chris Huffman's record in ACT showing all of her details, at the same time we can view Chris Huffman's financial details as they currently appear in QuickBooks, in this particular case we are looking at Chris's financial summary details directly from within ACT, at a glance we can tell what Chris's current balance is, when was the last time she made a purchase from us and if she has any overdue payments.

In addition to having access to QuickBooks customers data directly from within ACT! we also have the ability to update Chris's contact information directly without the need to switch to QuickBooks and re-enter the updated contact details, in doing so we have reduced the amount of data entry work required to maintain both sets of data.

Furthermore when we get a new customer added into our CRM system we no longer need to re-enter their details twice, we can simply push a button in ACT! and create a record for our new customer in Quickbooks in real time!

One of the other benefits of having an integrated CRM & Accounting system is the ability to provide sales staff with controlled access to some accounting functions, for example if your sales team needs to raise estimates or invoices for a customer then they can do that without having direct access to the accounting system, there is no need to write the estimate on a piece of paper or email it to the accountant, it can be created directly from within ACT! where your sales team spend most of their time working from.

The two scenarios above highlight the benefits of having the ability to communicate across different systems within the organization, the benefits can be summarized by the following:

• Reduction or even elimination of duplicate data entry procedures, having to re-enter the same information across different systems is a time consuming process the time spent on duplicate entry of data can be better utilized elsewhere.
  
• Streamlining your business process work flow, connected systems provide your staff with the ability to meet customers demands on time in a very efficient manner this in turn results in having an increased customer satisfaction, a satisfied customer is one who is more likely to do business with you again than an un-satisfied customer.

The above is just an example of what can be achieved by having integrated systems within your business, there is a lot more to cover than this, feel free to list your comments or ask any questions that you may have, you can contact us at Support@Xactsoftware.co.nz or you can follow us on twitter, we are more than happy to answer your questions in any way we can.

If you currently have ACT and would like to download a trial copy of our QuickBooks link then you can visit our products page here , you also purchase a copy of the QuickBooks link by visiting our online store. 

Integrating CRM and Accounting systems , Part 1

In a previous post we talked about CRM Systems in general and the benefits associated with implementing a CRM database and a CRM process within any business environment.

Today we will be talking about  the benefits associated with enabling your CRM database to talk to other databases in your organization, we will be specifically talking about integrating CRM databases with Accounting databases.

To demonstrate the integration process we will be using the ACT! CRM system and the QuickBooks Accounting system, through the use of our own Accounting link for ACT! and QuickBooks we will provide practical examples and highlight the benefits associated with integrating your office databases together.


Part 1 of this Article will cover the concept of Integration while Part 2 will provide a walk through showing the integration in action.

Background

Within a typical business it is possible to have a number of disconnected databases each serving a specific purpose, some of these databases however may share the same information (e.g. Customers and Contact details).

Within such environments there is a need to enter and maintain the same information across the different databases within the business, for example if the business captures a new customer, their details will need to be entered in the CRM database and also in the Accounting database (so you can bill them etc.).

The same customer will have different types of data stored against their record(s) within the two databases above, the CRM database will be used to track that customer's communication history and anything that is not considered quantifiable data.

On the other hand the accounting system will be used to record the customer's transactions, generate sales invoices and ensure the customer is paying his/her bills on time etc.

Looking at the above we can immediately identify an issue, Dual entry of data , every time the business acquires a new customer their information need to be recorded in the CRM database and the accounting database. On top of that if the customer decided to change their contact details then the changes will need to be applied twice.

With disconnected databases this can pose an issue, what if the customer changed their contact details and the changes were not made across the board? What if the accounting system kept the old billing address?

Another thing to consider, from time to time your staff might need access to information which is not typically available to them, for example your sales and marketing staff may require real time access to a customer's transactions history, within a disconnected environment your sales staff might not have direct access to your accounting system and for them to get the information they need your accountant will need to be involved.

With many small businesses there are usually one or two accountants present and most of them work part time, what happens when a customer calls asking about the status of an order or to make sure if an invoice has been paid? what if your accountant was not present at the time and the customer was asked to call again next week when the accountant comes in on Tuesday? Many customers will not consider this as an example of a Responsive business and would prefer to deal with businesses who can give them what they need right there and right now.

Last but not least your staff might require access to certain business functions which are not available to them directly, for example consider the process of raising quotes or invoices, when a customer calls asking for a quote or an invoice your sales staff will need access to an up to date pricing list for whatever Items / Services your  business has on offer, in addition when a quote is generated it will need to be passed to the accountant manually in order for it to get converted into an order and from there into an invoice.

In a disconnected environment your sales staff might be depending on pricing lists entered in a spreadsheet or they might have the information written on a piece of paper! the problem which arises from here is that these price lists might not always be up to date since the source data can be changed and it could take sometime before the price lists are updated.

Summary

Having your internal business systems communicate with each other can give your business and your staff a number of advantages these advantages are the following:

• Reduction or even elimination of Dual, Triple or even Quadruple entry of data thus saving time and minimizing data entry errors.
  
• Providing your staff with the information they need when they need it thus allowing them to provide a higher level of service to your clients and helping in ensuring customer satisfaction.
  
• Streamlining your business process work flow thus enable your business to become more agile and ensuring that your staff can respond to your customers needs in the best way they can.

 This concludes part one of our Integration Article, feel free to comment on this topic and make sure to stay tuned for Part 2, you can follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with our blog posts.

If you currently have ACT and would like to download a trial copy of our QuickBooks link then you can visit our products page here , you also purchase a copy of the QuickBooks link by visiting our online store.