Whether you’re a professional accountant or just a QuickBooks novice, your business processes will benefit from the integration of QuickBooks with a CRM software solution.
This article explains on why you should have an integration of QuickBooks with CRM, criteria to choose the right CRM and some of the types of integration.
What is meant by QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is an accounting software which help small to medium-sized businesses manage the financial aspect of its organization. By using QuickBooks, businesses can generate and send invoices, accept payments, keep a track of income and expenses, manage inventory and payroll and generate accounting reports.
QuickBooks has both a desktop and cloud-based version, termed as QuickBooks Online. With the use of QuickBooks Online, you may log in to any supported device from anywhere in the world.
While QuickBooks help you keep a track of the financial aspects of your business, it can’t do everything. For example, while being a powerful accounting software, QuickBooks will not help you to manage and follow up on leads, track your billable time or forecast client profitability.
That is why, you need to integrate your CRM with QuickBooks.
What is meant by a CRM?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is a process through a company or any other organization manages it relationship with customers, usually by analysis of vast amounts of data.
Today’s business landscape is shifting from being company/product centric to customer centric. With a reliable CRM, you may deliver a consistent, streamlined and profitable client service easily and manage your tasks, issues and data all in one platform, in real-time.
Without the integration of CRM with QuickBooks, your business will be sitting on an invaluable data which can help to increase your sales and drive revenue for your business. For example, if you have leads which has requested a quote but hasn’t taken any step further, you may send personalized emails to remind them of the solutions you provide, answer any objection raised and convert them to paying customers.
Integrating your CRM with QuickBooks can act as the catalyst which will unlock better customer management, increase customer satisfaction and by extension, increase customer lifetime value.
Can You use QuickBooks as a CRM?
QuickBooks is not same as CRM but an accounting software. Sure, you may use it to send invoices, receive payments from consumers and view customer’s transaction history but this doesn’t build rapport with your clients.
Rather, business should get a CRM and integrate it with QuickBooks because QuickBooks does not perform core CRM functions like sales management, marketing automation and customer service management.
So, can you try to use QuickBooks as a CRM? Yes.
Should You? No.
What in integration of CRM with QuickBooks?
CRM QuickBooks integration means linkage of this accounting software to your CRM so that you can get a single view of client work, invoice and payments. This data may then be used for follow-ups, to deliver personalized service for better marketing automation and for ultimate linkage of your time with invoices.
Criteria to keep in mind while choosing a CRM for QuickBooks
Below mentioned is some of the things you ought to consider before deciding on a CRM integration with QuickBooks. Everyone’s has different business needs, so don’t skip these questions.
Why QuickBooks and CRM integration is a good idea
Let’s talk about the different reasons to get a CRM which integrates with QuickBooks.
Lead Management
If you are an accountant, QuickBooks alone cannot help you obtain new contacts and leads to them into paying customers. That is what a CRM is for, it can help with marketing, lead generation and then bringing in that data to create new QuickBooks accounts.
Data Entry
CRM is great to save your team members’ time and efforts by taking over a lot of manual typing and click work. This efficiency translates over into your QuickBooks activity by syncing everything once and in real time.
Data Security
As yous QuickBooks data is so important to your customers, having a CRM integration may add a layer of data protection should you ever need to share any more customer information.
Sales Automation
To ensure a prime customer experience all the way throughout the sales process, a CRM integration with QuickBooks is ideal. It may send automated follow ups to stay on point and use workflows to update the sales pipeline status.
Customer Service
If different needs of your accounting business include offering customer support, there are many perfect CRM software which specialize in customer service. It may automate tickets from QuickBooks, create them in your CRM and use workflows for faster resolutions.
Types of integration of CRM with QuickBooks
There are two major types of CRM integration with QuickBooks, which are manual and sync-based.
With a manual integration, you’ll need to click on each row of data yourself that you want to sync.
With a sync-based system, you run a program which reviews and syncs all data according to your parameters.
However, with syncing, there are two categories of data flow: unidirectional data flow vs bidirectional data flow.
Unidirectional Data Flow
This is where data flows one way, from one platform to another. For example, when you update a contact profile in your QuickBooks account, it will get automatically updated in your CRM, but updates of CRM won’t affect QuickBooks.
Bidirectional Data Flow
As obvious, bidirectional data flow is a two way sync. Any changes or update you make in either your QuickBooks or CRM systems, will be automatically synced and updated in the other platform.
Conclusion on Choice of CRM software for QuickBooks which would go with your needs
Now that you know about how important CRM is with QuickBooks, next step is to integrate. If you are still not sure on which CRM integration is most compatible with your business needs, visit the CRM website and often free trials are provided for which sometimes you don’t need to enter a credit card.
