How much time and money can a QuickBooks integrated CRM save?

Recently The Sleeter Group published a blog titled "The Value of Integrated CRM".  This is a great article:  http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2012/05/the-value-of-integrated-crm/.  The article explains how important it is to have a convenient information hub for centralizing operations across an organization.  Competition is fierce and often the company who can service clients better, cheaper, faster wins the business.  This is difficult to do without an integrated CRM.

Integrating QuickBooks with a CRM is critical to bringing all the data together in one place required to address the needs of the customer. Business today is far too complex and competitive for us to have to compete with stand-alone, disconnected products.

QuickBooks is a market leading back office accounting software and is not intended to be used as a CRM.  There are many options when it comes to CRM software.  We recommend using the SugarCRM QuickBooks integration.  SugarCRM is a powerful, cloud based, open source market leading CRM software. In fact, SugarCRM is the fastest growing CRM software in the world.  The QuickBooks SugarCRM integration is easy to use and implement.

The QuickBooks SugarCRM integration synchronizes customers, invoice history, inventory items, quotes, and sales orders.  It's completely automated and runs on a scheduler. The SugarCRM QuickBooks integration allows entering of sales orders in SugarCRM and syncing the orders into QuickBooks in real-time, orders can be entered on laptops, ipads, and other mobile devices by salespeople on the road.  Orders can be entered right away through SugarCRM, and they will then automatically appear in QuickBooks.   The QuickBooks SugarCRM integration eliminates the need to wait for remote access to QuickBooks or emailing orders into the office.  

This QuickBooks SugarCRM integration eliminates redundant data entry because the sales orders created in SugarCRM transfer into QuickBooks eliminating duplication of data entry and increasing the accuracy of orders in QuickBooks.    Inventory changes and customer name and address changes in one system can be instantly updated in the other.  

The QuickBooks SugarCRM integration eliminates the need for buying additional QuickBooks user licenses because the ERP data is in SugarCRM.  Sales reps can see on hand inventory quantities, open sales orders, invoice history, customer credit information, and everything they used to have to either lookup directly in QuickBooks or call someone to lookup for them.   Companies using the SugarCRM QuickBooks integration can potentially downgrade QuickBooks user licenses, because these “inquiry users” no longer will need access to QuickBooks. 

How much time and money can a QuickBooks integrated CRM save?  It really depends on the company. The QuickBooks SugarCRM integration extends the functionality you have become accustomed to in the back office to your front office.  The QuickBooks SugarCRM integration allows for a single view of your customers interactions with your company.  Now your sales teams can become focused on the profit objectives of your company using QuickBooks and SugarCRM combined to provide an enterprise-wide, consistent view of customer activity and opportunities.  To determine how much time and money a QuickBooks integrated CRM can offer ask the following questions:

1. How much time it is taking staff to key-in duplicate data from one system to another?
2. How many customers are lost due to improper communications?
3. Can sales people assist in speeding up the collection of outstanding accounts receivable?
4. Has your company experienced miscommunication between your back office accounting teams and your front office customer facing teams?
5. Have your sales people sold to customers on credit hold by mistake?
6. If your back office accounting personnel had access to your sales forecast would it be helpful in budgeting?
7. When a sales quotation turns into an order does someone have to re-key that duplicate information into QuickBooks?
8. Do your sales people use a separate system to record notes about customers that could be useful to accounting?
9. Is your sales forecast important when it comes to budgeting?
10. Do your sales people miss opportunities to collect on open invoices because they lack visibility to them?
11. Do your sales lack visibility to customer item sales history, potentially handicapping their customer relationship?
12. When a sales prospect becomes a customer does your accounting staff have to re-key the customer information into QuickBooks? 

If you answered yes to any of the foregoing questions please contact us to learn more about the SugarCRM QuickBooks intgration.

Written by David Faye, Owner Faye Business Systems Group

Entrepreneur with broad experience in building businesses and helping businesses grow primarily through the effective use of information technology. CEO of Faye Business Systems Group, a software company specializing in implementation, development, and support relating to cloud based Accounting, ERP, and CRM Software with extensive expertise in Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200, SugarCRM, Intacct, and the development of custom software.