How to pick a CRM that works with your accounting software

When it comes to running a business, there can be a lot of tedious tasks, especially for business owners with small teams who wear several hats.

If you’re in charge of providing a product or service, acting as a customer service agent for your business, managing all customer communications, and overseeing your own business finances, the weight of those tasks can add up quickly.

As a small business owner, you want to be able to comfortably delegate tedious tasks to technology so you can better serve your customers and have time to actually grow your business. The best way to do this is to ensure that two of your most important systems can seamlessly work together: your CRM and your accounting software.

Benefits of connecting your CRM and accounting software

Many business owners begin managing their financial and customer data out of spreadsheets. That may work when you’re first getting started, but it’s easy to quickly outgrow this arrangement.

As your business continues to grow and scale, your time and data become more valuable.

Growing businesses need a CRM and accounting system as they acquire new contacts and financial responsibilities grow. However, simply having these systems on hand isn’t enough. You need CRM and accounting tools that work, and you need them to integrate.

Here are some benefits of having a CRM and accounting software that work well together:

1. Minimize errors

According to Tessian, 88 percent of company data breaches are caused by human error. By focusing heavily on manual data management practices and storing sensitive information in files that aren’t secure, you could be exposing your business to financial and security risks.

By using secure systems to store and process customer and financial data for your business, you are reducing the amount of time you and your team have to spend inputting and processing information, and decreasing the likelihood of costly errors. In addition, when these two systems connect seamlessly, you can feel confident your data is up-to-date and consistent across platforms.

2. Streamline processes

When your accounting and customer relationship systems are connected, you can quickly and easily create automations and workflows to streamline key business processes.

For example, if you have a client pay their new invoice through the accounting system connected to your CRM, the information provided by the paid invoice can trigger a workflow to automatically populate the deal properties within their contact record. With this type of automation, your team can have a full picture of a customer’s payment status in one centralized place, without having to perform manual entry.

In addition, you’ll have the power to create and send invoices from within your CRM, reducing the need to switch back and forth between platforms.

3. Easy reporting

Having your customer and financial data centralized can also streamline your reporting processes. When you no longer have to go searching for data in multiple spreadsheets and systems, you can easily create custom reports, putting the pertinent information you need to run your business exactly where you need it, when you need it.

4. Better internal and external communication

By integrating your accounting software with your CRM, you can also streamline communication among your team members and customers. If you have separate finance and sales organizations, this integration can make it easy for the two teams to share information with one another.

And, because your financial information will be linked to customer records, you can send targeted communications to customers based on their payment status and history, leading to a better customer experience.

Ready to hit the ground running with a CRM that works with your accounting software? Enjoy these benefits and more with HubSpot for QuickBooks®.

HubSpot for QuickBooks

Intuit® and HubSpot have partnered to launch HubSpot for QuickBooks , a powerful integration to help your small business’ front- and back-of-house operations work better together. QuickBooks Online users who have a HubSpot CRM subscription can connect the two systems to get their data syncing seamlessly.

Key features of the integration include:

• Shorter sales cycles — Having front- and back-of-house data in sync allows payments to be received, processed, and allocated quickly.
• Accurate data — With pertinent data centralized in one place, your teams don’t have to worry about conflicting or out-of-date information.
• Faster approval times — QuickBooks Online Advanced customers can unlock additional features to build custom workflows and approval processes.

The ability to bring in and track money, and manage customer relationships, are two of the most critical elements of any small business.

By optimizing your processes within your CRM and financial management system, you’re able to provide a greater customer experience, putting your business in a better position for growth and scalability.

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