CRM integration: connect sales, finance and operations

Your CRM knows who your customers are and what they're about to buy. Your accounting or ERP system knows what they've been invoiced, what they owe and what's in stock. When those two systems are disconnected, sales and finance end up working from different versions of the truth, and someone spends their week copying data from one to the other.

CRM integration closes that gap, so every team works from the same customer record.

What is CRM integration?

CRM integration is the automatic flow of data between your customer relationship management system and the other systems your business runs on. Common pairings include:

• CRM platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM and SugarCRM
• Accounting and ERP such as Sage 200, Sage 50, Xero, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and NetSuite
• Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and Magento, so online customers and orders appear in the CRM too

Why disconnected CRM data costs you

Without integration, the problems tend to build quietly:

• Duplicate data entry. Won deals are retyped as sales orders, and new customers are set up twice.
• Sales working blind. Account managers can't see outstanding invoices, credit limits or recent orders before they call a customer.
• Slow quote-to-cash. Orders wait in a queue until someone moves them from the CRM into the finance system.
• Inconsistent records. Addresses, contacts and pricing drift apart, leading to invoicing errors and awkward customer conversations.

What you can sync

A typical CRM integration with Zynk keeps these records aligned in both directions:

• Customers and contacts, created once and kept up to date everywhere
• Won opportunities to sales orders, so finance can invoice as soon as a deal closes
• Invoices, payments and balances, visible to sales inside the CRM
• Products and price lists, maintained in your ERP and published to the CRM
• Order history from ecommerce and back-office systems, for a complete customer view

How CRM integration works with Zynk

1. Pick the systems and direction. Decide which system owns each record, for example customers in the CRM and invoices in Sage.
2. Map the fields. Match accounts, contacts, products and custom fields, including any rules your business needs.
3. Choose when to sync. Run in near real time or on a schedule that suits your teams.
4. Monitor and trust it. Every transfer is logged, and errors are flagged so they can be fixed quickly.

Zynk is low-code, so changes to your process take minimal development time and no rebuild.

What to look for in CRM integration software

• Connectors for your CRM and your finance system, not just one side
• Two-way sync with clear rules about which system wins
• Support for custom objects and fields, since most CRMs are heavily customised
• Error handling and logging you can act on
• Room to add ecommerce, shipping and other systems later on the same platform

Get started with a template

If you run Sage 200 and Salesforce, the Sage 200 to Salesforce template gives you a proven starting point. See all integrations to check your systems, or browse templates for other pre-built connections.