For two decades, QuickBooks has been the dominant accounting software for small and mid-size businesses. Since it requires no formal accounting training to use, and offers numerous industry specific versions, its popularity is no surprise. Within the small business accounting market, QuickBooks captures nearly ninety percent.
Many of those are the same businesses that are now adopting CRM. Savvy business owners, looking to leverage more utility out of both systems, are asking how CRM and QuickBooks can work together. They dream of having their accounting and CRM data combined in a synchronized, user-friendly platform.
Below, we’ll look at some popular CRM vendors and see how close that dream is to realization. Whether it’s native integration out of the box, or DIY with APIs, we’ll let you know which CRM systems offer QuickBooks integration.
CRM Systems With Full QuickBooks Integration
Note: We are using the term full integration to mean that a direct bridge can be created between QuickBooks and the CRM software, allowing for true two-way — aka “bi-directional” — synchronization of data.
Salesforce
As we found in our Market Share Survey, a lot of people are using Salesforce. It’s been one of the most popular CRM systems available for a long time. Given the combined popularity of Salesforce and QuickBooks, it’s not surprising that the two teamed up to develop an app for close integration.
The Salesforce Integration for QuickBooks app is provided by Intuit, the creators of QuickBooks. The app provides “out of the box” integration and synchronization between the two systems. The two-way synchronization means that data entered into either Salesforce or QuickBooks automatically populates related fields in the other system–there’s no need to enter data twice.
With the Salesforce Integration for QuickBooks app, you can easily:
- View open balances created in QuickBooks from within Salesforce
- Use Salesforce data to create estimates, orders, and invoices in QuickBooks
- Track customer sales histories and touch points
Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is another one of the most popular CRM products on the market. Many businesses choose Dynamics for its native integration with other Microsoft products. For users who want to expand its capabilities, there are also a lot of third-party options available. If you’re just looking to add QuickBooks integration to your Dynamics CRM, there’s an app for that too.
Living Business Online offers Dashboards+Sync for QuickBooks and Microsoft CRM through the Intuit App Center. This software allows you to view customer data from QuickBooks from within Dynamics, and vice versa. Information entered into either system is automatically synchronized across both systems, saving you time and reducing the chance of errors.
Dashboard+Sync for QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics lets you:
- See QuickBooks orders and invoices from within Dynamics
- Use Dynamics workflows to automate QuickBooks processes
- View QuickBooks receivables summary in a Dynamics dashboard
SugarCRM
The third of the “big three” CRM vendors, SugarCRM has quickly grown from a small, open-source project into one of the leading CRM vendors in the market. With its open-source origins, it’s no surprise that several contributors have attempted to develop QuickBooks integration for SugarCRM. These solutions have met with varying degrees of success.
One solution for integrating SugarCRM and QuickBooks is QuickBooks Integration for SugarCRM, by Epicom. Available in the Intuit App Center, this integration was built with the Intuit Anywhere service, so it works with all versions of QuickBooks and SugarCRM. With two-way synchronization, any data entered into one platform is automatically synced to the other.
Using QuickBooks Integration for SugarCRM, you are able to:
- View reports in SugarCRM, based on accounts with outstanding balances in QuickBooks
- Auto generate invoices in QuickBooks based on quotes made in Sugar
- View QuickBooks invoices and receipts in the related Sugar account
Zoho
Zoho is an open-source, SaaS vendor that provides a full suite of business applications, including CRM. Zoho is highly customizable and offers a wide range of options for workflow automation. They also offer native integration with numerous versions of QuickBooks.
Zoho offers you the option to export, import, or sync data manually or automatically. Their two-way sync ensures that your data is consistent across systems, and reduces the chances of transcription errors.
With Zoho CRM for QuickBooks, you can:
- Sync standard or custom fields between Zoho and QuickBooks
- View the billing status, invoices, and payments of customers
- Synchronize inventory data between both systems
CRM Systems With Partial QuickBooks Integration
Note: We are using the term partial integration to broadly cover any type of QuickBooks and CRM integration that is not full bi-directional synchronization.
Nimble
One of our 7 CRM Solutions You May Never Have Heard Of, Nimble seeks to unify contacts from multiple sources and let you interact with them from a single interface. This unification includes information from social networks, email, digital address books, and more. In short, they want you to have all of your customer data available in one place, regardless of origin.
With that business model, it may come as a surprise that Nimble doesn’t offer, and has no plans to offer, an in-house QuickBooks integration. Instead, they’ve released their API and are relying on third-party vendors to create the integration. Zapier is one such third-party provider that offers some options for a QuickBooks and Nimble integration.
Zapier is a trigger-based, webapp connector and, as such, only works with QuickBooks Online. If you have QuickBooks Online, you can use Zapier to:
- Automatically create a new customer based on new Nimble contacts
- Create a new Nimble contact from a QuickBooks estimate
- Create a new invoice, receipt, or check in QuickBooks based on Nimble contact information
Insightly
Insightly is the number one web-based CRM system for small businesses. Insightly integrates natively with several popular applications, including Google Apps, MailChimp, and Outlook. To integrate with QuickBooks, you’ll need to look to a third-party service provider.
Like Nimble, Insightly doesn’t really offer a true, direct integration with QuickBooks. Instead, a third-party service, like Zapier or CloudWork, watches for changes in QuickBooks and Insightly. When a change occurs, the service triggers any rules associated with that change. For instance: the creation of a new contact in Insightly would be seen as a change. That change could trigger a rule that creates a new account in QuickBooks, using the same information.
Using Zapier or CloudWork, you can set up rules that will:
- Create a new Insightly contact when a new customer is added to QuickBooks
- Create a new QuickBooks invoice when a new contact is added to Insightly
- Create a new task in Insightly when an invoice is entered into QuickBooks
WorkBooks
WorkBooks is a SaaS CRM vendor based in the UK. They offer a variety of industry-specific CRM solutions. They have a high customer satisfaction rating, and are growing rapidly. That being said, they’re still one of the smaller vendors and don’t offer much in the way of native integrations.
To integrate WorkBooks and QuickBooks (no relation), you’ll need a third-party service. Intuit recommends OneSaas. Like Zapier and CloudWork, OneSaas is more of a conditional trigger monitoring service than a true integration. You create rules, then OneSaas monitors the condition of WorkBooks and QuickBooks to see if any of those rules are triggered.
While it may not be a true integration, OneSaas lets you:
- Synchronize data between WorkBooks and Quickbooks daily or hourly
- Update QuickBooks invoices based on WorkBooks contact information
- Monitor QuickBooks invoice and payment histories in WorkBooks
Base CRM
Self described as the “Post-PC CRM,” Base focuses on providing a robust CRM system to the growing numbers of mobile users. Base CRM offers fully native apps on Android, Windows, and iOS phones. They also offer integrations with Google Apps, Outlook, Facebook, and more.
Base CRM is another vendor that requires a third-party service to integrate with QuickBooks. Zapier and CloudWork both offer synchronization and automation options for Base CRM.
With these third-party services, you can:
- Automatically create a new deal in Base when you create a new estimate in QuickBooks
- Enter a new customer in QuickBooks when you enter a new contact in Base
- Generate an invoice in QuickBooks when a “new deal won” is entered in Base
Chasing the Dream
Integration of CRM and QuickBooks is the dream of productivity- and simplicity-minded managers and users. Having all of that information synchronized and available from a single interface would reduce errors, increase productivity, and provide better outcomes for businesses and customers.
Most CRM vendors have taken at least a few steps towards integration. Unsurprisingly, the largest vendors have made the largest strides. However, even the smallest vendors aren’t ignoring this dream. While fully native integration for all vendors may never come about, there are still workable options for integrating your CRM system with QuickBooks.
