When we ask our customers what they need when integrating QuickBooks with their CRM it's that both CRM and integration should be quick to set up and easy to use, the sync should be seamless and this should save time and give more clarity into the business.
A lot of CRMs claim to have a QuickBooks integration. But be careful, not all integrations are easy to set up or have the features you need. Many only integrate through a third-party app, meaning extra costs. You'll want to pick one that's easy to set up, easy to use but that also does everything you need it to.
First, let's take a look at the benefits of integrating QuickBooks with a CRM, and then we'll look at some of the best CRMs that integrate with QuickBooks & QuickBooks Online, and how customers rated them.
The benefits of integrating QuickBooks with a CRM
QuickBooks organizes your business finances helping you track purchases and payments, and how your business is doing financially. But it doesn’t actively help you manage your leads and customers. Therefore, when you want to start increasing sales and deliver a personalized service to your customers, it’s important to connect QuickBooks with a CRM.
QuickBooks Online isn’t optimized for customer relations
QuickBooks organizes your business finances helping you track purchases and payments, and how your business is doing financially. But it doesn't do a lot to help you manage your leads and customers. Therefore, when you want to start increasing sales and deliver a personalized service to your customers, it's important to connect QuickBooks with a CRM.
When you do this, it will make what you know about your customers spring to life. You'll know where they're at in the buying process. You'll be able to record communication preferences and record a conversation history. You'll be able to make sure someone on your team is responsible for that relationship. And this is a 360-degree view that everyone on your team can see.
You’ll experience a shorter sales cycle
QuickBooks can feel clunky when there are too many people involved. It can even lead to bottlenecking during the invoice and estimate phase. When you aren’t meeting the demands of your sales cycle, it’s a sign you need a dedicated CRM. When you integrate QuickBooks with a CRM, you’ll be able to quote and follow-up with prospects immediately. This will speed up the sales cycle and lock-in new customers before they take their business elsewhere.
You can skip multiple data entries
Limiting the amount of data entry is imperative for any business operation. When you integrate a CRM, you can enter customer, lead, and vendor information only once—syncing it with your QuickBooks account.
Entering this data only once is not only convenient, but it cuts down the chance of data entry errors.
Only put paying customers on the books
Managing a handful of leads in QuickBooks can get messy. While converting every prospect is a nice thought, it’s not a reality. When you keep your potential leads separate from your current business, your productivity will increase, and your accountant will be grateful.
CRMs help business owners see the big picture
Integrated CRM software will offer a comprehensive view of customer data that QuickBooks can’t provide. Most platforms will include a 360-degree view of open estimates, balances, refunds, payments, orders, receipts and other pertinent information. When you have access to all of this information on a single application, you can wield it to speed up deals, prevent delayed payments, and address future needs.
Everyone will have secure access
Rightfully so, some organizations don’t want to make their accounting data public to every member of the team. Using an integrated CRM allows teams to access and share lead lists without everyone having access to QuickBooks. Team members can use an integrated CRM to create and send estimates to customers, speed up every aspect of the sales cycle, and improve the overall customer experience.
CRM platforms can even mirror this data in QuickBooks and create rules to empower or limit individual permissions. The ease of access can allow business owners to delegate tasks, maintain control, and save time.
7 CRMs that integrate with QuickBooks
Now that we've mentioned what you'll get out of choosing a CRM that connects with QuickBooks, let's take a look at the best rated CRMs.
1. Capsule
Capsule is a smart, simple CRM that's easy-to-use but also highly customizable to different businesses' needs. The QuickBooks Online integration that Capsule offers is slick, quick to install, and easy to use. Recent reviews are positive and praise Capsule for how easy the integration is to set up and sync.
“Capsule really makes your life easier and is a great and efficient way to manage customers. It also ensures that you don't miss a step when managing customers and your work flow. Using the app is simple and intuitive, which means you can get on and do the things you enjoy.
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If you already have customers and suppliers in QuickBooks Online and are looking to get started quickly with a CRM then this integration will auto-import those contacts in just a few clicks. Once connected you'll be able to add sales opportunities to those contacts, track communications, and nurture those relationships.
Once you're up and running you can choose which contacts to sync so QuickBooks Online isn't cluttered with leads and email marketing contacts. Capsule will then automatically update records in QuickBooks Online.
As those sales start coming in you can easily create an invoice once a sale is complete. A seamless link from Capsule pre-populates the invoice form inside QuickBooks Online.
So exactly what financial information can you see inside Capsule? You'll be able to see estimates and quotes as well as lifetime customer value (LTV), invoice history, and value of overdue or outstanding amounts - right alongside contact details and communication history. This makes it easy to get a complete overview of your customers and their accounts.
Most suitable for: QuickBooks users looking to get started quickly and easily with an affordable CRM and sales teams looking for a less complex, flexible CRM that integrates seamlessly with accounting solutions such as QuickBooks.
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: 4.5/5 (53 ratings)
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2. Method
Method is tightly integrated with QuickBooks and works with all versions of QuickBooks, even QuickBooks Desktop versions. Method syncs most QuickBooks records to the CRM including customers, invoices, and payments. Estimates and invoices can easily be created within Method.
Recent reviews mention Method's great customer support.
“Their team is very knowledgeable about their solution and are very hands-on and quick to provide support. Great App!
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If you need this level of integration with QuickBooks it's a good choice but the complexity does come at a cost as it's one of the more complex CRMs to master and customize, and it's also one of the more expensive options on this list.
Most suitable for: Businesses that use QuickBooks extensively and are willing to invest time and money in the customization possibilities.
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: 4.8/5 (1607 ratings)
Capterra: ranked in 2022 Capterra Shortlist for CRM Software as an Emerging Favorite with an overall score of 74.
3. Insightly
Insightly's signup flow isn't as seamless as Capsule or Method. With the other two integrations you can quickly sign up from the QuickBooks App Marketplace but with Insightly you first have to sign up for an Insightly account and then install and connect the QuickBooks integration within Insightly.
Recent reviews are generally negative and many reviews focus on cost, support, and lack of true integration.
“There was no support, unless I paid double the list price. The app does not have true QBO integration. You have manually input the contacts into Insightly.
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Once the integration is connected you then have to manually link contacts between Insightly and QuickBooks Online - it's not automatic. When you have linked data, you'll be able to see financial information about customers such as LTV, invoice history, estimates, and value of overdue or outstanding amounts. The thing is though that once this link is set up the data isn't kept in sync. That's not the only thing lacking - there's not an easy way to create invoices either. If having an integration that is easy to set up and that is kept in sync is essential for your business then it might be best looking for another CRM.
Like the other CRMs on our list, Insightly will give you the complete history of a customer so your team will be able to get a deeper understanding of who they're dealing with and offers a suite of marketing and project management tools (at a cost).
Most suitable for: Companies that want project management features in their CRM platform and where budget isn't as much as a concern.
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: 4.4/5 (232 ratings)
Capterra: ranked in 2022 Capterra Shortlist for CRM Software as an Established Player with an overall score of 77.
4. Salesforce
Intuit has recently released their own integration between Salesforce and QuickBooks. The integration focuses on automatically creating invoices when a sales opportunity is won. This is a narrow focus, and as a result, you miss out on the functionality that other CRMs offer such as synchronization of customer data, and a 360-degree view of the customer record in the CRM. This limited functionality has already been noted in the first review in the marketplace.
“The connector works as intended and does it's job well. This will be a very useful tool once the functionality is expanded.
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Most suitable for: Businesses with deep pockets that want the complexity of Salesforce and don't mind the limited functionality of the QuickBooks integration
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: 2.6 (9 ratings)
Capterra: ranked in 2022 Capterra Shortlist for CRM Software as a Top Performer with an overall score of 96.
5. Copper
While Copper's integration isn't listed on the QuickBooks Online marketplace, it does seem fairly easy to set up, with some customization options around how much information is displayed. What it doesn't do however is pull in any contact data from QuickBooks itself - so unless you already have decided to use Copper as your CRM first and have contacts in there then the integration won't do much.
The integration itself displays information similar to the other CRMs we've mentioned. QuickBooks invoices associated with a lead, person, company, or opportunity in a section next to that record. It might seem surprising then that there's no way to easily create an invoice or estimate.
Most suitable for: Companies that don't mind putting in the extra effort to manually keep customer records updated in both systems.
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: Does not feature on the marketplace.
Capterra: ranked in 2022 Capterra Shortlist for CRM Software as an Emerging Favorite with an overall score of 81.
6. HubSpot
HubSpot's integration is listed on the QuickBooks online marketplace but it has been built via a third party. That doesn't necessarily mean it's bad or not as good as a native integration but it does mean that you will have to pay extra for the integration (SyncQ's prices start at $29/QucikBooks company/month). And unless you've already decided that this is the right combination for you, it doesn't give you a lot of room to give it a try before you buy. It's hard to evaluate this integration based on testimonials as it's only received one review so far.
That being said, the integration delivers similar functionality to what you get from Capsule and Method: it brings in estimates and quotes, you can easily create an invoice once a sale is complete, brings in accounting data such as lifetime value and invoice status, and syncs contacts. With Capsule and Method, you don't have to pay extra to take advantage of using the integration whereas with HubSpot you do.
Most suitable for: Businesses that don't necessarily want to hook everything up with their QuickBooks Online account straight away and want a while to play around with a CRM on its own before deciding if it's right for them.
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: 3.6/5 (17 ratings)
Capterra: ranked in 2022 Capterra Shortlist for CRM Software as an Emerging Favorite with an overall score of 83.
7. Pipedrive
The Pipedrive integration is very similar to HubSpot's and is built by the same third-party developer. So again you're going to have to pay not only for your CRM subscription but also for the integration on top of that (SyncQ's prices start at $15/user/month).
Again the functionality is similar to what you would expect: it brings in estimates and quotes, you can create an invoice after a sale is complete, it brings in accounting data such as lifetime value and invoice status, and syncs contacts. However, there's quite a bit of manual setup and configuration - probably why the integration receives positive feedback for support - as this is necessary to get the integration set up correctly.
Most suitable for: Sales-focussed businesses who have already played around with Pipedrive and aren't daunted by the prospect of manually configuring an integration.
QuickBooks Marketplace Rating: 4.1/5 (35 ratings)
Capterra: ranked in 2022 Capterra Shortlist for CRM Software as a Top Performer with an overall score of 85.
Choose the CRM that's best for your business first
Integrating your accounting software with your CRM is important to get a complete picture of your customers. That's why so many CRMs these days do have an accounting integration and in some way, many are offering an integration with QuickBooks Online.
And if you do use QuickBooks it's important that not only does your chosen CRM have an integration, but this integration must do what you need it to - offer more insight into your customers and accounts, saves time when creating invoices, and saves time on data input. If you keep this bigger picture in mind, you'll find the CRM with features that are right for your business and one that your team will actually use.
