Corporate portals with a built-in CRM are increasingly becoming a company's working hub — in both the cloud and the on-premise edition: managing the organization, tracking working hours and clients, IP telephony. But in parallel the business runs its affairs in an accounting system, and the data lives in two places at once. Here we describe a tracker module that moves clients, contacts and documents from the accounting system into the CRM of the corporate portal.
We have been working with corporate portals long and successfully, across a very wide range of areas: website development, integrating an accounting system with a portal, integrating a website with an accounting system, and much more. We build sites not only for large retailers — such as INTERTOP or MAXI.AZ — but also for well-known manufacturing companies such as UHL MASH.
Why a separate tracker is needed
The standard exchange module is functionally limited: it only lets you set up an exchange of invoices and a one-way exchange of products. It is hard to call that set of capabilities a full working integration.
What the tracker can actually do:
- upload client records and sales history from trading systems built on the accounting platform;
- transfer any documents and clients from the bookkeeping configuration and from every accounting system on that platform;
- identify the client;
- connect any number of accounting databases to a single portal.
What exactly ends up in the CRM
If we draw parallels between the objects uploaded from the accounting system and the entities created in the portal's CRM, the picture looks like this.
| Accounting system object | CRM entity |
|---|---|
| Counterparties, their contacts and contact details | Companies |
| Contact persons of counterparties | Contacts |
| Organizations | Companies |
| Documents | My Activities |
| All objects | Activities |
For every object loaded from the accounting system onto the portal, an activity is created. And if the web server address is specified in the accounting system settings, the object in the database can be opened straight from the portal — through the browser.
Limitations worth knowing about in advance
- The integration is one-way: data can be transferred in one direction only.
- Scheduled jobs cannot be set up on a cloud portal — the REST API has no tools for that.
- Trade documents (sales invoices) are uploaded only into "My Activities", although they are essentially Deals. Some clients find this disappointing.
Still, as a step towards full integration it looks entirely logical: instead of moving the whole database by hand, you now only need to install the tracker, upload the databases in full, and then load changes as they appear. It is still not a full integration — and that is worth keeping in mind as early as the planning stage.
How long installation and setup take
And of course, the difficulties of installation and configuration cannot go unmentioned. In essence this is the integration of an existing configuration with a configuration from a file, which means the work is anything but simple and calls for an experienced specialist.
How the import works: step by step
- Download the module. The tracker has to be downloaded and installed into the accounting system's configuration. Versions are available for a range of standard configurations — bookkeeping, trade, integrated automation, ERP and solutions for small companies, including localized Ukrainian editions.
- Install it like any other module. The downloaded package has to be unpacked and installed in the same way as other configuration modules.
- Configure the upload. Once it is installed, the accounting system is set up to upload data to the portal: give the setting a name and tick the data that should be uploaded.
- Choose the exchange mode. Always everything, or changes only. In the second case the data goes to the portal on condition that it has been changed in the accounting system.
- Enter the key. The key is obtained in the accounting system integration section on the portal itself.
- Set presets if needed. Presets are specified on the portal, in the integration settings — either your own or the default ones.
Anyone who wants to get into every detail should turn to the user guide from the module's developer: it describes the process step by step, with all the nuances of specific configurations.
Who this solution suits
The tracker is better suited to those who run their business in an accounting system and want their clients, contacts and trade documents to appear in the CRM as well. Given how widespread accounting systems are in our region, such a solution may well turn out to be no less popular than the connector for the Qlik Sense and QlikView platforms — an add-on that in its time made the global TOP 10 best add-ons for QlikView.
Is it worth doing yourself
If you are ready to work it out on your own — start by assessing how far your configuration differs from the standard one. It is customizations in the entities involved that turn a two-hour job into a ten-hour one, and it is better to find that out before you begin rather than midway through the process.
