The Value of CRM for Accountants and Their Clients

If you've done some homework, you’ve probably discovered that customer relationship management (CRM) software is a fantastic tool for sales and marketing professionals. But if you look a little deeper, you’ll realize that CRM software also offers tremendous benefit to your clients’ accounting staff as well. 

Here’s why:

Increased Cash Flow and Faster Collections

An integrated CRM system provides tools that allow your clients’ accounting personnel to prioritize and manage customer collections and rapidly convert outstanding invoices into cash in the bank. They can run reports that consolidate outstanding accounts into a single view and then reference the graphs and data to quickly identify potential problems and schedule follow-up action.

Plus, the integrated Calendar and Task Manager features take things beyond a static printed, aging report and arms them with tools to prioritize collection calls, escalate accounts, and schedule automatic email reminders. And since everyone in their organization is working from the same database, their sales people will have access to customer history and can help keep the collections process moving during their interaction with customers.

More Time to Focus on What Really Matters

No doubt their accounting department receives multiple requests each week from sales and customer service regarding the status of orders, shipments, refunds, credit lines, payments received, and endless other accounting and operational inquiries. 

When they run a CRM integrated with their accounting system, all of their transaction data – from sales to operations to accounting – is centralized in a single database. 

That means sales and customer service personnel get fast answers using an integrated CRM to perform their own operational inquiries while accounting benefits from fewer daily interruptions. In fact, with appropriate security settings, sales can enter orders directly into the Sage ERP system without ever leaving the familiar CRM interface.

Better Vendor Communication and Management

An integrated CRM makes it easy to stay on top of vendor discounts, track special contract arrangements, and process purchasing requests and quotes in a timely fashion. With the Calendar and Task Management functions, you can set up task reminders to take advantage of on-time payment discounts.  

Using the Communication Management functions of some CRM solutions, you can keep track of key members of the vendor’s team and collect all agreements and documents in one place, ensuring fantastic vendor relationships.

CRM and Accounting Working Together

Those are just a few examples of how an integrated CRM and accounting system work hand-in-hand to remove departmental bottlenecks and communication gaps, transforming your business into an integrated and free-flowing enterprise.  

For more information on what CRM systems can do for your clients’ businesses, contact Asyma Solutions today.