Integrate Zoho Books with Zoho CRM

Integrate Zoho Books with Zoho CRM to bridge the gap between your sales and finance teams. This means that you can track and manage key CRM as well as accounting information in the same place.

Benefits of the Integration

Prerequisites

Set up the Integration

Insight: When you integrate, the following data from Zoho Books will be shared with Zoho CRM:

  • Your organisation name, email address, and your country.
  • All your contacts’ details.

To set up the CRM integration from Zoho Books:

Connect Zoho CRM Select Zoho CRM organization to connect with Zoho Books

Insight:A ZSC Key is unique to a particular Zoho product, and can be used to access your data in that product from other Zoho products. To generate this key, click on the link which reads ‘Click here to generate the ZSC key of Zoho CRM’. This will take you to Zoho CRM from where you can get this key.

Zoho CRM ZSC Key

Note: Once you integrate a Zoho Books organisation with a Zoho CRM organisation, a two-way sync will be established, which means that data will be fetched from Zoho CRM and vice-versa.

If you want to integrate multiple Zoho Books organisations with a Zoho CRM organization, write to us at support@zohobooks.com and we will help you set up the integration. However, it will be a one-way sync, which means that data will be fetched only from Zoho CRM into Zoho Books and not vice-versa.

Pro Tip: If you’re connecting to a Zoho CRM account where you’re not an admin user, you can follow the same process as above after obtaining the necessary email address and ZSC key from the admin of that Zoho CRM account.

Configure the Modules to be Synced

After setting up the integration successfully, you can configure the modules that should be synced between Zoho Books and Zoho CRM.

To do this:

You can sync customers, vendors, and items.

Configure modules for integration

Sync Customers

Syncing your customers in Zoho Books with the accounts/contacts in Zoho CRM is a five step process:

Step 1: Select the module to be synced

Choose the module in Zoho CRM that you want to sync with Zoho Books:

Note: The Contacts in Zoho CRM will not be synced to Zoho Books.

Note: The Accounts in Zoho CRM will not be synced to Zoho Books.

If you choose the extent of sync as both ways, then a “Business” customer in Zoho Books will be synced with the Accounts module of Zoho CRM, and an “Individual” customer in Zoho Books will be synced with the Contacts module of Zoho CRM.

Sync Contacts
Step 2: Select the extent of sync

Choose how information flows between the two apps:

Sync Contacts
Step 3: Handle duplicate records

When syncing data between both the apps, there might be a record in Zoho CRM which is already present in Zoho Books. Duplicate records are identified by comparing Account name in Zoho CRM to Customer Display Name in Zoho Books. Choose how you want to handle such duplicate records:

Sync Contacts
Step 4: Select a view to be synced

If you want to push only specific records of your Zoho CRM account, you can create a view and choose to sync only that view into Zoho Books. A view in Zoho CRM is a collection of similar records (based on a specified criteria) listed together. Some of the predefined views such as All Accounts, My Accounts, Recently Created Accounts, will be listed by default when syncing.

Pro Tip: Learn how you can create a view in Zoho CRM to import only select accounts/contacts into Zoho Books. You can also read more about views from Zoho CRM’s help resource.

When you select the module (Accounts, Contacts, or Both) to be synced, a list of the corresponding views available in Zoho CRM for that module (both predefined and user created) will be listed under the dropdown.

If you had chosen to sync the module ‘Accounts & their Contacts’, you have the option to select the Account view as well as the Contact view required to be synced. You can choose to sync only specific contacts associated with the selected account view.

Sync Contacts
Step 5: Map fields

Next, you can map the fields in Zoho Books with the right field in your Zoho CRM organisation. This mapping ensures that when Zoho CRM records are synced as Zoho Books entities, all the fields match perfectly when viewed in Zoho Books. A few of the basic fields will be mapped by default, while you can map the rest manually.

If you have certain fields in Zoho CRM that can’t be mapped to any of the default fields in Zoho Books, you will have to create custom fields in Zoho Books first. These custom fields will then be displayed when you map the fields.

Map Contacts

Insight: If you have enabled multi-currency in Zoho CRM, then ensure that the base currency is the same as that in Zoho Books, before mapping the fields.

Once you have completed all these steps, you can click Save and Sync to start the sync process. Click Save and Sync Later if you wish to only save your preferences now and sync them later.

Sync Vendors

Syncing vendors in Zoho CRM to vendors in Zoho Books is similar to how you synced customers. It is a four step process which involves:

Sync Vendors

Once you have completed all these steps, you can click Save and Sync to start the sync process. Click Save and Sync Later if you wish only to save your preferences now and sync them later.

Sync Items

You can sync your items in Zoho Books with the products in Zoho CRM. It is a four step process, similar to how you synced customers or vendors:

Step 1: Select the extent of sync

Choose how information flows between the two apps:

Sync Items
Step 2: Handle duplicate records

When syncing data between both the apps, an item in Zoho Books might have the same name as a product in Zoho CRM. In such cases, this particular record is said to be duplicated during the sync.

Insight: If you had chosen to sync both ways in the previous step, Zoho Books items will be pushed to Zoho CRM first and hence, duplicate records will fall in Zoho CRM. If it is a one way sync, the duplicate records will be in Zoho Books.

You can choose what you want to do with such duplicate records:

Sync Items
Step 3: Select a view to be synced

If you want to push only specific Zoho CRM products, you can create a view and choose to sync only that view into Zoho Books. A view in Zoho CRM is a collection of similar records (based on a specified criteria) listed together. Visit their help resource to learn how to create a view in Zoho CRM.

Sync Items
Step 4: Map fields

Next, you can map an item’s fields in Zoho Books with the right field in your Zoho CRM account. A few of the basic fields will be mapped by default, while you can map the rest manually.

Insight: Unlike Zoho Books, the products in Zoho CRM are not categorized based on the item type. If you want to classify the products fetched from CRM as goods and services, you have to create a custom field for the products in Zoho CRM with the values as “Goods” and “Services”. Then, map this custom field with the Product Type field of Zoho Books.

Sync Items

Once you have completed all these steps, you can click Save and Sync to start the sync process. Click Save and Sync Later if you wish only to save your preferences now and sync them later.

Sync Transaction Modules

Once you have synced your customers, vendors, and items, you can start syncing the transaction modules between Zoho Books and Zoho CRM. The modules in Zoho Books such as invoices, quotes, sales orders, and purchase orders can be accessed from Zoho CRM. To enable this:

Sync Transactions

Now, these modules can be accessed from the Zoho Finance module inside Zoho CRM. Only the transactions created in this module in Zoho CRM will be fetched to Zoho Books during syncing.

Insight: If you have created custom fields for these transactions in Zoho Books, they will be available in Zoho CRM as well.

Manage Users and Roles

Prerequisite: The Manage Users and Roles section will be enabled only when you’ve enabled all the modules in the Sync Transaction Modules section.

Now that you’ve synced the transaction modules, you can grant permission to the users in Zoho CRM to create quotes and view invoices, sales orders, and purchase orders in the Zoho Books section of Zoho CRM. To do this:

Click Manage Users in the Manage Users and Roles section Select the users that you want to add to the Integration User (Zoho CRM) role

Notes

  • These users will be active and they will only be able to view the data in Zoho CRM. They will not have access to view the data in Zoho Books.
  • You can add up to 1000 users to the Integration User (Zoho CRM) role. These users will not be included in your Zoho Books users add-on if any.

You can view the list of users who have access to the Zoho Books section in Zoho CRM from the Users and Roles section.

Users of the role Integration User (Zoho CRM)

Users of this role will not be able to access Zoho Books. If they try to access Zoho Books, the following screen will be displayed.

Page displayed in Zoho Books for Integration User (Zoho CRM) users

You cannot delete the users of the Integration User (Zoho CRM) role from the Users page in Settings. However, you can delete them from the Zoho CRM integration page. Here’s how:

Select the users that you want to remove from the Zoho Integration (Zoho CRM) role

The users that you’ve unchecked will be deleted from your Zoho Books organisation.

Automate Based on the Deal/Potential’s Stage

While setting up the integration, you can configure triggers to automate a few tasks in Zoho Books based on the deal/potential’s stage in Zoho CRM. For example, by setting up a trigger, you can opt to have a quote created automatically in Zoho Books each time you create a potential in Zoho CRM.

Prerequisite: If Accounts & their Contacts or only Accounts is selected for syncing customers, a potential in Zoho CRM should be associated with an Account for the trigger to be automated. Similarly, if only Contacts are selected, a potential should be associated with a Contact in Zoho CRM.

To set up triggers:

Entity Triggers

Quote

You can choose the stages at which a quote should be created or accepted:

Decline Quote

Invoice

You can also automate invoices in Zoho Books based on the deal’s stage in Zoho CRM. When you choose this option, an invoice will be created in Zoho Books whenever a deal is won, and the corresponding invoice will be voided when the deal is lost.

Whenever you set up a trigger, an invoice or quote will be created in Zoho Books with the following details fetched from Zoho CRM.

Zoho Books Field Zoho Books CRM
Customer Name Account or Contact Name
Customer Address Account’s or Contact’s Address
Sales Person Deal Owner
Item Name Deal Name
Item Description Deal Description
Item Rate Deal Amount

The invoice or quote created will also be available under the Zoho Finance module of that particular deal in Zoho CRM.

Insight: A deal being won or lost in Zoho CRM depends on the deal’s stage-probability mapping. For example, let’s assume that a trigger is set up to create invoices automatically. Now, if the deal’s stage is marked as closed won in Zoho CRM, the probability changes to 100 and an invoice is created in Zoho Books. If the deal is then edited to change the stage to closed lost, the probability changes to 0 and the invoice is voided in Zoho Books.

Warning: Once an invoice or quote has been marked as Sent in Zoho Books, any changes made to the potential in Zoho CRM will no longer activate entity triggers for the transaction.

Sync Options

Once you have configured the integration, any new customer, vendor, or item you add will be updated via the sync that occurs once in every 2 hours after the initial sync. However, if you have chosen to sync transaction modules, transactions between both the apps will be synced instantly.

To take control of the other sync options:

Sync Options

A screen with the integration details opens up. Here, you will have the following options:

Pro Tip: If you want to update changes made in Zoho CRM to a single customer/vendor rather than run a complete sync, you can select that particular contact in Zoho Books > Click More > Select Fetch this contact from Zoho CRM.

Warning: If you have created a record in Zoho Books, synced it to Zoho CRM, and delete it later in Zoho CRM, this record will not be deleted in Zoho Books. Learn more.

Working with the Integration in Zoho Books

Let’s take a look at the actions you can perform in Zoho Books once you have set up the integration with Zoho CRM:

Access Zoho CRM Contacts within Zoho Books

Depending on how you have chosen to sync contacts during the integration setup, your accounts, contacts, and vendors from Zoho CRM will be available in Zoho Books.

Filter by CRM contacts

You can view all the accounts imported into Zoho Books as customers. To do this:

Filter CRM Customers

This can be especially helpful if you want to bulk-update the contacts from CRM contacts alone. Similarly, you can filter out and view just the Vendors from CRM in the Vendors module.

Search Contacts in CRM

The contacts you imported from Zoho CRM will be available in Zoho Books and you can create transactions for them. However, you can also create a transaction for a contact in Zoho CRM that you did not import yet. Here’s how:

Search CRM Customers Search CRM Customers

Now, this account will be fetched automatically to Zoho Books as a customer, and can be viewed and updated from here.

Insight: While configuring sync preferences for contacts during the setup, if you had chosen to sync only Contacts, you can search for Zoho CRM contacts using their first and last names. If you had chosen to sync Accounts or Accounts and their Contacts, you can search for a contact using the account name in Zoho CRM. All contacts under the account name you type will be listed.

Similarly, you can create purchase transactions for vendors that have not been fetched yet from Zoho CRM.

Associate Potentials With Transactions

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you have enabled custom modules in your Zoho CRM account.
  • Check if the deal is linked to the appropriate account/customer in Zoho CRM.

After integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho Books, you can associate the potentials in Zoho CRM with the quotes, sales orders, invoices, and expenses in Zoho Books.

In this help document, we will explain the steps to associate a potential in Zoho CRM with an invoice in Zoho Books. You can follow these steps for sales orders, quotes, and expenses as well.

To associate a potential with an invoice:

Click Associate Potentials under CRM Actions Click Associate next to the potential

Pro Tip: You can also view this transaction in your Zoho CRM account by selecting the potential and scrolling down to the Zoho Finance section.

Insight: If there are multiple potentials associated with a customer, or if you cannot find the required potential, you can search for them. However, your search results will not display the potentials deleted in Zoho CRM.

Dissociate a Potential

To dissociate a potential:

Click the potential below the contact's name Click Dissociate next to the potential

Warning: Potentials that were associated using triggers cannot be dissociated.

Disable the Integration

You can choose to disable the Zoho Books-Zoho CRM integration temporarily. If you disable the integration, there will not be any further data sync between Zoho CRM and Zoho Books.

Warning: If you have enabled syncing transaction modules, disabling the integration will lead to the deletion of any custom reports and transactions associated with the Zoho Finance module of Zoho CRM. Your existing transactions in Zoho Books, however, will not be affected.

To disable the integration temporarily:

Disable Itnegration

You can reactivate the integration any time to start the sync, or even integrate a different Zoho Books organisation to Zoho CRM. You can also change your Zoho CRM credentials by clicking Update Credentials.


Connect your sales and accounting platform with Zoho CRM integration.


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