One of our newest integration partners, is the CRM software application, Firmao. If you are not familiar with Firmao, their customer relationship management software is used by over 100,000 companies in a wide range of industries from marketing agencies and training companies to e-commerce retailers and manufacturers. The company offers customers a choice of deployment options. Firmao can be self-managed in an on-premise deployment and purchased in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.
Firmao.io CRM application
The Importance of CRM and Billing Integration
In traditional sales-led models, the CRM is the system of record for much of the data needed for the subscription billing processes. Much of the information needed to perform billing is collected during the initial steps of the relationship as requirements are gathered on discovery calls and product demonstrations as well as during pricing and contract negotiations. Examples include the products and pricing, contract start and end dates, billing frequency and timing, and payment channel and terms.
Ideally, the relevant data from the sales order or customer contract flows directly from the CRM system into the billing application once the opportunity is marked as closed/won. Straight through processing from the CRM to billing avoids the manual effort to rekey data and minimizes the likelihood of errors.
Billing Impacts the Customer Experience
If the details from the sales order are not correctly transferred into the billing system, the invoices will not be correct, and there will be several impacts to the customer experience and your business:
- Broken Trust – Billing is a critical part of the customer relationship. When the invoice is incorrect, it fosters a sense of distrust with the customer.
- Cash Flow – Inaccurate billing decelerates cash flow as well. The customer’s accounts payable team typically will not remit payment during the dispute process until the errors are sorted out.
- Upsells Stalled – Billing errors can stall growth at strategic accounts. Commercial negotiations on upsell and expansion opportunities may be held while the invoice dispute is ongoing.
CRM and Billing Integration throughout the Customer Lifecycle
CRM billing integration is also critical during renewals. In simple cases such as an auto-renew, the contract and billing details are largely unchanged. The customer’s contract is extended for another one or two-year term with the same mix of products and services. While auto-renews are simple for the finance team they are not the goal of most SaaS and cloud providers. Customer success and sales teams want the customer to expand the revenue generated from the account by selling additional products or greater usage of the existing services. The changes will need to be synchronized between the CRM and billing to ensure the renewal invoice matches the updated contract.
CRM billing integration is also critical during renewals. In simple cases such as an auto-renew, the contract and billing details are largely unchanged. The customer’s contract is extended for another one or two-year term with the same mix of products and services. While auto-renews are simple for the finance team they are not the goal of most SaaS and cloud providers.
Customer success and sales teams want the customer to expand the revenue generated from the account by selling additional products or greater usage of the existing services. The changes will need to be synchronized between the CRM and billing to ensure the renewal invoice matches the updated contract.
From the Billing System to the CRM
There is also data published from the billing system to the CRM. Ideally, the CRM provides a 360-degree view of all information about the account – including the latest financial data. Customer Success teams will need visibility to the current account balance, the most recent invoice, and the associated payment transactions. Sales representatives will want to monitor the status of the collections activities that trigger commission payments.
More Integrations
In addition to integrating into Ordway’s billing system, Firmao offers over 1,000 integrations, which makes it easy to connect to marketing apps like Google Analytics, Mailchimp, Drift, Wistia, and Intercom as well as productivity tools such as Slack, Asana, and Trello. One-click VOIP makes it easy to initiate audio and video calls from communications apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
In addition to CRM, Ordway offers dozens of integrations to ERP, accounting, tax automation, CPQ applications and payment gateways.
