For some time now, digital transformation has been a driving force for many businesses to streamline their processes and keep up with the ever evolving technology landscape. Specifically, for finance teams, this has meant automating and adopting processes that enable them to save time and money, as well as increase productivity.
Integrating your NetSuite account with your Salesforce CRM is a key example of an automation process that is often overlooked, yet the benefits of syncing the two systems are invaluable. In this blog, we take a dive into some of the benefits of integrating NetSuite and Salesforce.
What is NetSuite?
NetSuite is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that includes accounting software, enabling businesses to manage inventory and track their financials.
Businesses who use NetSuite, whether a small business or an Enterprise, can benefit from having increased visibility into real-time financial data. A study conducted by PWC revealed that 30-40% of the processing time for several key finance processes could be eliminated with automation.
Automating accounting processes can help businesses eliminate the need for mundane tasks such as manual data entry or manual reporting. In addition, it can also provide teams with valuable and reliable insights into their business.
What is Salesforce Sales Cloud?
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a sales Saas platform that specialises in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Salesforce enables businesses to better connect with customers and prospects, as well as providing them with the ability to track customer activity and gain a holistic overview of the customer journey and sales cycle.
Benefits of Integrating NetSuite and Salesforce
Better Alignment and Productivity
For businesses to thrive, alignment within an organization is crucial. Finance and sales teams need to establish effective alignment when it comes to their processes and forecasts. For example, the sales team may want to access the status of invoices in order to make informed decisions about opportunities or accounts. If this data is readily available within Salesforce, the sales team can instantly save time by accessing the data themselves, without needing access to NetSuite or asking the finance team.
Similarly, the finance team may want to reduce the number of times the sales team emails them asking for updates on invoices and sales orders. By integrating Salesforce and NetSuite, we can ultimately refine the process so that it is conducive to both teams.
Connecting NetSuite and Salesforce can allow data to flow bi-directionally, to and from each tool. For instance, changes that are made in Salesforce or invoices that have been generated from Salesforce will be reflected in your accounting software and vice versa. This reduces the amount of manual work required when it comes to information being updated.
Salesforce and NetSuite integrations that allow for two-way sync can be installed via the AppExchange.
Data Accuracy
Reliable data is critical to making the necessary strategic pivots in business strategy. When looking at finances and accounts, data accuracy is of significant importance; businesses should be able to trust the numbers that are being recorded within NetSuite and Salesforce. When the data in two key systems don’t match, it is hard to know which tool is accurate, or if either is accurate.
According to a report, 41% of inaccurate data is down to human error, which is not surprising if businesses are still using manual processes. By removing manual data entry and integrating accounting software with Salesforce, businesses can ensure that data is reliable across the board, especially with the use of third-party integrations.
NetSuite objects can be replicated in Salesforce, using custom objects. This means that records can be synced using a creation wizard and your NetSuite Companies, Sales Orders, Invoices, and Items can all be updated instantly in Salesforce.
Complete Financial Visibility with Reports and Dashboards
Salesforce has strong native reporting capability, allowing users to create reports and dashboards on data that can provide valuable, real-time insight.
By connecting your accounting software with Salesforce, teams are also able to create reports and dashboards using financial data from NetSuite.
Traditionally, many finance teams have completed their forecasting and data tracking within Excel spreadsheets, which involves having to export data from a number of sources. In a recent report, 82% of people are still using Excel spreadsheets to work out their finances. Not only does this take a significant amount of time, but it is also highly likely that there will be human errors in that process. By integrating Salesforce and NetSuite, you can improve productivity as well as gain more useful financial reporting.
Summary
Integration should be a key consideration for any business wanting to create a cohesive system and workflow. The benefits of integrating Salesforce with NetSuite can be revolutionary for your team and business, allowing your team to become more productive, efficient, and better aligned.