
Top 7 Features of a CRM for QuickBooks
Starting and running a business can be a dream of many people. Developing a product from scratch or offering a service that is filled with benefits can be beneficial both personally as well as monetarily. One aspect of this process however is being able to manage the customers you have, leads you encounter, and ensure that everyone is taken care of. The easiest way to accomplish this is to implement a CRM, Customer Relationship Management software program. If your business is like the top 80% of SMB’s in the U.S. then your accounting software is QuickBooks, by Intuit. To ensure accuracy and reduce double data entry, the ideal solution would be to integrate QuickBooks with a CRM software seamlessly.
CRM is a software program that allows you to track and manage a wide range of aspects related to your customers, prospects, employees, and the overall health of your business. Using a CRM solution can be the difference between growing your company or watching it wither and die.
So what should you look for in a CRM for QuickBooks solution?
Feature #1 – Simplicity
When running your business you want tasks to be simple. Overcomplicating tasks for yourself or your employees will lead to mistakes. Choosing a CRM solution that is simple to use and easy to manage is vital. When evaluating simplicity, you want to look at the user interface; is it clean, documented well, have a defined collection of features that are useful and not cumbersome? These are all questions you need to ask yourself as well as your employees. Get your employees input on what is most comfortable and user friendly for them since they will be the ones using the CRM most of the time.
Feature #2 – Accessibility
When looking at a CRM for QuickBooks you want to find something that is accessible anytime, and anywhere. Since QuickBooks has an online version, you will want a CRM that you can connect to via a mobile device. No matter where you are in the world or from what type of device you are using, you should have the capacity to allow your employees the ability to login whenever and wherever they need. We are in the age of internet and disabling this function is no longer an option.
Feature #3 – Campaign and Project Management
Depending on your company, you may have several different people working on the same project. In fact they may be working on several different projects within different groups and with people from all over the world. Finding a CRM for QuickBooks that allows designation of campaigns and projects will ensure everything is organized and tasks are completed in a timely manner.
Feature #4 – Flexibility and Customization
The world would be a perfect place if everything worked straight out of the box. The truth however, is that each business is unique and the CRM that you choose will need to be flexible as well as customizable. These customizations can be as simple as creating user accounts with different permission levels to provide protections from sensitive data being seen by the wrong staff member.
Feature #5 – Leads and Customer Conversion
When dealing with customers, not everyone will jump at the chance to purchase your products or services. These leads may have a specific barrier to entry such as budgets, employee constraints and even contracts that need to be renewed. When it comes to leads and the process of converting these prospects, your CRM for QuickBooks solution needs to be able to handle all aspects of the sales process. Your CRM should have intelligence to note when the conditions are met and your lead converts into a client; you want to be able to click a few buttons and integrate them directly into QuickBooks without having to duplicate data or manual entry.
Feature #6 – Pricing, Users and Migration
Budget constraints are a real concern for businesses of all sizes. When selecting a CRM solution you want one to find one that has an affordable price point. Open source solutions are great but may not be the perfect fit for your organization. Another feature you will want to look at is the number of users you can have per license. The final aspect you want to look for is the migration challenge. Once you start entering data into the CRM, the last thing you want to do is switch. Running a small company with three to five employees and data being entered in on a daily basis can turn into a large chunk of information that would be a nightmare to migrate over into another CRM. This is why selecting a CRM for QuickBooks solution that you have vetted thoroughly is a wise move. Since you are already using QuickBooks for your bookkeeping, adding in this solution just makes sense.
Feature #7 – E-mail and Communication Support
The final feature that you will want to look at is its integration with email and communications between the office, other employees, and possibly even clients and prospects. When researching CRM for QuickBooks solutions you want to ensure the application will be able to have e-mail notifications sent to employees if there is a change in a scheduled appointment or other reason. The use of communication between all of your departments is a well desired asset and one that should be heavily considered when choosing your CRM.
Finally when it comes to choosing your CRM for QuickBooks test several of them out. Make sure that they really fit your company’s needs. Jumping into a CRM that will only become outdated in six months is not a wise investment. The CRM for QuickBooks solution you choose will act as the nucleus of your organization, so choose wisely. One QuickBooks CRM to try is the award-winning Results Software.

Top 6 Features of Best in Class Small Business CRM
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is not only crucial for growing businesses, it becomes the nucleus of the organization once implemented. A best in class small business CRM will be the solution your team has been needing to not only scale appropriately, but foster lead nurturing for higher sales conversions. When evaluating options for your small business CRM, it is important to look for key features that will make implementation (and more importantly, adoption) successful. Here are our top 6 features of a best in class CRM system for SMB’s:
- Simplicity: There is no logic in investing in a CRM if you can’t get your team to utilize it. Adoption is crucial and simplicity is key to the user experience. The more complicated a CRM system is to use and integrate with, the more difficult it is to get staff to use it. Simplicity in the user interface as well as in completing daily routines is an important feature to look for.
- Remote Access: A CRM that can only be used in the office is no longer a viable solution in today’s mobile world. Many organizations have multiple locations or remote workers; there is also the possibility of staff needing to access the system from a trade show or customer site. Having a CRM that you can remote into at any time is essential and having mobile access is equally important. Marketing and Sales reps are more frequently working from their mobile device so solutions that can be accessed via a smartphone or tablet can be vital for field personnel who need more than just a contact phone number to close a deal. Businesses can no longer take a tactical approach to mobility.
- Integrations: The ability to integrate with key software including the accounting system, time & billing app, document management software, and email marketing solutions are essential for a small business CRM. Integrations save both time and money as staff no longer have to manually key data into multiple systems. Integrations also eliminate the risk of inaccurate data being referenced due to different systems not being updated or maintained properly. The more seamless the integrations are, the easier it will be for your team to utilize and thus maximize the investment.
- Campaign Management: A CRM solution needs to provide great campaign management functionalities, allowing workflow from the campaign idea through build, test, distribution, and measurement. Being able to launch a campaign through the CRM and then report on the effectiveness of those efforts in the same system allow marketing managers to adjust tactics while sales reps close deals. Additionally, campaign management gives visibility to the executive team on performance as well as projections.
- Customization: No two companies are identical. Having a CRM that is customizable to your individual needs is an invaluable feature for the SMB owner. Creating customizable reports as well as fields that make sense to your business are two common examples of customized options that Results CRM regularly receives. Another example of customization is different views and dashboards for each department. Having a customizable CRM with one dashboard for management, and a separate one for staff, helps streamline tasks and projects that make sense for the user while giving managers an overview of not only performance, but also bottlenecks.
- Lead Generation Tracking: Relying exclusively on a sales team to complete the sales cycle without tracking the lead generation metrics can be a dangerous approach. A CRM with lead generation tracking, both in automated customer tasks and reminders to sales people, is a vital feature for a best in class small business CRM as it is insuring that the sales team has the tools it needs to keep nurturing leads. One of the most difficult feats for a salesperson is to keep track of every touch they have ever had with a potential client; having a CRM that provides these features gives them the ability to just pull up the opportunity and pick up the conversation at any point in the sales cycle without missing a beat or throwing the prospect off. It also allows your sales manager to see how long the actual sales cycle is taking, and implement changes in the department for a quicker sales conversion process.
Whether your organization is new to CRM software or looking for a new solution, Results CRM is your partner for success. For more information on how you can grow your business with Results, click here for a free demo.
Announcing the Release of Results 2014!
Your award-winning Results CRM is now even more powerful, with the new release of Results 2014.
Results 2014 Desktop includes:
- New Associates DMC – Brings more visibility and direct access to your Associate records.
- Additional Document Tracking – Attach unlimited documents to an Activity, Service Order, Quote, Invoice, Sales Order and Purchase Order.
- On-the-Fly Invoicing from an Activity Record – Create an invoice directly from an Activity or Service Order.
- New Contact Notes Editor – Use the new built-in text editor and spell checker to maintain Contact Notes.
- Enhanced Lookup Tables – All lookup table codes can now support at least 20 characters and will allow both upper and lower case characters and spaces.
- Built-in Credit Card Processing – Receive credit card payments in Results.
- Google Drive Integration – Store & retrieve Results documents with Google Drive
And the list of enhancements does not stop there!
Results 2014 Desktop offers much more, including many enhancements to the QuickBooks and Outlook Integrations and Quote conversion workflow.
Note: For Results Mobile Enterprise and Time Management Portal users, the latest version of Results Web Mobile 2014 was also released this week. Request your copy here.
Results 2014 – A Sneak Peek (Part 2 of 3)
We are one week closer to the release of Results 2014! This week we will highlight the ability to support an unlimited number of Results Mobile documents and images.
Results Mobile 2014 users will be able to attach any number of pictures as well as a client’s signature to any Activity, Service Order, Quote, Sales Order, and Invoice record using any internet-enabled mobile device.
This feature empowers employees in the field or on-the-go to capture job-site details. The desktop version of Results can open the same record and the associated signature and captured pictures. Files added via the desktop version are accessible from the Mobile device.
Don’t have Results Mobile yet? Talk to us about adding Results Web Mobile to your Results CRM, Project or Business Suite solutions.