Which systems need to be connected for Revenue Intelligence?

For Revenue Intelligence you connect at least two systems: the CRM, which records what was sold, and billing or accounting, which records what was charged. That combination already finds the most common leaks, such as won deals without an invoice and price differences between deal and invoice. After that you add whatever fits your business model: contracts for pricing terms and indexation, an ERP or time tracking for what was delivered, a billing tool for subscriptions, and payments to see what actually comes in.

Exactly which systems, in what order and with which permissions depends on how your company makes its revenue. The detail follows below. For the wider context, see the complete guide to Revenue Intelligence.

The foundation: CRM and billing

Every B2B company that takes Revenue Intelligence seriously starts here. The reason is simple: the handover from sales to finance is, in almost every company, where the most revenue falls through the cracks.

The CRM, for example Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive, provides:

• won deals with close date and value;
• product lines, quantities and discounts;
• customer details and the owner of the deal.

Billing, for example Exact, AFAS, Xero, NetSuite or SAP, provides:

• invoice lines with product, quantity, price and discount;
• customer accounts and their keys;
• credit notes.

With those two you can check whether every won deal has an invoice, whether the invoiced amount matches the deal, and whether there are customers who exist in one system but not in the other. How to set up that connection technically is covered in how to connect CRM to billing.

Extending per business model

After the foundation, it depends on the type of company. The question each time is: where is the information that determines what you should have invoiced?

For companies where an ERP plays the central role, the connection between CRM and ERP is a project in its own right. We cover it in how to connect CRM to ERP.

The source that is often forgotten: contracts

In many companies the most important pricing terms exist only in the contract. The indexation clause, the volume tier above fifty users, the introductory discount that lapses after a year. If that information is in no system, no system can check whether it is being applied.

There are three ways to bring contracts in:

1. Connect a contract management system, if you have one with structured fields.
2. Copy the fields into the CRM, for example as custom fields on the deal or company: indexation date, indexation type, discount end date.
3. Have the PDFs extracted, with AI recognising the relevant clauses and a person checking the result.

Which fields you need from a contract is covered in what data Revenue Intelligence uses.

Payments and the bank

The accounting system knows which invoices have been paid. You often already have that connection once you connect billing, because invoicing and payments sit in the same package. If not, for example because a billing tool issues invoices and the accounting system processes payments, this is a separate connection.

Why it matters: invoiced is not the same as received. Small residual amounts, write-offs without a clear reason and customers who consistently pay late are revenue leakage too, just at a different stage.

Additional systems

For a fuller picture you can later connect these systems as well:

• Support tool, such as Zendesk. Relevant if support outside the contract is invoiced, or if you want to see a rise in tickets as a signal that a customer is about to leave.
• Advertising platforms, such as Google, Meta and LinkedIn. Relevant for tracing spend through to invoiced revenue per campaign, not just to a lead.
• Payment platform, such as Stripe. Relevant for online payments or subscriptions that run through a payment provider.

In what order?

An order that works well in practice:

1. CRM and billing. The foundation. Gives immediate insight into the handover from sales to finance.
2. The source of delivery. ERP, hours, service desk or product data, depending on your model. Gives insight into what was delivered but not invoiced.
3. Contracts. Gives insight into indexation, volume tiers and discounts.
4. Payments. If they do not already come with billing.
5. Support and marketing. For a fuller picture of customer health and return on spend.

Each step should deliver something before you take the next one. A connection that produces only data and no findings is dead weight.

Permissions: as few as possible

To find leaks, Revenue Intelligence does not need to change anything anywhere. Read access is enough. That has big advantages:

• Nothing can be changed by accident in your CRM or accounting system.
• The connection is easier to justify to your IT administrator, your auditor and your data protection officer.
• If you stop, you revoke the access and that is that.

Write permissions are only needed once the system also carries out actions, such as creating a task in the CRM or preparing a draft invoice. Grant them per action, not all at once. And keep a person approving anything that goes to a customer.

Also pay attention to whose account a connection runs under. A connection set up with the permissions of the managing director or an administrator can do more than it needs to. A separate account with only the necessary permissions is safer and shows in every system what the connection did. How to give AI secure access to business data is covered in how to give AI access to business data.

Worked example: what does each connection deliver?

Worked example: suppose an IT services company with EUR 6 million in revenue connects step by step.

• Step 1, CRM and billing. It turns out there are 7 deals from the past year without a first invoice, together EUR 42,000. In addition, 15 deals where the invoiced amount is lower than the deal, together EUR 11,000 a year.
• Step 2, service desk. For 22 customers the number of active users is higher than the number of invoiced workstations. Together 90 workstations at EUR 35 a month: EUR 37,800 a year.
• Step 3, contracts. For 40 contracts the indexation was not applied. On average EUR 30 a month: EUR 14,400 a year.

All the figures are assumptions for the example. It shows that each connection makes a different kind of leak visible, and that the order determines when you find which leak.

Checklist before you connect

• Do you know which systems sit in your revenue chain, from first contact to payment?
• Does each system have an API or an export option?
• Is there a shared customer key between the CRM and the accounting system?
• Who in your company owns each system, and who has to give permission?
• Can you create a separate account for the connection, with read-only permissions?
• Do you know where the connected data is stored and processed, and is there a data processing agreement?

How AutoMaat handles permissions, data flows and the data processing agreement is set out on the security page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum connection for Revenue Intelligence?

CRM plus billing. With that you find won deals without an invoice, amounts that do not match and customers who exist in only one system.

Do I have to replace my systems to connect them?

No. Almost all mainstream CRM and accounting packages have an API. Revenue Intelligence works on top of what you already use.

What if a system has no API?

Then a periodic export can be a stopgap. That works for a first analysis, but continuous checking needs a connection. Sometimes this is a reason to look at connectivity the next time that system is replaced.

How much work is connecting?

That depends on the systems and on the quality of your data. A standard connection to a mainstream CRM or accounting package is often set up quickly. Most of the work is usually not in the connection itself, but in matching records that are named differently in each system.

Am I then giving an outside party access to all my financial data?

Only to what you connect, and preferably with read access only. Always ask where the data is stored, who can reach it and what happens if you stop.