The short answer
It becomes an integration problem when all three are true:
- Frequent enough that the time or delay adds up.
- Costly mistakes: an order shipped to a wrong address, an invoice never sent.
- Connectable through a supported method, with a rule for which system is correct when they disagree.
Only the first? A process change is often cheaper. Without the third, an integration creates new problems instead of solving the old.
Step 1: map where the re-typing happens
Follow one flow of work from start to finish and note every place the same information is entered. In our hypothetical small distributor's lead-to-order flow, the company name is typed four times, prices twice, and payment status travels by email.
See the hypothetical flow
Hypothetical lead-to-order flow for a small distributor
| Step | Who | System | Information typed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry arrives | Customer | Website form | Name, company, email, need |
| 2. Lead created | Sales | CRM | Same details, retyped from the email notification |
| 3. Quote sent | Sales | Spreadsheet | Company, contact, products, prices |
| 4. Order accepted | Sales | CRM | Deal won, amount retyped |
| 5. Customer set up | Accounts | Accounting | Company, billing address, tax details |
| 6. Invoice raised | Accounts | Accounting | Products and prices retyped from the quote |
| 7. Payment status | Sales asks Accounts | "Has Company X paid?" |
In this invented example, the company name is typed four times and prices twice, and payment status travels by email.
Step 2: decide which system owns each kind of information
Agree a source of truth for each kind of information first. Without it, an integration just copies disagreements faster.
| Information | Sensible owner | Others should… |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts and sales history | CRM | Read from the CRM |
| Billing address, tax details, invoices, payments | Accounting or ERP | Read from accounting |
| Products and prices | ERP or accounting (price list) | Use the same price list |
| Website enquiry text | Website record, then CRM | Keep a link to the original |
Each record also needs a shared identifier, such as a customer number stored in both systems. Matching on names or emails creates duplicates: people change jobs and companies trade under several names.
Step 3: score each re-typing point
Score each from 1 (low) to 3 (high).
| Re-typing point | Frequency | Cost of error | Delay caused | Can be connected? | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website enquiry → CRM | |||||
| Won deal → accounting customer | |||||
| Quote lines → invoice lines | |||||
| Payment status → CRM |
| Result | What to do |
|---|---|
| High total, can connect | Good integration candidate |
| High total, cannot connect | Change the process or one of the systems |
| Low total | Leave it for now; not everything needs automating |
When a process change beats an integration
Drop the spreadsheet
If the CRM or accounting system produces quotes, a step and a copy disappear.
Read-only access
Sales see payment status in accounting instead of asking by email.
Built-in connectors
Use a connector the vendors already support rather than building custom.
Batch the work
At low volumes, entering new customers once a day from a clean list is enough.
When you do integrate: plan for exceptions
Real integrations spend most effort on unusual cases.
| Case | What if… |
|---|---|
| Duplicates | The same enquiry or order arrives twice |
| Missing data | A required field, such as a tax number, is empty |
| Conflicts | CRM and accounting show different addresses |
| Outages | A system is unavailable or rejects the request |
| Limits | APIs cap requests; HubSpot, for example, publishes different limits per plan |
A good design keeps failed records in a visible queue, retries them, alerts a named person, and never silently drops them.
Reconciliation: how you know it still works
Integrations drift as people edit records by hand or products change. A regular reconciliation check compares systems, such as "won deals without an invoice" or "invoices whose customer is missing from the CRM". Aim for an empty report; fix anything listed at its source; repeated problems mean a rule needs changing.
One-off migrations instead of integration
If the goal is to stop using one system entirely, you may need a one-off data migration rather than an ongoing integration. Most business systems offer import tools; ERPNext's data import, for example, accepts CSV or Excel files for inserting or updating records. Migrations need the same care with owners, identifiers and reconciliation, but only once.
Mapped and scored a flow? The integration readiness checklist helps you gather what an integration project needs before asking for a quote.
Sources and further reading
Product capabilities and guidance change. These are the primary sources this article relies on, checked on the review date above.
- API usage guidelines and limits, HubSpot Developers
- Data Import, ERPNext documentation (Frappe)
- Overview of SuiteTalk REST Web Services, Oracle NetSuite Help Center
This article is general information, not legal, accounting or security advice for your specific situation. Examples are hypothetical unless stated otherwise.