Industry: Construction
Area of Expertise: External Integrations
Background
Following the implementation of project creation between Zoho CRM and Sage Intacct, this construction company identified a need for improved visibility into financial performance across teams.
Critical project metrics, such as job costs, billed amounts, and payments received, were only accessible within Sage Intacct. While sufficient for accounting, this limited access for sales and leadership teams who rely on CRM for reporting, forecasting, and ROI analysis.
Additionally, many of these values exist in Sage Intacct as dynamic summary fields, which are not directly accessible through standard API endpoints.
Overview
We developed a custom solution to extract and sync financial summary data from Sage Intacct into Zoho CRM using report-based retrieval and backend processing.
The solution included:
- Scheduled synchronization of financial summary fields
- Custom report generation in Sage Intacct
- XML-based API integration
- Middleware processing via Zoho Catalyst
- Dedicated CRM modules for tracking sync operations
Features
CRM
Key financial metrics synced to CRM include:
- Job costs to date
- Total billed amount
- Payments received
These metrics provide visibility into project profitability directly within CRM.
Because Sage Intacct does not expose summary values as static fields, we implemented a workaround using custom reports. Each required dataset was generated through separate reports, as no single report could provide all necessary values.
Catalyst
To retrieve report data, we leveraged an XML-based API. The process included:
- Triggering report generation
- Retrieving the report output
- Mapping values back to CRM records
Zoho Catalyst acted as the middleware layer, facilitating communication and data transformation between systems.
A dedicated module in Zoho CRM was created to track each report request. Every sync attempt generated a record, ensuring traceability and control.
Outcomes
- Financial performance data is now accessible within CRM
- Sales and leadership teams can access insights without using the accounting system
- Improved reporting for ROI, forecasting, and project health
- Established a scalable framework for complex integrations
This solution highlights how complex integration challenges can be solved even when systems do not provide direct access to critical data. By combining custom reporting and strategic API usage, we enabled seamless visibility across platforms.
If your organization is facing similar integration limitations, we can help design a solution that makes your data more accessible and actionable.
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New Clients:
Schedule a free virtual consultation with Nimbis Designs here!