Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for accountants: What you need to know

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems aren’t just for storing client data. They can help you build stronger connections with clients, and turn prospects into new business. With features for personalised marketing, lead generation, and tracking the client lifecycle, CRM systems help you put client data to work.

In this guide, we explain how CRM software can benefit your practice, and what features you should look out for.

What is a CRM for accountants?

CRM software is a system for organising, tracking, and acting on interactions with clients and prospects. In essence, this software helps you nurture your audience – from their first interaction with your practice to the final invoice sent.

The goal of CRM software is to strengthen connections with new leads and existing clients. The software gathers all client and potential client information in one place, so you can track how every relationship is unfolding, and make informed decisions about how to strengthen the connection.

For example, you can use your CRM system to set up a process that automatically sends new clients onboarding material and resources for working together. When a new client is entered into the system, they automatically receive communications from you, to help keep them engaged.

Delivering a personalised client experience can make your clients feel valued, and enable you to deliver better services and support. When you’re busy, close connections can fade, especially if you’re committing all of your time to the deliverables and are less available to communicate with clients.

Ultimately, the quality of your services dictates whether clients continue working with you. So, a CRM system can help you fine-tune your relationship management approach and ensure future business.

If you’re interested in CRM systems (that integrate seamlessly with Xero, too), you can find many that suit your individual needs here.

What is the difference between CRM and practice management software?

CRM software and practice management software have different purposes, but both can add value for your team and clients.

CRM software focuses on managing interactions. The software tracks touchpoints for every contact; the last email sent, meetings booked, deals closed. You gain a better view of how you attract clients, including who and how many new leads you generate each month, which marketing materials they’ve engaged with, and what the client lifecycle looks like in your practice.

Practice management software makes taking care of day-to-day tasks easier. With practice management software, you can assign tasks to your team, monitor progress, track deadlines, and analyse productivity. This software comes with reports on profitability, capacity, and work in progress, so you have a clear view of how your practice is performing.

In a nutshell, CRM software focuses externally, on your clients. Practice management software focuses internally, on your team and workloads.

Why your accountancy practice needs a CRM

Many great relationships form organically. But, if you leave growing relationships to chance, you could miss out on deeper connections with clients. If you don’t have a process for turning new connections into long-term clients, it’s hard to predict your future workload too.

A promising conversation with a prospect can disappear if you don’t record it or follow it up. A CRM system brings structure to your relationships, ensuring no one gets missed by tracking every point of contact.

Understanding how your practice gets new clients can help you attract more. CRM systems can track your marketing activities and show you where your audience has engaged with you. This makes it clear to see where a specific campaign or marketing material generates business. Information like this can be used to continue growing your practice or nurturing your existing client base.

Managing relationships organically often involves lots of different processes – email addresses on post-it notes, business cards at the bottom of your bag, and a handwritten message from your last phone call. CRM systems bring all of this information together, so you can use reliable and repeatable processes to grow your relationships.

Essential CRM features for accounting practices

CRM systems are designed for all sorts of businesses. For accounting and bookkeeping practices, certain features provide more value than others.

Look out for functionality such as:

• Workflow automation that takes care of follow-up emails and reminders for you
• Analytics that show you insights about client behaviour, marketing activities, and client lifecycles
• Integration with accounting software and other practice tools so that you don’t need to copy information across multiple platforms

Here’s how CRM features can help your practice.

Automating key client tasks with CRM integration

CRM automation features can help you stay connected to clients.

Let’s say a handful of leads have gone quiet after your initial contact with them. Normally, you might follow up with some of them but fail to reach out to others. With CRM automation features, you can schedule follow-up messages and reminders so that no one gets left behind.

Here’s another example – no doubt new clients often come to you with similar questions; how do I onboard onto your accounting software? What business information do you need from me before we get started?

CRM software with AI features can respond to these requests for you, automatically sending links to documents and resources that answer client questions and keep the process flowing. Or, it can send the request to the right team member who can answer it.

Day-to-day, automated notifications can tell you when a new lead is added, contacted, and requires support. These nudges help you and your team remain accountable and connected to clients. Knowing that relationships are taken care of, you can spend less time retracing your steps and more time having quality conversations with clients.

Data-driven client insights with CRM analytics

Developing your practice – whether that be growing your client base or working more closely with your existing one – requires that you understand the people paying for your services.

CRM analytics can give you insights into how clients find you, why they choose you, and what keeps them engaged and satisfied. Analytics features bring lots of client data points together, so you can decide what you need to do next with a relationship. In some cases, CRM systems can actually recommend the next steps to take (especially the ones that use AI).

Syft Analytics, for instance, is an interactive financial reporting tool that helps businesses visualise, analyse, and forecast their financial data with ease. So, by integrating with various accounting and other data providers, they transform complex financials into understandable reports and dashboards so you know exactly what to do next.

Examples of data points and insights you might be able to gather from a CRM system include how many new leads you’ve generated, where and how those leads were generated, client behaviour, and where clients are in your sales funnel.

These insights can help you make better decisions about how to engage with clients, when to engage with them, and which marketing and sales channels you should focus on. You can also ensure consistent, relevant communications by tracking client interactions and seeing which channels they respond best to.

How to choose the right CRM for your practice

By comparing CRM software packages, you’ll soon get a sense of which option suits your practice best.

Budget, ease of use, and scalability should all come into your decision. Take the following checklist with you when you scout out CRM options:

• Marketing and sales features that help you build personalised campaigns
• Cloud-based data storage for security and remote access
• Customisable workflows and features so you can adapt your processes to client preferences
• Accounting software integration to save you from copying information across systems
• Dashboards and reports for sales, marketing, and client behaviour
• Sales forecasting tools so you can plan for growth or create more of it

Integrating Xero with your CRM

Delivering great services and managing client relationships are connected activities – so your accounting software and CRM system should be linked, too.

Maintaining healthy client relationships and fostering new ones helps you run a successful and sustainable business. A practice isn’t much of a practice without clients, after all.

Integrating Xero accounting software with your CRM of choice helps you turn a prospect into a paying client. Detailed client data flows between Xero and your CRM system, making it easier to give clients exactly what they need, at exactly the right time. Invoices drafted and sent in Xero are captured in CRM software, so you get a complete view of your client’s journey – from the first hello to the final invoice.

You can put CRM systems through their paces in the Xero App Store today.