B2B services firm: CRM and billing connected without a big-bang migration

Client context

A twenty-five person B2B services company sold project-based and retainer work. Sales lived in a CRM; finance issued invoices from a separate billing tool. Won deals were re-keyed manually, and account numbers often mismatched.

The challenge

• First invoices delayed an average of nine days after contract signature
• Finance discovered duplicate customer records monthly
• Support could not see billing status when handling account questions
• Leadership lacked a single view of customer health

Approach

RadialLeaf mapped systems of record and scoped a **phased integration** rather than replacing both platforms:

Phase 1 — Stabilize handoff

• Documented required fields for closed-won → billing customer creation
• Built idempotent sync with duplicate detection on email and legal name
• Finance review step before first invoice send

Phase 2 — Operational visibility

• Linked support tickets to CRM account with read-only billing summary
• Weekly reconciliation report comparing CRM won deals to billing customers
• Runbook for sync failures and manual fallback

Phase 3 — Reporting

• Dashboard for AR aging by account owner
• Alerts when large deals lack billing records after forty-eight hours

Outcomes

• First invoice cycle time reduced from nine days to under three
• Duplicate customer creations dropped to near zero after reconciliation tuning
• Support research time per billing-related ticket decreased measurably
• Sales and finance shared vocabulary for account status

Lessons

Integration success depended more on **ownership and reconciliation** than connector choice. Starting with one happy-path sync—and proving it in production—built trust for phase two.

Related guidance

• CRM implementation guide
• API integration strategy
• Billing & invoicing solutions