Context: I used the default Monday CRM template and built out an entire set of boards and columns and we have been using it for a while but we have an issue where sometimes we are missing a quote or invoice because the work is manual and I’m trying to find a good solution so we aren’t missing any estimates and invoices and are up to date.
We have a leads board, contact board, account board, reseller board, deals board, and product board.
Deals board - where we store the contact, account/lead, reseller, product, quote, invoice, license, order, subscription
This is from Sandbox Environment example
Product board - Each product that is referenced in the deal’s item connection column and also in the subitem… for more information and if there is more than one product. The products we list are little different than in QuickBooks due to QuickBooks lacking a line item discount field. We give volume discounts for how many licenses a customer buys and depending on subscription or perpetual the volume counts differently. We track that information in a separate app called Metorik.
So if one item gets a volume discount different than another, there is no easy fix thus we have to make multiple same product items with different unit price tiers based on the volume discount so 5 licenses would be (studio licenses - perpetual 5%), or 11 licenses would be (studio licenses - perpetual 8%).
Additionally, when we do seasonal sales in QuickBooks, we have to create a discount item that manually needs to subtract a percentage.
It’s not ideal with how QuickBooks is set that it is lacking these basic features but it’s the only invoicing tool so far that fit our needs plus bonuses (auto-sending customers reminders) with the exception for these two issues. We haven’t found one that works better with our workflow.
In Monday, for the deal item and it’s subitems, this issue is easily mitigated. We simple select each item’s volume discount in the subitem and any special seasonal discounts we just select from the extra discount column, like “Black Friday” and whatever extra discount is factored after the volume and pro-rate automatically gets factored with that label. Thus we have only like 4 or 5 products in Monday but about 20 product items in QuickBooks.
Reseller board - For any 3rd party doing the purchase on behalf of the customer. They will be the billed person (customer) and billing address on QuickBooks, while the actual customer will be the shipping address.
Contact board - for information about the contact like what account/reseller they are connected to (like an organization), and if they are the in-house buyer or resell buyer and their email address to contact them.
Account board - for the user who purchased the license and is an existing customer.
This is from Sandbox Environment example
Lead board - for customer who is new and looking to buy who will also be used in the account connection column in Monday Deal board.
This is from Sandbox Environment example
Currently, these board use two way connection columns and all of them point to the deal’s board. In the deals board there is usually one subitem but sometimes there can be up to five or possibly more for rare pro-rating, retro pricing, and other situations.
We have fields for the QuickBooks. One called “Quote #” for QuickBooks Estimate number and one called “Invoice #” for QuickBooks Invoice number. They both use the link column of url to the invoice as well as the text display of the number QB generated.
In QuickBooks, we try to link any existing estimates to invoices that exist before sending out an invoice. We will check Monday CRM for a deal that exists with that customer, see if there is a quote that already exists and active to then link. Convert to invoice and send and then in the deal add that url/text display to that existing deal. In some cases there is no previous estimates and we want to get right an invoice.
The Issue: However, the problem that exists is that it is hard to track that all invoices and estimates are up to date. Currently, I’m using a notepad app to write down the last invoice and estimate we created in QuickBooks (sorted by highest number) then checking in Monday if there are any missing and having to check daily.
This is becoming problematic as if I want to leave on vacation or get sick or the document in notepad were to accidentally get deleted, I would have no idea where we left off.
The Desired Solution: My goal is to have a two-way integration between QuickBooks and Monday where I can make a deal in Monday, before needing to quote and/or invoice, and when we are ready for QuickBooks, I can click a button, generate that estimate or invoice and loop it back into the established Monday Deal item linked fields with the proper format for URL/Text Display, click it, view if it is correct with the correct email, customer account in QuickBooks, the correct product and quantity then send. Additionally, I want any invoices I click to generate from the deal with an existing estimate to auto-convert the estimate into an invoice, or at the least a button to convert the estimate to an invoice and link that invoice created for me to review. So we don’t have to go into the invoice, link a second line items to an existing quote then have to delete the generated first subitem to make it now linked.
As well as vice versa, any estimates or invoices created but lack a deal items when checking Monday, that it auto generates that deal item and populates the QuickBooks columns in the Monday Item as well as any other fields it can fill out. And that when creating an Invoice from a converted Estimate that it checks in Monday if that estimate exists and will then add the invoice linked column information to the correct column.
Feedback: If there is any way to do that, this would be huge for data integrity. Or at least, given our workflow/pipeline process find a better resolution. Currently, all the YouTube videos and google searches for integrations I could find were not extensive enough and lacking in some scope. Especially, the default QB to Monday Integration… at least from the demos shown in video. I’m hoping some one with a similar workflow may have a better suggestion.