Accounting Integrations: Connecting Salesforce to Your Finance System
- Ohana Focus Team
- Jan 25
- 4 min read
By Ohana FocusTeam | January 18, 2025 | 19 min read
Every month, someone on your team exports donations from Salesforce, manually enters them into QuickBooks, then spends hours reconciling. This double-entry routine wastes 10-20 hours monthly. Integration automates this workflow—gifts entered once automatically create accounting transactions in real-time.
In this article, you’ll learn how accounting integrations work, which tools exist, what complexity to expect, and how to determine if integration is worth the investment.
The Manual Workflow Problem
Before integration, this is the monthly routine:
Without Integration:
• Development staff enter gifts in Salesforce
• Finance exports CSV from Salesforce
• Finance manually enters each gift in QuickBooks
• Reconcile totals (never match first try)
• Hunt for discrepancies, correct errors
• Close books (3-5 days after month-end)
Time cost: 10-20 hours monthly. Error rate: 2-5% of transactions.
With Integration:
• Development staff enter gifts in Salesforce
• Integration automatically creates accounting transactions
• Finance reviews synced transactions (spot-check only)
• Close books (same day or next)
Time cost: 2-4 hours monthly. Error rate: <1%. Time savings: 10-16 hours monthly (120-192 hours annually).
What Data Actually Syncs
Integration connects Salesforce NPC Opportunities to accounting systems. When a gift is recorded (Stage = Closed Won), integration creates an accounting transaction:
Standard Data Flow: Salesforce → Accounting
• Donor/Customer: Contact name creates or updates the Customer in accounting
• Revenue Transaction: Gift amount becomes a journal entry
• Transaction Date: Close Date becomes transaction date
• Payment Method: Check, credit card, cash
• Fund Designation: Campaign or Allocation maps to fund/class
• GL Account Codes: Mapping rules determine revenue account
What Does NOT Sync
• Pledges: Future commitments don't become revenue until received
• Soft Credits: Attribution only, not actual transactions
• Campaign Associations: Fundraising context stays in Salesforce
• Activities/Tasks: Operational data, not financial
Integration Options by Accounting Platform
Integration tool choice depends on your accounting system.
QuickBooks Online Integration
Popular tools:
• Breadwinner ($40-80/user/month): Native Salesforce package, real-time sync, easy setup
• DBSync ($99-299/month): Cloud middleware, highly customizable, complex scenarios
• Cloudingo ($50-150/month): Clean interface, good for data quality focus
• Zapier/Workato ($20-100/month): Low-code automation, simple scenarios only
QuickBooks Online Limitations:
• Weak fund accounting (class tracking limited)
• No robust multi-dimensional reporting
• API rate limits with high volumes
Recommendation: Works for simple fund structures (1-5 funds) and moderate volumes (under 500 gifts/month).
QuickBooks Desktop Integration
• DBSync ($199-399/month): Handles complex fund accounting, requires desktop agent
• Transaction Pro ($30-75/month): Batch import, not real-time
Advantages:
• Stronger fund accounting via class/location tracking
• More robust reporting
Challenges:
• Requires local installation
• Desktop agent must run continuously
• QuickBooks sunsetting Desktop Pro/Premier
Sage Intacct Integration
• Accounting Seed ($85-125/user/month): Native Salesforce accounting—eliminates integration
• DBSync ($299-599/month): Maintains separate systems, syncs data
• Celigo ($500-2,000/month): Enterprise platform, complex scenarios
Advantages:
• Purpose-built for nonprofits
• Excellent fund accounting (dimensions, grants)
• Cloud-based, modern API
Recommendation: Ideal for mid-large nonprofits ($5M+ budget) with complex fund accounting.
NetSuite Integration
• Native NetSuite Connector, Celigo, Boomi
Pricing: $500-3,000/month plus $10,000-50,000 implementation
Recommendation: Appropriate for large nonprofits ($20M+ budget) with complex operations.
Fund Accounting Considerations
Nonprofits using fund accounting face additional integration complexity.
What is Fund Accounting?
Fund accounting segregates resources based on donor restrictions:
• Unrestricted Operating Fund
• Restricted Funds (specific programs)
• Endowment Funds
• Grant Funds
• Capital Campaign Funds
Methods for Capturing Fund Designation in Salesforce
Campaign-Based
The campaign represents the fund. Simple, but can't split gifts across multiple funds.
Custom Fund Field
Picklist field on Opportunity. Clear purpose but still can't split gifts.
NPC Allocations (Recommended)
The allocation object allows split gifts. One $10,000 donation can allocate $6,000 Operating, $4,000 Capital.
Implementation Complexity and Costs
Implementation Timeline
• Simple integration (QuickBooks Online, basic): 4-8 weeks
• Moderate (QuickBooks Desktop, fund accounting): 8-12 weeks
• Complex (Sage Intacct, NetSuite): 12-24 weeks
Cost Breakdown
Software Costs (Annual):
• QuickBooks Online: $500-$2,000
• QuickBooks Desktop: $1,500-$5,000
• Sage Intacct: $5,000-$15,000
• NetSuite: $10,000-$40,000
Implementation Costs (One-Time):
• Simple: $3,000-$8,000
• Moderate: $8,000-$20,000
• Complex: $20,000-$75,000
Common Salesforce Integration Pitfalls
Insufficient Data Cleanup
Integration syncs garbage data to accounting. Solution: Clean data BEFORE integration go-live.
Mismatched Fund Structures
Salesforce has 8 funds; accounting has 12 with different names. Solution: Align structures BEFORE integration.
No Testing Environment
Testing in production creates bad entries. Solution: Use Sandbox and test a company file.
Ignoring Historical Data
Historical Opportunities never sync. Solution: Decide strategy during planning (bulk import, sync forward, or hybrid).
Insufficient Training
Staff are confused about integration. Solution: Train both development and finance staff (2-4 hours each).
When to Integrate vs. Keep Separate
Strong Indicators FOR Integration
• High gift volume (200+ monthly)
• Significant staff time on manual entry (10+ hours)
• Frequent reconciliation errors
• Need real-time financial visibility
• Complex fund accounting
Strong Indicators AGAINST Integration
• Very low gift volume (under 50 monthly)
• Extremely simple accounting (single fund)
• Limited technical capacity
• Budget constraints
• Unstable processes
Expert accounting integration services.
Ohana Focus specializes in Salesforce-accounting integrations for nonprofits. We help organizations select the right tool, configure data mapping, implement fund accounting connections, and provide ongoing support.
Our integration services include:
• Requirements gathering
• Tool selection
• Data mapping design
• Fund accounting configuration
• Testing and quality assurance
• Training for staff
• Go-live support
• Ongoing monitoring
About Ohana Focus
Ohana Focus is a certified Salesforce consulting partner specializing in nonprofit implementations and integrations. We've connected dozens of Salesforce instances to accounting systems.
The difference comes down to three factors: choosing an integration tool matching your actual complexity, aligning fund structures between systems before integration, and planning for ongoing maintenance.
Our integration philosophy is pragmatic: we recommend integration when benefits clearly outweigh costs. For small organizations with simple accounting, we're honest about integration being overkill. For growing organizations spending hours on manual entry, we show how integration pays for itself within a year.
Topics: Accounting Integration, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Fund Accounting, NPC, Financial Systems, Nonprofit Finance
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