Your website takes orders, a CRM holds the enquiries, and the ERP or accounts package holds stock and invoices. The same customer, the same item and the same order now live in three places, typed by three people. Integration is the work of deciding which copy is the true one and making the other two read from it. It is less about technology than about ownership.
What goes wrong with three copies
- The website sells an item the godown no longer has, because stock was updated in the ERP and not online.
- The price on the website, the price in the CRM quotation and the price on the ERP invoice are three different numbers, and the customer notices.
- A website order sits in the store's admin while the dispatch team works from the ERP, so it ships late or ships twice.
- A lead the CRM chased for weeks buys on the website, and the CRM still shows it as open.
- Month end means exporting three reports and matching them by hand, and the totals never agree.
Which system is the master for what
Every record needs one owner. The other systems may display it, but only the owner edits it. This is the whole principle; everything else is plumbing. An ERP usually sits at the centre because it already owns items, stock and money.
| Record | Master | What the others do |
|---|---|---|
| Items, units and cost | ERP | Website and CRM read names, codes and prices from it |
| Selling price and offers | ERP price list | Website shows it; CRM quotes from it |
| Stock available to sell | ERP | Website shows the live figure, or a safety margin below it |
| Leads and follow-ups | CRM | ERP never sees a lead until it becomes an order |
| Customers who have bought | ERP | CRM shows balance and last order; the website account points to the same customer |
| Orders | ERP | Website orders are created there within minutes, marked with their source |
| Invoices and payments | ERP or accounts | Website shows order status; CRM shows paid or unpaid |
The order to integrate in
Do not connect everything at once. Each link below is useful on its own, and each is easier because the one before it exists.
Clean the item and customer lists
One item code and one customer code across all three systems. Duplicates here break every later step, so fix them before any link is built.
Push website orders into the ERP
This removes the retyping behind most shipping errors. Mark each order with its source so reports can split counter, salesman and website sales.
Feed stock and prices back to the website
Once orders flow in, let the website read stock and prices from the ERP so it stops selling what you do not have at a price you no longer charge.
Hand won deals from the CRM to the ERP
A deal marked won creates a sales order with the quoted lines, and the CRM closes it when the invoice is paid.
Show balances in the CRM
A salesperson chasing a repeat order should see the overdue balance before promising more credit.
Reconcile for a full month
Compare the three systems every week until a month passes with no difference, then stop checking by hand.
A restaurant and a clothing brand, done this way
The Roll Palace website sends orders to the same order board as counter and table sales, so the kitchen never looks in two places. RAAH Fits runs an online store with its own admin for products, orders and customers, which is the single master a small brand needs before any CRM exists. In both cases the website was built on the business's own data rather than bolted on to it afterwards.
What to ask a vendor
- Which system is the master for items, prices, stock and customers, and can you show a record moving between them?
- What happens when the internet drops at the shop or the ERP is down for maintenance: do website orders queue, or vanish?
- How are returns and cancellations sent back, so stock and the customer's balance recover?
- Is the link an API, a scheduled file import, or a person? A person is not integration.
- Who fixes the link when one side is updated and it breaks?
A scheduled import every hour is often enough for stock and prices. Orders are the exception: they should reach the dispatch screen within minutes, or the website will promise what the godown cannot keep.
When you do not need this yet
If one person takes website orders and keys them into the ERP, and it takes ten minutes a day without mistakes, leave it. Integration earns its cost when retyping causes errors or delays you can name. Our guide to integrating accounting software with an ERP applies the same master-record thinking to the books, and if the store is not built yet, read whether a website or an app should come first. When you are ready, contact us with the names of the three systems you run today, and we will say which link to build first.
Questions people ask
Should the website or the ERP hold the stock figure?
The ERP, because that is where purchases, counter sales and returns are recorded. The website reads the figure from it, often with a small safety margin so a counter sale a minute earlier does not cause an online order you cannot fill.
Can a Shopify or WooCommerce store be connected to a custom ERP?
Yes. Both expose APIs for products, stock and orders, and a custom ERP can read and write them. The work is in agreeing the item codes and deciding how often stock and prices sync.
Do we need a CRM if the ERP already has customers?
Not always. An ERP holds customers who have bought; a CRM holds people who have not bought yet. If your sales come from repeat orders and walk-ins, the ERP's customer list may be enough for now.
How long does integration take?
It depends on how clean the item and customer lists are and whether the other systems have proper APIs. The first link, website orders into the ERP, is usually the quickest and the most useful, and it is agreed as its own milestone in the written quote.
What if our accounts are in a separate package?
Treat it as a fourth system with the ERP as master for invoices and the accounts package reading from it, or move the books into the ERP. Our accounting integration guide covers both routes and when each makes sense.
