Why your call center software should play nice with accounting

In this series of blogs, we have been discussing the fundamentals of a cohesive call center solution where all the moving parts work together. This synergy between all your diverse systems is vital for many reasons, but underlying all of them is one goal: growing your business.

Accounting, which might be more accurately named “the fruits of your labor you can invoice for,” is one of the most critical functions within your call center strategy. This post is about how your call center system can and should integrate with your accounting system in order to generate success for your call center and for your business overall.

A vital spoke in the wheel

In most call center environments, the activities performed by your call center agents are what generate call center revenue. That why it’s important to have a call center solution that keeps one goal in mind: tracking and invoicing clients. While the other aspects of good CRM, rock-solid phone system, workflow, and human resources are must-haves, they won’t last long if your results aren’t making it into your accounting system on a timely and efficient basis.

Accounting is a vital part of your business success and your call center software should definitely play nice with it. Keep this in mind when creating an overall strategy for your call center’s processes and activities.

Robust reporting = easy accounting

Reporting and accounting overlap quite a bit. There’s definitely a synergy between meaningful reports and the measurement of profitability. A good solution should go beyond the basics of tracking calls per day and provide insight into your costs for facilitating those calls versus what you’re actually billing.

Detailed call center reports should highlight trends amongst your top performers so that you can coach other agents to perform as well. Through a combination of dashboards, reports and exports, a call center solution should facilitate easy accounting and reporting.

One-click payroll

In a previous blog post, we outlined the benefits of integrating human resource aspects into your call center solution. When done properly, “one-click” payroll is definitely possible. Most payroll companies have APIs or other automated ways of getting payroll data to them for processing. By leveraging effective reporting and HR processes managed by software, the human resource aspects of accounting can be drastically simplified.

If you have experience in accounting or HR, I can imagine you thinking, “No way! Payroll is incredibly complicated.” Yes, call center payroll can be complex and problematic, and I don’t want to give the impression that a one-click payroll solution can be implemented overnight. However, with proper planning and system design, it can be achieved. And it’s more accessible and affordable than you might think.

Feed your accounting software

I’m always amazed by the number of companies that still manually key in data from one application to another. Why do they do it? Many find themselves saying, “That’s just how we’ve always done it.” Or in some cases, they just don’t know a better way is possible.

Don’t fall victim to this practice! Make no mistake: Your data is one of the most valuable assets you own. The use of manual processes to manage your critical data is just an accident waiting to happen.

Any modern accounting software that’s worth using will have some means of automating the entry of data related to customers, invoices, and payments. Maybe I’m a bit of geek, but I just love hearing clients talk about the time savings and accuracy improvements they achieve when we complete an integration between their call center software and QuickBooks or other accounting software solution.