Linking a CRM account to an accounting customer

Explicitly joining the two records is what makes balances, invoices and lifetime value appear in CRM.

An account and a customer are the same company, but the link is made explicitly.

Why not match on the name automatically: it would eventually join two unrelated companies that share a word, and the first symptom would be one customer's invoices showing on another's screen.

Suggestions are offered, not applied. Opening an unlinked account proposes candidates with the reason for each — an exact name match, a match once the legal suffix is set aside, or one name containing the other. You choose.

Once linked: the 360 view gains the balance, aging and lifetime figures (subject to Seeing financial detail from CRM), the account is marked as a customer, and opportunities from it can be converted into invoices without re-keying.

A customer belongs to one account. Linking a customer that is already attached elsewhere is refused, and the message names the other account.

What is out of step between the two modules can be listed at any time — CRM accounts marked as customers with no link, won deals nobody invoiced, contacts with no account. Each finding names the fix.