# Linking a CRM account to an accounting customer

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

Section: CRM · Canonical: https://intubu.intuitivecapital-dai.com/docs/crm-accounting-link

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](https://intubu.intuitivecapital-dai.com/docs/cross-workspace-visibility)), 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.