Method Community

History:

Our organization has been using SalesForce as their CRM for some time.  They have also been using QB Desktop for a long time; however, a few years ago, the previous accountant found it necessary to start a new QB file, thus losing the connection between the data in the previous QB file and the current QB file.  The old data exists and is accessible, but you have to open a second QB session to view it.  So, I have QB data for years 1-7 in one QB file, QB data for years 8-10 in a separate QB file, and all data for years 1-10 in SalesForce.

Issue:

I cannot bring the old QB data into the new QB file, because it would totally upset all balances on the Balance Sheet and make our CPA's very unhappy.  The books in the current QB file are organized much differently, so the correlation between the two would be a total disaster.  So, we're stuck with three separate data points and no way to merge them into a single usable point.  I might add that some in the office are unhappy with SalesForce's ability to accurately report, but there is no way (currently) to get them out of it.  I, however, am using Method to manage one specific aspect of our operations that is beyond the scope of SalesForce.

Need:

Is it possible to import all historical data from SalesForce into Method without having it sync to QB?  I understand the import/export function, and I also understand the "Wait for Sync Approval?" box in transactions.  What I want to do is make sure that Contacts merge properly with existing ones, transactions are associated with the right customers, but these transactions can never sync with QB.  The end result is that in QB I will only see customers and transactions that have occurred since those books were started, but in Method I will have a complete record of all transactions over the life of the customer relationship.

Example:  In SalesForce, I have customers A, B, and C.  Each of them has transactions 1, 2, and 3.  In the current QB file, I only have customers A and B, and they only have transaction number 3. I want to import SalesForce data into Method with the end result being a Method file with A, B, and C each having 1, 2, and 3; but in QuickBooks I will only see A and B with number 3.

My thoughts:

1 - Export all customers from SalesForce to Excel.

2 - Clean up the data in Excel.

3 - Import them into Method as Leads (keeping them separate for the time being).

4 - Do another cleanup, if necessary, in Method.

5 - Export to Excel and re-import after turning off the IsLeadOnly field.

6 - Export all transactions associated with these customers from SalesForce

7 - Clean up the data in Excel.

8 - Create an hidden check box in the transaction table that prevents syncing with QB.

9 - Set this field to TRUE in all the transactions.

10 - Import the transactions to the customers.

Does this seem doable?  Have I missed any steps?  Are there any I missed?  I might add that I would do all of this using a Sandbox QB file to ensure I don't destroy what I have.  Is there a way to do the same with Method?

Mario

Hi Mario,

This is certainly doable however, I don’t know that I would recommend it. Once you have all of this non-posted data in Method, you’ll need to be very careful when making changes to keep this data separate.

When importing your customers, I would not recommend importing them as leads. Some of these customers will already exist in Method. If you import them as leads, this will conflict with the data that is already in Method.

You’ll also need to be very thorough with your cleanup. If your key fields don’t match exactly, upon import you’ll end up with duplicate records.

When dealing with transactions that you don’t want to post to QuickBooks (QB), you’ll need to use the IsWaitingForSyncApproval field. This is the only field that will prevent the transaction from posting to QB.

One thing I would definitely recommend is that you have an up-to-date QB backup before doing this. Should anything go wrong, for a consulting fee, we can roll back your Method account to the previous backup. Backups are done once daily. It’s not ideal, but at least you will have a fallback should everything go wrong. I don’t think you’ll need this, but better safe than sorry.

If you wanted to test this on a “sandbox” Method account, you can sign up for a trial on www.method.me. Just sync the data from your sandbox QB file to this account and you should be good to go.

I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any other questions. I’d also definitely be interested in what your end result is and if you ran into any issues during the process.

-Audisho

Audisho,

Thanks for the quick response.  I have looked this over a bit and I've run into a potential roadblock.  I wanted to export transactions so I could see what kind of information is captured as well as the field names, but I can't find a table that I can either export transactions from or to.  Am I missing something?

Mario

Hi Mario,

Each transaction is stored in its own table. Invoices are stored in the Invoice table, sales orders are stored in the SalesOrder table, estimates are stores in the Estimate table etc. Additionally, the line items for these transactions are stored in their own table since the transaction to line item relationship is one to many. There are InvoiceLine, SalesOrderLine, EstimateLine etc.

Does Salesforce group all of your transactions together? Do the include the line items in the same CSV as the transactions? If it’s possible, I would recommend that you export these separately since this is how they are dealt with in Method.

-Audisho