ERP and accounting integration: Xero, Sage and SAP connected to your CRM
ERP and accounting integration connects your ledger (Xero, Sage, SAP Business One, Dynamics 365 or Odoo) to the CRM, online store, payment gateways and reporting tools around it, so orders, invoices and payments move without retyping. Arke Technologies, in Johannesburg, designs, builds and supports these integrations for South African organisations.
What ERP integration does, and where it pays
A common starting point is CRM integration with Xero: a deal won in the CRM becomes a Xero invoice, and the payment status flows back so the sales team can see who has paid. Every ERP integration follows the same principle. One system is the record for each kind of data, and the others read from it or write to it through an interface rather than a spreadsheet export.
It pays where people retype records, where month-end reconciliation takes days, or where nobody sees stock, orders and cash in one place. It is part of our systems integration service. If you are still choosing or replacing the ledger itself, start with ERP implementation and support or accounting software implementation.
Three decisions shape every design:
- System of record. Which system owns customers, products, prices, stock and invoices. Two systems that both own a customer produce duplicates.
- Direction. One-way (the CRM creates invoices in the ledger) or two-way (payment status and credit holds return to the CRM).
- Timing. Real-time through webhooks for orders and payments; scheduled batches for high volumes and reporting data.
Power BI Xero integration and reporting
Power BI Xero integration puts ledger figures beside sales, stock and operational data in one report, refreshed on a schedule through a Xero Power BI connector or a pipeline into a reporting database. Groups can consolidate several Xero organisations, or Xero beside another ERP, into one model. See Power BI consulting and dashboards.
Integration in Sage: Sage 50, Sage 200 and Sage Business Cloud
Sage integration depends on the edition. Sage Business Cloud has an API. Sage 50 and Sage 200 in South Africa, the Pastel and Evolution lines, usually run on a server in your office, so integration with Sage there needs a small agent on your network or a scheduled exchange that never exposes the database to the internet.
- CRM Sage integration. Sage CRM integration, HubSpot and Sage integration, and CRM integration with Sage 50 pass customers, quotes and balances between sales and finance, so representatives see credit limits before they commit.
- Sage Salesforce integration. The same pattern, whether the ledger is Sage 50, Sage 200 or Sage 100, the edition more common in North America. Stores and card payments follow the payout design above.
What ERP integration costs, and what drives it
We quote each integration as a project after discovery; monitoring and support then run under an SLA that sets scope and price, with incidents prioritised P1 to P4 and response and resolution targets agreed with you. We do not publish a rate card. As market context, published South African rates for IT project work run from about R550 to R750 an hour ex VAT (matnet.co.za, September 2026). Cost follows the number of systems and entities, one-way or two-way flows, starting data quality, custom rules such as customer-specific pricing or multi-currency, API limits and on-site agents, and marketplace app fees (set by their vendors) weighed against a one-off custom build.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Integration risks, and how we prevent them
Duplicates. One system of record, and matching rules on VAT and registration numbers, email addresses and account codes.- Silent failures. An alert on every failed sync, and a daily reconciliation of counts and totals.
- VAT and account errors. Tax codes and account mappings signed off by your finance lead before go-live.
- Breaking changes. We track vendors' API deprecation notices and test updates before they reach production.
- Key-person risk. Documentation, runbooks and credentials held by your organisation, not by one developer.
Governance, compliance, procurement and continuity
- Governance and reporting. A named integration lead, change control for mappings and rules, and an integration health report in each monthly service review.
- Compliance. Integrations move personal information, so POPIA applies: least-privilege API access, encryption in transit, audit logs and an operator agreement where we process data for you. Controls are aligned with ISO/IEC 27001; public bodies get the audit trail that PFMA and MFMA audits test, and boards get King IV Principle 12 reporting.
- Procurement. Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (sworn affidavit available on request), giving buyers 135% procurement recognition. Company documents, CSD supplier number and tax compliance status are available on request, and we complete SBD forms when a bid requires them. Buy through a proposal, SLA and purchase order, or through a tender response; see company facts.
- Continuity. You own your data, credentials, mappings and documentation, and at handover or exit we transfer all of it. Statutory filing links sit under SARS and CIPC integrations.