Salesforce Integrations
ERP, billing, ecommerce and finance systems connected with idempotent syncs, retries, dead-letter logging and alerting — so a failure reaches your team, not your customer.
01
The problem
Why people call us about this.
A
Finance and sales quote different revenue numbers in the same meeting.
B
A sync broke three weeks ago and a customer found out before you did.
C
Every integration is a different person’s undocumented side project.
02
What’s covered
The Salesforce we actually configure.
An integration is a promise between two systems. We write that promise down first, then build to it with the Salesforce APIs suited to the volume and latency you actually have.
03
Approaches
Salesforce integration approaches, and when each is right
There are five ways to connect Salesforce to another system. Most orgs end up using two or three of them, one per kind of interface, and most integration trouble starts with using one approach for everything.
| Approach | Right when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Native connector or AppExchange app | A common pairing (HubSpot, Outlook, QuickBooks, Slack) with standard objects and simple rules | Logic the connector cannot express, and API calls it uses without being asked |
| Direct API integration | One or two systems, with REST or Bulk API calls from either side and Named Credentials holding the secrets | Retries, idempotency and error logging are yours to build, and each new interface is new code |
| Middleware (MuleSoft, Workato) | Several systems in one flow, transformations, or an ERP at the centre | A licence and a platform someone has to own, justified only by the number of interfaces |
| Event-driven (Platform Events, Change Data Capture) | Other systems need to react within seconds to a change in Salesforce | Event ordering, replay after an outage, and subscribers that fall behind |
| Data virtualisation (Salesforce Connect) | Users need to see external records in Salesforce without copying them in | Latency on every page load, and limits on reporting and automation over external objects |
If the answer is middleware, MuleSoft integration is a line of its own.
04
The service
What our Salesforce integration services include
Every integration we build ships with the same five things, because the connection itself is the easy part. What makes it hold up is everything around it.
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An interface contract
Per integration: the objects and fields, which system owns each one, the direction, the frequency and a named owner on your side. Agreed in writing before any build starts.
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The build, on the approach that fits
Chosen per interface from the table above, not by the tool we happen to like, with the Salesforce API limits it will consume budgeted up front.
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Failure handling
Idempotent writes so a retry cannot create a duplicate, automatic retries, and a dead-letter log that keeps every failed message with its error so it can be replayed once fixed.
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Monitoring and alerts
A health dashboard your ops team can read, and alerts that reach a person before a customer notices a missing order or invoice.
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A runbook and handover
What each alert means, how to replay a failure, and who to call. You own all of it afterwards.
How we quote
We quote after an inventory of the systems and interfaces in scope, usually two weeks in, and the price holds.
Taking over an integration someone else built starts the same way: a written map of what exists before anyone changes it.
05
Most requested
Integrations we build most often
Most integration work we do is one of six pairings. Each has a native or off-the-shelf route, and each has one field-mapping trap that decides whether the sync holds up after the first month.
Salesforce and HubSpot
HubSpot’s own connector syncs leads, contacts, companies and deals, and it is the right starting point for most teams. The trap is ownership: HubSpot deduplicates on email and Salesforce does not, and a field edited in both systems is overwritten by whichever sync rule wins. We set inclusion lists, a per-field sync rule and a lead-conversion policy before switching it on, and move to middleware only when the logic outgrows the connector. See Salesforce HubSpot integration services.
Salesforce and Microsoft Outlook
Salesforce offers two routes: the Outlook integration add-in, where users log email and events by hand, and Einstein Activity Capture, which syncs them automatically. Most orgs need both, for different teams. The traps are Microsoft 365 admin consent, which blocks the add-in with “Need admin approval”, and the Log an Email layout, which decides which fields are captured at all. See Salesforce Outlook integration setup and support.
Salesforce and ERP (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics)
Quote-to-cash is where an ERP integration earns its keep: accounts, products, price books and orders one way, invoices and payment status the other. It is usually middleware or a custom build on the Salesforce REST and Bulk APIs, with Platform Events for anything time-sensitive. The trap is the master record: decide which system owns customers, products and prices before mapping a single field, or finance and sales will report different revenue from the same deal.
Salesforce and QuickBooks
For smaller finance teams, an AppExchange connector links opportunities to QuickBooks invoices and brings payment status back to the account. It is a quick win when the mapping is simple. The trap is tax and product setup: QuickBooks items, tax codes and customer names have to match Salesforce products and accounts exactly, or invoices post against the wrong customer. Our guide to whether Salesforce integrates with QuickBooks compares the connectors and what maps where.
Salesforce and Shopify
Shopify orders and customers flow into Salesforce so sales and service see what a customer bought, through a connector app or middleware for higher volumes. The trap is guest checkout: the same buyer arrives as several Shopify customers with different emails, and a straight sync turns each into a separate Salesforce contact. Matching rules and an order-to-account strategy come first. The Shopify Salesforce integration guide compares the four ways to connect them.
Salesforce and Slack
Salesforce for Slack, the native app, puts record alerts, deal rooms and Flow-driven notifications in the channels where the team already works. It is low-risk to switch on. The trap is noise and access: alerts on every field change drown the useful ones, and a channel can show record data to people Salesforce itself would hide it from. We scope alerts to decisions and check sharing before a record reaches a channel.
Need dedicated development capacity to build any of these? See how to hire a Salesforce developer from us, from $40 an hour.
06
Guides
Integration guides
Longer guides for the integrations people ask us about most, each with the ways to connect, what maps where and what breaks.
Salesforce HubSpot integration
The native connector, where it breaks, and when to use middleware.
Salesforce Outlook integration
The add-in, Einstein Activity Capture, and fixing “Need admin approval”.
Shopify to Salesforce integration guide
Four ways to connect, and the order and customer mapping that holds up.
QuickBooks and Salesforce integration guide
Connectors compared, QuickBooks Online vs Desktop, and what does not sync.
Trello and Salesforce integration guide
The official Power-Up, two-way sync, and when a native board is the better answer.
Jira to Salesforce integration guide
Connector options, issue-to-case mapping and limits.
07
How it runs
Five phases, and what you see at the end of each.
01 · Week 1
Inventory
What exists, who owns it, and which system is really the source of truth. Almost always surfaces something nobody knew was live.
A written map
02 · Weeks 2–3
Contract
The design in writing, with each decision and its reversal cost named. This is where we argue with the brief — before money is spent.
A signed scope
03 · Middle
Build
Built against the contract and reviewed against it. You see working software every two weeks, in your own sandbox.
Fortnightly demos
04 · Late
Prove
Volume testing at twice expected load, deliberate failure injection, and a replay run with your team watching.
A test evidence pack
05 · Final week
Hand over
Runbook, monitoring, escalation path and a named owner on your side — then a month watching it together before we step back.
Runbook and owner
08
First call
Thirty minutes. Three answers.
You speak to a certified architect, not a sales engineer. No deck, no discovery fee, and no obligation to go further — you leave the call with three things whether you hire us or not.
Whether this is even the right line
About a third of the time it is not, and we say so. Usually the ask is custom development when the real problem sits in the data model underneath.
A shape and a range
Roughly how long, roughly how many people, and the band it falls in. The firm number follows discovery about two weeks later, and it holds.
The two risks we would flag
The things most likely to blow the timeline on a project like yours — named on the call, before anyone has signed anything.
Book it for this week.
Pick a slot directly in the calendar — most questions get answered inside the thirty minutes.
09
FAQ
Asked on nearly every call.
What happens when an integration fails at three in the morning?
It retries, then lands in a dead-letter queue and alerts whoever is on call. The failure reaches a human on your side before it reaches a customer.
Do we need middleware?
Often not. We use native Salesforce APIs where the volume and latency allow it, and recommend middleware only when the number of interfaces genuinely justifies the licence.
Can you integrate a system with no API?
Usually, through file-based or database-level patterns. It is less pleasant and we will tell you so plainly, but it is rarely actually impossible.
Who owns the integration afterwards?
You do. Every interface gets a written contract — fields, direction, frequency, owner — plus a health dashboard your ops team can read without ringing us.
How much do Salesforce integration services cost?
It follows the number of interfaces, the data volume, and whether middleware is involved. Setting up a native connector with agreed field ownership is a small engagement; an ERP quote-to-cash integration is a project. We give a fixed price after the inventory, about two weeks in, and it holds.
Other lines