Xero calls them Quotes, QuickBooks Online calls them Estimates. You might call them proposals or bids. In any case, we recommend you do not use the Quoting feature inside of Xero or QuickBooks Online, and instead using the Quoting feature inside Salesforce. Why?


Quoting is a job for your sales team, not the finance department. Your finance system should start recording data when the sale is made, not in the middle of a potential sale. The sales process largely stops when the customer agrees to the sale, and then sales (or finance) creates the invoice, and finance is responsible for collections.


 Here’s a few of the technical reasons to use Salesforce Quotes instead of quoting through Xero/QuickBooks Online.

  • If you don't make the sale, you have the Contact details of a non-customer cluttering up your Accounting System. Potential customers are best stored in your CRM, not your accounting system.
  • Salesforce’s Products are far more sophisticated than the Products in Xero or QuickBooks Online.
  • QuickBooks Online has a 5 user limit, so using QuickBooks Online Quotes is not possible for more than a few people on your sales team.
  • No integration exists to copy information from Xero/QuickBooks Online Quotes back to Salesforce.
  • Salesforce Quotes allow you to record each quote sent and everyone in Salesforce can see a record of the quotes sent.

We recommend using Salesforce Quotes & Opportunities, and when the sale is closed, you should sync the Salesforce Quote with the Salesforce Opportunity, and create an Invoice from the Closed Won Opportunity.