People searching for “connecting systems for SMEs” mostly find companies that would rather sell them a whole new package. This article doesn’t do that. Below, you’ll find which integration to make first, the three available approaches, what they cost, and how to set it up in six steps without it quietly failing a year from now.
Which systems should you connect first?
Not all at once. Start where the same data is entered twice by two different people. In organizations with 3 to 250 employees, these are almost always the four:
| Integration | What stops | Typical time savings |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal or order → AFAS Profit or Exact Online | Re-enter customer data and order lines in the accounting system | 3 to 6 hours per week |
| Time tracking → invoicing | Collect, check and convert hours into invoice lines | 4 to 8 hours per week with 20 field employees |
| Webshop (Shopify or WooCommerce) → accounting | Update orders, payments, and stock levels | 2 to 5 hours per week at 200 orders per month |
| Administration → Microsoft 365 | Ask the colleague who happens to know | 1 to 3 hours per week per team |
The calculation that makes this worthwhile is short. Six hours of retyping per week at an internal hourly rate of € 45 is € 270 per week. Over 46 working weeks, that’s € 12.420 per year. A € 6.000 integration then pays for itself in about 23 weeks—and that’s the conservative calculation, because the hours aren’t even the biggest cost.
The most expensive part is the truth problem. As soon as the same address, pricing agreement, or contact person exists in two places, nobody knows which one is correct. You notice it quickly with an address. With a payment term, you only notice when the customer calls. We described how this knowledge gradually leaks out of your systems in what a Bedrijfsgeheugen is and why it leaks.
It's now well established that SMEs use software: Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this in the table ICT use in businesses by company size annually, how many companies use ERP, CRM, and BI software and how many exchange data electronically. What a table like that doesn't show is whether those packages communicate with each other. That's where most of the gains are in the companies we visit.
The practical test: ask three colleagues where the current email address of your biggest customer is stored. If you get three different answers, you don’t have a data quality problem — you have an integration problem.
Type over this order number. Once is doable. Forty times a day, every day, is a job.
Standard connector, integration platform or custom build?
There are three routes to connect systems. The mistake most often made: immediately go for the most expensive option because it makes the most impression.
| Route | Costs | Lead time | Choose this if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard connector from the AFAS or Exact Online marketplace | a fixed monthly amount, usually a few tens of euros | a day | your process is standard enough — more often than people think |
| Integration platform such as Make, Zapier, or Power Automate | monthly fee plus one-time setup | 1 to 3 weeks | there is no standard connector, or your process has a few custom rules |
| Custom development via the API | € 3.500 to € 12.000 one-off, fixed price upfront | 2 to 6 weeks | your process really is different, or the volume is too large for a platform |
Start at the top of that list and move down only if you really have to. Each step down roughly doubles both the lead time and the maintenance you’ll be left with. The factors that determine the exact price of the bottom option — number of fields, one-way or two-way, process exceptions — are explained in what an AFAS integration costs and the six factors that determine the price. If you’re specifically looking for a combination of both financial packages, read how to connect AFAS and Exact to your other systems. If you choose custom development via the API, first check what the AFAS API can and cannot do, so you don’t run into a limit halfway through that you could have known about in advance. If you work with Exact Online, the same advice applies: read what the Exact Online API can do and what an integration costs before you begin.
One thing makes the conversation easier: we don't sell software ourselves and don't earn anything from licenses. If the standard connector at € 40 per month solves the problem, that's what we recommend — even if it means a small invoice.
Connecting systems in SMEs: what does it cost and what does it deliver?
The prices we charge, so you know what to expect:
- Free self-assessment — in two minutes, you’ll see where most of the duplicate work is: take the self-assessment.
- Frisse Blik: € 2.900 excl. VAT — one day on-site, report within a week, fully credited if you proceed.
- AFAS or Exact integration: € 3.500 to € 12.000 — fixed price upfront, no hourly billing. The full breakdown is on the page about have an AFAS integration built for a fixed price.
- Connect: from € 29 per month — management and monitoring, so an outage doesn’t go unnoticed for three weeks: view Connect.
A complete example for a company with 25 employees: an integration costing € 7,500 upfront, plus € 29 per month for management, comes to € 7,848 in year one. In return, it saves 6 hours a week, or € 12,420. Net benefit in year one: over € 4,500, and in year two, without the upfront cost, more than € 12,000. Feel free to halve that time saving to be cautious—even then, the break-even point shifts to month ten, not never.
The way it works now
- The appointment is in one colleague's mailbox
- Data is manually retyped from one system to another
- The person who knows is on vacation
- No one can see afterwards why this decision was made
As it is
- The agreement is stored with the client, findable for everyone
- Once entered, information flows through to the rest
- Work continues, even if someone is absent
- Every decision has a source, an owner, and a date
An integration that still works a year from now, in six steps
Coupling projects rarely fail on technology. They fail on unclear agreements. This order prevents that:
- Track how much retyping you do for a week.Have everyone track what’s being done manually from A to B and how long it takes. Tracking it for one week is worth more than spending three weeks in meetings discussing priorities.
- Choose one process, not your whole business.Choose the process with the highest score from step 1. One working integration is worth more than a plan for five.
- Document which fields are transferred and which system is authoritative.Write down exactly: customer name, address, VAT number, contact person, pricing agreement—and which system is the system of record for each field. One A4 page prevents most problems, because two systems overwriting each other only make the problem happen faster.
- Clean things up first, then integrate.An integration copies your duplicate customer records and old debtors just as neatly as the good data. Clean them up before switching it on, not afterward.
- Start small.Run one customer group or one order type alongside the current process for a week and compare the results manually. That way, you’ll find errors while they’re still small.
- Decide who receives the error messages.An integration that fails silently is worse than no integration. Assign one person, schedule a quarterly check, and make sure failed records end up somewhere someone will see them.
Allow two to six weeks from selection to go-live, most of which will be spent on steps 3 and 4.
Why integrations fail in small and medium-sized businesses
We see four recurring causes:
- No one owns it. The integration was built by an external party and then left without an owner. Make sure the code, documentation and access belong to you.
- A process that’s connected, even though the process itself isn’t right. Automation only makes a messy process messy faster. If you recognize that quotes are simply left waiting, start with follow up on quotes without a CRM before you connect anything.
- The shadow administration remains. As long as the actual schedule is in an Excel file on someone's desktop, your integration is talking to a system nobody uses. See when to replace your planning in Excel.
- Started too big. Five integrations at once means testing five times, making agreements five times and giving up once. One integration per quarter is boring, and it works.
Once the integration is running, the next step becomes interesting: data that’s correct in one place is also data an AI assistant can use meaningfully. What that delivers is described in the seven tasks you can automate with Microsoft Copilot.
Curious which integration would deliver the most value for you?
Do the free self-scan and see in two minutes where in your company the most duplicate work is. If you want sharper visibility, the Fresh look (€ 2,900 excl. VAT, one day on-site, report within a week, fully settled with a follow-up engagement) maps your entire process, including a concrete coupling proposal with fixed price. The report is yours, even if you continue on your own.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to buy a new ERP system if my software packages don't talk to each other?
Almost never. AFASDutch ERP package for administration, HR and payroll. Many SMBs have their single source of truth in it. Profit, Exact Online and Microsoft 365 all have open interfaces, so you can connect them to your webshop, time tracking or planning without having to abandon anything. An ERP migration takes months and tens of thousands of euros; a coupling takes weeks and € 3,500 to € 12,000. You only switch when the package itself can no longer handle your process — not because it wouldn't be able to couple.
How long does it take to connect two systems in an SME?
A standard connector from the AFAS marketplace or Exact OnlineAccounting and ERP software in the cloud, widely used in Dutch SMEs. is often live within a day. A coupling via an integration platform takes one to three weeks, most of which is spent agreeing on which fields are included. Custom work via the API takes two to six weeks from start to live. In all three cases, the technology is rarely the long part: it's the agreements.
Can a connection work in real time?
Usually, that's not necessary, and often it isn't possible either. AFAS uses GetConnectors and UpdateConnectors and doesn't support traditional webhooks; in practice, you sync on a schedule, for example every fifteen minutes or every hour. Exact Online and most webshops can send an instant notification. For almost any SMB process, syncing every fifteen minutes is more than enough, and a scheduled integration is easier to restore if something goes wrong.
What happens if the connection breaks?
It happens: a supplier changes a field, a password expires, or an order contains a character the other system doesn't accept. The danger isn't the failure itself, but the silence that follows. So agree in advance who receives error messages and who resolves them. If you'd rather not manage that yourself, Connect management and monitoring is available from € 29 per month.
Which integration delivers the most value?
Put the integration where the same data is entered twice by two different people. In most SMEs, that’s the route from quote to order to invoice, or from time tracking to invoicing. For a week, keep track of how often something is retyped and how long it takes—that count will point you to the integration you need.
From knowing to doing
This article helps you get oriented. Then look at the concrete approach for exact online integration.