Streamlining Success: How Second Mile's Technical Expertise Transformed LEO Events' Operations

Automate Workflows

Unify Your Systems

With seamless integration between HubSpot and Sage Intacct, your sales and finance teams stay perfectly aligned. As deals progress and client details evolve in HubSpot, financial records are automatically created or updated in Sage—minimizing manual entry, reducing errors, and improving visibility across your business. Our customized solutions keep your operations in sync from contract to cash.

Challenge

LEO Events, a prominent event agency specializing in large-scale corporate events, had been struggling for years with inefficient, manual processes that created significant operational bottlenecks. As their business grew, the disconnect between their HubSpot CRM and Sage Intacct accounting system became increasingly problematic.

The core challenges were multifaceted and deeply impacted their business operations:

1. Manual Data Duplication: Account executives and accounting staff were forced to manually enter the same information in both HubSpot and Sage Intacct, creating redundancies and wasting valuable time.
2. Invoice Management Inefficiencies: The process for creating and tracking invoices was particularly cumbersome. Account executives had to manually request invoices from the accounting team via spreadsheets, then wait for creation in Sage before they could be sent to clients.
3. Limited Financial Visibility: Account executives had no real-time visibility into invoice status (paid, overdue, etc.), hampering their ability to effectively communicate with clients about financial matters.
4. Quarterly Closing Complications: At the end of each quarter, the accounting team had to manually transfer final revenue numbers, expense figures, and profit calculations from Sage into HubSpot to close the books in both systems.
5. Program ID Limitations: Their previous CRM system used a specific 4-digit program ID format that was essential for expense tracking. HubSpot's native record IDs were incompatible with their established workflows.

These challenges resulted in delayed payments, lack of financial visibility across departments, and significant time wastage. The manual nature of these processes also introduced a high risk of human error in critical financial data, potentially affecting business decisions and client relationships.

Solution

Second Mile developed a sophisticated integration between HubSpot and Sage Intacct, leveraging deep technical expertise to bridge these disparate systems. The solution architecture was carefully designed to address LEO Events' specific operational challenges while maintaining data integrity and security.

Technical Architecture:

1. Middleware Implementation: The team deployed a Node.js service hosted on Heroku as the middleware solution to connect HubSpot's API with Sage Intacct's XML-based API. This middleware handled the complex data transformations required between the two systems.
2. API Integration Framework:
   • HubSpot Side: Utilized the Deals API for financial updates, Contacts and Companies API for consistent information management, Files and Notes API for invoice attachment functionality, and HubDB for employee-to-owner mappings.
   • Sage Intacct Side: Implemented XML functions for customer and project creation/updates, invoice PDF retrieval, and nightly employee data synchronization.
3. Custom Development:
   • Automated 4-Digit Program ID: Created a custom-coded workflow to generate the required 4-digit program IDs compatible with LEO's expense tracking processes.
   • Invoice Attachment System: Developed functionality to automatically attach invoice PDFs from Sage directly to the corresponding deals in HubSpot.
   • Status Update Notifications: Built an automated notification system to alert account executives of invoice status changes.
4. Security Implementation:
   • Implemented private app tokens stored securely as environmental variables in Heroku.
   • Secured Sage authentication through XML headers with credentials stored as configuration variables.
   • Developed comprehensive error handling with smart retry logic and alert systems.
5. HubSpot Customizations:
   • Leveraged HubSpot's Quotes tool to streamline contract creation and signing.
   • Implemented custom properties within deals to track financial metrics.
   • Created calculated properties for gross profit analysis based on final sales, expenses, and commission income.
   • Developed executive dashboards for real-time financial reporting.

The solution was designed with maintainability in mind, featuring intuitive mapping tables that allow LEO's team to easily adapt the integration as their service offerings evolve. The development process prioritized security at every step, ensuring that sensitive financial information remained protected while still enabling seamless data flow between systems.

Results

The integration between HubSpot and Sage Intacct delivered quantifiable results that significantly improved LEO Events' operational efficiency and financial performance:

1. Dramatic Time Savings: The integration eliminated approximately 240 hours of manual work annually, representing approximately $36,000 in annual OPEX savings (calculated at $150/hour for staff time).
2. Process-Specific Efficiencies:
   • Contract Creation and Signing (across 130 programs)
   • Invoice Creation
   • Program, Contact, and Company Creation
   • Invoice Updates
   • Deal ID Creation
   • Quarterly Book Closing
3. Accelerated Cash Flow: By streamlining the invoicing process and providing real-time status updates, the integration significantly reduced accounts receivable time, improving LEO Events' cash flow position.
4. Error Reduction: The elimination of manual data entry across systems virtually eliminated data transcription errors, ensuring consistency between financial records in both HubSpot and Sage Intacct.
5. Real-Time Financial Visibility: Executive dashboards now provide up-to-date financial information without the previous delays caused by manual data transfer, enabling more timely and accurate business decisions.

The integration delivered these results while maintaining the security and integrity of LEO Events' financial data, proving that technical excellence can directly translate to business value.

Impact

Beyond the quantifiable results, the HubSpot-Sage Intacct integration catalyzed a broader business transformation for LEO Events:

1. Departmental Focus and Specialization: The elimination of redundant data entry allowed both the accounting team and account executives to concentrate on their core responsibilities rather than administrative tasks. Accounting staff could focus on financial management in Sage, while account executives could dedicate more attention to client relationships in HubSpot.
2. Improved Interdepartmental Collaboration: The integration eliminated the "invoice ping-ponging" between departments, fostering better collaboration and reducing friction between accounting and sales teams.
3. Enhanced Executive Decision-Making: The real-time P&L dashboard in HubSpot revolutionized how LEO's executive team approached financial planning and analysis. With immediate access to accurate financial data, leadership could make more informed strategic decisions without waiting for manual reports.
4. Streamlined Client Communication: Account executives gained immediate visibility into invoice status, enabling them to proactively communicate with clients about financial matters and resolve payment issues more efficiently.
5. Operational Transformation: The integration allowed LEO Events to retire numerous finance spreadsheets and manual tracking systems, creating a more streamlined, modern operational infrastructure.
6. Security and Cost Optimization: The solution provided tighter Sage security while reducing license costs, demonstrating that technical excellence can simultaneously improve both security posture and cost efficiency.
7. Employee Satisfaction: Perhaps most importantly, the integration resulted in "happier teams" as noted in LEO's own assessment. By eliminating tedious manual processes, staff could focus on more meaningful, value-added work.

The integration transformed LEO Events' operations from a fragmented, manual approach to a cohesive, automated system that supports their continued growth and success in the competitive event management industry.

AI Usage

While the integration primarily focused on system connectivity rather than AI implementation, the solution laid the groundwork for future AI capabilities by establishing clean, consistent data flow between systems. The HubSpot Pro Suite upgrade included access to several AI-powered features that LEO Events could leverage:

1. Content Creation Efficiency: With the upgrade to Content Pro, LEO Events gained access to HubSpot's Brand Voice AI tools, enabling more consistent and efficient content creation for client communications.
2. Data Quality Management: The Operations Pro features include AI-powered data quality tools that help identify and fix errors before they impact business operations, further reducing the potential for data inconsistencies.
3. Client Feedback Analysis: The Service Pro tools include NPS and CSAT capabilities with built-in analytics that help LEO Events better understand client satisfaction and identify improvement opportunities.

By establishing a solid data foundation through this integration, LEO Events is now positioned to take advantage of HubSpot's expanding AI capabilities, potentially unlocking additional efficiency gains and business insights in the future.

Don’t Just Take Our Word for It

Ready to transform your operations?

Let's discuss how Second Mile can help your organization scale smarter and work less.

Contact Us