One database. Every tool you already use
Zoho gives AV integrators a single system of record — then connects to Portal, replaces QuickBooks, and opens up so you can build the rest yourself.
"We're using QuickBooks and we hate it, but I can't get off of it. I run my whole business on it."
— Common dealer refrain
"I love Portal too much. That's my only rule — I'm not getting rid of Portal. So what works with that?"
— AV dealer evaluating CRM options
"I've been messing around with Claude building little apps for our team, but they don't talk to anything."
— Dealer at CEDIA 2026
Your business data lives in five places that don't talk
Zoho puts all of it in one system of record at a price that doesn't punish you for adding people or modules — and unlike most of what's sold to dealers, it's wide open to whatever you want to build next.
Where it lives today
- • CRM in a spreadsheet or nowhere at all
- • Accounting in QuickBooks
- • Projects in a whiteboard, a group text, or a tool nobody logs into
- • Inventory in someone's head
- • Service tickets in an inbox
Where it belongs
- • CRM, accounting, projects, inventory, and tickets in one system
- • One permission model instead of five
- • One audit trail — you can actually see who changed what
- • Full REST API on every module
- • Native MCP servers, so AI tools read and write directly
Every module has a full REST API, and Zoho ships native MCP servers. That means AI assistants and the apps you build can read and write to your real data directly — not through a scraped export or a nightly CSV.
Zoho in the center, everything else connected to it
The database
Zoho Suite
CRM · Books · Projects · Inventory · Desk · Analytics
Proposals
Portal.io
Deal stage and invoice data in sync
Accounting
Zoho Books
Migrated off QuickBooks
API / MCP
Custom apps & AI tools
Read and write directly
You shouldn't have to run your company inside someone else's UI
Every integrator runs a little differently and wants things a little differently. We set up the database and the connections. Then you — or we — build the interface your team actually wants. It all writes back to Zoho.
Scheduling apps
Dispatch and crew scheduling laid out the way your team already thinks about the week.
Time tracking
Techs clock in against the actual job from their phone. Hours land on the work order, feed payroll, and show up in job costing without anyone retyping a timesheet.
Field apps
A phone-shaped view for techs: today's work, notes, photos, time tracking — writing straight back to the record.
Commission dashboards
Your comp plan, your rules, calculated off live deal and invoice data instead of a monthly spreadsheet.
Job costing views
Labor and material against estimate, live, per job. Find out you're underwater while you can still do something about it.
Customer portals
A client-facing view of job status, documents, and invoices, pulled live from the same database.
Work order scheduling app
One dealer wanted their techs scheduled their way — by crew, by region, by the way their week actually stacks up. Nothing off the shelf did it, so we built a scheduling board on top of their Zoho data. Work orders, assignments, and time tracking all write back to the same records their office staff already work in. It's a custom build for that shop, not a product we sell.
Portal.io, actually connected
Dealers who run on Portal shouldn't have to give it up — it handles proposals better than most CRMs do. We build around it, not instead of it.
How Portal and Zoho work together
- • Proposal sent, accepted, or rejected automatically updates the deal stage in CRM
- • Client info stays in sync across both platforms
- • Invoice data feeds Zoho Books automatically
- • Job stage updates flow back to CRM pipeline
Not on Portal? Still a fit
Portal is where we've gone deepest, but it isn't the requirement. The same approach works with whatever proposal tool you use — the quote lives where your team likes writing it, and the resulting deal, client, and invoice data lands in Zoho. If your tool has an API, we connect it. If it doesn't, we find the seam that works.
You hate QuickBooks. You also can't leave it.
Almost every dealer we talk to is on QuickBooks, hates it, and feels stuck because the whole business runs through it. That's a migration problem, not a software problem — and it's one we've done a lot of.
Native connection
Zoho Books sits inside the same system as your CRM, projects, and inventory. Job costing stops being a monthly reconciliation exercise.
Clean migration
Chart of accounts, customers, vendors, open invoices, and history come across intact — with your accountant in the loop, not surprised.
Workflows rebuilt
Invoicing, approvals, progress billing, and recurring service revenue get rebuilt the way you run them — not force-fitted to the old file.
See it built for your business
We'll configure a live Zoho instance around your workflow — with your real customers — so you can click around before you ever commit.