Connect Your Organization's CRM to Handbid

This article will show you how to connect Salesforce NPSP, Bloomerang, Salsa Engage and Kindful CRMs to your Handbid account.

This article will show you how to set up a connection to Salesforce NPSP, Bloomerang, Salsa Engage and Kindful CRMs. This allows you to synchronize your organization's contacts and transactions (from Handbid's Auctions and Event sites) to the three CRMs. 

To sync any CRM to Handbid:

1. Go to your Main Dashboard - Organizational Settings

2. Select APPS - and choose the CRM from the dropdown.

 

Click below to view the directions for each CRM we sync with.

1. Bloomerang
2. Salsa Engage
3. Salesforce NPSP
4. Kindful

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Bloomerang

Handbid will synchronize contacts and transactions to your Bloomerang account.   The synchronization is bi-directional, meaning any changes to contacts made on Handbid or Bloomerang will be reflected in the other.   Transactions will be synchronized once an event has been finalized and reconciled in Handbid.  This article will explain how to set up the synchronization,  initiate a contacts sync, and configure an event for transactions sync.

The first thing you will want to do is log in to your Bloomerang account. Once logged into Bloomerang, you want to edit your "User Account".  Do this by clicking on your account icon at the top right and selecting "Edit My User."

On the User Settings screen, look for the section called "API Keys v2.0".  If you have a key already, you can select this and copy it to your clipboard.  If you have not created one yet, click the "GENERATE" button.

 

Once you have that API key copied,  it is time to get that into Handbid.   Login in a separate browser window (tab) to your  Handbid manager account at manager.hand.bid.

From there, you will want to access your "Org Settings" where you will connect your account.  Once on the Org Settings dialog, click on "Apps" to get to the Connected Accounts section. 

Under Connected Accounts, select "Bloomerang". This will populate the "My Connections" section below and reveal a blue "CONNECT" button.   

Click the "CONNECT" button and you will be presented with a window asking for your API Key. Paste it from your clipboard here.   Then click AUTHENTICATE. 

 

If this is the first time you have connected, Handbid will prompt you if you want to synchronize your contacts.  If you select "YES", a first-time contacts sync will start.  

Managing Contacts Sync

You can access the contacts sync screen from the left menu. From the MAIN dashboard, go to "CONTACTS" and then select "CRM SYNC". Here you can see any running jobs and also initiate any new sync requests.  

Configuring Settings within an Auction or Event

Within an auction or event, you can setup how you want transactions to appear in Bloomerang. To do this,  enter into your Auction / Event settings and navigate to the INFO tab.  Here you will see additional settings for Bloomerang. These settings allow you to select a FUND, CAMPAIGN, and also an APPEAL where any Handbid final transactions will appear.  

Let's go through each of these options

• Fund. Select the FUND from Bloomerang you want for this event
• Campaign. Select the Campaign from Bloomerang you want to use for this event.
• Appeal. You can either select an existing Appeal from Bloomerang or you can add a new one.
• Synchronize Offline Transactions. If you select this, Handbid will also pass over any transactions processed offline (not using the Handbid credit card system). If you already loaded these "offline transactions" in Bloomerang that exist in this event, then you may want to un-check this box.

Offline Transaction Sync

Handbid will synchronize transactions as soon as the auction reconciles.  When does that happen?  After your auction closes and you have finalized all remaining payments in Handbid (and hopefully zeroed out all invoices), then you will request your event to be reconciled.  Handbid's team will process that reconciliation for you.  During that process, all transactions will sync over.  

Here are some things to consider about how transactions sync:

• Transactions sync, not invoices.  So if an invoice has multiple transactions on it, then you will need to manually reconcile which transaction maps to which element on the invoice.  Handbid does not link transactions to invoice items. 
• Invoice items are recorded in "NOTES".  When a transaction is pushed to Bloomerang, Handbid will populate the NOTE field on the transaction with the name of the event, and a list of all items from the invoice (separated by a ;).  
• Acknowledged.   If an emailed receipt was sent from Handbid, the transaction in Bloomerang will be marked as "Acknowledged."

If you have any questions about how the sync works, or if you are getting "failed" contact sync jobs, or missing transactions, please reach out to us at service@handbid.com for help!

You will now have the option to edit some settings straight from Bloomerang in Handbid. 

 

Salsa Engage

See the video below for steps on how to sync to Salsa.

 

 

Salesforce NPSP

When using Salesforce, you can choose to use the Salesforce contacts to update or the Handbid contacts to update. Our recommended best practice is to choose Handbid as the priority to sync the contacts. 

The video below will show you how to sync Salesforce to Handbid.

1. Go to your Organization Settings - APPS.
2. Select Salesforce from the dropdown menu.
3. Click connect and follow the prompts.
   
   1. Configurations
      1. Choose wether you want to sync all of your Salesforce contacts or only Handbid contacts.
      2. Choose to prioritize Saleforce data or Handbid's data. Our suggestion is to choose Handbid to update Salesforce data because in most cases the data you are entering into Handbid is the most accurate. 

 

How Contacts Sync to Handbid

Handbid syncs to Salesforce in 30 minute intervals and does not sync in real-time. The video below shows making a change in Handbid as well as how the update reflects in Salesforce. 

 

 

How Transactions Sync from Handbid

Transactions must be initiated by a manual sync and will sync instantaneously.

 

 

Kindful

1. Be sure you already have an active account with Kindful CRM.  Have your username and password ready. You will need it to set up the connection.
2. Also, be sure that you have a manager account with Handbid.  Have your username and password ready. You will need it to set up the connection.
3. Login to your Handbid manager account and go to your Organization Settings.
4. When the settings window opens, click on the last tab called "Apps". Go to this tab and select "Kindful" from the dropdown.
5. Once you select Kindful, click the blue CONNECT button where you will log in to Kindful and take the additional complete the connection.   
   
                                    
   
   
6. When the Connection window appears, you will need to click "Authorize" in order to authorize the connection between Handbid and Kindful.  If you are not already logged in, you will be asked to log in with your Kindful administrator username and password. If you are already logged into Kindful in another browser tab, this process should complete the connection process.
                                    
7. If the connection was successful, you will see Kindful connected with your admin email address under "My Connections" in Handbid.

                                 

Synchronize your Kindful Contacts

Once you finish connecting Kindful to Handbid, Handbid will schedule to pass your contacts between your Handbid contacts list and Kindful.

Please note that this process is not in real-time. Kindful manages updates on a synchronous basis, so it will happen at scheduled times.

IMPORTANT: Note that if you have a lot of contacts, the first time you sync could take an extended period of time to complete .  To see progress on any synchronization or to schedule a new sync, simply go to your Contacts / CRM Sync.

                           

Viewing Kindful > Handbid Sync Progress

1. Once the sync process begins, you can view the progress on your CRM sync page. 
2. To view the CRM SYNC page, go to your Main Dashboard, click CONTACTS, then CRM SYNC
3. On the CRM Sync page, you will see all sync attempts as well as who originated it.  
   
   
4. You can also view the contacts syncing back and forth by logging into Kindful and seeing the information there as well. If you edit contacts in Kindful, it will sync and update on Handbid as well. 

Additional Kindful > Handbid Sync Information

1. Manually Sync:
   Handbid will sync contacts for you on a regular basis, but if you need to force a sync, you can do that.  Just hit the "Synchronize Now" button on the Contacts Sync page. 
2. Synchronize Transactions:

   Ultimately you will want transactions from your auctions and fundraisers to sync into your Kindful CRM account.  However, it makes the most sense to wait to sync these transactions until the event is over and reconciled (so that all possible payments and refunds are complete). 

   As a result, Handbid will sync over transactions after an auction is reconciled. Auction reconciliation is a process that Handbid does for all auctions once payment is complete.  As soon as an auction is put into a reconciled state, all transactions for that auction will sync over to Kindful and attach themselves to that contact. 

3. Checking the Status of Sync Requests in Kindful:
   

   In Kindful, if you are not sure if something has passed over properly from Handbid, you can always check for all requests by going to "Connected Apps" and then clicking on "Handbid" in the list.  What this will do is show you a list of all connections Handbid has made to Kindful and the activity. 

   If you are of the "programming" type, you can click on the job ID to see the detailed request. Otherwise, you will probably find the table on the page to be the most useful. On that table, you can see which contacts were synced, updated and also any transactions.