Overview of the Salesforce CPQ and Zuora Integration

Overview

‍Salesforce is currently a leading CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) solution in the market. It excels in facilitating sales processes by making quoting simple and granting sales representatives considerable flexibility in crafting successful deals.

CPQ ensures precise pricing for any product configuration on various devices via the cloud platform. However, it lacks the capabilities for handling complex billing and financial operations such as tracking due dates, managing customer invoices, processing bills, closing financial books, auditing transactions, and reporting revenue. Integrating CPQ with Zuora's comprehensive auditing, compliance, billing, payment, and revenue management features can enhance these functions. This integration involves transferring data from Salesforce CPQ to Zuora Billing. This can be achieved through:

1. Zuora SFDC CPQ Connector: This tool allows you to control and tailor CPQ settings extensively.
2. Building your own IPaaS: Employ straightforward APIs to oversee your middleware systems.

Advantages

• Custom elements in Salesforce CPQ can be aligned with those in Zuora, allowing for seamless integration.
• Connect both systems using pre-set data mappings via ready-made connector flows.
• Utilize Zuora to streamline sales operations and provide the necessary financial compliance and auditing support.
• Benefit from a fluid transition from quoting to contract, subscription, and invoicing processes.

Limitations in Zuora and Salesforce CPQ connector

• Zuora CPQ connector has no control over the gaps in Salesforce CPQ, nor can it overcome such impediments.  
• The connector works uni-directionally from Salesforce CPQ to Zuora Billing. Only for customers using Zuora 360 any changes made to Zuora Billing will get updated in Salesforce.
• Salesforce is the master of product catalogue and subscription.
• If Subscriptions and Assets are not linked to an order in Salesforce, Zuora billing platform will generate orders and link subscriptions to that order in Zuora.
• Subscriptions in Zuora can only be deleted manually. The status of a deleted subscription in Zuora is updated to Cancelled.
• The sync job currently supports only up to 50 records per execution per object.
• The EA version of the connector will only support on-demand sync. The scheduler job will not be enabled for this version.
• Negative quantity is applicable only on the “per unit” charge model.