Start here if you have not used the CRM before. This page is a map. It does not ask you to do anything — it just names the parts, so the rest of the documentation makes sense.
The five lists
The CRM keeps five kinds of record. They live in the sidebar under CRM.
| List | What it holds | A simple way to think about it |
|---|---|---|
| Leads | People who have shown interest but have not bought yet. | Somebody who rang up and asked for a price. |
| Customers | People you actually invoice. | The same person, after they said yes. |
| Companies | The business a customer belongs to. | Three people at one firm share one company. |
| Deals | A specific piece of business you are trying to win. | One order you are chasing, with a value and a date. |
| Visits | A trip to go and see somebody. | Going to their site on Thursday. |
There is a sixth list, Tasks, for anything you have promised to do. It is not only for the CRM — a task can hang off an invoice or a project too.
A task has a due date, and an hour as well if you want one: the Time box beside the date is optional. With an hour, the task is overdue from that hour; without one, from the end of the day. Its Reminder goes out at the time it is due, or 15 minutes, an hour, a day or a week before, and a task with an hour and no Reminder chosen is reminded at the hour. Hours are read in your workspace’s time zone (Settings, Organisation). Pressing Task on a lead, customer or deal asks for the task, its due date and hour, and any task field your business made compulsory in Fields & rules.
How a record travels
Most businesses use them in this order.
- An enquiry arrives. You save it as a lead.
- You chase it. Calls, notes, emails and visits all get recorded on that lead.
- They agree to buy. You convert the lead. That creates a customer, and if you want, a deal.
- The deal moves along your pipeline until it is won or lost.
- A won deal becomes a quotation, then an invoice, in Sales documents.
Nothing is thrown away when a lead converts. The lead stays where it is, marked as converted, and keeps every call and note on it. That is what lets you answer “which source actually produced paying customers” a year later.
Why they are separate
It is fair to ask why a lead and a customer are not one list. Three reasons:
- You treat them differently. A lead gets chased. A customer gets served. Mixing them means your “who do I ring today” list is full of people who already bought.
- Different fields matter. A lead has a source and a rating. A customer has a GSTIN, a credit limit and a payment term. Asking for a GSTIN on a first phone call is a good way to lose the call.
- Reporting. Keeping them apart is what makes a conversion rate possible at all — you cannot divide customers by leads if they are the same row.
Where to go next
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us. A question that needed asking usually means a page that needed writing.