OneSuite’s CRM solution helps you manage your sales process from first contact to closed deal. Track potential business, maintain company and contact records, and move opportunities through your pipeline until they convert into paying clients.
In this guide you’ll learn:
- What the CRM solution does
- The three core record types
- How CRM connects with other solutions
- Where to start when you’re new to CRM
What CRM Does #
CRM is where you manage potential business before it becomes actual business. While the Clients solution tracks paying customers, CRM tracks the people and companies you’re pursuing.
Every sales conversation, proposal, and deal you’re working on lives here. When someone becomes a paying customer, you convert them to a client and all their history transfers automatically.
The Three Record Types #
CRM organizes your sales data into three types of records that work together:
Opportunities are specific deals you’re pursuing. A website project, retainer contract, or any paid work. Track the amount, stage, and expected close date for each deal.
Companies are organizations you’re working with. Store business details like industry, employee count, and annual revenue. Companies can have multiple people and multiple opportunities.
People are individual contacts. Store their name, job title, email, and phone. People can belong to a company or exist standalone. One person gets designated as point of contact for each opportunity.
These three types link together automatically. Create an opportunity, link it to a company and person, and everything connects. The opportunity knows who it’s for, and those records show the opportunity in their history.
The Four CRM Sections #
Open CRM and you’ll see four tabs at the top:
Opportunities – Your active sales pipeline. View deals in visual Kanban board or detailed list format.
Companies – All organizations in your database. List view with sortable columns.
People – Your contact database. Every individual you communicate with.
Tasks – All CRM-related tasks in one place. Filter by what they’re related to.
You’ll spend most of your time in the Opportunities tab managing active deals.
How CRM Connects with Other Solutions #
CRM doesn’t work alone. It connects with other OneSuite solutions to eliminate duplicate work:
Proposals & Contracts – Send proposals to opportunities. They link automatically.
Clients – Convert won opportunities to clients with one click. Contact information, history, and documents transfer automatically.
Projects – After conversion, create projects for clients. OneSuite already knows their details.
Invoices – Bill clients without re-entering information.
These connections mean you manage sales in CRM, then keep working with the same contacts in other solutions once they become clients. See How Solutions Work Together for complete workflow examples.
What You Can Do in CRM #
Track deals through stages – Move opportunities as they progress through your sales process.
Manage relationships – Store complete company and contact information in one place.
Assign ownership – Clarify who’s responsible for each opportunity, company, or person.
Set tasks and reminders – Create follow-ups on any record with due dates.
Customize for your business – Add custom fields for budget range, project type, referral source, or anything else you track.
Import existing data – Bring in contacts and companies from spreadsheets. Move up to 1,000 records at once.
Search and filter – Find exactly what you need across all your CRM data.
Convert to clients – Click Convert to Client when you win a deal. All history stays intact.
Three Ways to View Your Data #
Kanban View (Opportunities only) – Visual pipeline with drag-and-drop cards organized by stage. See forecasted revenue per stage. Switch between expanded view (full details) and compact view (more cards on screen).
List View (All record types) – Traditional table with sortable, filterable columns. Customize which columns appear.
Detail View (All records) – Click any record to see complete information. Tabs organize Timeline, Tasks, Files, and Emails.
Getting Started with CRM #
If you’re setting up CRM for the first time:
- Add a few companies and people you’re actively talking with
- Create opportunities for current sales conversations
- Link each opportunity to the right company and person
- Move deals through stages as they progress
Start small with real work. Get comfortable with active deals before importing historical data.
Related Articles #
- How Opportunities, Companies, and People Work Together (coming next)
- Understanding OneSuite’s Structure
- How Solutions Work Together
- OneSuite Glossary