CRM Overview

OneSuite’s CRM manages your sales process from first contact to closed deal: it tracks the opportunities you’re pursuing, the companies and people behind them, and the follow-up tasks that keep deals moving. It holds everything about potential business in one place, so when a deal is won you convert it into a client instead of retyping the details.

In this guide you’ll learn how to:

• Open the CRM and find your way around its tabs
• Understand how opportunities, companies and people fit together
• Switch the Opportunities tab between Kanban view and Table view
• Convert a won deal into a client
• Set up the CRM for your business

Before you start

• If you don’t see CRM in the sidebar, an admin can switch it on in Settings, Customize Navigation.
• Your profile needs permission to view the CRM module (view-crm-module). Each tab also has its own permission, listed below.

What does the CRM do?

The CRM is where you manage potential business before it becomes actual business. The Clients module tracks paying customers; the CRM tracks the people and companies you’re pursuing.

It works with three linked record types:

• Opportunities are the deals you’re pursuing, such as a website project or a retainer. Each one has an amount, a stage, a close date, an owner, and a linked company and point of contact.
• Companies are the organisations you work with. A company can have many people and many opportunities.
• People are individual contacts, with details such as email, phone and job title. A person can belong to a company or stand alone.

Link an opportunity to a company and a person, and each record shows the others. See How Opportunities, Companies, and People Work Together for the details.

How to open the CRM

Click CRM in the sidebar, under Client.

1. Click CRM in the sidebar.
2. Click a tab to open it. The top bar shows All with the tab name and a count, for example All Opportunities.
3. Click Add New in the top bar to add a record to the tab you’re on.

What are the CRM tabs?

The CRM has four tabs. You see a tab only if it is switched on for your business and your profile has its permission.

Tab	What it holds	Permission needed
Opportunities	Your deals, on a Kanban board by stage or in a table	view-company
Companies	Every organisation in your CRM	view-company
People	Every contact in your CRM	view-lead
Tasks	Follow-up tasks linked to CRM records	view-lead-task

Anyone with the client settings permission can reorder the tabs or switch any of them off in the Customize drawer, but at least one tab must stay on. If every tab you could see is off, the page says No CRM tabs are enabled. Enable at least one tab from CRM customization to continue.

How to switch between Kanban view and Table view

The Opportunities tab has two layouts: Kanban view shows your pipeline as columns, one per stage, and Table view shows the same deals as rows.

1. Open the Opportunities tab.
2. Click the view switcher in the toolbar (Change view).
3. Choose Kanban view or Table view. OneSuite remembers your choice in this browser.

In Kanban view, each column shows the stage name, how many opportunities it holds and its Forecasted Revenue. Drag a card to another column to change its stage. To add, rename, reorder or delete stages, see Understanding Pipeline Stages.

Use Table view when you want to compare deals side by side or edit fields in place. Search the tab with Search opportunities… in the toolbar. OneSuite has no global search, so you search within each list.

How to convert a won deal into a client

Open the opportunity and click Convert to Client to turn it into a paying client.

1. Open the opportunity from the Opportunities tab.
2. Click Convert to Client at the top right of the details area.
3. Complete the Convert to Client drawer, then click Convert to Client at the bottom of it.

If the opportunity has a company, the company is converted; if not, its point of contact is. You can also convert a company or a person from its own page. For what happens next, see Adding Clients.

What can you do from an opportunity’s page?

An opportunity’s page holds its details and a row of tabs for everything connected to it.

Tab	What it holds	When it shows
Timeline	The history of the opportunity	Always
Tasks	Follow-up tasks for this opportunity	Always
Contracts	Contracts for this deal	When the Contracts module is on. You can create one only after linking a company or point of contact.
Notes	Written notes	Always
Files	Attached files	Always
Emails	Emails linked to this opportunity	When the Email Inbox module is on

How to set up the CRM for your business

Set up the CRM from the Customize drawer, then add your first records.

1. On any CRM tab, click the Customize icon in the toolbar. You need the client settings permission (view-clients-settings).
2. Use Tab Settings to choose and order your tabs, and Industry, Source and Tag to build the lists your team picks from. See How to Customize Your CRM.
3. Use Opportunity Automation if you want an opportunity created when a new contact is added. See How to Set Up Opportunity Automation.
4. Add a few companies and people you’re talking to now, then create opportunities for your live conversations. See Adding Companies, Adding People and Creating Opportunity.
5. Move deals through your stages as they progress.

Start small with real work. When you’re ready to bring in older records, you can import people and companies from a CSV file, up to 1,000 rows at a time. See Imports, Exports, and Search.

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FAQs

What is the difference between CRM and Clients in OneSuite?

The CRM tracks potential business: opportunities, companies and people you’re pursuing. Clients tracks the customers you already work with. When you win a deal, Convert to Client moves it from one to the other.

Can I change the stages in my OneSuite sales pipeline?

Yes. Stages are set per business, and you can add, rename, recolour, reorder and delete them from the Opportunities tab in Kanban view. See Understanding Pipeline Stages.

Can I hide CRM tabs my team doesn’t use?

Yes. Anyone with the client settings permission can switch tabs off or reorder them in the Customize drawer under Tab Settings. At least one tab must stay on.

Why can’t I see a tab in the CRM?

The tab is switched off for your business, or your profile lacks its permission. Opportunities and Companies need view-company, People needs view-lead and Tasks needs view-lead-task.

Can OneSuite create opportunities automatically?

Yes. Turn on Auto-create Opportunity under Opportunity Automation in the Customize drawer, and an opportunity is created when a new contact is added.

Can I just use a spreadsheet instead of the CRM?

You can, but a spreadsheet won’t link a deal to its company and contact, show stalled deals on your dashboard, or convert a won deal into a client. The CRM does all three and keeps each deal’s tasks, notes and files with it.

What to do next

Create your first deal: Add an opportunity and link it to a company and contact with Creating Opportunity.

Shape your pipeline: Set up the stages your deals move through with Understanding Pipeline Stages.

Tailor the CRM: Choose your tabs and build your Industry, Source and Tag lists with How to Customize Your CRM.