The CRM Guide

A plain-language guide to the CRM module: what it is, why it helps, and how to use every screen. No experience needed — if you have never heard the word “CRM”, start at section 1.

1. What is a CRM?

Plain words, no jargon.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Forget the name: a CRM is a shared notebook for everyone you might sell to. Instead of keeping names in spreadsheets, emails, sticky notes and your memory, you keep every person, every company and every possible sale in one place — and the system reminds you who to contact next.

Think of it as…

An address book + a to-do list + a sales scoreboard, all connected to each other.

It is for…

People and companies that have not bought yet (or might buy again). Serving customers you already have is the Helpdesk side (tickets).

It answers…

Who should I call today? How much could I earn this month? Which deals are stuck? Why do we lose sales?

What problems does it solve?

You stop forgetting to follow up — every lead can have a follow-up date and every task a due date.
Two teammates no longer contact the same person by accident — each lead has one owner and a visible history.
You can see the real value of what is in progress, instead of guessing.
When a sale is lost you record why, so you can learn from it.
When a sale is won, the invoice is started for you.

2. The words you will see

Ten words explain the whole module. Come back to this table whenever something is unclear.

Word	What it means	Example
Lead	Someone who might buy, that you have not confirmed yet. The very first step.	A person who filled in the contact form on your website.
Company	A business you deal with. It is the same list as “Clients” in the Helpdesk side — one shared list, not two.	Acme Co.
Contact	A real person who works at a company. Contacts live inside the company’s page.	Maria Lopez, Office manager at Acme Co.
Opportunity	A specific possible sale with a value. Also called a “deal”.	“Network upgrade for Acme — $5,000”.
Pipeline & stage	The path every opportunity walks, in steps called stages: New lead → Qualified → Proposal sent → Negotiation → Won or Lost.	A card in “Negotiation” means you are discussing price.
Won / Lost	The two endings. Won = they bought. Lost = they did not (you must say why).	Lost — reason: “Price”.
Task	Something you must do, with a due date.	“Send the proposal to Acme — due Friday”.
Activity	A record of something that already happened: a call, an email, a meeting or a note.	Call — “Discussed pricing, wants a quote”.
Owner	The teammate responsible for a lead or opportunity.	jane@yourcompany.com
Source	Where a lead came from.	Website, Referral, Phone…
Score	Points that show how complete/promising a lead is, calculated automatically from rules your admin sets. Higher = more worth your time.	Has email +10, has phone +5, source Referral +20.

Good to know: The other words you will meet — follow-up date (when to contact someone next), probability (the chance of winning, set by each stage), weighted pipeline (value × probability, a more honest forecast) and products (the items inside a deal) — are explained where they appear below.

3. The journey of a sale

Everything in the CRM follows this one path. If you understand these five steps, you understand the module.

1A lead arrives

→

2You contact and qualify it

→

3Convert it: company + contact + opportunity are created

→

4Move the deal through the stages

→

5Won (draft invoice) or Lost (with a reason)

A lead is only a maybe. When you are sure the person is a real prospect, you convert it. That single click creates the company (or reuses one that already exists), the contact, and the opportunity for you, and marks the lead as Converted. From then on you manage the deal on the Pipeline board.

4. Before you start

Usually done once by an administrator.

Set-up checklist

Turn the CRM on. If you picked it on the What will you use? screen when you signed up, it is already on. If not, an admin (or whoever manages billing) opens Settings → Modules and turns on the CRM. During the free trial this costs nothing; once you are subscribed, a window shows the amount charged today and asks you to confirm. Until it is on, the CRM section does not exist in the menu.
Give people access. In Team, permission groups have a CRM line: view lets someone look, edit lets them create and change things. Someone without edit permission sees everything but cannot add or change it.
(Optional) Tune it to your business. Lead statuses, sources, lost reasons, scoring, automatic assignment, reminders and custom fields are all in Settings — see section 8. The defaults work fine to start.

Modules, free trial and price

Every module is billed on its own: AJPX Desk is $29 a month and the CRM is $19 a month, each with 1 user included. Each extra user is $10 a month, counted once for the whole account (not once per module).
Both modules together: 10% off the two module prices. The extra-user price does not change.
New accounts start with a 30-day free trial and no credit card. During the trial you can switch modules on and off at no cost.
After you subscribe: turning a module on is charged right away (the window shows the exact amount and you confirm). Turning one off keeps it working until the end of the period you already paid for — your data is kept, and there is no refund. Changed your mind? Keep CRM brings it back with nothing to pay.
Limits: modules can be changed once a day and up to 4 times in 30 days, and an account always keeps at least one module. Only the account owner, or someone with billing permission, can change modules.

Where to find things

In the left menu, the CRM group has: a search box Search CRM…, Leads, Pipeline, Tasks, Activities, Companies and Reports.
The CRM overview numbers are on the main Dashboard. Each person can show or hide that block in their own Account settings.

Language: The app follows your language (English or Spanish). Screen and button names in this guide are written exactly as the app shows them: + New lead. Values your account configures — lead statuses, sources, pipeline stage names, task priorities — appear exactly as they were set up; the defaults (New, Qualified, Won…) are in English until an administrator renames them in Settings → Catalogs.

5. Your first day, step by step

Follow these ten steps once and you will have used every important part of the CRM.

Open Leads. Type a person’s name in the Lead name box and click + New lead. The lead appears in the list.
Click the lead to open it. Fill in what you know — email, phone, company, Source — and choose a Next follow-up date. Click Save.
Talk to the person, then write down what happened: in the lead, add a line under Note history, or use Activities to log a Call / Email / Meeting.
When the person is a real prospect, change the lead’s Status to Qualified and save.
Click Convert to Opportunity. Check the summary (it tells you whether the company already exists), type an opportunity name and the Amount, then click Confirm conversion.
Go to Pipeline. Your deal is a card in a column. Drag it to the next column when things move forward (or use the drop-down on the card).
Go to Tasks, type “Send proposal”, choose a due date and click + New task.
Back on the card, click Products to list what you are selling (item, quantity, price). The deal’s amount becomes the total.
When the customer says yes, drag the card to Won. If the deal has a company, a draft invoice is created for you in Billing. If they say no, drag it to Lost and pick the reason.
Open Reports and the Dashboard to see your numbers move.

6. Dashboard: your numbers at a glance

The CRM overview block on the main Dashboard summarizes everything. You do not have to type anything here — it just reads what you record elsewhere.

Number	What it tells you
Total leads	Every lead in the system.
New leads / Qualified leads	Leads whose status is New / Qualified.
Upcoming follow-ups	Leads whose follow-up date is within the next 7 days or already past (converted and lost leads are left out).
Conversion rate	Percent of all leads that were converted into opportunities.
Open opportunities	Deals still in progress (not Won, not Lost).
Pipeline value	Total amount of all open deals.
Weighted pipeline	Each open deal’s amount × its stage’s probability. A more realistic forecast than the raw total.
Won / Won revenue / Lost revenue	How many deals were won, and the money won / lost.
Average deal size	Won revenue ÷ number of won deals.
Average sales cycle	Average number of days from a deal being created to being won.
Open tasks / Overdue tasks	Tasks not completed / not completed and past their due date.

Below the numbers there are four panels: Upcoming follow-ups (who to contact, overdue ones in red), Pipeline by stage (how much money sits in each stage), Revenue over time (won money per month) and Open opportunities by owner (who has how many deals).

7. The screens, one by one

Each screen has one job. Here is what it is for and how to use it.

Leads

Where every person starts. Open Leads in the CRM menu.

What you can do

Add a lead fast: type a name and click + New lead. Add details afterwards.
Open and edit a lead by clicking its row. The row shows the name, company, owner’s email and status.
Filter by status or source with the two drop-downs (a counter shows “N of M”), and Clear filters to reset. Long lists are split into pages of 20.
Import many leads from a spreadsheet with Import CSV, or export your list with Export CSV.

Inside a lead

Field	Use it for
First / Last name, Company, Job title	Who they are.
Email, Phone, Website, Industry, Address	How to reach them and what they do. Email and phone are also used to detect duplicates.
Source	Where they came from (Website, Referral, Phone…). Lets you learn which channels work.
Status	Where the lead is: New, Contacted, Qualified, Unqualified, Nurturing, Converted, Lost. (Your admin can rename or add statuses.)
Score	Read-only. Calculated automatically each time you save, using the rules in Settings → Lead Scoring.
Owner	Who is responsible. New leads can be assigned automatically (see section 8); you can change it here any time.
Last contact / Next follow-up	When you last spoke, and when you plan to speak next. The follow-up date feeds the Dashboard and reminders.
Summary	A short description of the lead.
Note history	A dated list of notes. Add one with the text box and Add — better than rewriting the Summary.

Duplicates and merging

While you edit a lead, the system checks whether another lead or an existing contact has the same email or phone. If so, a yellow Possible duplicate box appears. It only warns — it never blocks you. For a duplicate lead you can click Merge: the other lead is folded into the one you have open. Your lead’s own information always wins; the other lead only fills in what yours left blank, and its notes, activities and tasks move over. The merged-away lead is removed, and this cannot be undone.

Converting a lead

Click Convert to Opportunity inside the lead. A summary shows what will happen: which company will be used (an existing one with the exact same name is reused, otherwise a new one is created), and which contact (an existing contact with the same email or phone is reused). Type the opportunity name and amount and click Confirm conversion. A lead can only be converted once; afterwards it shows “Already converted”.

Importing from a spreadsheet (CSV)

Click Import CSV, then Download template CSV. Open the template in Excel or Google Sheets; it contains an example row.
Fill in one lead per row. Keep the column titles exactly as they are: First Name, Last Name, Company, Job Title, Email, Phone, Website, Industry, Address, Source, Status, Last Contact, Next Follow-up. Each row needs at least a first or last name.
Save as CSV and upload it. A review table shows each row as New (will be created), Update (an existing lead has the same email — it will be updated, never erased) or an error with the reason (missing name, invalid email).
Untick any row you do not want, then click the import button. If some rows had errors, Download errors gives you a file to fix and re-upload.

Tip: Imported leads go through the same rules as hand-typed ones: the score is calculated and, if automatic assignment is on, an owner is picked.

Pipeline

The board of your open deals. Open Pipeline. Each column is a stage and each card is an opportunity. The default stages are:

Stage	Probability	Meaning
New lead	10%	Just created, nothing discussed yet.
Qualified	30%	Confirmed as a real prospect.
Proposal sent	60%	They have your offer.
Negotiation	80%	Discussing final terms/price.
Won	100%	They bought.
Lost	0%	They did not buy.

What you can do

Create a deal: fill Opportunity name and Amount, optionally the company, source, owner and expected close date, then + New opportunity. It starts in the first open stage.
Move a deal: drag its card to another column, or use the drop-down on the card (the drop-down also works with the keyboard). Moving it changes its probability to the new stage’s.
Each card shows: the amount, the company, the source, the probability, the owner and the expected close date (“Due …”). Won deals also show what has been Invoiced and Paid.
Find deals: the tabs All / My Opportunities, plus filters by owner, minimum/maximum amount and creation dates.
Several pipelines: type a name and click + Add pipeline to create another board (for example “Renewals”). Tabs at the top switch between them.

The buttons under each card

Button	What it does
Activity	Opens a panel to log what happened on this deal (Call, Email, Meeting, Note, Other) and see earlier entries.
History	Shows an automatic log of changes: stage, status and amount — with who changed it and when. You do not write it; the system does.
Products	Lists what the deal is made of: description, quantity and unit price per line, with a live total. Save and the deal’s amount becomes that total. The button shows a count, e.g. “Products (2)”.
Schedule	Creates an appointment (in the Appointments module) linked to this deal — for a demo, a site visit or a meeting.

Tip: The amount: if a deal has no products, click the amount on the card to type it directly. Once it has products, the amount is calculated from them and cannot be typed over (so the two can never disagree).

Winning and losing

Won: drag the card to Won. If the deal is linked to a company, a Draft invoice is created in Billing automatically — with one line per product (or a single line for the whole amount if there are no products). It stays a draft: nothing is billed until someone reviews and sends it. If there is no company, the deal is still marked Won, but no invoice is created, and the screen tells you so.
Lost: drag the card to Lost. A box asks Why was this lost? — type the reason and confirm. This is required, and it feeds your reports.

Tasks

Your to-do list for selling. Open Tasks.

Create: type a title, choose a priority (Low, Medium, High, Urgent), an assignee and a due date, then click + New task.
Views: tabs All, My Tasks, Overdue, Today's and Upcoming. Start every morning on Today’s and Overdue.
Finish a task: change its status in the drop-down on its row (Pending, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled). A completed task is crossed out.

Activities

The diary of who you talked to. Open Activities.

Choose the type (Call, Email, Meeting, Note, Other), choose the lead, write What happened and click + Log activity.
This screen is for leads. You can also log activities directly on a deal (the Activity button on its card) and on a company or contact (see below).
Golden rule: if it is not written down, it did not happen. Two lines after each call save your future self hours.

Tip: Activities are also the source of the “Activity Report”, so consistent logging makes your reports meaningful.

Companies & contacts

Your customers’ and prospects’ businesses. Open Companies and click one.

Good to know: “Companies” is the same list as Clients. A company you create in Clients appears here, and one created by converting a lead appears in Clients. There is no duplicate data to maintain.

A company page shows four totals at the top — Contacts, Open opportunities (with their value), Won opportunities and Total invoiced — and four tabs:

Tab	What is in it
Overview	The Contacts card (add a person with a name and title; each contact has its own Activity button) and the five most recent events.
Timeline	One combined history of everything with this company: activities, appointments, invoices and opportunities, newest first. Log a new activity from here.
Opportunities	Every deal with this company and its status.
Invoices	Billed, Paid, Outstanding and Overdue totals, and the list of invoices.

Before a call, open the company’s Timeline: in ten seconds you know everything that happened before.

Reports

Nine ready-made reports answer the questions managers ask. Open Reports. They update by themselves; you do not configure anything.

Report	The question it answers
Lead Conversion Report	What percentage of my leads become real deals?
Leads by Source	Which channels bring the most leads?
Sales Pipeline Report	For each stage: how many deals, their value, and the weighted value.
Sales by Employee	For each person: open, won and lost deals and won value.
Sales by Source	Which channels bring the most money, not just leads?
Won/Lost Report	How many won, how many lost, and the win rate.
Revenue Report	Total won revenue, month by month.
Activity Report	How much contact work is being done, by type.
Customer Acquisition Report	Each month: new leads and how many of them converted.

Search CRM…

The Search CRM… box at the top of the CRM menu searches leads, contacts, companies and opportunities at once. Type a few letters, click a result, and you land directly on that record. It is the fastest way to find someone when a customer calls.

8. Automatic helpers (for administrators)

Found in Settings → the Workflow group. All optional; they save time once your team is using the CRM daily.

Setting	What it does	Good to know
Lead Scoring	Add rules like “Has email +10 points” or “Source is Referral +20”. Every lead’s Score is recalculated whenever it is created or saved.	A new rule is not applied retroactively — it counts the next time a lead is saved.
Lead assignment	Assigns new leads automatically, in rotation (round-robin), to the people you pick. Make one rule per source, or an “Any source” rule for everything else.	A rule for a specific source is checked before “Any source”. Blocked teammates are skipped. A lead created with an owner already chosen is never reassigned, and existing leads are not touched.
CRM reminders	Sends each person one email a day listing what needs them: tasks overdue or due soon, leads not contacted in N days, and deals closing soon. Choose the number of days for each.	Off by default. Only covers records the person owns or is assigned, and nobody is emailed if they have nothing pending — so give leads and tasks an owner.
Custom fields	Add your own fields to Leads or Opportunities (text, number, date, checkbox, drop-down) — for example “Number of employees”.	Lead fields appear in the lead’s edit window. Opportunity fields appear when you create the opportunity.
Catalogs	Edit the drop-down options: Lead statuses, Lead sources, Lost reasons, Task statuses and Task priorities.	Renaming an option is safe — the CRM keeps recognizing it (for example “Converted” or “Completed”).

9. A healthy daily routine

Ten minutes a day keep a CRM useful. A month from now, you will be glad you did.

Every morning

Open Tasks → Today’s and Overdue. Check the Dashboard’s Upcoming follow-ups. Decide who you will contact today.

After every contact

Log it (Activity or Note), update the lead’s Status, and set the next Follow-up date or create a task. Never leave a lead without a next step.

Every week

Walk the Pipeline board left to right: is each deal in the right stage? Anything stuck for weeks? Move it, or mark it Lost with the real reason.

Habits that make the difference

Enter a lead the same day you meet them — memory fades fast.
Always fill in Source — it is the only way to learn which channels pay off.
Be honest with stages and amounts. An optimistic pipeline is a useless forecast.
Give every lead and task an owner; unowned records get no reminders and no accountability.
Record why a deal was lost. Six months later, that list is your most valuable data.

10. Common questions

I do not see “CRM” in the menu.

Either the CRM is not turned on for your account (an admin, or whoever manages billing, turns it on in Settings → Modules — or it was turned off and its paid period has ended), or your permission group has no CRM access (ask an admin to check Team).

I turned the CRM off. Do I lose my data?

No. Your leads, deals and notes are kept. The CRM keeps working until the end of the period you paid for, and if you turn it on again later everything is there. Until the end date you can also choose Keep CRM in Settings → Modules at no cost.

It will not let me change modules.

Either you reached the limit (one change a day, 4 in 30 days), or your account has no billing permission — only the account owner, or someone with billing permission, can change modules. An account always keeps at least one module.

I can see everything but cannot add or change anything.

Your group has CRM view but not edit permission. Ask an admin.

I moved a deal to Won but no invoice appeared.

Invoices are always tied to a company. If the deal has no company, it is marked Won without an invoice (the screen says so). Link a company when you create deals. Also look in Billing for a Draft — it is not sent until you send it.

It says the lead was “already converted”.

A lead can be converted only once, to avoid duplicate companies and deals. Find the resulting deal in Pipeline or the company in Companies.

I cannot type the amount on a deal.

The deal has products, so its amount is their total. Change the products instead (Products button).

A new lead has no owner.

Automatic assignment is off, or no rule matches its source. An admin can add a rule in Settings → Lead assignment (an “Any source” rule covers everything). You can always set the Owner by hand in the lead.

I am not getting the reminder email.

An admin must turn it on (Settings → CRM reminders). You only get it when you own or are assigned something that is overdue, due soon, stale or closing soon. Check your spam folder too.

Some words (New, Qualified, Won…) are still in English when my app is in Spanish.

Those are values, not screen text. Lead statuses, sources, lost reasons, priorities and pipeline stage names appear exactly as your account has them configured, and the defaults are in English. An administrator can rename statuses, sources, lost reasons and priorities in Settings → Catalogs.

I merged two leads by mistake.

Merging cannot be undone. Re-create the removed lead by hand if needed — that is why Merge asks you to confirm.

11. Quick reference

“I want to…” → “go here and do this”.

I want to…	Do this
Add a person I just met	Leads → + New lead
Add many people at once	Leads → Import CSV
Know who to call today	Dashboard → Upcoming follow-ups; Tasks → Today’s
Record a call I just had	Activities → + Log activity
Turn a prospect into a deal	Lead → Convert to Opportunity
Move a deal forward	Pipeline → drag the card
List what I am selling	Pipeline → card → Products
Book a demo or visit	Pipeline → card → Schedule
See everything about a customer	Companies → the company → Timeline
Find a person or company fast	Search CRM…
See how sales are going	Dashboard, or Reports
Get reminders by email	Admin: Settings → CRM reminders