CRM settings

The CRM settings adapt the module to the way you work: the currency of new deals, the lists offered in records, custom fields, tags, pipelines and their stages, quote rules and tax rates, and how far each role reaches records. This article goes through them and, for each other settings page, points to the article that describes it. It is intended for CRM administrators and sales managers.

Before you start #

• The CRM module must be enabled for your workspace (see Enabling and administering the CRM module).
• Permissions in the role matrix, CRM menu: “CRM settings — View” to open the pages, “CRM settings — Create” to add (a value, a field, a tag, a pipeline, a stage, a tax rate), “CRM settings — Edit” to change a setting, “CRM settings — Delete” to delete. The Access level is enough. By default, the Administrator and Sales manager roles have them.
• Three pages have their own permissions: Catalogue (“CRM product catalogue”), Data protection (“CRM contact data protection”) and Take-over of project clients (“CRM settings — Edit”). The Webhooks and integrations page only appears if your subscription includes webhooks.
• Settings are shared by the whole workspace: they have no scope. Without a permission, the matching button does not appear and fields stay read-only.

Opening the settings #

Open Settings › CRM. Its tiles lead, depending on your permissions, to the CRM settings, Pipelines and stages, Catalogue, Quotes and taxes, Sales targets, Hourly rates, Validations, Clubs and memberships, Webhooks and integrations, Data protection, Microsoft 365, Forwarding address and Take-over of project clients pages. The CRM › CRM settings menu entry opens the first one directly.

Currency and owner of imported accounts #

At the top of the CRM settings page:

• Default currency: the currency of a new opportunity or quote when the account has none. Leave The company’s to follow your company’s currency. Totals stay converted into the company’s currency.
• Owner of an imported account: the person who receives an account created by a file import when the file names no recognised owner, and the accounts created by the take-over of project clients. With no choice, it is The person who imports. The setting only applies if the person importing can assign an account to that person; otherwise the account goes to the person importing (see Importing, exporting and using the API).

Click Save.

The CRM’s AI #

Below the currency settings, the CRM AI switch turns the module’s artificial intelligence features on or off for the whole workspace: account or opportunity summary, meeting preparation, follow-up draft, indicative score and records prepared from an email. It is off by default. Its use and billing are described in Artificial intelligence in the CRM.

CRM lists #

Under CRM lists, eight lists feed the records: Account types, Industries, Sources, Loss reasons, Activity types, Contact roles, Missions (those of follow-up cases) and Organisation roles in a project. Each value has a label in French, English, German and Italian.

1. To add a value, enter its label in New value (at least one language), then click Add.
2. To rename or translate a value, click Edit, make your changes, then Save.
3. To stop offering a value, click Deactivate: it stays on the records that carry it. Reactivate offers it again.
4. Delete removes it from the list. A value still in use (an account type carried by organisations, an activity type already used) cannot be deleted: deactivate it.

Values marked Standard can be renamed and translated, but neither deactivated nor deleted: these include the five basic activity types (Note, Task, Call, Meeting, Email) and the “Not specified” loss reason.

Each activity type has a Behaviour: Note, Task (due date and reminder), Call or Meeting (date, duration, participants, outcome), Logged email. For an added type, “Visit” for example, choose in Behaves like * the behaviour it takes on. The behaviour of a type already in use can no longer change.

Custom fields #

The Custom fields section adds information specific to your business to records. There is one tab per object: Accounts, Contacts and Opportunities.

1. Choose the tab, then click Add a field.
2. Enter the Label in at least one language.
3. Choose the Type: Text, Long text, Number, Date, Yes / no, List or Multiple-choice list. For a list, add its values with Add an option.
4. For an opportunity field, choose under Pipeline whether it applies to All pipelines or to one only: it is then only offered, required and accepted on that pipeline’s records.
5. Choose its Order on the record, tick Required and Active as needed, then click Save.

The type can no longer change once values have been entered. Only a field that is still empty can be deleted; if it holds values, deactivate it: it is no longer offered and the values remain. A Required field must be filled in at creation: the creation windows show it. A pipeline stage can also require an opportunity field (see below).

Tags #

The Tags section is used to group and filter records. Enter a New tag, choose its Colour, then click Add. Each tag shows how many accounts carry it; the pencil renames it, and the bin deletes it and removes it from the records that carry it.

Link types between organisations #

The Link types between organisations section holds the relationships you set between two organisations (member of, partner of, funder…), read from both sides. Their use is described in Links between organisations and multi-organisation projects.

Pipelines and their stages #

The Pipelines and stages page describes the path a deal follows. On installation, the CRM sets up a “New customers” pipeline with the stages Qualification (10 %), Discovery (25 %), Proposal (50 %) and Negotiation (75 %, committed), followed by the two fixed stages Won (100 %) and Lost (0 %). Proposal and Negotiation require the amount and the expected signing date.

• “No next step” signal after (days): an open opportunity with no upcoming activity for this many days rings its owner’s bell. Fourteen days by default.
• Pipeline name: change it, then click Rename.
• Kind: Sales for a sales pipeline, Follow-up for support cases, with no amount, probability, quote or commission. As soon as a pipeline carries records, its kind can no longer change (Kind locked). A follow-up pipeline also has Set the labels (Object name, Successful outcome, Abandoned outcome) and its Default mission: see Follow-up pipelines: support and business set-up files.
• Active: a deactivated pipeline is no longer offered. Make default makes it the pipeline the kanban opens first and the one an opportunity created without a pipeline takes.
• Each stage has a name, a probability as a percentage and the Committed box: the amount of the opportunities in it counts towards the committed amount of the forecast (see The dashboard and sales targets). The name and probability are saved when you leave the field, the box as soon as you click it.
• Requires: tick the fields that must be filled in to enter the stage: Amount, Expected signing date, Contacts, Source, Competitors, and opportunity custom fields. An incomplete opportunity does not move into the stage. For Won and Lost, only these required fields can be set.
• The arrows move a stage up or down. To add one, enter its name under New stage and its probability, then click Add the stage.
• Deleting a stage that carries opportunities asks for the Destination stage they move to. A pipeline that carries opportunities cannot be deleted: deactivate it.

To create another pipeline, enter its name under New pipeline, choose its kind, then click Create the pipeline. It starts with Won and Lost: add its stages. The CRM also sets up, inactive, the “Business set-up” follow-up pipeline, marked Preset: tick Active to use it. Day-to-day use of pipelines is described in Tracking opportunities in the pipeline.

Catalogue #

The Catalogue page holds the products and services that quotes use. It is described in The catalogue and quotes.

Quotes and taxes #

The Quotes and taxes page has three sections, each with its own Save button.

• Numbering and rules: the number Prefix and the Counter digits (2 to 8); the screen shows the next number. The counter restarts each year, with no gap or duplicate. The Discount threshold requiring approval (%): above it, a quote goes through approval before it is sent; if empty, no quote does. The Validity (days) of a new quote, from 1 to 730.
• Terms and closing text: pick the language with the French, English, German or Italian buttons, then enter the Terms and the Closing text. A new quote takes those of its language.
• Tax rates: on installation, the CRM takes the rates of your company’s country. Import rates adds the missing ones for the country chosen in the Country list, without touching existing rates. New rate creates one: Country, Code, Rate (%), Label, In force from, Until (optional), Country default rate (a quote line without an item takes it) and Active. These two buttons require “CRM settings — Create”.

One rate per country and code, and a single default rate per country. The country, code and rate of an existing rate no longer change: when a national rate changes, close the old one with an end date and create the new one. A sent quote keeps the rate frozen on its lines.

The circuit that approves discounts is set in workflows (see The catalogue and quotes).

The other settings pages #

Each of these pages has its own article:

• Sales targets: each sales rep’s target, by month, quarter or year, see The dashboard and sales targets.
• Hourly rates: what an hour of pre-sales is worth in a deal’s acquisition cost, see The CRM and HR: time, expenses, absences and departures.
• Validations: what goes through human approval before being written or sent (by default, nothing), see Getting records and sendings approved.
• Clubs and memberships: clubs and programmes, their member categories and their dues, see Memberships and dues; their events are described in Events and public registrations.
• Webhooks and integrations: notifying your automations of a CRM event, and the files for Power Automate and n8n, see CRM webhooks, Connecting the CRM to Power Automate and Connecting the CRM to n8n.
• Data protection: how long contacts and quotes are kept, and the purge history, see Protecting contact data (GDPR).
• Microsoft 365: addresses and domains never logged, CRM meetings in calendars and won deals announced in Teams, see Microsoft 365 in the CRM: emails, meetings and Teams. The calendar each person connects in their personal settings is described in Filling in your timesheet from your Outlook calendar.
• Forwarding address: the address your team forwards a stranger’s email to so that the CRM prepares its record, see The CRM forwarding address.
• Take-over of project clients: clients typed on existing projects become accounts, see From a won deal to a project.

Outside the settings, commission plans are kept in CRM › Commissions (see Sales commissions), and using the CRM on a phone is described in The CRM in the mobile app.

CRM scopes of roles #

A permission says what a role can do; its scope says on which records. Open Settings › Manage Employees › Employee Roles, click the role’s card, then the Target population tab: the CRM scopes card is at the bottom of the tab. It only appears when the CRM is enabled. Viewing it requires “View the permissions matrix”; changing it, “Edit permissions (V/H/E/I/D checkboxes)” at the Execute level (Roles & permissions section).

1. For each domain (Accounts, Contacts, Activities, Opportunities, Quotes, Reports, Import and export, GDPR, Memberships, Commissions, Events) and each operation (Read, Create, Edit, Delete), choose Mine, My team or All. The Validations domain only has Read and Decide.
2. Click Save CRM scopes.

• Mine: the records the person owns. My team: theirs and those of their direct reports, going no further down. All: the whole workspace. A record with no owner is only reached with All.
• A scope grants no permission: a greyed cell has no permission granted in the matrix (“Right not granted in the matrix”), and its scope will apply once it is.
• Editing and deleting never go beyond what the role can read.
• A person with several roles gets, for each permission, the widest scope of the roles that grant it.
• By default, the Sales representative has Mine and the Sales manager My team, but both read all accounts and all contacts, so they can spot a duplicate before creating it. The Administrator has All.

Good to know #

• The pipeline and stages set up on installation have names in a single language, that of the person who first opens the CRM: rename them if needed.
• Deactivating a value, a field, a pipeline or an item removes nothing from existing records.

FAQ #

I cannot delete a stage. #

It carries opportunities: choose the Destination stage to move them to. Won and Lost can never be deleted.

A sales representative cannot see the Catalogue page. #

It requires “CRM product catalogue — View”, which the Sales representative role does not have by default. They can still choose active items in their quotes.

I can no longer change a pipeline’s kind. #

It already carries records: its kind is locked. Create a new pipeline of the kind you need.