CRM User Manual

Getting Started
Login & Authentication
Menu Bar
Spreadsheet View
Column Filters
Column Options
Kanban Board
Right-Side Panels
User Assignment (Admin)
Import Data
Email from Contact
Communication Cadences
File Attachments
Settings & Account
Roles & Permissions
Keyboard Shortcuts
Configuration

Getting Started

The CRM is a web-based customer relationship management tool with a spreadsheet-first interface.

Key features:

Editable spreadsheet with autosave
Kanban board for pipeline management
Per-column filtering with saved presets
Communication tracking and scheduling
Email templates with merge placeholders
Stage-based automation (cadences)
File attachments on notes
Role-based access (admin / regular user)
User assignment per customer
XLSX/CSV import with smart column mapping

Navigate to the CRM URL. If you're not logged in, you'll be redirected to the login page.

Enter your email and password, click Sign In
Contact your administrator for credentials
Default admin account is created on first run (see Configuration)
Sessions persist across browser restarts via cookies

The menu bar at the top contains all navigation and actions:

Section	Description
Sheet / Kanban	Toggle between spreadsheet and Kanban views
Filters	Open the saved filter presets bar
Category filters	Per-column filter buttons (Industry ▽, City ▽, etc.) with + to manage options
Quick presets	Saved filter combinations (appear as blue chips)
Import	Bulk import from XLSX/CSV
Panel toggles	Notes, Contacts, Tasks, Comms, Templates — each with count
Users	User management (admin only)
Your name	Click to change password
Logout	Sign out

Spreadsheet View

The main view is a full-screen editable spreadsheet showing customers (companies).

Columns:

Column	Description
Company	Company name (required)
Website	Company URL
Industry	Business sector (dropdown)
City	Location (dropdown)
Tier	Customer tier (dropdown)
Source	Lead source (dropdown)
Stage	Pipeline stage (dropdown, triggers cadences)
Assigned To	User assignment (admin only, dropdown)
Next Action	Planned next step
Next Action Date	When to take action
Outcome	Result/status

Editing:

Click any cell to select, type to edit
Changes autosave after 1 second of inactivity — no save button needed
Category columns show dropdown menus with existing values
The header row is bold and frozen (stays visible when scrolling)

Row selection:

Clicking a row automatically filters the active right-side panel to show only that company's data

Column Filters

Each category column has a filter button in the menu bar (e.g., "Industry ▽").

To filter:

Click the filter button for any column
A dropdown appears with all unique values
Search to narrow the list
Check/uncheck values to include/exclude
(Select All) toggles everything
Click Apply to filter, Clear to remove

Active filters show as ▼ in blue.

Saved filter presets:

Click Filters in the menu bar
Add filter conditions (column, operator, value)
Name and Save — presets appear as quick-access chips
Click a chip to apply, Clear to remove all filters

Filters apply to both Sheet and Kanban views.

Column Options

Category columns (Industry, City, Tier, Source, Next Action, Outcome) have manageable dropdown options.

To add/remove options:

Click the + button next to a category filter in the menu bar
A modal opens showing all current values
Type a new option and click Add
Click remove on any existing option
Click Save — dropdown lists update across all cells

Kanban Board

Toggle to Kanban view using the Kanban button.

Features:

Columns represent pipeline stages (color-coded)
Cards show company, city, industry, tier
Drag and drop cards between stages to change pipeline position
Drag within a column to reorder (blue insertion line shows position)
Stage changes trigger cadences — auto-creating scheduled tasks
Click a card to filter the right panel to that company

Right-Side Panels

Toggle panels using the buttons in the menu bar. Only one panel shows at a time. Each panel has:

Company filter (searchable dropdown with clear button)
Search text field
+ button to create new items
Click body to edit any item
del button on the title row to delete (with confirmation)

Tasks & Reminders

Fields:

Title, Description, Type (Call/Email/Follow-up/Meeting/Other)
Priority (High/Medium/Low) — shown as colored badges
Due date + time
Reminder offset (15 min, 1 hour, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week before)
Recurrence (None/Daily/Weekly/Monthly)
Email template link
Source badge: auto (blue) for system-generated, manual for user-created

Filters: Company, search, source (All/Manual/Auto), show done toggle

Completing: Click checkbox to mark done (auto-sets completedAt), click again to reopen.

Notes

Add notes to any customer with text and file attachments
Notes are timestamped and sorted newest-first
Images show as thumbnails, other files as clickable links
Attach button in the form supports multiple files

Contacts

Fields: Name, Designation, Phones (comma-separated), Email, LinkedIn, Note

Action buttons on each contact (don't trigger edit):

Phone numbers (green) — tel: link, click to call
Email (blue) — opens email template selector modal
LinkedIn (purple) — opens profile in new tab

Communications

Types: LI Connect, LI DM, Cold Email, Email Reply, Call, WhatsApp, Follow-up, Breakup Email

Each entry shows: Direction (IN/OUT), Channel (E/C/LI/WA), Status (sent/opened/replied/missed/completed)

Auto follow-ups: Logging an outbound communication automatically creates a follow-up task (e.g., "Follow up on cold email" due in 3 days).

Filter by channel: All/Email/Phone/LinkedIn/WhatsApp

Templates & Cadences

Two tabs within this panel:

Templates tab:

Create email templates with name, subject, body, stage
Placeholders — click blue chips to insert:
- {{company}}, {{contact_name}}, {{first_name}}, {{designation}}
- {{email}}, {{phone}}, {{city}}, {{industry}}
Validation — unknown placeholders highlighted in red, save blocked
Click body to edit, del to delete

Cadences tab:

Define outreach sequences per pipeline stage
Each step: title, step number (unique per stage), delay days (from stage entry), type, channel, email template
How it works: When a customer moves to a stage, all cadence steps auto-create tasks with calculated due dates
Filter by stage, click body to edit, del to delete

Users (Admin)

Create users — name, email, password, role
Promote/demote — toggle admin/regular
Delete users (cannot delete yourself)

User Assignment (Admin)

The Assigned To column in the spreadsheet (admin only) shows which user is responsible for each customer.

Click the cell and select a user name from the dropdown
Changes autosave like any other cell
Regular users only see customers assigned to them
Admins see all customers and can assign/reassign

Use the Assigned To ▽ filter in the menu bar to filter by assigned user.

Import Data

Click Import in the menu bar (admin only).

Supported entities:

Entity	Required	Optional
Companies	Company	Website, Industry, City, Tier, Source, Stage, Next Action, Outcome
Contacts	Company, Name	Designation, Phone 1, Phone 2, Email, LinkedIn, Note
Notes	Company, Note	—
Tasks	Title	Company, Description, Type, Priority, Due Date, Recurrence
Templates	Name, Subject	Body

Steps:

Select entity type
Click Download CSV template for correct headers
Fill in data and upload XLSX or CSV
Results show imported/skipped/total

Smart mapping: Headers like "Company Name", "PoC Name", "Email ID" are auto-recognized.

Email from Contact

Click an email address on a contact to open the template selector:

All email templates shown with previews (placeholders resolved with actual data)
Click Email on a template — opens your email client with subject and body pre-filled
Or choose Blank Email for no template
Templates use merge fields: {{company}}, {{first_name}}, etc.

Communication Cadences

Cadences automate outreach when a customer enters a pipeline stage.

Example cadence for "New Lead":

Step	Day	Action	Template
1	0	Send LI Connect	—
2	1	Send Cold Email	Intro Email
3	3	Follow-up Email	Follow Up 1
4	5	Call	—
5	10	Breakup Email	Breakup

When a customer moves to "New Lead" (via Kanban drag or spreadsheet edit), 5 tasks are auto-created with due dates calculated from today. Each task appears in the Tasks panel with a blue auto badge.

File Attachments

Notes support file attachments (images, PDFs, documents).

Adding attachments:

Open the Notes panel and click + or edit an existing note
Click Attach to select files (supports multiple)
Files upload immediately — shown as chips with thumbnail (images) or filename
Click x on a chip to remove before saving
Save the note — attachments are stored permanently

Viewing:

Images show as 48x48 thumbnails in the note list
Other files show as clickable links
Click to open in a new tab

Files are stored in data/uploads/ on the server.

Settings & Account

Change password:

Click your name in the top-right
Enter current and new password
Click Change

Logout: Click the red Logout link.

Roles & Permissions

Feature	Admin	Regular User
View all customers	Yes	Only assigned
Assign users to customers	Yes	No
"Assigned To" column	Visible	Hidden
User management	Yes	No
Import data	Yes	No
Create/edit/delete data	Yes	Yes (own customers)
Manage column options	Yes	Yes
Manage templates & cadences	Yes	Yes

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Confirm cell edit
Escape	Cancel edit / close modal
Tab	Move to next cell
Arrow keys	Navigate cells

Special keys (Win, F1-F12, CapsLock, etc.) are blocked from affecting cell content.

Configuration

Environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
`PORT`	3333	Server port
`DATABASE_URL`	file:data/crm.db	SQLite database path
`AUTH_SECRET`	(dev default)	Session signing secret — must set in production
`BASE_URL`	http://localhost:3333	Public URL for auth
`TRUSTED_ORIGINS`	http://localhost:3333	Comma-separated trusted origins
`CORS_ORIGIN`	http://localhost:3333	Comma-separated allowed CORS origins

First run: Creates default admin user admin@crm.local with password password. Change immediately after first login.

Tech stack: BunJS, Elysia, SQLite (Drizzle ORM), React, FortuneSheet, better-auth