CRM holds the two records other modules build on: customers, the accounts you do business with, and contacts, the people at those accounts (or standalone contacts with no customer at all). A customer doesn't have to have any contacts, and a contact doesn't have to belong to a customer.
What you can do
- Keep a directory of customers, with their contact details, category, status, tags, and tax and billing identifiers. See Customers.
- Keep a directory of contacts, each optionally linked to a customer. See Contacts.
How other modules use a customer
- Sales quotations, sales orders, and invoices are all created against a customer. Confirming a sales order checks the customer's credit limit (see Credit check) and works out what can be fulfilled from stock the same way regardless of which customer the order is for (see Stock availability) — though right now a customer's credit limit can only be set through the API, not from a CRM screen (see Current limitations on the Customers page).
- Support tickets can be raised against a customer.
- A customer's profile shows their current 3PL (third-party logistics) stock position — what's held for them, by SKU — without leaving CRM.
Access
Access to CRM isn't controlled by the fine-grained View, Create, Edit, and Delete permissions other modules use yet. Any member of an organization that has the CRM module enabled can open and use every CRM screen — Customers and Contacts included.
Universal document tags
You can tag a customer, the same way you can tag documents in other modules. Selecting a tag badge on a customer's profile opens everything else in OCTO Ops that shares that tag. Contacts can't be tagged.
Current limitations
- Nothing in CRM can be deleted.
- CRM doesn't yet have its own Create, View, Edit or Delete permissions — access is all-or-nothing for anyone with the module enabled.