CRM & Projects
Guide to managing your customer pipeline, building estimates, converting accepted estimates into projects, and tracking project budgets against logged labor.
The CRM & Projects Module
Daily business operations connect to your financial and member records. The CRM & Projects module helps cooperatives manage customer relationships, build estimates, and track project performance.
1. Customer Pipeline
Open CRM & Leads in the Business OS workspace to view your pipeline. Track customer contacts and keep a running history:
- Pipeline Stages: Move each customer between Lead Opportunity, Active Client, and Past Client. The pipeline value totals the budgets of each customer's projects.
- Customer Record: Stores contact details, logged interactions (calls, emails, meetings, and notes), and the customer's projects.
2. Estimates & Proposals
Building accurate cost estimates is key for margin health. In Estimates & Proposals:
- Line Items: Add a description, quantity, and unit cost for each labor, material, or subcontractor item; the estimate totals automatically.
- Send & Respond: Mark an estimate as sent, then record whether the customer accepted or rejected it.
Accepting an estimate creates a new project in the Planning stage and a draft contract in the Legal Hub.
3. Project Budget vs. Actual Margins
The project view tracks cost performance:
- Labor Margins: Log hours and rates against a project; OwnFold totals labor cost and compares it with the project budget to show gross margin.
- Invoicing: Create customer invoices from a project and send an online payment link (see Invoicing & Expenses).
- GL Posting on Completion: Marking a project Completed posts its budget to the general ledger (Dr. Accounts Receivable, Cr. Sales Revenue).