Client CRM, relationships, and client groups

Firm owners, practice managers, and administrators can use this guide alongside Clients to understand the CRM contact directory, link people and companies to a business client, and organize clients into groups.

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Clients vs CRM contacts

Individual and Business are billable client accounts — they hold services, workflow jobs, invoices, and (if enabled) a client portal login.

CRM is a separate directory of contacts — people or companies your firm deals with who may or may not be billable clients, such as an external accountant, a shareholder, or a business’s executive. Open Clients > CRM to see this directory.

A CRM contact can become a client without re-entering their details: open CRM, open the row menu on a contact, and select Convert to client.

Link executives and shareholders to a business

On a Business client record, the Executive Details and Shareholder Details steps let you attach people (and, for shareholders, other businesses) to the client:

1. Open a business client record and open its Executive Details or Shareholder Details step.
2. Select Add Executive or Add Shareholder.
3. Search for an existing CRM contact, or fill in a new one.
4. Enter Email, Phone Number, whether they’re the Primary Contact, and a Designation. For a shareholder, also enter Shareholder(%).
5. Add Notes if needed, then save.

An executive must be linked to a person contact. A shareholder can be linked to a person or a business contact — so a parent holding company can be added as a shareholder of an operating subsidiary, with its own share percentage.

A business client also has a separate Contact Details step for other contacts tied to the business (such as an external bookkeeper or lawyer) who aren’t an executive or a shareholder — each entry carries an email, phone number, a primary-contact flag, and a note.

Link a spouse on an individual client

An Individual client record has a Relationship Details step where you can search for and link the client’s spouse to their own individual client profile, if they have one, alongside the marital-status details for that relationship. Dependants are entered separately, on the client’s Dependent Details step.

Manage client groups

Client groups let you organize clients into named sets — for reporting, for filtering, or for scoping which clients a staff member can work with (see Restrict what an employee can see).

Create a group

1. Open Clients and select the Groups tab.
2. Select Add Client Group.
3. Enter the Group Name and an optional Description.
4. Select Select Client to add members now, or leave it and add members from each client’s own record.
5. Select Add.

A group can be set to Active or Inactive from its detail page.

Add a client to a group from the client’s record

1. Open an Individual or Business client record.
2. On its Personal Details (individual) or Basic Details (business) step, select Assign Client Group.
3. Choose the group or groups.
4. Save the record.

Restrict what an employee can see

Client groups also work as an access shortcut for staff. Open Settings > Employees & Roles > Employees, select an employee, and open their Assigned Clients tab. Select the plus icon, then Select Client to add specific clients or entire client groups to that employee.

Adding a client or a client group here scopes what that employee sees on Jobs, Invoices, Calendar, and reports — items tied to a client outside their assigned clients and groups don’t show up. It does not hide clients from the Individual, Business, or CRM directory itself; those lists still show every client the employee otherwise has permission to view.