FreeAgent CRM allows you to fully customize your experience so that it fits your sales process instead of having to change your sales process to fit your CRM. This starts with something as simple as the naming convention. Since not every business uses the same terminology, you can change the current Apps to something that is best suited for your process.
By default, the main Apps are called: Contacts, Accounts, and Opportunities. However, you can customize them to fit your business.
If you would like to update your apps to better suit your process, learn how to deactivate/activate them, or even restrict access to them, you are in the right place.
Edition Qualifier: This feature is available in all FreeAgent Editions.
User Permissions: Only administrators can customize Apps.
This tutorial will cover the following topics:
- Navigate to Apps
- Create Apps
- Reorganize (drag&drop)
- Edit Apps
- Deactivate/Activate Apps
- Limit Access to Navigation with Roles
- 1 Column or 2 Columns Layout
Navigate to Apps
Open the menu and go to 'Admin Settings' to display the available options, then click App Setup to display even more options. Then click 'Apps'. You can also use the search function to get there faster, just start typing 'Apps'.
Create Apps
Out of the box, your Account includes 3 Apps: Contacts, Organizations, and Opportunities. However, you can add more if you need to. Just click the 'Add New App' button.
Just give your App a name, and include it the singular version as well. If you click the 'Save' button at this point you App will be created and you will be able to go to App Setup in the System Settings menu to add Fields, Form Sections, and other configurations for your app.
The alternative would be to upload a file to create your App in a SNAP, you can learn more about this process clicking in the link below:
Apps in a SNAP
Reorganize (drag&drop)
You can rearrange the order of the elements in the menu by clicking on the Reorder button. This will display a window where you can drag&drop the elements in the desired order. You can do this for all the elements on the menu.
Keep in mind that the changes you make will be available for your entire team.
Edit Apps
You have the option to change the name of the elements in the navigation. You can click on the name in your Apps lists or go to App Setup and click on the name of the app. Then make sure you are under 'App Configuration'.
Here you can:
- Select an Icon for your App.
- Rename it.
- Limit access to it based on your uses roles, as described in the 'Navigation Access Roles' section of this tutorial.
- Choose between our 1 column or 2 columns layout.
- Enforce Individual Access*.
- Define the Template to publish your records via PDF. For more information about this template, please visit this tutorial.
If you enable the 'Enforce Individual Access' checkbox, it will restrict access to this app for those users with individual access. This means that they will be able to see only the records they own. Once you are ready, click the 'Save' button.
Deactivate/Activate Apps
In case you would like to hide an element from the menu, navigate to Apps in the System Settings menu, then simply select the element and click on the 'Deactivate' button.
Once you click the button, you will need to confirm the changes in order to complete the deactivation process. Click the 'Deactivate' button if you want to continue or click 'Cancel' to keep the App active.
If you deactivated the App, it will be removed from the menu and its status under the 'Active' column will change to 'No'. To add it back to the menu, first, enable the 'Show deactivated' checkbox, then select it and click the 'Activate' button.
Navigation Access Roles
It is also possible to limit access to certain elements on the menu based on the 'User Roles'. FreeAgent CRM comes with 5 predefined user roles, but you can customize them. Once you have your roles, all you need to do to use them to restrict access in the Navigation is to go to App Setup, click the name of the App. Then make sure you are under 'App Configuration.
There, click the 'Access Roles' box in order to display the available options. Please note that the options available on the list could be different than those of the image if you have already customized your team's roles. Select the role or roles that should have access to the navigation element. If a role is not added here, the users that have that role assigned will not be able to see that element under the menu.
This is especially useful for those Apps that have sensitive data that only some users should have access to. Please note that you will need to assign the users to the 'Access Role' specified in this step in order for them to have access to it.
1 column or 2 columns layout
This will determine the form layout in your records, as it can be displayed as a single column or a double column layout.
The single-column layout is recommended for those apps where you have a small number of fields.
However, if you have multiple active fields for an app, we recommend switching to the 2 columns layout, as it will divide them into those two columns, giving you better access to all your information.