Most CRMs are built for sales teams with pipelines, forecasts and dozens of custom objects. A small agency, consultancy or IT company usually needs something much simpler: a list of the companies you work with or want to work with, the people at those companies, and a reliable reminder of what to do next. Here’s what a simple CRM should cover — and why it makes sense to keep it next to your time tracking.
Companies
The core of a small-business CRM is the company record: name, status (lead, prospect, customer…), website, address, Tax ID, VAT ID, registration number, number of employees and notes. You should be able to filter and search it quickly, and see at a glance which companies are customers and which are still leads.
Contacts
Each company has people: the decision maker, the project contact, accounting. Store their names, roles, emails and phone numbers on the company, so anyone in the team can find the right person without asking around.
Activities and follow-ups
This is where most deals are won or lost. Log every note, call, meeting and email on the company, and turn the next step into a task with a due date and an assignee. Clocknico sends a reminder before a follow-up is due, and notifies a colleague when you assign them an activity — on their phone, not buried in email.
Import your existing list from Excel
Nobody starts a CRM from zero. You already have a spreadsheet of clients and leads somewhere. Clocknico’s CRM import accepts Excel (.xlsx) and CSV files with no required columns: you upload the file, check how the columns map to fields, choose what to do with duplicates (skip or merge, matched by VAT ID, Tax ID or name) and import. There’s a downloadable template with every supported field if you’re starting fresh.
From lead to client in one click
When a lead becomes a customer, you shouldn’t have to retype their details in another system. In Clocknico you convert a CRM company into a client: the client is created with the same details, linked to the CRM record, and you can immediately create projects and start tracking time. Billing details on invoices fall back to the CRM company data, so it’s entered once.
Who sees what
Even in a small company, not every lead belongs to everyone. Clocknico lets you set an owner and a department for each company. Members see the companies they own, those in their department and those that are open to everyone; managers see all of them.
What a simple CRM doesn’t need
Deal pipelines with probabilities, marketing automation and custom objects are useful for dedicated sales teams. For a team where the same people sell and deliver the work, they mostly create data nobody maintains. Start with companies, contacts and follow-ups — and actually keep them up to date.
Why next to time tracking?
- The client list is shared: CRM company → client → projects → hours → invoices.
- One team, one login, one set of notifications.
- When you check a client’s profitability, the relationship history is one click away.
The CRM is included in every Clocknico plan, including the free plan for up to 5 users.