Setting up your own CRM: records, fields and statuses

What is a record type?

In stipt, every piece of work you do for a customer is a record: a project, an order, a request. A record is linked to a contact (a person or a company), has its own fields, moves through a status flow and keeps a timeline of everything that happens.

A record type is the template for such a record. It defines the fields, the modules, the status flow and the naming. You might create a Lead type, a Project type and a Service contract type. Every record automatically gets a code such as PR-00000001: a two-letter prefix plus a counter. The name comes from a template you define, for example 'Project for {contact_name}'. You manage record types under Settings, CRM, Structure. That is also where you set the hierarchy: which type can sit under which other type.

How do you build a record type in the builder?

Open Settings, CRM, Structure and click a record type. The builder has three tabs. Settings holds the name, the stipt ID prefix, the name template and the linked status flow. Modules is where you pick which blocks appear on the record. Fields is where you add custom fields.

Changes you save are available to your whole team right away; there is nothing to reconnect. Existing records stay as they are, a new field simply starts out empty on them. So start with one or two record types that genuinely cover your work, and expand once daily practice asks for it.

Which field types are there and how do you choose?

There are 14 field types: text, long text, number, currency, date, date and time, select, multi-select, yes/no, email, phone, URL, user and dot AI. Pick the type based on how you want to filter and report later. A select field with fixed options filters more precisely than a free text field. The user type stores a colleague, for example the installer responsible. Any field can be made required.

Every field gets a fixed internal name when it is created, and that name never changes. You can safely rename labels; automations and API integrations keep working. The dot AI type is a field filled in by dot, stipt's built-in AI assistant: a summary, a classification or a value taken from the record. You start that calculation yourself, and the result is a regular field value you can filter on.

How do you set up a status flow with target durations and a drop-out reason?

A status flow is a reusable set of statuses a record moves through, for example from new request to completed. You build a flow under Settings, CRM, Status flows and attach it to a record type. For each status you pick a type (open or closed), a color, an icon and the allowed next statuses. Team members can only pick those allowed transitions; an admin may step outside them, and that stays visible in the history.

Optionally give a status a target duration in days. When a record reaches 80 percent of that limit, a clock appears next to it; when it goes over, it counts as overdue. Every flow has a drop-out status for customers who drop out. Moving a record there requires a reason. You define standard reasons on the status flow, and the chosen reasons come back in your analytics.

How do you enable modules per record type?

Modules are blocks on a record. Examples: activity (the timeline), custom fields, child records, contacts, tasks, files, appointments, forms, quotes, location, products and accounting. You switch them on or off per record type under the Modules tab in the builder.

Only enable what that kind of work actually needs. A sales process might get quotes and products; a service record can stick to appointments and forms. That keeps every record clear, and your team never sees empty blocks that are never used. You can always add a module later, so start small. How to set up quotes is covered in the guide about quotes in this knowledge base.

How do you record where a customer came from?

Under Settings, CRM, Lead origins you create a list of origins, for example website, trade fair or referral. You then enable the origin field per record type via Settings, CRM, Structure; if you want, make it required when creating a record.

If you later create a project under a lead, the child record can inherit the origin from its parent. That way you still know through which channel the customer first arrived, even at handover, and you can filter lists and analytics by origin.

How do views and filters work?

A view is a box in the CRM sidebar, for example 'New lead' or 'Installation to plan'. You create views under Settings, CRM, Views. For each view you pick the statuses it includes, the columns the list shows and the assigned team members. Only assigned members see the box; if a colleague does not see a list, that colleague is not assigned to the view. You can also group views under section titles; those sections collapse and expand in the sidebar.

Besides views, you can filter inside any list: by status, record type, lead origin and your own custom fields. The operators adapt to the field type, such as contains, equals, greater than, between, or is empty.

How does the new-customer wizard work?

You create a new record with a wizard in three steps. Step one: pick the customer. Search for an existing contact or create one on the spot, as a person or a company. If you enter an email address that is already known, stipt uses the existing contact instead of creating a duplicate. You also see right away which records already exist for that customer.

Step two: pick the record type, for example Lead or Project. Step three: fill in the creation fields you set up in the builder. The record's code and name are generated automatically from the record type's template.

Frequently asked questions