Set Up Your CRM in One Week
Follow Acme Solutions — a 25-person B2B company — through a complete, real-world SmartLite setup. Every step, every decision, explained in plain English.
The Company: Acme Solutions
Acme is a 25-person B2B software company. Their CRM admin, Sarah, has one week to get the team up and running. This is her story.
| Team | Size | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | 4 | Lead generation, email campaigns, web forms |
| Sales | 10 (2 managers, 8 reps) | Convert leads, manage pipeline, send quotes |
| Support | 6 (1 manager, 5 agents) | Handle cases, renewals, escalations |
| Finance / Ops | 2 | Reports, contracts |
| Admin | 1 (Sarah) | Manages the CRM |
Registration & First Login
Monday morning. Sarah sets up the workspace.
Register the Organisation
Sarah goes to app.smartlite.app/org/register, enters the org name, email, and password, then clicks the activation link in the welcome email. She logs in with username admin.
Set Up Branding
Path: Setup → Settings → Branding
Sarah sets the organisation name, uploads Acme's logo, and sets the primary colour. The top bar now shows Acme's branding.
Create Profiles (Access Levels)
Path: Setup → Users → Profiles → New Profile
A Profile controls what a group of users can see and do. Sarah creates one profile per role:
| Profile | Object Access | Permissions |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Rep | Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, Quotes | Create, Read, Edit own records |
| Sales Manager | Same + Reports | Create, Read all, Edit all, Delete |
| Marketing User | Leads, Campaigns, Segments | Create campaigns, send emails, view all leads |
| Support Agent | Cases, Contacts, Accounts | Create and edit cases, resolve |
| Finance | Quotes, Contracts, Orders, Reports | Read only |
Invite Users
Path: Setup → Users → New User
Sarah creates accounts for each team member, assigns the right Profile, and sends invitations. Each user receives a welcome email with their login link.
Data Model & Navigation
Tuesday. Sarah customises the data model and builds the navigation apps.
Review Standard Objects
SmartLite comes pre-built with 16 standard objects: Lead, Contact, Account, Opportunity, Case, Quote, Order, Campaign, Product, and more. Sarah reviews them in Setup → Object Manager and decides Opportunity needs two extra fields for Acme's process.
Add Custom Fields to Opportunity
Path: Setup → Object Manager → Opportunity → Fields → New Field
Create a Custom Object
Acme has a renewal business. Sarah creates a Renewal object to track it.
Path: Setup → Object Manager → New Object
Build Navigation Apps
Path: Setup → App Manager → New App
Sarah creates two apps — Sales App (tabs: Home, Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Quotes, Pipeline) and Support App (tabs: Home, Cases, Accounts, Contacts, SLA Dashboard). Users see the app that matches their profile.
Marketing Setup
Wednesday. The marketing team gets their tools.
Web-to-Lead Form
Path: Marketing Studio → Web-to-Lead
Sarah generates the embed snippet, copies it to Acme's website. Every form submission creates a Lead in SmartLite automatically — no manual entry.
Lead Scoring Rules
Path: Marketing Studio → Lead Scoring
Sarah creates rules: +20 if Industry = "Software", +15 if Email Opened, +25 if Demo Requested. Leads hitting 50+ points are auto-promoted to "Marketing Qualified".
Email Templates & Segments
She creates reusable email templates for lead nurturing. Then builds a Dynamic Segment — Acme's "Hot Leads" segment auto-populates with any lead scored 50+ from the Software industry.
First Campaign
Path: Marketing Studio → Campaigns → New Campaign
She selects the "Hot Leads" segment, picks the nurture email template, sets a send date. The campaign goes out automatically on schedule.
Sales Process Setup
Thursday. The sales pipeline gets configured.
Opportunity Pipeline Stages
Sarah edits the Opportunity Stage picklist to match Acme's process: Prospecting → Discovery → Demo → Proposal → Negotiation → Closed Won → Closed Lost. Reps see the Kanban pipeline view with these exact stages.
Products & Quotes
She adds Acme's products (Starter, Pro, Enterprise plans) with list prices to the Product catalogue. Sales reps can now add line items to an Opportunity, generate a Quote PDF, and convert it to an Order in one click when the deal closes.
Approval Process for Large Deals
Path: Setup → Automation → Approval Processes
Any Opportunity over $50,000 must be approved by a Sales Manager before the quote is sent. Sarah sets this up as an automatic approval request that routes to the manager on submit.
Support Setup
Friday. The support team gets their system.
Case Queues
Sarah creates three queues: General Support, Enterprise Accounts, and Renewals. Cases route to the correct queue based on the customer's plan. Agents see their queue and pick up cases from it.
SLA Policies
Path: Setup → Service → SLA Policies
Enterprise customers get a 4-hour first response SLA. Standard customers get 24 hours. SmartLite automatically tracks breach status and highlights overdue cases in red on the queue.
Email-to-Case
Acme's support email address is connected to SmartLite. Every email sent to support@acmesolutions.io automatically creates a Case, with the email body as the first activity.
Data Import
Saturday. Moving the existing data in.
Import via CSV
Path: Setup → Import / Export → Import Records
Sarah exports data from Acme's old CRM as CSV files and imports in this order (important — Accounts before Contacts before Leads so lookup fields resolve correctly):
Validate & Clean
The import wizard shows a preview with validation errors. Sarah fixes a few duplicate emails and re-runs. All records import cleanly with correct field mappings.
Go Live!
Sunday. Final checks, then Monday launch.
Sarah runs through the go-live checklist before sending the team announcement on Monday morning:
| Check | Status |
|---|---|
| All users can log in and see their app | ✓ Done |
| Web-to-Lead form submits correctly | ✓ Done |
| A test case routes to the correct queue | ✓ Done |
| Test quote converts to order correctly | ✓ Done |
| SLA breach alerts fire correctly | ✓ Done |
| Approval process routes to manager | ✓ Done |
| Imported data visible to correct profiles | ✓ Done |
| Marketing campaign scheduled for Monday | ✓ Done |
| Backup admin user created | ✓ Done |
🎉 Acme Solutions is Live!
One week. Zero code. 25 users, 3 departments, and a CRM that matches the way Acme actually works. The team logs in Monday morning to a system that feels like it was built just for them.
Your Setup Checklist
Copy this list into your task manager. Tick off each item as you go.
Foundation
- Register organisation
- Set up branding (logo, colours)
- Map out team access needs
- Create one Profile per role
- Invite all users
Data Model
- Review 16 standard objects
- Add custom fields to standard objects
- Create any custom objects needed
- Build navigation Apps with Tabs
- Assign Apps to user profiles
Marketing
- Set up Web-to-Lead form
- Configure lead scoring rules
- Create email templates
- Build segments
- Schedule first campaign
Sales & Support
- Set pipeline stages
- Add products and pricing
- Configure approval process
- Create case queues
- Set SLA policies
- Connect Email-to-Case
Go Live
- Import accounts (first)
- Import contacts (second)
- Import leads (third)
- Run end-to-end tests
- Send team announcement
- Create backup admin user
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