Chapter 2

Getting started: the workspace

TechieCRM opens on the Clients list with the Related entries and Interactions panels below it, an icon bar of modules on the left, a ribbon across the top and the calendar control bar on the right. Everything you learn here applies to every module.

In this chapter - Logging in - The icon bar and the ribbon - Record lists (the "guide"): icons, sorting, right-click, open - Layouts: Classic, Stacked, Three Pane, Floating; popping a panel out - Master-detail: Related + Interactions follow the selected record - Interactions: one timeline for everything about a record - Settings

Before you log in: the beta notice

This applies to beta builds only. If you are running a released version, skip this section; nothing described here appears.

Every time you open a beta build, before the login screen, TechieCRM shows a short notice you acknowledge with OK. It tells you four things:

which build you have: the version number;
when it stops working: beta builds are time-limited, and the notice gives the date and how many days are left;
when the next build is due, once that has been announced;
whether a newer build already exists. If one does, the notice offers a Download update button that opens the download page.

It is shown every launch rather than once, because the expiry is the kind of thing you want to see coming rather than discover on the morning it happens.

Why betas expire at all. A time limit means nobody is quietly running a months-old test build while thinking they are current. The date is fixed and announced, so every copy of a given beta stops on the same day whenever it was downloaded, and the notice has been telling you that date since the day you installed it.

A licence does not extend it. The expiry is deliberately independent of licensing: a fully valid licence does not keep an expired beta running. When it expires, download the current build; your data, settings and database are untouched, and a newer build picks them up where you left off.

If the notice says the latest-version check could not reach TechieCRM, that is not the same as being up to date. It means the question could not be answered, usually because the machine is offline. Everything still works; check again when you have a connection.

On a released version the same check happens quietly in the background, and you are only interrupted if a newer version is actually available. There is nothing to dismiss when nothing has changed.

Your first start: the Configuration window

On a computer that is not set up yet, the Login window opens with the Configuration window over it, on its Licence page. It opens when this computer has no real licence (none, or only the automatic 7-day trial), no saved database to sign in to, or (on the very first start) no TechieCRM ID linked yet; the line at its top says which. It replaced the first-run setup wizard. Work through it in order:

Licence: paste your licence key from techiecrm.com and press Activate, or press Sign in with your TechieCRM ID and pick your licence. The trial keeps working meanwhile.
Database: pick your SQL Server from the list (or type it), type a SQL login such as MASTER and its password, click the Database list (it lists the databases), pick yours and Test connection. If it says TechieCRM's tables are not in this database yet, press Prepare. Press Save.
Linked CRM logins: Link my TechieCRM ID: your TechieCRM ID (your email address) and its password, your CRM user ID and its password, and tick Save in my Credential Storage Manager.
Close. The Login window is filled with the database you saved; sign in as below.

Every step can be skipped and done later from the gear on the Login window. Details: Administrator Guide A14.

Logging in

At the top of the Login window, set the rocker switch to SQL (your office's SQL Server database) or Mongo (TechieCRM's MongoDB database). The side that is on is green. It opens on the side you used last time.
Check the database server and client database. To pick another, press the gear beside the server (hover it: Database configuration: set up the SQL Server and MongoDB database connections used to sign in.); it opens the Configuration window on its Database page (Administrator Guide A14), where you pick, test and save a database.
Type your ID in the one ID field: your CRM user ID, or your TechieCRM ID (your email address). With Mongo chosen, use your TechieCRM ID.
Type the password that goes with that ID and press the green Login.

With SQL and your TechieCRM ID, TechieCRM signs you in as the CRM user ID linked to it. The first time (or when your CRM password is not saved) a Link your CRM user ID window asks once for your CRM user ID and its password; tick Save in my Credential Storage Manager when it is offered so next time your TechieCRM ID is enough. Details: A3, Signing in to SQL with your TechieCRM ID.

TechieCRM reads your existing CRM data in place. If the server is unreachable you get a plain "couldn't reach the database" message and can retry.

The main TechieCRM window opens behind the Login window as soon as the app starts: the ribbon, the icon bar and the empty Clients, Related and Interactions panels, in the same theme as the Login window. At the top right, beside your name, a short note reads "Sign in to load your records." Nothing from your database is shown, and nothing is read from it, until you have signed in.

When you press Login, the Login window shows "Signing in..." beside the buttons while TechieCRM checks who you are: with the database server for a source CRM (SQL Server) database, or with the TechieCRM cloud and your local MongoDB database in MongoDB mode (there the "Forgot password?" link steps aside while the note shows). The fields and Login are greyed out until the answer comes back, but the window does not freeze: you can still move it, and Cancel still works. Pressing Cancel (or Esc) while it says "Signing in..." stops waiting and ignores whatever comes back later; it does what Cancel always does (closes the app at start-up, or keeps your current session when you were signing in as a different user). Pressing Login again while it says "Signing in..." does nothing. If the sign-in is refused, the same message as always appears and the fields come back so you can try again.

Signing in as a different user while TechieCRM is open (October 2026). The new user ID and password are tried on a separate connection of their own. The open window carries on with the database it already has until the new sign-in has succeeded, and only then moves over. If the new sign-in is refused or you press Cancel, nothing about the open window changes. Household results that finished in the background but were never shown (see Households in Clients) are forgotten when a sign-in succeeds, so a result from one database is never shown against an entry in another.

Once the server accepts the login, the Login window closes and the main window stays on screen. The note changes to "Loading your records…" while TechieCRM connects to the database, applies your own theme and settings, and fills in the Clients list, the Calendar Control Bar and your saved panel layout. The window keeps repainting while this happens, so it never looks frozen, but clicks and typing wait until loading has finished. When the note disappears, your last module has opened and the window is ready to use. How long loading takes depends mostly on your database and network; each step's time is written to the app log (logs/app.log, lines starting startup:), which is the first thing support will ask for if signing in feels slow.

If you press Cancel at the Login window, the app closes. If the sign-in is refused (a wrong password, a disabled login, or another place already signed in with your login), you stay at the Login window with the main window behind it, exactly as before, and can try again.

If an administrator disables your login while the app is open, the app notices within about 15 minutes: anything you had open with unsaved changes is kept on this computer (never written to the database), and you are returned to the login screen with the message "Your TechieCRM user has been disabled by an administrator." Once your login is switched back on, the next sign-in offers the kept changes back. If the check cannot be made (for example the database cannot be reached), nothing happens and you keep working. See chapter A3, Disabling a user login.

The window remembers your last module

After you sign in, TechieCRM opens the module you last had on screen (Sales, Email, Inventory and so on). It remembers this for each login, on this computer, and it saves it every time you switch module, not only when you close the app, so it is kept even if the app is closed in an unusual way. Two people who sign in on the same computer each get their own last module.

Two things change where it opens:

Settings ▸ Agenda ▸ Startup ▸ "When starting, go directly to:" When this box is ticked, the page chosen beside it (Agenda, Clients, Calendar, To-Do List or Dashboards) opens every time, whatever you had open last (Chapter 23). If TechieCRM always opens on the Agenda for you, this box is ticked with Agenda chosen: untick it to get your last module back.
If your last module is no longer available to you (it is not in your plan any more, or it has been retired from TechieCRM), the app opens on Clients instead. It does not forget your module: once it is available again, the next sign-in opens it.

With nothing remembered yet (a first sign-in), the app opens on Clients.

Each module remembers where you were

Inside a module, TechieCRM is gradually learning to remember where you were and how you had it set: the folder or list you were looking at, the record you had selected, how far down the list you had scrolled, and the sizes you dragged its panes to. When you open the module again, even after quitting and restarting TechieCRM, it comes back the way you left it.

The Email window is the first to do this (Chapter 12, The Email window remembers where you were). Other modules follow in later updates; each chapter says so once its module does.
It is remembered on this computer, separately for each login and each database. Another person signing in here, or you signing in to another database, starts from that login's or database's own place.
Search text is not kept. A search left from yesterday could make a list look empty, so a module always reopens with its search box cleared. Folders, filters, sort and layout are kept.
If what you were looking at no longer exists (a folder was deleted, an account removed, a record deleted), the module opens on its usual starting view instead, without a message. TechieCRM does not forget your place because of this: if the folder or account comes back, the module opens on it again. Only something you choose yourself replaces what is remembered.
It is saved a moment after each change and again when you close the module or TechieCRM, so it is kept even if TechieCRM is closed in an unusual way.

On first launch the app also starts a 7-day cloud trial for this computer (see Chapter 13). If the trial has ended and no license is installed you are asked to activate. While only the trial runs, the Configuration window opens on its Licence page at each start (see Your first start above); the licence can be activated there at any time, before signing in.

The icon bar

The icon bar lists the modules, in this order unless you change it: Agenda, Dashboards, Clients, Sales, To-Do List, Calendar, Email, Messages, Library, Quotas, Marketing, Service, Inventory, Projects, Financials, Work Orders, Partners, Agreements, Compliance & SLA, HR & Payroll, Personal, Connect. (Dashboards moved up between Agenda and Clients on 25 October 2026.) Modules still in beta review are hidden until you turn them on, unless you are a beta tester (see below), and HR & Payroll appears only for the logins allowed to open it.

Choose and order your icons (25 Oct 2026). You decide which icons the bar shows and in what order: open Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Theme Layout (the ribbon's Setup ▸ Icon Bar button opens the same tab) and use Icon Bar Icons. Click an icon to switch it between colour (shown on the bar) and grey (hidden), drag icons to change the order, or press Restore default. Every change shows on the bar at once and is saved for you, and it follows you to every computer you sign in on. Hiding an icon only takes it off the bar: the module still opens from the ribbon, search and links, and your rights do not change. Appendix A5, Icon Bar Icons, describes every part of it. (Order Desk, which earlier releases listed here, is now part of Financials, Chapter 24.) (The Knowledge Base lives inside the Library panel: open Library and pick its Knowledge Base list; there is no separate icon-bar button for it.) Every module has its own icon from the TechieCRM colour icon set, the same drawings the ribbon and the cloud portal use, so a module looks the same wherever you meet it. The buttons that appear only some of the time (Messages, and Related and Notes in the Floating layout) use the same set. The icons stay the same when you change the theme, the primary or accent colour, the text size or the font, and when you switch the bar between Large and Compact; they are redrawn at the new size so they stay sharp. If an installation is missing a module's icon file, that one button shows a colour emoji for the module instead (for example 📧 for Email) and every other button keeps its TechieCRM icon. Click a module to open it in the main area; the active module is highlighted. Modules that are not part of your current plan are dimmed with a tooltip that says so (Chapter 13).

Unread mail on the Email icon. While there is unread mail in your inboxes (every account's Inbox, never Sent, Drafts, Trash or Junk), the Email icon carries a bold red number at its top-right corner: just the number, with no box behind it, outlined thinly in the bar's own colour so it reads clearly over the icon ("99+" above 99; it also shows when the bar is icons only). It is part of the icon, so it lifts with it when you point at the button. Hover over it to read "3 unread emails". TechieCRM checks for new mail in the background from the moment you sign in, on the interval you chose in Settings ▸ Email (every 5 minutes unless you changed it), whether or not the Email window is open; with Manual only it does not check by itself and the number is the mail already on this computer. Reading a message, or marking it read, lowers the number at once.

To-Dos due on the To-Do List icon. The To-Do List icon carries the same kind of number as the Email icon (bold red, outlined thinly, no box, "99+" above 99, lifting with the icon): how many of your own To-Dos are not done yet and are due today or earlier. Hover over it to read "5 To-Do items due today or overdue". Tomorrow's To-Dos, To-Dos you have completed and other people's To-Dos are not counted, and neither are meetings. The number is read when you sign in, again every 5 minutes, just after midnight (so yesterday's To-Dos become overdue and today's start counting), and straight away when you add, complete or delete a To-Do in the To-Do list or the Interactions panel, or save one from the Call List (a change made anywhere else shows at the next 5-minute check). With nothing due there is no number. If TechieCRM cannot read your To-Dos (for example the database cannot be reached), it shows no number rather than a wrong one, and tries again at the next check.

Today's date on the Calendar icon. The Calendar icon shows today's day of the month on its page (for example 9 on 9 October). The number changes by itself just after midnight, and is checked again whenever you come back to TechieCRM (for example after the computer has been asleep), so it always matches the date on your computer. Its colour is chosen to read clearly on the icon's page, and it follows a change of theme or icon size.

Modules still in beta review carry a green "B". While TechieCRM is reviewing a new module before release, its icon on the desktop icon bar shows a small green B in the top-right corner of the icon (top-left if the icon also shows a number, such as the To-Do List count, so both stay readable). The B is there for everybody, beta testers included, so it is always clear which modules are still under review. It follows your theme and icon size, and rises with the icon when you hover over it.

Beta modules are hidden from the bar by default (25 Oct 2026), unless you are an approved beta tester: testers see them, everyone else starts without them. To look at one anyway, turn it on in Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Theme Layout ▸ Icon Bar Icons (it is listed there greyed, with its green B). TechieCRM Connect counts as a beta module here too. When a module finishes beta review it appears on the bar by itself, unless you had hidden it yourself. Once shown, a beta module looks and works as below.

If you are not a beta tester, the icon is also dimmed (faded and greyed), and its tooltip names the module first, then why it is limited: "Inventory: in beta testing, not yet available for general access." You can still click it. There is no warning box: the module opens so you can see it, with a dimmed cover over its contents and a note in the middle: "Beta module: view only. Contact TechieCRM to join the beta programme." You can scroll with the mouse wheel to look around, but clicks, double-clicks, right-click menus, dragging and typing into the module are blocked, and its ribbon tabs (Home, Edit, View and Search) are greyed while it is the module on screen. Tools, Reports, Setup and Custom keep working, and every other module is fully usable. The module's title bar is not covered, so you can still move or close its window. If TechieCRM adds you to the beta programme, the cover and the dimming disappear by themselves at the next check with the cloud (within a few minutes), without restarting.
If you are a beta tester, the icon is not dimmed and the module works normally; only the green B and the tooltip "Inventory (beta)" show that it is still in review.

Beta modules sit at the bottom of the icon bar until you arrange the bar yourself. The modules that are ready for everyone are at the top, in their usual order; the beta modules that are shown are grouped at the bottom, below a thin line, also in their usual order. When a module finishes beta review it moves up to its usual place by itself at the next check with the cloud (within a few minutes), without restarting, and when no beta module is shown the line disappears. The line takes its colour from your theme and follows a change of theme or text size, in both the Large and the Compact bar. Once you drag an icon to a new place (Icon Bar Icons, above), your order is used as it is: there is no line, and a beta module you dragged to the top stays there with its green B. Messages sits just below Email by default and can be moved like any other icon; in the Floating layout Related and Notes stay just below Clients, wherever Clients sits. A module your plan does not include keeps its place, greyed as before. Without a cloud connection (for example offline with a perpetual key) TechieCRM uses the beta list from your last check with the cloud.

In the web portal the same rule applies to the left-hand menu: a module in beta review shows a small green B on its icon for everyone. If you are not a beta tester the entry is also dimmed, its tooltip reads "Inventory: in beta testing, not yet available for general access. It opens view only.", and clicking it opens the module under the same view-only cover, with no warning page first. The mouse wheel and scroll bar still work; the module's own buttons and fields are greyed, and the ribbon's Home, Edit, View and Search buttons are greyed while it is on screen. The web portal saves nothing you try to change in a beta module, whatever the page shows. Beta testers see only the green B.

A module your plan does not include is different: its icon is greyed and cannot be clicked, and its tooltip reads "Projects: not included in your Starter plan. ...". In the cloud portal a beta module works as described above for the web portal: green B, dimmed for non-testers, opening view-only.

Size and position are set in Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Theme Layout, under Icon Bar Properties, not on the bar itself; there is no right-click menu on the icon bar. In that group the small/large button (it reads Enlarge when the bar is small and Reduce when it is large) switches between the two layouts: the wide bar with the module names beside each icon, and the narrow bar that shows the icons only (hold the pointer over an icon there to see the module's name); the show/hide button (Hide / Show) hides the bar and brings it back; and the Docked Left / Floating / Docked Right radio buttons move it. Floating frees the bar to be dragged and resized anywhere inside the application window. The Recent Entries tickbox in the same group shows or hides the recently-opened-records list on the bar. On a brand-new sign-in the tickbox starts ticked, which is what the bar itself does: the recently-opened list is on until you turn it off.

Settings opens on your very first sign-in (September 2026). Until this was fixed, opening Setup ▸ Settings during your first session (before anything had been saved about your window layout, which is the state every new user is in) did nothing at all: no window appeared and no message explained why, however many times you clicked. It cleared itself once you had quit and started TechieCRM again, so it only ever affected the first session and went unnoticed for a long time. Nothing you need to do; Settings now opens the first time you ask for it.

Hiding a bar now lasts (September 2026). Hiding the calendar control bar (from Settings ▸ show/hide or from your name at the top right ▸ Calendar Control Bar) used to be forgotten the next time you started TechieCRM: the bar came back every launch. Both bars now reappear exactly as you left them. If you have never touched either setting, nothing changes; you get both bars, as before.

The bar follows your text size. The bar is not sized on its own; it grows and shrinks with Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Font Style ▸ Font Size (and with your computer's own text-size setting, where it has one), so the module names always have room and the icons stay in proportion. Change the font size and the bar re-draws immediately, wide layout or narrow; there is nothing to restart, and there is deliberately no separate size control for the bar. The wide bar is 162 pixels at the standard text size and about 186 at Large; the narrow bar is always exactly one icon wide. The only label that does not fit the wide bar is Compliance & SLA (at every text size, including the standard one), so hover it to read the full name. See Appendix A5 for the whole size story.

You can also drag the bar by its title area: drop it on the left or right side of the application window to dock it there, or drag it all the way to the edge of a monitor to dock it full-height against that screen edge. Screen-edge docking applies immediately but is not remembered: the next time you start TechieCRM the bar returns to the left dock. Dock positions chosen in Settings are remembered.

If you drag the bar onto the side where the calendar bar is already docked, the two share that side as tabs, with a tab strip along the bottom for switching between them, rather than splitting the space.

The icon bar on the web (25 Oct 2026)

On the web portal (client.techiecrm.com) and on your office's local portal, the icon bar is the CRM list in the left-hand menu. It follows the same rule as the desktop:

The same default order: Agenda, Dashboards, Clients, Sales, To-Do List, Calendar, Email, Messages, Library, Quotas, Marketing, Service, Inventory, Projects, Financials, Work Orders, Partners, Agreements, Compliance & SLA, HR & Payroll, Personal, Connect, then the three web add-ons SporeCycle, NitrateCycle and MeadCycle (Chapter 29).
Modules in beta review are hidden unless you are an approved beta tester. Testers see them at the bottom of the list under a thin line, each with its green B.
SporeCycle, NitrateCycle and MeadCycle are hidden for everyone until you show them.
One greyed look. A row you have shown that cannot be used in full is greyed, the same way for every reason, and pointing at it says which: a beta module you are not testing (it opens view only), a module your plan does not include (it opens the upgrade page), or a module that is not available here yet (Connect, which is listed on the cloud portal only; the three add-ons, which open their explanation page).
HR & Payroll is listed only for the people allowed to open it, and Connect is not listed on the local portal at all.

To choose your icons, press Preferences on the ribbon's Setup tab and open Theme Layout: click an icon to show or hide it, drag icons into a new order (on a touch screen, hold an icon for half a second, then drag), or press Restore default. The left-hand menu changes at once. It is the same saved choice the desktop app uses, so it follows you between them. Appendix A5, Icon Bar Icons on the web, describes every part of it.

Drag a client onto the icon bar (24 Oct 2026)

A quick way to start something for a client: pick the client up in the Clients list or the Related tab and drop it on a module button in the icon bar. The drop opens that module's own new record window with the client already filled in, the same window the right-click menu opens. Nothing is saved until you press OK in that window, so a drop on the wrong button costs one Cancel.

Picking up a client. Press the left mouse button on a client's row, keep it held, and move the pointer a little (a few pixels, your computer's own drag distance). A small card follows the pointer with the client's name; for a contact it adds "Contact at" and the company, and for a user row it says "User". You can grab any part of the row except the small record icon at its left edge: a click there marks the row, as before. A plain click still selects the row, a double-click still opens the record, and right-click still shows the menu. The drag always carries the one row you pressed on, even if other rows are marked. The organization heading row (your own office at the bottom of the list) cannot be picked up. Press Esc to cancel a drag.

While you drag, every button that would accept the client has a faint outline in your theme's accent colour. Over a button that accepts it, the button fills with your theme's primary colour (green unless you chose another primary in Settings) and gets a primary border. Over a button that cannot take it, the button turns the theme's warning red, the pointer shows the "not allowed" sign, and a tooltip says why. Let go there and the same sentence shows for a few seconds in the notice line at the top right of the window. The colours follow Settings ▸ Theme, Primary and Accent straight away.

What each button does with a client:

Drop on	What opens	A contact	A user row
Calendar	A new meeting with the client and you as attendees	The contact and you	A meeting with that user and you
To-Do List	A new To-Do for the client	Yes	Refused
Sales	A new sale for the client	Filled with the contact too	Refused
Service	A new ticket for the client	Filled with the contact too	Refused
Projects	A new project for the client	Filled with the contact too	Refused
Email	A new email to the client, filed on the client when sent	Yes	Refused
Messages	The client's text conversation	Yes	A chat with that user
Library	A new document filed on the client	Yes	Refused
Clients	The client's record window (as a double-click does)	The contact's record	Refused
Agreements	A new agreement for the client	Yes	Refused
Work Orders	A new work order for the client	Yes	Refused
Partners	Makes the client a partner, or opens it if it already is one	Uses the contact's company	Refused
Compliance & SLA	The partner's compliance requirements	Uses the contact's company	Refused
Connect	Opens Connect and issues a support key for the client	Yes	Refused
Related (Floating layout)	A new contact under the client	Under the contact's company	Refused
Notes (Floating layout)	A new note for the client	Yes	Refused

These buttons say why instead of opening anything: Agenda (it shows your day; drop the client on Calendar or To-Do List), Dashboards and Quotas (they summarise many records), Financials (invoices and bills are made from a sale, project, inventory sale or agreement), Marketing (campaigns send to Favorite Lists), Personal (journal entries and expenses are not linked to clients yet), HR & Payroll (it holds employees, not clients) and, for now, Inventory (selling stock to a dropped client comes in a later update).

A drop asks the same questions a click does. Before anything opens, TechieCRM checks, in this order: whether you may open the module at all (HR & Payroll is only for your HR users; a module outside your plan is refused with "... is not included in your plan."), whether the module is in beta review and opens view only for you ("... is in beta testing and opens view only for you."; a beta tester is not refused), and whether your user ID may add records there ("You do not have the right to add ... Ask your administrator."). Without an active licence TechieCRM is read only and nothing new can be started. Some buttons also check the client: Email needs an email address on the record and an email account set up for sending; Messages needs a phone number and TechieCRM cloud texting; Compliance & SLA needs the client to be a partner (drop it on Partners first). The window that opens still checks your rights again when you press OK.

Wherever the icon bar is. Drops work with the bar docked on the left or right, floating inside the window, floating on its own, docked to a screen edge, wide or Compact (icons only), and when it shares a side with the Calendar Control Bar as tabs: hold the pointer over the icon bar's tab for a moment while dragging and the bar comes to the front, then drop on a button. Buttons that are hidden (HR & Payroll for most logins) never take a drop. If you have hidden the icon bar, use the right-click menu instead.

Drop a client on a day to book a meeting that day (25 Oct 2026). You can also drop the client on a day in the small month calendar at the top of the Calendar Control Bar. The new meeting window opens with the client as the attendee, you as the user, and that day as its date; pick the time and press OK. Nothing is saved before that. The day under the pointer fills with your theme's primary colour when it will take the client, or turns the warning red with a tooltip when it will not (the same reasons as the Calendar button: Calendar outside your plan, view only for you, no right to add meetings, or no active licence). Days shown from the month before or after (the first and last rows) work too and book their own date. The row of day names along the top is not a target. A user row dropped on a day books a meeting with that user and you. Dropping does not change the day selected in the mini calendar, so the Call List and the Payable/Receivable list keep showing the day you had picked.

Without a mouse. Everything a drop does is also on the client's right-click menu (Chapter 3, Right-click on a client); from the keyboard press the Menu key or Shift+F10 on the row.

On the web portal, the local portal and touch screens (25 Oct 2026)

The same quick start works on the Clients page of the web portal and of your office's local portal: pick up a row in the Clients list or the Related panel and drop it on a module in the menu on the left. The drop opens that module's new record page with the client already filled in. Nothing is saved until you save on that page.

With a mouse or trackpad: press on the row, keep the button held and move. A small card with the client's name follows the pointer. Press Esc to cancel.
On a tablet or phone: press and hold the row still for half a second. The row lifts a little (some phones also give a small tick). Now move your finger: the card follows it. On a phone or a narrow tablet the module menu slides in from the left by itself; on a tablet whose menu was slid away it comes back. Move onto a module and lift your finger. Lifting outside a module cancels. A quick swipe before the half second is up still scrolls the list as before.
The row menu on a touch screen now opens when you lift your finger. Press and hold a row still for half a second and lift without moving: the right-click menu opens where you lifted (before this change it opened while your finger was still down). Hold, then move, is a drag.

While you drag, the menu's module list opens, and every module that would take the client has a faint outline in your theme's colour. Over a module that takes it, the module fills with your theme's primary colour (green unless your workspace chose another). Over one that cannot, it turns the warning red and a small note beside the pointer says why. Let go there and the same sentence shows at the top of the page for a few seconds. Nothing opens.

What each module does with a client on the web:

Drop on	What opens	A contact	A user row
Calendar	New Meeting for the client	Fills the contact's company	New Meeting with no client: add the colleague yourself (web meetings have no user attendees yet)
To-Do List	New To-Do for the client	Fills the contact's company	Refused
Sales	New Sale for the client	Fills the contact's company	Refused
Service	New Ticket for the client	Fills the company and the contact	Refused
Projects	New Project for the client	Fills the contact's company	Refused
Email	The email window for the client	Yes	Refused
Messages	The text window for the client	Yes	A Messenger chat with that user
Library	A new document filed on the client	Fills the contact's company	Refused
Clients	The client's record window, as a double-click does	The contact's own record	Refused
Partners	The new partner page for the client	Uses the contact's company	Refused

Agreements, Work Orders, Compliance & SLA, Inventory and Connect say "... records can't be started here yet. Use the desktop app." Agenda, Dashboards, Quotas, Financials, Marketing, Personal and HR & Payroll say why, as on the desktop. The Related and Notes buttons exist only in the desktop's Floating layout.

On the local portal (Chapter A13), two drops need the TechieCRM cloud and say so: a client dropped on Messages ("Texting a client needs the TechieCRM cloud with texting turned on.") and a client dropped on Connect ("Connect needs a connection to the TechieCRM cloud."). A user row dropped on Messages still opens the chat.

The same checks as a click. A module outside your plan, a module in beta review that opens view only for you, a module your security group may not open, and a workspace that is read only all refuse the drop with their own sentence before anything opens. Modules your security group hides are not in the menu, so they cannot take a drop. The page that opens checks everything again when you save. Email needs an email address on the record, and Messages a phone number.

Without dragging, everything a drop does on the web is also on the row's right-click menu: a right-click with a mouse, or hold and lift on a touch screen.

The ribbon

At the top-left corner, set over the ribbon, is the TechieCRM application icon button, the transparent TechieCRM logo, sitting half over the tab row and half down over the ribbon sections (the first section of every tab curves its top-left border around the icon's edge). Clicking it opens the application menu: Open Database… (sign in to another database), Create Mongo Database… (creates a new local TechieCRM Mongo database with you as its first user, then offers to import records into it; see A8), Sign in as a different user…, Import/Export/Transfer ▸ (Client Entries (CSV / Sheet)…: the mapping wizard, A8; Export to Sheet), Administrator, Help ▸ (User Manual (PDF): this manual, bundled with the app; Online Documentation: the knowledge base at www.techiecrm.com; About TechieCRM) and Exit. Beside the icon, in the band space before the centred tabs, lives the Quick Shortcuts strip: small one-click buttons you choose yourself. Right-click the strip or any shortcut to open its menu: right-click a shortcut and the menu leads with Remove; tick commands on and off directly in the list; More Commands… opens the full Customize Quick Shortcuts editor: a Choose commands from picker (the Icon Bar and every ribbon tab: Home, Edit, View, Search, Tools, Reports, Setup, Custom Actions), the available Commands on the left, Add → / ← Remove, your chosen shortcuts on the right with Move Up / Move Down ordering (that order is the strip order), and Reset to defaults. Any icon-bar module or ribbon command can become a shortcut. A shortcut for a command that is a drop-down on the ribbon (Recent Catalog Searches, Other Fields, Sort By, Switch Window) opens that same drop-down under the shortcut when you click it, rather than doing something on its own.

The Issues bell. When something needs your attention, a small red bell with a number appears at the very start of the Quick Shortcuts strip, just right of the TechieCRM icon. Only the bell shows: there is no box or border behind it. The number sits at the bell's top-right in the same style as the numbers on the icon bar (bold red, outlined thinly in the colour of the bar behind it, "99+" above 99). Pointing at the bell shows the same light shading as the other shortcut buttons, so you can see it is a button; you can also reach it with the Tab key (it then shows a focus ring) and open it with Space or Enter. Clicking it never moves the keyboard away from what you were typing. The number counts the issues you have not read yet: opening the bell marks the rows it shows as read (new ones carry a New tag), and the number goes up again when a new issue arrives or an old one comes back. An issue you have read but not yet dealt with keeps the bell there, red, without a number. It is only there while there is something to deal with; with nothing open it disappears and the shortcuts move back, unless you tick Always show the notification bell in Settings ▸ General ▸ Notification bell (off by default, kept per user): then it stays, as a grey bell with no number, until something needs you. Problems with your own email accounts (a password that is missing or refused, a sign-in that has ended, a certificate, a server that cannot be reached) are listed here too, one row per account, with Open Email Settings, Sign in again or Try Again on the row. A change you saved that could not yet be copied for the cloud shows as one row for this computer, A saved change has not been copied for the cloud yet; the save itself is safe in the office CRM, and the row closes by itself once the copy has been made (see chapter 13, Desktop saves reach this computer's copy straight away). When a new issue arrives (or one comes back) the bell gives a short lift and shake; it never pops anything up, never takes the keyboard away from what you are typing, and shows no banner. Click it to open Issues: one row per problem, with how many times it has happened and when it last happened (repeats of the same problem are grouped on one row). A row you can fix has a button that takes you straight there (for example Open Settings, Email for a password or certificate problem with the account that sends monitoring emails); it clears by itself once the problem is fixed. A row you cannot fix from inside TechieCRM has Dismiss; it comes back, with a fresh count, if the same problem happens again. Dismissing only hides a row for you. Administrators also see other users' problems as notices, without their account details; a notice an administrator dismisses about someone else's problem comes back at most once a day while the problem continues (the count still includes every time it happened), while the person it belongs to is reminded each time. The bell is separate from the Notifications button on the ribbon, which is for updates on records you follow. See A5, "When monitoring emails cannot be sent". Export to Sheet opens a preview dialog: the first 5 records to be exported over your current column setup, each column with an Include tick (untick to drop it, or tick a hidden column to add it, the advanced part), an Export field headers toggle, and an Export picker (Selected records / Showing list). Set Where and Save As at the bottom and click Save (clicking Save as-is is the simple path). Your shortcuts, including their order, are remembered on this computer as soon as you set them, and they also follow you between the desktop and the web like your theme once this computer is connected. If you change them while the connection is down they are still kept, and they travel up the next time it is back. (To collapse the ribbon itself, use the 📌 pin at the top-right corner of the ribbon; see below.)

At the top-right corner of the ribbon itself (on its first row of buttons, hard against the right edge, the same place as in the cloud CRM) is the pin (📌 when pinned = ribbon always open; 📍 when unpinned = only the tab row shows and clicking a tab pops the ribbon open until you use a button, click elsewhere, press Esc or click the tab again; while the ribbon is collapsed the pin is out of sight with it; remembered per user). At the top-right of the ribbon's tab row is the signed-in user menu: your display name ▾ → My Profile (your User Properties; its Activities tab lists your to-dos and meetings, with completed ones hidden until you click Show completed activities; its Activity tab is the record of what you did), My Activity… (the Activity Log of everything you did in TechieCRM: records you opened, changed or deleted, sign-ins, exports; see chapter A11), Change Password… (changes the database sign-in password TechieCRM uses for your login in SQL Server and MongoDB where applicable), Sign out (switch user)… (the same switch-user flow as the application menu's Sign in as a different user…: re-opens the sign-in window on this session; cancelling it keeps you signed in as you are). Same menu as the cloud portal's user drop-down.

Tabs Home / Edit / View / Search / Tools / Reports / Setup / Custom Actions: the same tabs, groups and captions as your source CRM's ribbon, rebuilt for whichever module is active (open Sales and the ribbon becomes the Sales ribbon; buttons the source CRM greys in a module are greyed here too). The tab row uses TechieCRM's rounded-top-corner tab style (the same look as the Settings dialog's tabs): the active tab is lit, the others are dimmed until you hover. Large buttons and small three-to-a-column buttons follow the source CRM's mix; a ▾ caption opens a drop-down; toggle buttons stay highlighted while on. Every button does something: real actions where TechieCRM has the feature, and a one-line explanation for the few legacy-CRM features not carried over (OLE hooks, mail-program sync…). Appendix 6 lists every tab/group/button per module.

Room for the TechieCRM icon. The first section of every tab starts beside the TechieCRM icon (its border curves around the icon's edge), and its buttons start just past the icon, so no button sits under it, whichever tab, window width, theme or Font Size you use.

When the window is narrow. If the window is too narrow to show every section with its button names, the ribbon hides the names of the rightmost section first and shows its buttons as icons only; narrow the window further and the next section to its left does the same, and so on. Widen the window and the names come back in the reverse order. Point at an icon-only button to see its name in a tooltip (every ribbon button has one, with or without its name showing). A section's title stays under it; in icon-only mode a long title wraps onto two lines. No button, icon or name is ever cut off or hidden behind another section.

The tab row. The tabs (Home, Edit, View, ...) are centred in the space between the Quick Shortcuts strip on the left and your name on the right, and never move into either: as the window narrows, the Home tab stops just past the last shortcut (or the Issues bell, when it shows). The shortcut buttons keep their full size at every window width; only the empty part of the strip, between the last shortcut and the Home tab, gets shorter. Adding a shortcut or the bell appearing moves the tabs along to make room.

Minimum window width. The TechieCRM window cannot be made narrower than the widest of these:

the ribbon: the width at which every button of the widest tab still shows as an icon, with every section in icon-only mode;
the tab row: the TechieCRM icon, the Quick Shortcuts strip, every tab and your name;
the panels: every button in the header of every panel on screen (the view list, the status badge, Refresh, Settings and Close on Clients, Related and Interactions, and the toolbars of Sales, Service and the other modules), plus the icon bar and the Calendar Control when they are docked at the sides. Panels side by side add up: in the Classic layout the Related and Interactions panels sit next to each other, so the window is at least as wide as both headers together, plus the docked bars. Three Pane puts Clients beside them, so it needs the most width; Stacked needs the least, because the panels sit one above the other.

The width is worked out from the window itself, so it changes with Settings ▸ Font Size (a larger size needs a wider window), with the panel layout you choose, with the module you have open, and when you dock or undock a bar. If the window is narrower than that when one of these changes, it widens to fit. Dragging the divider between two panels stops where the smaller panel's header would start to lose a button. In the Floating layout, a panel that a narrowing window would push past the right edge slides back left so its header stays in view.

Cloud CRM (October 2026): the web ribbon follows the same rule: sections switch to icons only from the right as the browser window narrows, and names come back as it widens. A browser window cannot be stopped from getting narrower, so once every section shows icons only, the ribbon scrolls sideways inside itself instead of squeezing buttons together.

Button names fit. A button name never loses letters or lines, including when the name grows slightly as you point at it. Long names on large buttons wrap onto two lines, and the button widens a little rather than wrapping onto a third.

The tabs at a glance (Clients shown; other modules swap the Create/Filter/Search-by groups): - Home: Create (Client Entry ▾ Company/Individual/Contact/User, Ticket, Sale, Project, Agreement, Work Order) · Write (Email, Note, Letter, Fax (greyed), Document) · Text (SMS) · Phone (Make / Receive a Call → logs a Phone Call note) · Schedule (Meeting, Task, Phone Call, Project Plan) · Insert / Print · Track ▸ Time a Task (stopwatch, save as note) · Subscribe. - Edit: Entry (Open, Delete, Duplicate) · List (Make List Current, Invert Selection, Select All, De-select All, Select Entry; these drive the record-list checkbox marks) · Replace ▸ Global Edit · Relate & Convert · Links (Copy Link puts a techiecrm://client/… link on the clipboard; Paste Link opens it). - View: Filter (Clear List, Last Session List, Entry Templates, My/All/Company/Contact Prospects (Client Status = Prospect), All Entries, Companies, Individuals, Contacts, Users: login users + your organization row only) · Favorite Lists (All Lists, Recent, Add to List, Remove From List) · Logging (Phone Log, Activities) · Show (Organization Chart, Properties, Map, Website) · Availability · Window (Switch Window ▾ (every module), Refresh, Sort By ▾ (the list's columns)). - Search: Options (Undo Search, Clear Undo, Repeat All Fields, Show All) · Catalog (Search Catalog, Recent Catalog Searches ▾) · Search By (All Fields, Company, Last Name, All Phone Numbers, All Email Addresses, Other Fields ▾: every system field and user-defined field) · Retrieve (Sales, Tickets, Partners, Companies, Individuals, Contacts) · Validation ▸ Check Duplicate · Web. See Chapter 20. - Tools: Internet (Web Form: a short enquiry form you put on your own website; each person who fills it in becomes a Prospect in Clients. Web forms are built on the TechieCRM website, so they are a cloud subscription feature: without a TechieCRM cloud subscription the button is greyed and says "Web forms are a cloud subscription feature." when you rest the pointer on it. With one, the button explains this and opens the Web Forms page on the website; until the website's form builder is ready it says the builder is coming soon and opens nothing. Mailing Lists) · Office (Export to Sheet: the current list as CSV or .xlsx, choosing the columns in the same window; Sync with Mail (greyed); Open Document) · Other (TechieCRM Editor, Graphing, Phone, Timer, Wizard (opens the Configuration window on its Licence page, which replaced the setup wizard: the licence, and the Database (with this computer's local database and cloud sync), Linked CRM logins and Email pages; signed in, administrator actions need a TechieCRM administrator and another database asks to sign out first; nothing changes until you press a button on a page, and the sync tick starts on your current choice; Administrator Guide A14), World Clock, Active OLE Hooks (greyed)) · Cloud (Cloud Connection, Sync Now, Backup Now, Web Portal). Greyed in every module: Home ▸ Write ▸ Fax, the Email module's Edit ▸ Decode Email, Tools ▸ Sync with Mail and Tools ▸ Active OLE Hooks stay on the ribbon but cannot be clicked. Rest the pointer on one to see why: Fax needs an add-on service that is not available yet; Decode Email and Sync with Mail are not needed, because TechieCRM reads your mail accounts directly; Active OLE Hooks are not available in TechieCRM. - Reports: Personal (Journal, Expenses, Phone ▾, Quota) · Clients ▾ / Contacts ▾ / Related Entries ▾ (Column Report = print preview of the list; Detailed Report = the selected entry) · Sales ▾ (incl. Sales Pipeline / Funnel) · Marketing ▾ · Service ▾ / Library ▾ (Library or Knowledge Base) · Associated Entries (Notes, Documents, User-Defined Fields: every field definition, by module and folder, with its type, who requested it and whether it is hidden, in the print preview) · Activities (Calendar ▾, To-Do List ▾, Activities) · Dashboards (Dashboards, Financials, HR & Payroll). - Setup: File Management (Document Admin ▾, Template Library ▾ incl. Entry Template and Note Template, chapter 28) · Territory · Preferences (Settings) · User-Defined Fields (Set Up UDF) · User Management (Manage Users, Security Groups, Teams) · Display (Column Setup, Coloring Rule) · Workspace (Custom Actions, Icon Bar → Settings ▸ Theme Layout, Window ▾ → Classic / Stacked / Three Pane / Floating layouts) · Administration (Administrator, Configuration → the Configuration window, signed in (Administrator Guide A14), Database → Settings ▸ Database, Licensing, Diagnostics → Settings ▸ Diagnostics). - Custom Actions: Dashboards · TechieCRM (Web Portal, Messages, Notifications, Manage Custom Actions).

Module ribbons: Calendar (Meeting; Manage Meeting; Legend; Options: Other User's Calendar, Tasks / Users ▾, Carry Forward, Daily / Weekly / Weekly List / Monthly, Go to Today, Go to Calendar Date), Service (Process: Resolve / Assign / Escalate / Monitor Ticket; Filter: My Tickets, All Tickets, Status Filter ▾, My Current Tickets, Ticket Queue, Overdue; Search By: Basic Fields, Ticket #, Owner, Creator, Notes, Last Modified), To-Do List (Task; Manage Activity: Reassign, Mark as Completed, Set Priority; Filter: Show Meetings, Carry Forward, Today's … Next Week's Tasks, Build To-Do List), Sales (Ticket, Sale, Quote, Invoice; Process ▸ Monitor Sale; Filter: All / Current / Team Updated / Won / Lost; Analysis: Funnel, Pipeline; Search By: Company / Partner, Contact, Partner, Competitor, Status, Objective, Stage, Confidence Rating, Team, Leader), Marketing (Automated / Traditional; Review: Steps, Roles; Retrieve Client Entries), Email (Compose, Respond, Manage Email, date filters, Preview / Show Entry), Library / Knowledge Base (Article ▾, Folder, Paste Document, KB Article ▾; KB status filters; Search By File Name / Author / Creation Date / Text in Note / Last Modified; KB Any Field / Phrase), Personal (Journal Note, Expense; Date Range / Text in Note), Quotas, Dashboards (designer: New, Properties, Add Indicator, Wizard, Email, Print, Full Screen), My Work Day (Choose Indicators, Dashboard Mode, Meetings / Tasks / Announcements) and the TechieCRM modules: Inventory, Projects (incl. Gantt), Financials (incl. Aging), Work Orders (Dispatch: Assign, Set Status ▾), Partners, Agreements (Agreement; Generate Due; Pause / Resume / Cancel), Compliance & SLA (Requirement, SLA Policy, Compliance Record, Evaluate SLAs; SLA Board / Partner Compliance / Expiry Board), HR & Payroll (Employee, Time Entry, Leave Request, Pay Run; Employees / Time / Leave / Payroll), Messages, each with Create, Filter and Search By groups over its own list.

The words TechieCRM uses

The buttons use one word per thing, all the way through: the same word on the ribbon, in the right-click menus, on the panels and in this manual. Where you see two words for something that sounds similar, they really are two different things:

One word	It always means
Entry	Any row you can open in any list.
Client	A company, individual or contact you do business with. Company, Individual and Contact are the three kinds of client entry; a Partner is a company flagged as one; a Vendor is a company you buy from.
Ticket	A support request (Service).
Sale	A revenue opportunity. A Quote is the priced offer you make before there is a sale.
Marketing	A marketing programme and everything belonging to it.
Task	One item of work. The To-Do List is the list those tasks sit on.
Meeting	A diarised event with people.
Note	Text you type onto an entry. A Document is a file; an Article is a Library or Knowledge Base item.
Agreement	A repeating service commitment.
Template	A reusable starting point: Entry Template, Note Template, Project Plan Library.
Delete	Destroys the record. Remove takes it out of a list and the record survives; Clear empties a list or resets a setting and destroys nothing.
Open	Opens the entry in its own window. Show turns something on or off inside the view you are already on; View in Clients jumps you to another module carrying the entry with you.
Search	Runs a query and replaces the list with the result. Filter narrows what is already on screen; Retrieve pulls in the entries related to the one you are on.
Create	Makes a new thing (the buttons under a Create group are just the thing's name). Add to puts an existing thing into a list.

Record lists: the guide

Every module list looks and behaves the same: | Element | What it does | |---|---| | Status icon (first column) | Coloured icon for the record's state (e.g. active/paused, overdue, breached). The whole row is tinted the same colour. | | Column headers | One uniform bold header bar in every list (same height everywhere). Click to sort; numbers, money and dates sort as numbers. Drag borders to resize. | | Filter toolbar | Module-specific filters (status, type, date) plus ➕ New, 🗂️ Column Setup, 🔄 Refresh, ⚙️ Settings, ❌ Close at the right. | | Double-click | Opens the record's detail dialog. | | Keyboard | On the Clients, Related and Interactions lists: ↑ / ↓ move to the previous / next record (exactly as if you had clicked it, so the panels below follow), and Enter opens the highlighted record, the same as double-clicking. F5 refreshes everything on screen. On the other module lists ↑ / ↓ move the row in the ordinary way; Enter is not wired there yet, so use double-click or right-click ▸ Open. See Chapter 3. | | Right-click | Context menu: Open at the top, then module actions (New, status changes, Refresh). Empty-area right-click offers Add/New. Every right-click menu, including the plain edit menu (Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All) on text boxes and in the email editor, has the same solid background and thin border in your Theme's colours, and changes with the Theme. | | Selection | Two independent things. The current row (the one you last clicked) is outlined, and it is what drives the panels below. Selected rows are a separate multi-row set shown as a peach fill: click the first column's icon cell to select a row, click the header's master box to select or clear them all, or right-click a row ▸ Select (the item reads Unselect when the row is already selected). Every record list works this way: Clients, Related, Interactions, Sales, Service, To-Do, Marketing, Projects, Inventory, Partners, Work Orders, Agreements, Compliance & SLA, Financials, HR & Payroll, Personal and Quotas. Ribbon Edit ▸ List (Select All, De-select All, Invert Selection, Select Entry) acts on the same set. | | Lists without multi-select | The Knowledge Base article list uses ordinary click / Shift-click / ⌘-click selection instead of the record-list mark layer. | | Scroll bars | Since 17 October 2026 the scroll bars of every list, panel, text box and control bar (the Call List and AP/AR lists included) lie over the content instead of taking a strip of their own, so you see more of it: a bar appears while you scroll (wheel, trackpad or keys) or when you move the mouse near the edge, fades out a moment after you stop, and can be dragged as usual while it shows. Its colours follow your Theme, and it appears and goes without fading if your computer is set to reduce motion. The calendar's day and week grids, the print preview, the PDF viewer and the standard file, colour and font dialogs keep ordinary scroll bars. The web portal does the same in a browser on a computer: scroll bars appear while you scroll or point at a list or panel and fade out a moment after; on an iPad the system's own scroll bars are used. |

Cloud CRM (31 Aug 2026): right-click now works in the web portal's record lists too, on a row and on the empty space below the last row, on the Clients list and on the Related and Interactions panels of every module workspace. On a tablet, press and hold instead. The items are the desktop's, in the desktop's order; the ones that are not built on the web yet say so when you choose them rather than doing nothing. See Chapter 3.

Icons: one symbol per function. Toolbar and menu icons are system emoji (the icon bar's module buttons use the TechieCRM colour icon set instead, see The icon bar above, and so do the four mail buttons New Message, Reply, Reply All and Forward, drawn after the Mac's Mail app (see Chapter 12), and the ribbon's Write (Email, Note, Letter, Fax, Document), Message (Text (SMS)), Phone (Make a Call, Receive a Call) and Sales ▸ Create ▸ Quote buttons, whose icons the Interactions rows share (Chapter 17), and, since 13 October 2026, the rest of the Home tab: Meeting (the icon bar's calendar page, also on the Calendar's Create group), Project Plan (a sheet of timeline bars, which Project Plan rows in Interactions share), Insert a File (a page with a paperclip), Insert a Hyperlink (chain links), Print an Envelope and Print a Label (one printer, with an addressed envelope or a sheet of labels coming out), Time a Task (a stopwatch) and Assign to Marketing (the Marketing megaphone with a green plus)), and the same function always uses the same symbol everywhere in TechieCRM: ⚙️ Settings (every panel's corner gear and Setup ▸ Preferences), 🗂️ Column Setup, 🔄 Refresh, ❌ Close, 🔍 Search/Find, 🖨️ Print, 🗑️ Delete, 📧 Email, 💾 Save, ➕ Add, 📝 Note, 🗓️ Meeting, ✅ Task. Record status icons in the first list column keep their colour-coded meaning and are not part of this set.

Layouts and floating panels

Settings ▸ Theme Layout ▸ Content Panels chooses Classic (Clients top, Related + Interactions below), Stacked, Three Pane (Clients on the left, Related and Interactions stacked on the right), Columns, Grid, Four Pane (Clients on the left, three panels stacked on the right), Split 2-3 or Floating. (Three Pane was called Outlook before October 2026, and Four Pane was Outlook 3; a layout you chose under the old name stays chosen.) In Floating you drag and resize panels freely; the lock icon in a title bar locks all panels (they then snap to the edges and resize proportionally). Any module panel can be popped out to its own window from its title bar and docked back. Positions and sizes are remembered per user, and so is whether a panel is shown or hidden.

Fixed (3 Sept 2026): in Floating layout, a normal quit could silently mark the Clients, Related or Notes panel as hidden even though nobody had hidden it. The shown/hidden flag was being written from whether the panel happened to be on screen at the exact instant the app closed, which is always "no." The next launch then faithfully restored it hidden, and the state persisted through every launch after that until someone noticed a panel was missing and re-opened it. A normal quit no longer does this; explicitly hiding a panel is still remembered as hidden. If a panel is already missing from an earlier launch, re-show it once from its layout controls; no re-hide/re-show loop is needed after that.

Master-detail

Selecting a record in Clients, Sales, Service, Marketing or Projects makes the Related and Interactions panels follow it: Related shows the record's contacts/members, Interactions shows its history. Closing a module returns Clients to the top slot.

Interactions: the unified timeline

The Interactions panel lists, newest first, everything attached to the current record: Notes, Documents, Tasks, Meetings (formerly Appointments), Emails, Sales, Service, Marketing, Inventory, Work Orders, Agreements, Communications (texts + emails sent through the cloud), Projects, Quotes, Invoices, Quotas. Use the type dropdown to show one type, tick Show all to include closed items, and double-click any row to open it in its own dialog. Right-click ▸ Add creates a new item of any type for the record.

Double-click opens every type (September 2026). Until now a small number of rows opened nothing at all when double-clicked, depending on which panel layout you were in: Notes opened, and Documents, Tasks, Meetings and Emails simply did nothing. Every type on the list above now opens its own dialog from a double-click, from every layout.

Settings

Setup ▸ Settings has seventeen tabs: General (the TechieCRM logo, plus a Project Templates… button), Agenda & To-Dos, Theme Layout (Theme System/Light/Dark/Charcoal/High Contrast Dark/Colour-blind Safe/Solarized Light/Solarized Dark/Nord/Dimmed/One Dark/Catppuccin Latte/Catppuccin Mocha/Classic/Classic Dark: Light turns the whole interface light, Dark keeps the dark-grey look, Charcoal puts a charcoal frame (ribbon, icon bar, title bars and column headers) round light lists, records and dialogs, High Contrast Dark is black, white and yellow for low vision or bright rooms, and Colour-blind Safe is Light with status colours that stay easy to tell apart with colour blindness; the next seven are well-known editor colour schemes (a warm cream, a deep teal, an arctic blue-grey, a soft slate, the Atom editor's dark, a lavender-grey light and a warm mauve dark), each with its own default Primary and Accent colour; Classic and Classic Dark are a familiar look for people coming to TechieCRM from another CRM (a blue frame, navy and sky blue, and a compact Lucida Grande font, see Appendix A5); only colours change between themes, never text size or spacing, except that choosing Classic or Classic Dark also sets the font and a smaller Font Size, which you can change afterwards; plus the primary and accent colours, the panel layout picker, and the icon bar / calendar control bar docking that used to live on a Shortcuts tab), Font Style, Service, Sales (completion reasons), Calendar, Email (your own email accounts, Chapter 12), Meeting Notes, Database (connections, sync status and Backups), Local Database (TechieCRM's own database: status, admin password, data folder, Appendix A1), Marketing, Diagnostics (per-module diagnostic logging for support, Appendix A5), Inventory (Set Up Inventory Types…), Agreements & SLA (SLA Policies…, Compliance Requirements…, Agreement Templates…), HR & Payroll (HR Setup…) and Connect (TechieCRM Connect's remote-support preferences, Chapter 27). Each module's toolbar ⚙ button opens Settings on that module's page; where a module has no settings of its own, its toolbar simply has no ⚙ button at all, except Sales, Work Orders and the three workspace panels (Clients, Related, Interactions), which (for now) keep a ⚙ that says so plainly instead of opening someone else's page, and, as of September 2026, also tells you which Settings pages do govern that module (Theme Layout, Font Style and Database), so it points somewhere useful instead of stopping the conversation. See Appendix A5.

Fixed in the September 2026 update. Two things about that ⚙ and about Dark:

the ⚙ on Clients, Related and Interactions used to do nothing at all: no window, no message, no error. All three now give the plain notice described in Appendix A5;
the record lists on those same three panels used to stay white in Dark, so choosing Dark gave you a dark window wrapped around three bright-white lists. They now follow the theme like everything else (dark cards on a dark background), and they follow it while you are looking at them, without restarting TechieCRM. Nothing about the size or spacing of a row changes when you switch: a theme change is a colour change and nothing else.

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