TechieCRM Connect

TechieCRM Connect lets you help a client on their computer — you generate a support key from your desktop, the client enters it (or clicks your link) at connect.techiecrm.com, and a support session connects the two of you. Connect is a paid add-on; if it isn't enabled for your workspace the panel says so and nothing else happens.

Connect is in beta review (from 1 September 2026). Generating a support key — from the desktop panel or from the web portal — needs the beta tester role as well as the add-on. See A3 ▸ Modules in beta review.

The two refusals are worded differently on purpose: "Remote support is not enabled for this workspace" means the add-on has not been bought, and buying it fixes it; "TechieCRM Connect is in beta testing" means it has not been released yet, and buying it will not change that. Ask TechieCRM support to join the programme.

Your client is not affected. Someone joining a session you started — typing your key at connect.techiecrm.com, or clicking your link — is never asked about beta testing and sees none of this.

In this chapter - Opening the Connect panel (floating vs docked) - Inviting a client (keys and links) - Keys generated for a specific client - Session status and expiry - What needs the helper app - Coming later

Opening the panel

Icon bar ▸ Connect (🛟, at the bottom), or Ribbon ▸ Tools ▸ Cloud ▸ Connect. The panel opens in the centre body of the CRM, filling the content area like any other module (Financials, Inventory…). To work with it as a separate window — a dedicated support console — drag it out of the TechieCRM window by its title bar, exactly like the other module panels; dragging it back re-docks it. It follows your theme (light/dark/system) like every other panel.

Layout (modelled on the classic support consoles): session tools across the top, your sessions listed on the left, the Invite Client area in the middle, and who you're signed in as along the bottom.

Inviting a client

Click New Support Key (or the Session tool). The panel shows the key (e.g. 6D2P-62CU) and the address to read to your client:

Direct your client to connect.techiecrm.com and ask them to enter the support key: 6D2P-62CU

• Copy Support URL copies the one-click link (the key is at the end of the link, so it runs automatically when the client opens it).
• Email Support Info… opens a pre-written email containing both the link and the spoken key.

Which address is shown. The address in the panel and the "or go to…" line in the emailed invitation are both taken from the rendezvous server your workspace is actually signed in to — so a workspace on its own or a white-labelled Connect server names that address in both places. If TechieCRM cannot read your workspace's setting (you are offline, or not signed in to the cloud) it falls back to connect.techiecrm.com. Before the September 2026 update the emailed line always said connect.techiecrm.com even when the panel said something else; the link in the email itself was always correct, only the typed-address fallback was wrong.

Keys are one-time use and expire after 30 minutes (the panel counts down). Issuing a new key retires your older unused ones. On the landing page the client enters their name, downloads the small session helper, and runs it — the session then appears in your panel.

Keys generated for a specific client

Generate for Client… searches your Clients and issues the key for that record — the landing page pre-fills the client's name (they can change it), and your session list shows who the key was for. A plain New Support Key is not connected to any client.

Session status

The panel live-updates each key: Waiting for the client to join → joined → active → ended (or expired). Your recent sessions stay listed on the left.

If you have switched on either option under Settings ▸ Connect ▸ Notifications, the moment a key moves to joined you also get a desktop notification and/or a sound — once per session, not once per status update, so you are told your client has arrived exactly one time.

The session toolbar

Session starts a new support session (a fresh key). Notes files a note about this session against the client's own record — it becomes available once you generate a key for a client (Generate for Client…), because a note needs a record to live on. The note opens already headed with the session: its first line reads Connect support session — [client name], followed by Support key 1234-5678, with the rest left blank for you to type what you did. (Notes have one body and no separate subject line, so the session heading is simply the note's first line — which is also what shows as its preview in the Interactions list.) Diagnostics opens Settings ▸ Diagnostics and Preferences opens Settings on the Connect tab — Connect's own settings page, described below. (Preferences has moved twice: it originally reopened Settings on whichever tab you happened to have open last, which looked as though Connect had a page; then it deliberately opened General, because Connect had no settings of its own and claiming otherwise would have been worse. Since the September 2026 update Connect really does have a page, and Preferences opens it.)

Connect settings

Settings ▸ Connect, or the Preferences button on the Connect toolbar. One page, five groups.

Sign In shows the account your support keys are issued under — the same account shown along the bottom of the Connect panel. Sign in and out under Tools ▸ Cloud Connection.

Notifications — the two settings that work today:

• Show a desktop notification when a customer joins my session. A banner appears the moment a key you issued is used, so you can be working in another application and still know your client has arrived. Turning this on puts a small TechieCRM icon in your menu bar (macOS) or notification area (Windows) — that icon is what the banner is posted from. On a desktop that cannot show banners at all, the option is greyed and says so.
• Play a sound when a customer joins my session. Your system alert sound, on the same event. Works everywhere.

Either takes effect on your very next session; there is nothing to restart. Both apply to sessions started from this computer and are not carried to your other devices.

The remaining three groups — Attended Session Installation, Remote Session (colour quality of the remote screen, remote cursor, system keys, and the Windows performance options) and Unattended Support (lock on disconnect, inactivity timeout) — are shown but switched off. Hover any of them and it tells you why and what it is waiting for. They are waiting on the same three things the greyed toolbar buttons are: the helper app, a customer-side installer, or unattended support. Nothing on the page accepts a tick and then ignores it.

"Colour quality" is about the remote screen, not about TechieCRM. It sets the video quality of the picture arriving from your customer's machine. It never changes how TechieCRM looks — the app's colours and text size stay under the single global controls on Settings ▸ Theme Layout and Font Style.

What needs the helper app

Screen Sharing, Ctrl-Alt-Del, Chat, File Transfer, Unattended Support and Tools are visible but disabled until the TechieCRM Connect helper app ships — sessions need the client-side helper to share the screen. Each says what it will do when you hover it. Two promises the system makes and keeps: joining shares the client's screen only — remote control is a separate, explicit, revocable consent — and the helper runs only during the session (no background service, nothing left installed running).

Coming later

• Client-requested support from the TechieCRM website: a client asks for help, a key is generated automatically, and they're connected to the next available technician in the queue.