Settings reference (customization)

Setup ▸ Settings (or any panel's ⚙). Seventeen tabs, in three rows.

Click a tab in any row and that whole row drops to the bottom, against the page below it, so the row you are working in is always the one joined to the panel. Nothing is hidden or scrolled; every tab is on screen at once.

Resizing (October 2026). Drag a corner to make Settings larger or smaller: the page and its panels follow the window in both directions, so lists show more columns and rows instead of scrolling. It can be made narrower than it opens, down to the width its widest row of tabs needs. Buttons always show their whole name (a row that no longer fits moves onto a second line), and long sentences wrap rather than being cut off; this holds at every Font Size, including Large and Ex-Large. Long pages (General, Database, Marketing and the others) scroll up and down.

Changed in the September 2026 update. Two tabs were removed because neither was a real settings page. To-Dos held five titled but empty boxes and not one control; its settings are now on the renamed Agenda & To-Dos tab, which already held every To-Do option the app actually reads. Backup held twenty-one controls that saved nothing and described a scheduled SQL/folder backup that does not exist; the real backup system now has a live Backups section on the Database tab. Both ⚙ buttons and both old names still work; they simply land on the right page now.

Also changed, later in the same September 2026 update. A full review found real, already-built configuration dialogs hiding inside five modules that had never been given a Settings-tab home: Inventory ("Set Up Inventory Types…"), HR & Payroll ("HR Setup…"), Compliance & SLA ("SLA Policies…" / "Compliance Requirements…"), Agreements ("Agreement Templates…") and Projects ("Project Templates…"). Rather than duplicate any of them, each now has a second, Settings-reachable door to the SAME dialog it always had: three new tabs (Orders & Inventory, now just Inventory (see below), Agreements & SLA, HR & Payroll) plus a new button on General. The other seven modules that still have nothing to configure (Messenger, Personal, Order Desk, Partners, Financials, Library, Quotas. Order Desk has since been retired into Financials) had their ⚙ button removed from the panel entirely. Shannon's ruling: "remove the gear where there's nothing to configure; add it back the day the module gains a setting." Sales and Work Orders kept their honest "not yet implemented" gear at the time; Sales gained its own tab in October 2026 (the completion reason editor, see the table below), Work Orders keeps the notice.

Tab	What it holds	Saved
General	TechieCRM Logo: save the TechieCRM logo as an image file (for letterhead, documents, shortcuts or your own use). Pick a file (full transparent logo, app-icon tile, or the small transparent logo), review its details (file name, format, dimensions, background, size) with a live preview, then Save to Desktop (never overwrites; a second copy gets "(2)") or Save As… to any folder. Projects: Project Templates…, the same dialog as the Projects panel's own "Project Templates…" button: Projects has one self-contained settings group and no sibling module to share a tab with, so per the September 2026 organisation rules it lives here, behind its own button, rather than getting an empty tab of its own. License: License Information… opens the License Information window (license valid until + days remaining, seats, assigned users, registered devices, revocation status; see chapter 13 and A4). Monitoring alerts (this computer only): a line saying how new alerts reach you here (a banner from TechieCRM's icon in the notification area, or, on a computer without one, only the count on the Notifications button); Show a banner on this computer for new alerts (on by default; greyed out when there is no notification area); Quiet hours: hold banners from … to … (off by default, 22:00 to 07:00; the window may cross midnight). Held banners are kept and announced as one banner with the count when the quiet hours end; alerts are always recorded and counted. Saved the moment you change them; see chapter 12, Notifications. Monitoring emails (October 2026; offices without cloud sync): a line saying which computer sends the office's monitoring emails (or why none does here); Send the office's monitoring emails from this computer (offices without cloud sync) (off by default; one ticked computer sends at a time, another takes over after 20 minutes); Send from (the signed-in person's email accounts that can send). Your monitoring emails: Records you monitor, Saved search matches and Monitoring rule alerts each Immediately, Hourly digest, Daily digest or Off (defaults Immediately, Daily digest, Immediately); At most this many immediate emails an hour (1 to 60, default 10); Daily digest at (hour) (default 8:00); Time zone; Quiet hours for email (off by default, 22:00 to 07:00). See chapter 12, Monitoring emails. Notification bell (October 2026, per user): Always show the notification bell (off by default). Off: the bell at the start of the Quick Shortcuts shows only while something needs your attention. On: it is always there, grey with no number when nothing is open. Either way it shows, red, with the number of notifications you have not read yet, while something is open; opening it marks them read. Saved for you the moment you change it and applied at once; see Getting started, "The Issues bell". Signing in from more than one place (October 2026): Check for other places, one of Off (default): sign in anywhere, nothing is checked, Observe: record where the ID is used, never prompt or sign out, or Enforce: one active place per ID, with the prompt and the countdown. For an office running TechieCRM on its own database this is ONE switch for the whole office, kept in the office's TechieCRM database: only an administrator can change it (everyone else sees the current value, greyed), it is saved the moment it is changed, and every computer follows it at its next sign-in. Off means every desktop behaves exactly as before this setting existed. For a TechieCRM cloud workspace the control is greyed and the cloud's own setting decides. See Chapter 30	files saved where you choose; Project Templates and License Information open the real dialogs; Monitoring alerts and the sending switch saved on this computer at once; your monitoring email choices saved in this computer's TechieCRM database at once; the sign-in check saved in the office database by an administrator
Agenda & To-Dos	start page; which Agenda sections are shown; and under Tasks & To-Dos: include completed tasks, include overdue tasks from previous days, show items for all users. These are the settings that govern your To-Do list; the old separate To-Dos tab was empty. To-Do defaults (priority, activity type, carry-forward, work days) are not built yet and the tab says so	immediately
Theme Layout	Theme System / Dark / Light / Charcoal / High Contrast Dark / Colour-blind Safe / Solarized Light / Solarized Dark / Nord / Dimmed / One Dark / Catppuccin Latte / Catppuccin Mocha / Classic / Classic Dark (in High Contrast Dark a short line under the row warns that a colour you pick may lower contrast); Select Primary Color, Select Accent Color (each button is filled with the colour the active theme is using; the default look is TechieCRM green, see Your theme follows you below) and Reset to Default beside them (one click returns both to the active theme's own default colours, TechieCRM green in Light, Dark and Charcoal; greyed out when you have not picked a colour); the graphical Windows Layout picker (the active layout is outlined in the accent colour) (Classic, Stacked, Three Pane, Columns, Grid, Four Pane, Split 2-3, Floating; Three Pane and Four Pane were renamed in October 2026 and a layout chosen before keeps working, see Chapter 2, Layouts and floating panels); below it, Icon Bar Properties (show/hide, small/large, Docked Left / Floating / Docked Right, Recent Entries), Icon Bar Icons (which icons the bar shows and in what order: click an icon to show or hide it, drag to reorder, Restore default; see Icon Bar Icons below), Right-Click Menu (button pad or classic menu, button size, names under buttons, buttons per row, Try it; see Right-Click Menu below) and Calendar Control Bar Properties (show/hide, position) with live position read-outs, moved here from the retired Shortcuts tab. The tab scrolls when the window is too small to show it all	applied immediately; theme choices also follow you to the web and mobile (see below)
Database	The session's database login configuration and live sync status of every database in the chain: data mode (Source CRM SQL or MongoDB preview), source-CRM SQL server/database/connection, local MongoDB (with the automatic source-CRM→Mongo sync status), and the cloud sync, with a Refresh Status button. Also holds Backups (below). The Source CRM → Mongo sync line reports the last pass honestly: a green tick only when every part of the sync succeeded; otherwise it reads N of M parts FAILED (<part>: <reason>), naming the first failing part. A failed part keeps its place in the sync (its window is re-read on the next pass) and records the reason in the local database's _sync_state for support. With no MongoDB configured (the engine was not installed and no other server is saved) the local MongoDB line reads unavailable without a MongoDB database with the reason, and no connection is attempted. Source CRM checks (October 2026) names the computer that runs the source CRM refresh, monitor-list import, monitoring rules and change alerts for this TechieCRM database: Source CRM checks for this database run on FRONTDESK, last renewed 2 minutes ago (or on this computer (NAME)); Not running: no monitors are active on a computer without cloud sync where nobody monitors anything; Not running here: the local portal on this computer runs them; or, when the holder stopped renewing, that the next check on any computer takes over. One computer per TechieCRM database runs them, and another takes over within 20 minutes if it is switched off (Chapter 12). Monitoring emails (October 2026) says whether this computer sends the office's monitoring emails: This computer sends the office's monitoring emails from … with the last run's counts, FRONTDESK sends the office's monitoring emails; this computer takes over if it stops for 20 minutes, Not sending from this computer: switched off …, or, on a computer that syncs with the cloud, that the cloud sends them (Chapter 12)	read-only status
↳ Database ▸ Backups	Where snapshots are written, how many are kept, the most recent one, when the last backup ran and whether cloud upload is available, plus Open Backups… (back up now, restore a snapshot, list the cloud backups; the same window as Cloud Connection ▸ Backups…, Chapter 13), Open snapshot folder and Refresh Status. Schedule and retention are fixed in this release (an automatic pass at most every 7 days, newest 10 snapshots kept), so no control is offered for them	actions run immediately; nothing to save
Local Database	TechieCRM's own database, installed with it (version 0.8.0.4 and later): mode (Windows service for all users, or run by TechieCRM), status, server and port, data folder, MongoDB version, password protection, Sync (whether this app or the TechieCRM local portal on the same computer talks to the cloud; A1); the database admin name and where TechieCRM keeps its copy of the admin password (with a warning when that copy is not encrypted); Show admin password… (hidden until you tick Show password; the log records that it was shown, never the password), Reset admin password… (Set admin password… when none is set), Save setup record as administrator… (Windows all-users installs), Move data folder…, Delete old copy… for a folder an earlier move left behind (on a Windows all-users install Windows asks for administrator permission), and a link to TechieCRM support. If TechieCRM's database engine was not installed (an Advanced install can leave it out), the tab says so in its first line (Not installed: TechieCRM's database engine was not installed) and hides the admin and data-folder buttons. Connect to another MongoDB server (every install): Address, User name, Password, Test connection, Save, Forget; see Connecting to another MongoDB server below. The status is read when you open the tab and on Refresh. Full details: A1. Installation	actions run immediately; the other-server setting is saved by Save
Marketing	email-marketing provider setup: two provider cards (Mailchimp, Constant Contact) with live connection status and Enable… buttons opening step-by-step dialogs. Every workspace connects its own provider account, and no developer/API-application keys are ever needed: Mailchimp is five steps to your own API key (mailchimp.com ▸ profile ▸ Account & billing ▸ Extras ▸ API keys ▸ Create A Key "TechieCRM" ▸ paste); Constant Contact is a plain sign-in through TechieCRM's registered application (click, log in, Allow) plus an organization-address check; while Constant Contact reviews the application only TechieCRM's own account can sign in. Provider actions run through the TechieCRM cloud. Disconnect on a card wipes the stored credentials in the cloud (row kept as audit trail; the grant in the provider account is NOT revoked). Reached from the Marketing toolbar ⚙ Settings button as well as Setup ▸ Settings. Sending defaults for this workspace (September 2026 update): three values used when a campaign does not set its own: Default provider, From name and Reply-to address. A campaign's own values always win; these only fill the gaps. They are stored in the cloud and shared with everyone in the workspace, so setting them here or in the web portal is the same thing. Default provider is only consulted when both providers are connected; with one connected it is ignored. If it names a provider that has since been disconnected the tab says so and leaves the value alone: campaigns that do not name a provider are refused rather than quietly sent from the other account. Refresh Status reloads the cards and these three together. On an older TechieCRM cloud that does not store them, the fields are greyed and say so; nothing is lost, campaigns keep using their own values.	connection and defaults stored in the cloud
Font Style	Font Type (System, or Lucida Grande, the font Classic and Classic Dark bring; more fonts come later), Font Style, Font Size (System / Ex-Small / Small / Medium / Large / Ex-Large) and Font Color, with a live sample that redraws in the font actually in use (hover it to see the family, point size and style)	applied immediately; follows you like the theme
Calendar	the calendar's own settings (Chapter 14). Its Theme and Size rows, and its duplicate Calendar-Control-Bar show/position rows, are not shown here: colour and size are single global controls (Theme Layout and Font Style), and the control bar is set once under Theme Layout	immediately
Email	your email accounts: Add/Edit/Delete, Test Connection (checks each server's security certificate and signs in; nothing is read or sent), defaults, Import Local Accounts… (October 2026, every computer: lists the accounts the mail programs on this computer know (Mac: Mail, Thunderbird; Windows: Outlook, Thunderbird; Linux: Thunderbird, Evolution) with a tick box each, marked New, Update, Already the same or Left as it is, and copies the ticked ones' servers, ports, security and user names; never a password, never a second copy of an account, never a stored password or sign-in; then says how to give each its password; see Chapter 12, Importing the accounts on this computer; it replaced the Mac-only Import from Mail.app…), Sync to Cloud, Sign in with Microsoft / Google / Yahoo… and Remove Sign-in (forgets the selected signed-in account's stored sign-in after asking; the account stays, on its kept password if it has one; see Chapter 12, Signing in with Microsoft, Google or Yahoo). Columns include Password (set / Missing), Certificates (Checked, or Trusted: incoming / outgoing when you chose to trust a server's certificate) and Sign-in (October 2026: Checking…, then Signed in, Refused, Certificate problem, Not checked (no connection) or Problem). The columns fit their heading or contents and Address takes the rest of the width. Address colours (October 2026): green when the account's last sign-in check succeeded, red when the notification bell has an open problem for it or its last check failed, normal text when not checked yet; the newer of the check and the bell's problem decides, the tooltip says the same in words, and the last check of each account is kept on this computer (Chapter 12, Which accounts are working: green and red addresses). Checking the password (October 2026): OK in Add… / Edit… with a new or changed password saves it, then signs in to the incoming server in the background (Settings stays usable and closable); a panel under the list says Signed in or the reason, and for a refused password what the provider needs, with the provider's app-password page (opens in the browser), Sign in with … only when available in this version, and Edit…. The password is kept either way. Under Password the editor says what the recognised provider needs (Gmail / Google Workspace, Outlook.com, Microsoft 365, Yahoo, iCloud); see Chapter 12, Checking the password when you save it and Two-step verification and app passwords. Each account: address, display name, provider, username, password (stored encrypted), reply-to, Other addresses (October 2026: the aliases and forwarding addresses that deliver to this mailbox, separated by commas; they count as your own addresses when you file an email, so they are never matched to a client entry and a message sent from one of them counts as sent by you; stored as a list and mirrored to the cloud with the account; see Chapter 12, Filing an email on a client), incoming server host / port / Use SSL, outgoing server host / port / Use TLS, read / send switches, default for sending (the Role column and setting and Default for receiving are hidden for now, October 2026, because nothing uses them yet; saved values are kept); Edit… also lists any Trusted server certificates (SHA-256 fingerprint) with Stop Trusting. Certificates are checked by default; see Chapter 12, Secure connections and the server's security certificate. Checking for new mail (October 2026, below the accounts): Check for new mail, one of Every minute, Every 2 minutes, Every 5 minutes (the default), Every 10 minutes, Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes or Manual only. It is kept for your sign-in on this computer, so each person who signs in here has their own. Mail is also checked whenever the Email window opens and whenever you choose Check for New Mail in the Email window; Manual only checks only then. An Email window that is already open follows a change within a minute. Used by the Email window (Chapter 12, Checking for new mail). The Email window's own Conversations switch (off = one row per message) is kept per sign-in the same way. Email window (October 2026, below Checking for new mail): Reading pane, Right (columns) (the default: the message list as cards on the left and the message on the right, full height, as in the Mac's Mail app) or Below (rows) (one row per line with column headings, the message under the list). Kept for your sign-in on this computer; an open Email window changes at once (Chapter 12, Two columns or rows). Conversations (20 October 2026, under Reading pane): On: group messages into conversations (the default) or Off: one row per message, the same choice as the Email window's Conversations button. Mark as read (20 October 2026, under Conversations): After 1 second, After 2 seconds (the default), After 3 seconds, After 5 seconds, After 10 seconds or Only when I choose Mark as Read, the same choice as the Email window's right-click Mark as Read After Viewing. Both are kept for your sign-in on this computer, saved the moment you change them, and an open Email window follows at once (the same two choices the local portal's Settings > Email offers). The Email window's mailbox sidebar (the sidebar button at the left of its header) is hidden until you show it, and whether you keep it shown is remembered for your sign-in on this computer (not a Settings control). Email to Many (October 2026, below Email window): Send one email every: 3 to 60 seconds, default 5: the pace of an Email to Many, one copy per person (Chapter 12, Email to many people, one at a time); kept for your sign-in on this computer. Each account's Most emails a day (in Add… / Edit…, under the outgoing server): Provider's figure (the default: the provider's published limit, or an estimate where it is not published) or a number from 10 to 100,000; Email to Many uses at most 90% of it, so the last 10% is kept for your normal replies, and the line under it says how many that is. Kept for your sign-in on this computer, per account. Signatures (October 2026, last on the tab): a line saying what you have (No signatures yet., or for example 2 signatures. Defaults are set for 1 of 2 sending addresses.) and Edit Signatures…, which opens the Signatures window (the same window as Edit Signatures… in the compose window's Signature pop-up): your signatures in a list (+ adds one, Rename or a double-click renames it, − deletes it after asking; at most 20, names must differ), the chosen one in a rich text editor (font, size, bold, italic, underline, colours; pasted text loses its colours and font; pictures and files are refused for now), and Default signature, one pop-up per address you send from (None or a signature), headed (with two or more addresses, 18 October 2026) by All addresses:, which sets the default of every address at once and otherwise shows Different for each address; Use for All Addresses under the list does the same in one click for the signature chosen in the list (greyed with no signature chosen or only one sending address). Each user has their own signatures; they are kept for your sign-in on this computer and, since 15 October 2026 once mail account sync is switched on for your workspace, follow you to every computer you have allowed together with the default signature for each address (owner-only, not sealed; the same change made differently on two computers is asked, never replaced silently; a signature longer than 128 KB (16 KB before 16 October 2026) stays on its computer and is listed under Your devices; an open Signatures window or Settings ▸ Email shows what arrives at once; Chapter 12, Signatures). Scheduled emails (15 October 2026, after Signatures): the note "Scheduled emails only send while TechieCRM is open on one of your computers. If none is open at the time, the email goes when you next open TechieCRM. After 24 hours it waits for you to decide.", followed by where your Scheduled list is kept (in your office database for an office on its own SQL Server, in this computer's TechieCRM database for an office that uses only TechieCRM's database), and Ask before closing TechieCRM when scheduled emails are due within 24 hours (on by default; it is the same choice as Don't ask again in the question TechieCRM asks when you close it with scheduled emails due; kept for your sign-in and, once mail account sync is switched on for your workspace, the same on every computer you have allowed (a computer where you never changed it takes your choice from the others; see Chapter 12, Sending an email later). Your devices (October 2026, under the sign-in buttons; shown only once mail account sync is switched on for your workspace): a status line (whether this computer shares your mail accounts with your other devices, the key version, how many devices hold it, what needs you), the devices signed in with your TechieCRM ID (Device, Type, Signed in, Holds the key; this computer marked), the requests waiting with their code, and the buttons Refresh, Allow and Not Me (for a waiting device, after checking its code), Show Code and Use TechieCRM Password (while this computer waits to be allowed), Sign Out This Computer, Remove Device (signs the selected device out; the key changes and the passwords to change at the provider are listed), Share Again (after a reset you declined) and Reset Mail Accounts on Every Device (a reason is required). Under the status line it also says when signatures or Send Later choices arrived from your other devices, and lists anything Not shared (for example a signature too long to share). For a source CRM login not linked to a TechieCRM ID the section only says how to link; see Chapter 12, Your mail accounts on all your devices. The Email tab scrolls when it is taller than the window, for example at the Large and Extra Large text sizes; make Settings taller to see it all at once	immediately (the Ask before closing choice too; a trusted certificate is saved the moment you trust it or stop trusting it; the new-mail check, the reading pane, the Email to Many pace, signatures and default signatures are saved the moment you change them (a signature's text a moment after you stop typing, and when you choose another signature or close the Signatures window); Most emails a day when you click OK on the account)
Service	Assigning tickets (October 2026, desktop, live): one tick box, Set Status to "Assigned" when a ticket is assigned to a user, ticked by default. Ticked: assigning a ticket (Chapter 4, Assigning a ticket to someone) also sets its Status to Assigned and clears any "resolved by" and resolution date. Unticked: the Status is left exactly as it was when a ticket is assigned. It applies to everyone in your office (every user, every computer): it is kept in your office's database, not on this computer. Only an administrator (a login allowed to manage users) can change it; for anyone else it is greyed, and hovering it says why. The line under it says whether it was saved, is still the default, or could not be read (then the default, on, is used and the Assign confirmation says so). If saving fails, the box goes back to what it was and a message gives the reason. Below it: customizable ticket field values, default response time/status, monitoring, action rules. desktop: a design preview in this release. Those controls are switched off and a notice above them says why, so nothing accepts a change it would then discard; cloud CRM: these five settings persist and are enforced server-side (default status, response time → due date, and the two "actions only" locks: a locked Status or Assigned To is shown disabled on the web ticket form, with the reason, rather than accepting a change and discarding it)	Assigning tickets: the moment you tick or untick it · the rest: desktop: not yet built · web: immediately
Sales	Completion reasons (October 2026, desktop, live, administrators only): the list of reasons offered when a sale is marked Won, Lost, Abandoned or Suspended, with Reason, Offered for (Won / Lost / Won and Lost, or Abandoned / Suspended), Used on (sales carrying it), Hidden and the Office CRM list it is filed under. Add..., Rename..., Offered for..., Hide / Show and Remove write straight into the office CRM's own reason lists and TechieCRM's marks table, so every desktop in the office and the office CRM itself see the change; a used reason cannot be removed (Hide is offered instead). Abandoned and Suspended reasons are shown read only (edited in the office CRM). Anyone who is not an administrator, or a read-only licence, sees the list greyed with the reason. Reached from the Sales panel's ⚙ Settings button as well as Setup ▸ Settings. Chapter 4, Adding and changing completion reasons.	the moment you press a button (each action is one saved change; the line under the table confirms it)
Meeting Notes	where the AI note taker processes (Automatically / On this computer / TechieCRM cloud / Off) plus an honest per-machine readout of the speech model, microphone, AI backends and storage (with no MongoDB configured, storage reads unavailable without a MongoDB database); see Chapter 26	immediately
Diagnostics	per-module diagnostic logging, SQL echo, timing, log-folder tools, support summary (below)	immediately
Inventory	Set Up Inventory Types… (the same dialog as the Inventory panel's own toolbar button): add/edit/delete inventory types, each with its own custom fields, plus Starter Types to jump-start a fresh setup. This tab was called Orders & Inventory while it shared a name with Order Desk; Order Desk has been retired into Financials (Chapter 24), so the tab is now plain Inventory	opens the real setup dialog; saved there
Agreements & SLA	Compliance & SLA: SLA Policies… (response/resolution targets by priority) and Compliance Requirements… (what partners must have on file before dispatch), both the same dialogs as the Compliance & SLA panel's own toolbar. Agreements: Agreement Templates… (reusable templates: categories, terms, default pricing), the same dialog as the Agreements panel's own "Templates…" action	opens the real setup dialogs; saved there
HR & Payroll	HR Setup…: departments, positions, teams and shifts, the same dialog as the HR & Payroll panel's own toolbar button (HR users and MASTER only). HR & Payroll access (October 2026): tick the logins allowed to open HR & Payroll, then Save HR users; office-wide, changeable only by MASTER or a login with the user-management right (A3, HR & Payroll access). The tab is not shown to a login that is neither an HR user nor an administrator	HR Setup: saved in its dialog. HR users: when you press Save HR users, for every computer in the office
Connect	TechieCRM Connect's own preferences (remote support, Chapter 27): who you are signed in as; Notifications: desktop notification and/or sound when a customer joins your session (these two work); Attended Session Installation, Remote Session (colour quality of the remote screen, cursor and system keys, Windows performance options) and Unattended Support (lock on disconnect, inactivity timeout), all shown but switched off, each saying in its tooltip why and what it needs. New in the September 2026 update; Connect's toolbar Preferences button opens it	the two Notifications options save immediately, on this computer only

Settings and the Configuration window (October 2026)

Settings is per person and opens after you sign in. This computer's setup (which database it opens, preparing that database, the office database's time zone, linked CRM logins, the licence, the local copy and the cloud sync choice) is in the Configuration window instead: the gear on the sign-in window before anyone signs in, or Setup ▸ Administration ▸ Configuration on the ribbon once signed in (Administrator Guide A14). The two meet in two places:

• The Configuration window's Email page lists your email accounts and has Open Settings > Email, which closes it and opens Settings on the Email tab.
• Setup ▸ Administration ▸ Database still opens Settings on the Database tab (this session's login settings and live status); Configuration is the button beside it.

There is no setting for the office database time zone: TechieCRM detects it from the office database server's clock and shows it on the Configuration window's Database page, under In use now (A14).

Where a module's ⚙ button takes you

Every module panel has a ⚙ Settings button on its toolbar, except the seven modules listed below, whose button has been removed because they have nothing to configure. Where that module's settings live in this dialog (on a tab of its own or on a shared tab), the ⚙ opens this dialog straight onto that page: Sales (since October 2026), Service, Marketing, Email, Calendar, Agenda, To-Dos, Inventory, HR & Payroll, Compliance & SLA, Agreements, Projects and Connect all work that way. (Agenda and To-Dos share the one Agenda & To-Dos tab; Compliance & SLA and Agreements share the one Agreements & SLA tab; Projects lands on General, at its own Project Templates… button.)

A module does not automatically get a tab of its own. Where a few settings belong together under an honest shared name, they share a tab (Agreements & SLA); a genuinely global one-off belongs on General (Projects); and a self-contained group opens in its own window from a clearly-named button (that is how Database ▸ Open Backups…, Inventory ▸ Set Up Inventory Types…, Agreements & SLA ▸ SLA Policies… / Compliance Requirements… / Agreement Templates…, HR & Payroll ▸ HR Setup… and General ▸ Project Templates… all work).

The Meeting Notes, Database and Local Database tabs exist too, but are reached from Setup ▸ Settings rather than from a ⚙ (the Meeting Notes recorder window has no gear button); Diagnostics is reached from Setup ▸ Settings or Setup ▸ Administration ▸ Diagnostics.

Modules with no ⚙ button at all. Messenger, Personal, Partners, Financials, Library and Quotas have no configurable settings anywhere in the application (confirmed by reading every one of those panels and their data services for a business-rule setting, not just assumed), so their toolbar simply has no gear. The day one of them grows a real setting, its ⚙ comes back.

Modules whose ⚙ still gives an honest notice. Work Orders and (since the fix described just below) the three workspace panels Clients, Related and Interactions also have nothing to configure today, but keep their gear and give a plain "not yet implemented" message; a future pass may remove them the same way. (Sales gave the same notice until October 2026; its ⚙ now opens the Sales tab, the completion reason editor.) Clicking any of them shows a short notice and nothing else changes, naming the three tabs that do reach every module regardless:

Work Order Settings is not yet implemented. TechieCRM has no Work Order section in Settings yet.

What already controls Work Order today, from Settings: • Theme Layout: colours, panel layout and which panels are shown • Font Style: the text and icon size for the whole application • Database: which database Work Order reads and writes Those three reach every module, this one included.

A dedicated Work Order section will be enabled in a future update.

There is no ⚙ button anywhere that quietly opens a different module's settings, and no ⚙ button anywhere that does nothing at all. Every gear either opens its own tab, its own group of dialogs, or tells you there isn't one yet, and every other module that has nothing to configure has no gear to click at all.

Fixed in the September 2026 update: five gears that did nothing. The ⚙ on the Clients, Related and Interactions panels (the three panels on the main workspace, the ones you look at most) had never been connected to anything. Clicking one opened no window, showed no message and reported no error: it was indistinguishable from a slow computer. (The two stand-alone Clients and Related panel widgets had the same gap.) All five now give the honest notice above, naming Clients, Related and Interactions respectively. If any of those three later gains real settings of its own, the gear will open that page instead.

Until the September 2026 update, twelve of those gears silently re-opened Settings on whichever tab you last had open, which looked as though the module had settings when it did not. Ten were corrected first; Library and Quotas followed in the same update, giving the same plain notice, and later in the same update, five of those twelve turned out to already have a real settings dialog and gained a proper tab, while seven (now that Library and Quotas are among them) lost their gear entirely for having nothing to show.

Connect ▸ Preferences. TechieCRM Connect has no settings tab of its own, so its toolbar carries a general Preferences button rather than a module ⚙: it opens Settings on the General tab. (Before the September 2026 update it too landed on whatever tab was last open.) The neighbouring Diagnostics button on the same toolbar opens Settings ▸ Diagnostics.

When monitoring emails cannot be sent

October 2026; offices without cloud sync, where one computer sends the office's monitoring emails from an email account chosen in Settings ▸ General ▸ Monitoring emails.

If that account cannot send because of a problem only you can fix, TechieCRM tells you on the red Issues bell at the top left of the window (see Getting started, "The Issues bell") instead of quietly retrying in the background. There is no banner and no pop-up: the bell appears, with a count, and gives a short lift and shake so you notice it without being interrupted.

The run stops at the first such problem. As soon as a monitoring email fails because the sign-in was refused, no password is stored, or the server's security certificate was refused, TechieCRM stops sending from that account for the rest of that run. The other emails are not tried (trying them again cannot succeed and could get the account locked by your provider); they stay queued, with nothing counted against them, and go out at the next run once the problem is fixed. A server that is slow or briefly unreachable does not stop the run.

What the issue says. The person whose email account it is sees a row titled Monitoring emails are not being sent, naming the sending account and its outgoing mail server, and why:

The issue says	What it means	What to do
the outgoing mail server's security certificate has expired, is not valid yet, is self-signed, was issued by an authority this computer does not know, is for a different server name, has been revoked, or could not be checked	TechieCRM checks the mail server's certificate on every connection and refused this one, so nothing (not even the password) was sent	Click Open Settings, Email on the row. Settings opens on the Email tab: select the account and click Test Connection. If the problem is on the server, ask whoever runs it to renew or fix the certificate. If you know the server is genuine (for example your office's own mail server), choose Trust This Certificate there
the security certificate has changed since it was trusted	the account trusts one particular certificate and the server now shows a different one	the same: Test Connection, then trust the new certificate only if you know why it changed
a secure connection to the outgoing mail server could not be made	the server does not offer a secure connection on that port	Test Connection, then check the port and the TLS setting your provider gives you
no password is stored for the account	the account was saved without a password (or the stored one could not be read)	click Open Settings, Email, edit the account, type the password (or app password), then Test Connection
the outgoing mail server refused the sign-in	the password or app password was not accepted	the same: type the current password or a new app password, then Test Connection
the account's sign-in has expired or was refused, so it must be signed in again	the account signs in through your email provider's own sign-in page rather than a password, and that sign-in is no longer accepted	click Open Settings, Email, select the account, sign in again, then Test Connection

How often. One row per account and kind of problem. If it keeps failing, the same row's count goes up (roughly one per run) and its time moves on; you never get a pile of rows. These rows have no Dismiss: they clear by themselves as soon as a monitoring email goes out from the account again. If the account fails again later, the row comes back with a fresh count. A different problem on the same account (for example the certificate is fixed but the password is now wrong) is a row of its own. An administrator who dismisses the notice about someone else's account is reminded at most once a day while the problem continues: the row stays hidden for them for 24 hours after they dismissed it, then comes back (with a lift and shake of the bell) showing every failure since the dismissal, so the count is never lost. The account's owner is not held back. If the problem is fixed and later starts again, everyone sees it straight away.

When the email accounts cannot be read at all. If this computer cannot read its saved email accounts (for example the database that holds them did not answer), TechieCRM does not treat that as "no account": it sends nothing, keeps the emails queued, and shows a row Monitoring emails are waiting: the email accounts could not be read. That one cannot be fixed from inside TechieCRM, so it has Dismiss; for the person whose accounts they are it comes back if the next run has the same problem (for an administrator, at most once a day), and it clears by itself once the accounts can be read again. Settings ▸ Database ▸ Monitoring emails also says the accounts could not be read rather than "no sending account".

What is not raised. A server that is slow to answer or briefly unreachable, or a single message the server refuses: those usually pass, and each email's outcome is still shown in Settings ▸ Database ▸ Monitoring emails (the last run's sent and failed counts, and whether the last run stopped early).

Who sees it. The person who owns the sending account sees the whole row and the Open Settings, Email button. Administrators (MASTER, or a user allowed to manage users) also see it, as a notice that names the owner and the kind of problem (a sign-in problem, or a secure connection problem) but not the account address, the server, the certificate reason or anything about the password; an administrator can dismiss the notice, and it comes back at most once a day while the problem keeps happening. Anyone else signed in on that computer sees nothing. Issues stay on the computer that sends the emails; they are never copied to the cloud.

Connecting to another MongoDB server

Settings ▸ Local Database ▸ Connect to another MongoDB server (September 2026). Use it when TechieCRM's own database engine was not installed, or when your data already lives on a MongoDB server: on this computer, on your office network, or hosted (for example MongoDB Atlas).

Field / button	What it does
Address	The server: host, host:port, several hosts (h1:27500,h2:27500), or a full mongodb://… or mongodb+srv://… address, optionally with /database and ?options. Never put the user name or password in the address; TechieCRM refuses an address that contains them, so the password cannot end up in a file or a log.
User name	The MongoDB user. Leave it blank for a server without sign-in.
Password	Kept in this computer's protected credential store (Windows: encrypted for your Windows account; macOS: your login Keychain; Linux: the Secret Service (with a clearly reported file fallback where there is none)). It is never shown again and never written to a log. Once saved, the box reads Saved. Leave blank to keep it; type a new one only to change it.
Test connection	Tries the address, user name and password in the boxes (a blank password means the saved one) and says what it found: the MongoDB version and how many databases the user can see, or the server's reason for refusing. It runs in the background; TechieCRM stays usable.
Save	Makes this the MongoDB server TechieCRM uses. Parts of TechieCRM that open a new connection switch at once; restart TechieCRM so every part switches.
Forget	Removes the saved address, user name and password from this computer (after asking). The server and its data are not touched. Restart TechieCRM afterwards.

Which server wins. If the MONGO_URL environment setting is set (an operator or developer setting; see A2), it wins and the page says the saved server is not in use. Otherwise the saved server is used, and TechieCRM's own database only when nothing is saved. When a saved server is in use, TechieCRM does not read or change the licence's database record at startup (as with MONGO_URL).

When there is no MongoDB at all (the engine was not installed and nothing is saved here), TechieCRM still works fully from your source CRM (SQL). What needs MongoDB says so instead of failing: the Configuration window greys out Mongo (A14), the Database tab and the Cloud Connection window read unavailable without a MongoDB database, cloud sync and cloud backups do not start, and the first-run setup skips the local-database step (it creates and records nothing). Until a MongoDB server is connected, meeting notes cannot be saved, AI features that keep their jobs locally report themselves unavailable, a client's text and email history is empty, and your theme choices stay on this computer.

Connect tab (remote support)

New in the September 2026 update, and the answer to a question that had been open since Connect shipped: Connect's toolbar Preferences button used to open General, because Connect had no settings page of its own. It has one now, and Preferences opens it.

One tab, five groups, not three tabs. The layout is modelled on the preferences of the remote-support product this replaces, which spreads the same options over three tabs. A module does not automatically get a tab here, let alone three, so the three sets are three clearly titled groups on one scrolling page.

Group	Setting	Does it work?
Sign In	Signed in as …: the account your support keys are issued under. Sign in and out under Tools ▸ Cloud Connection	read-only fact
Notifications	Show a desktop notification when a customer joins my session	Yes
	Play a sound when a customer joins my session	Yes
Attended Session Installation	Run support sessions as a service on startup	not yet
	Uninstall the customer app when the session ends	not yet
Remote Session	Colour quality of the remote screen (True Color / 256 Colours)	not yet
	Show the remote cursor · Pass system keys to the remote computer	not yet
	Performance (Windows PCs only): disable display effects · disable desktop wallpaper · disable font smoothing · don't show window contents while dragging	not yet
Unattended Support	Lock the customer's computer when disconnecting	not yet
	End unattended sessions after [1 hour] of inactivity	not yet

Nothing on this page is a trap. Every option that cannot work yet is greyed out, and hovering it tells you both why and what it is waiting for, the same rule the Connect panel's own toolbar follows for Screen Sharing, Chat, File Transfer and the rest. There is no control here that accepts a tick and then quietly ignores it. In short, the ones that are off are waiting on one of three things: the Connect helper app (everything about the remote screen), a customer-side installer (there is nothing on your client's computer to remove today; they join from a web page), or unattended support (an agent that can accept a connection with nobody sitting at the far end).

The two that work. Tick either Notifications option and it takes effect on your very next session, with no restart. They apply to sessions started from this computer and are not carried to your other devices, because "tell me on the machine I am sitting at" is about the machine, not about you. Turning on the desktop notification puts a small TechieCRM icon in your menu bar (macOS) or notification area (Windows): that icon is what the banner is posted from, so it appears the first time a banner is shown and stays for the rest of the session. On a desktop that cannot show notification banners at all, the checkbox itself is greyed and says so; the sound option still works there.

"Colour Quality" is not a theme setting. It sets the video quality of the picture arriving from your customer's machine during a session. It never changes how TechieCRM looks. TechieCRM's own colours and text size stay under the single global controls on Theme Layout and Font Style, as they do for every window and panel.

Diagnostics tab (support / developer settings)

Setup ▸ Administration ▸ Diagnostics (or Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Diagnostics). Nothing here changes how the CRM behaves; it only controls how much detail is written to the log files, so support can see what the application was doing. Every switch applies immediately (no restart) and is remembered in json/app_config.json under "diagnostics".

Control	What it does
Log everything (all modules)	Master switch. Turns DEBUG detail on for every module and subsystem at once (the per-module switches are greyed while it is on).
Modules grid	One switch per icon-bar module, 27 of them, in this order: Clients, Clients: new-client notes, Related, Interactions, Sales, Service, To-Do List, Calendar, Meeting Notes, Email, Library / Knowledge Base, Dashboards, Quotas, Marketing, Personal, Inventory, Projects, Financials, Work Orders, Partners, Agreements, Compliance & SLA, HR & Payroll, Conversations, Messenger, Agenda, Entrepreneur Dashboard. Bold = on. Only the switched-on modules write their DEBUG chatter (selection changes, loads, refreshes, layout restores…).
Subsystems grid	Fourteen switches: Ribbon · Cloud (licensing / heartbeat) · Sync · Comms (SMS / email send) · Backup · Database (SQL) · Theme / Layout · Startup · Identity / sign-in · Assisted AI (local worker + job queue) · Monitoring (Sales / Service rules + alerts) · Local database (TechieCRM's own MongoDB) · Activity log · Settings window. Identity / sign-in was added in the September 2026 update; the sign-in and record-ownership code was already writing log lines under that name, but there was no switch for it, so its detail could not be turned on. The Clients: new-client notes, Entrepreneur Dashboard and Local database switches were added in the same way in version 0.8.0.4: those parts were already logging under their own names with no switch. Local database covers starting TechieCRM's own database at launch, its banner, and the Settings ▸ Local Database page. Activity log was added in October 2026 for the same reason: the activity log was writing detail under its own name with no switch. Settings window was added on 9 October 2026: if the Settings window's OK or Cancel runs into an error, the error is written to the log under this name (it is always logged, switch or not) and the window still closes; on OK you are told that some settings may not have been saved.
SQL echo	Logs every SQL statement the application sends to the database (SQLAlchemy engine echo). Very verbose: turn on only while reproducing a data problem, then turn off. Takes effect on the live connection.
Timing	Adds "operation took N ms" lines for timed operations in the switched-on modules; use when something feels slow.
Also echo diagnostics to the console	When on, DEBUG lines are also printed to the terminal the app was started from (they always go to the log files regardless). Off = only warnings/errors on the console.
Log location	Read-only path of the log folder (selectable so you can copy it).
Open log folder	Opens the log folder in Finder / Explorer.
Clear logs	Empties every log file in the folder (the app keeps writing to the same files afterwards). Do this before reproducing a problem so the logs contain only the relevant run.
Copy diagnostics summary	Puts a plain-text summary on the clipboard: app version, Python/OS, SQL Server + database + user, which switches are on, and the full log paths.

Where the logs are. The logs/ folder next to the application (path shown on the tab): debug.log (everything, DEBUG and up; this is the file support wants), app.log (INFO and up), errors.log (errors only). Files rotate at 10 MB.

Warnings and errors are always logged, whatever the switches say; the switches only add the detailed DEBUG lines for the chosen modules.

Sending diagnostics to support 1. Open Settings ▸ Diagnostics, click Clear logs. 2. Turn on the module(s) involved (or Log everything if unsure); turn on SQL echo only if asked to. 3. Reproduce the problem. 4. Click Copy diagnostics summary and paste it into your email/message, then click Open log folder and attach debug.log (and errors.log). 5. Turn the switches back off. DEBUG logging is harmless but makes the log files grow quickly.

Icon Bar Icons

Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Theme Layout ▸ Icon Bar Icons (added 25 October 2026; the ribbon's Setup ▸ Icon Bar button opens the same tab). It shows every icon that can appear on your icon bar, in the order the bar shows them, as tiles reading left to right and then onto the next row.

Control	What it does
A tile in colour	The icon is on your bar. Click it to hide it: the tile turns grey with a dashed outline and the icon leaves the bar at once.
A grey tile	The icon is hidden from your bar. Click it to show it: the tile turns to colour and the icon appears on the bar at once.
Drag a tile	Drop it before or after another tile (the left half of a tile means before it, the right half after it; past the last tile means the end). The bar takes the new order at once. Once you have dragged anything, your order is the whole order: beta modules are no longer grouped at the bottom and there is no dividing line, and a beta module keeps its green B wherever you put it.
Green B (top-right of a tile)	The module is in beta review.
Padlock (top-left of a tile)	The module is not in your plan. You may show it; on the bar it is greyed and cannot be opened, exactly as before.
Clock (top-left of a tile)	The module is not available here yet.
Hover a tile	Says whether the icon is on the bar, what a click will do, and how the bar draws it (for example "Inventory is in beta testing and opens view only for you.").
Space or Enter	Shows or hides the selected tile.
Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right (Cmd on a Mac)	Moves the selected tile one place.
Restore default	Forgets your choices: the default icons in the default order.

What you start with. The default order is 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. Every icon is shown except the modules in beta review, which are hidden unless you are an approved beta tester (testers see them, grouped at the bottom under a thin line). TechieCRM Connect counts as a beta module. A module your plan does not include is shown, greyed.

What is not listed. HR & Payroll is listed only for the logins allowed to open it (Chapter 22); for everyone else it is neither on the bar nor in this list, whatever was chosen before. The Floating layout's Related and Notes buttons always travel with Clients and are not listed.

What it changes, and what it does not. Only the bar: a hidden module still opens from the ribbon, search and links, and showing a module never changes what you may do in it (a beta module still opens view only for a non-tester; a module outside your plan stays locked).

Saving. Each click, drag and Restore default is saved the moment you make it, like the Icon Bar Properties above it; OK and Cancel do not undo it. Your choice is stored against your user account, so it follows you to every computer you sign in on (and, as they gain the same section, to the web portal and the phone apps). Only the icons you clicked are remembered, so a module that leaves beta review appears on its own unless you had hidden it, and a module added in a later version appears in its default place. Without a MongoDB connection the choice is kept on this computer and sent to MongoDB at your next change or your next sign-in once the connection is back.

Right-Click Menu

Setup ▸ Settings ▸ Theme Layout ▸ Right-Click Menu (added 25 October 2026), under Icon Bar Icons. A right-click can open as a button pad, a small panel of icon buttons with a name on each when you rest the pointer on it, or as the classic menu, the list you know. Both always offer exactly the same choices: the pad is built from the same menu, with the same items greyed or left out.

Control	What it does	Default
Right-click style	Button pad or Classic menu.	Button pad
Button size	Small, Medium or Large buttons. They also grow with your text size (Font Style and your computer's text size).	Medium
Show names under buttons	Writes each button's name under its icon (up to two lines). Off, the name shows in the strip at the bottom of the pad and when you rest the pointer on a button.	Off
Buttons per row	3 to 8. Buttons of one menu section stay together on a row when they fit.	5
Try it	Opens a sample pad (the Clients right-click choices; pressing a button in the sample does nothing) with the options as they are now.

Using the pad. Click a button to do what the menu item does. A button with a small triangle in its corner opens a row of more buttons right under the pad (for example Create shows Company, Individual, Contact and User); press it again, or Esc, to close the row. A greyed button is not available now; select it to read why in the strip at the bottom. The ☰ button in the pad's corner shows the same choices as the classic list instead. With the keyboard: the arrow keys move between buttons, Enter or Space presses one, Right opens a button's row, a letter jumps to the next button whose name starts with it, and Esc closes the row and then the pad.

Hold Shift while you right-click to open the other style for that one click.

Saving. Each change is saved the moment you make it, like Icon Bar Icons, and the next right-click follows it (a pad already open keeps its size until it closes); OK and Cancel do not undo it. Your choice is stored against your user account, so all four options follow you to every computer you sign in on, and to the web portal and your office's local portal once they gain the same choice (the phone apps keep their own press-and-hold menus). Without a MongoDB connection the choice is kept on this computer and sent to MongoDB at your next change once the connection is back.

Which right-click menus use it (26 Oct 2026). The Clients list, the Related tab and the Interactions panel open the button pad (or the classic menu, as you chose) on every right-click: on a client, contact or user row, your own organization's row and empty space (Chapter 3, Right-click on a client; Chapter 17 for Interactions). The other screens' right-click menus switch screen by screen in the next builds; until a screen has switched, its right-click still opens the classic menu. The icons on the pad are the ones each menu already shows; new pictures arrive after the icon review.

Your theme follows you

The Theme and Font choices in Settings are stored against your user account, not just this computer, so when you sign in to TechieCRM on the web, or on a phone or tablet, you get the same theme, colours and text size you set here. (One exception: the iPhone, iPad and Android apps take Light or Dark from the phone's own appearance setting, not from this one. See Chapter 25, Light and dark.)

Choices apply the moment you make them:

Setting	Effect
Theme	System (follow the computer's own appearance; it switches live when the computer does), Dark, Light, Charcoal, High Contrast Dark, Colour-blind Safe, Solarized Light, Solarized Dark, Nord, Dimmed, One Dark, Catppuccin Latte, Catppuccin Mocha, Classic or Classic Dark. Until you choose one, TechieCRM uses System: the sign-in window matches your computer, and so does the application after you sign in; once you pick a theme, that choice is used from then on, including in the sign-in window the next time TechieCRM starts. Charcoal (added October 2026) puts a charcoal frame round white work areas: the ribbon, the icon bar, the Calendar Control, panel title bars and the column headers of record lists are charcoal with white text, while the lists, records, dialogs, menus and the Settings window stay light, so your eyes stay on the data. It uses TechieCRM green by default, like Light and Dark, and your own Primary and Accent picks apply to it in the same way. The web portal and the phone apps do not have Charcoal yet: when you choose it here they show Light, which is the closest match, and they switch to Charcoal on their own once they gain it. High Contrast Dark (added October 2026) is an accessibility theme in the style of the Windows contrast themes, for low vision or a bright room: a pure black background, white text and outlines, yellow for buttons, the selected row and the row under the mouse (with black text on it), and a cyan outline round the field you are typing in. Its own colours keep every important piece of text at least 7 to 1 against its background, well above the usual 4.5 to 1. Record lists show black rows with a grey edge and turn yellow under the mouse. You can still pick your own Primary and Accent colours in this theme, but a short line under the Theme row reminds you that a colour you pick may lower the contrast; Reset to Default brings back the yellow and cyan. Colour-blind Safe (added October 2026) looks like Light, but the colours that carry a meaning are chosen so that people with red-green or blue-yellow colour blindness can still tell them apart (the Okabe-Ito colour set): done or active is a bluish green, a warning is orange, overdue or an error is a vermilion red-orange, information is sky blue and "new / in progress" is a deeper blue. Its default Primary is that deeper blue, because TechieCRM green is too close to the bluish green "done" colour for some colour-blind users; you can still pick green (or any colour) as your Primary. Its record lists use its own colours: a light grey ground round the rows, every other row faintly grey, and marked rows grey rather than Light's peach. The web portal and the phone apps show Dark for High Contrast Dark and Light for Colour-blind Safe until they gain these themes. Solarized Light, Solarized Dark, Nord, Dimmed, One Dark, Catppuccin Latte and Catppuccin Mocha (added October 2026) are colour schemes well known from programmers' editors and desktops, each a complete look of its own: Solarized Light is a warm, low-glare cream for long days of data entry and Solarized Dark its deep teal twin; Nord is a soft arctic blue-grey dark; Dimmed is a soft slate dark that sits between Light and Dark; One Dark is the dark look of the Atom and VS Code editors; Catppuccin Latte is a soft lavender-grey light theme and Catppuccin Mocha a warm, modern dark with mauve touches. Each brings its own default Primary and Accent (Solarized and One Dark a blue, Nord a frost blue, Dimmed a green, the two Catppuccin themes a mauve); your own picks still apply on top, and Reset to Default returns to the theme's own pair. Status colours keep their meaning in every one of them (green is still done, amber a warning, red an error), though a theme may use a softer shade of the same colour. Record lists (Clients, Interactions and the module lists) take each theme's own colours too: the rows, every other row (a faint stripe where the theme has one), the row you have marked or selected, the current record and the column headers are the theme's, with the theme's frame colour showing round the rows; the row under the mouse keeps TechieCRM's orange. Some dashboard and calendar panels still keep their own Light or Dark colours. The web portal and the phone apps show Light (Solarized Light, Catppuccin Latte) or Dark (the other five) until they gain these themes. Classic and Classic Dark (added October 2026) are a familiar look for people coming to TechieCRM from another CRM, so the screen feels like the one they already know while they learn the new system. Classic keeps that look's colours as flat, solid colours: a blue frame (the ribbon, the icon bar and the Calendar Control in the blue of its old header bar, with white text) round white lists and records on a light grey page; panel title bars and the column headers of record lists in that look's light grey with navy text; light grey dialogs and menus with a pale blue highlight; light blue buttons; marked rows in sky blue (#76C4E8) and the row under the mouse in a pale green-grey instead of TechieCRM's orange; required fields (such as a person's Last Name in the client window) filled blue-grey, indigo tooltips and pale yellow notice boxes. Classic Dark is its dark twin: the same navy frame and sky blue marks on dark blue-grey lists and records, dark grey title bars and column headers with light navy text, and the marked row in navy. Both use navy (#004B8C) as their Primary and sky blue (#58A8CD) as their Accent; your own picks apply on top, and Reset to Default returns to navy and sky blue. Choosing either one also changes the font: Font Type becomes Lucida Grande (or Tahoma, Verdana or Arial where Lucida Grande is not installed) and Font Size becomes the compact size that look was designed at (Ex-Small on a Mac, Small on Windows). You can change Font Size (or Font Type) afterwards on the Font Style tab and your choice stays while the theme does; moving between Classic and Classic Dark keeps it too. Choosing a theme without its own font afterwards puts Font Type back to System, and Font Size back to System if you had not changed it. Status colours keep their meaning (green done, amber warning, red error). The web portal and the phone apps show Light (Classic) or Dark (Classic Dark) until they gain these themes. Light makes the whole application genuinely light: bars, ribbon, panel title bars, menus and dialogs turn light grey and white with dark text; Dark is the familiar dark-grey look with light text. Record lists (Clients, Sales, Service, To-Do and the rest) draw their rows as grey cards with a subtle outline and bright text, while in Light the same rows stay the familiar white cards. Dashboards follow the same rule: indicator tiles take a dark instrument look in Dark and keep their original light styling in Light, with the chart and status colours themselves unchanged. A theme changes colours only: text sizes, row heights and spacing are identical in every theme; wherever a background changes, the text on it flips to the readable opposite. What a theme sets (since October 2026): the frame (ribbon, icon bar, Calendar Control), the panel title bars and the column headers of lists are three separate parts of every theme, each with its own colour and its own text colour, so a theme can put grey title bars and headers inside a blue frame; every theme also sets its tooltip colours, its notice boxes (a standing message set apart in a window, such as the "set up first" box in Entrepreneur Targets or the administrator-edit box in the template editors) and the fill that marks a required field. The themes that came before keep the look they had (one addition: the administrator-edit message in the template editors, which used to be a plain line of text, is now a notice box with a thin outline in every theme); Classic and Classic Dark use these parts to match the look they copy.
Primary colour	The main colour of the interface: buttons, selected rows in Dark, the selected day in a date picker, links and accent headings, and the tint that marks today in the calendar (a pale wash of the primary in Light, a deeper tint in Dark). The Select Primary Color button is filled with the primary the active theme is using right now, with its label in a readable colour on top; hover it to see the colour code and whether it is the theme's default or your own choice ("your choice" whenever you have picked a colour, even if you picked the default green itself). Clicking it opens the colour picker on that same colour. The default is TechieCRM green (#0C8847) in Light, Dark and Charcoal, the same green as the TechieCRM web portal; High Contrast Dark defaults to yellow (#FFEE32), Colour-blind Safe to blue (#0072B2), Solarized Light and Solarized Dark to blue (#1F6FAE), Nord to frost blue (#4A6A94), Dimmed to green (#347D39), One Dark to blue (#2F6DB5), Catppuccin Latte to mauve (#7532D9) and Catppuccin Mocha to mauve (#8839EF), Classic and Classic Dark to navy (#004B8C), and Reset to Default always returns to the active theme's own default. Its lighter and darker shades (hover, pressed, link text) are worked out from it automatically, so links stay readable on every background.
Accent colour	The colour of the small marks that show something is on or chosen: ticked check boxes, selected radio buttons, switched-on toggle buttons, the outline around the field you are typing in, and the highlighted layout in the Windows Layout picker. The Select Accent Color button shows the active theme's accent the same way. The default is the TechieCRM logo green (#0FA657) (cyan #75E9FC in High Contrast Dark, sky blue #56B4E9 in Colour-blind Safe, cyan #2AA198 in both Solarized themes, #88C0D0 in Nord, green #57AB5A in Dimmed, blue #61AFEF in One Dark, mauve #8839EF in Catppuccin Latte and lilac #CBA6F7 in Catppuccin Mocha, sky blue #58A8CD in Classic and Classic Dark). On light backgrounds TechieCRM uses a slightly deeper shade of it so the marks stay clearly visible.
Any colour, including blue	You can pick any colour for Primary and Accent, blue included; the whole interface follows your choice at once, in both themes, and the choice follows you to the web like the rest of the theme. Colours that carry a meaning do not change with it: green for done or active, amber for a warning, red for overdue or an error, and the blue that marks "new", "open", "assigned" or "in progress" on records keep their meaning whatever you pick. To go back to the default green, click Reset to Default (beside the two colour buttons): it clears both your Primary and your Accent choice in one step, the whole interface returns to the theme's default colours at once, and, like a pick, the reset follows you to your other TechieCRM computers the next time they sign in. The button is greyed out while you are already on the defaults.
Font Type	System uses your computer's own interface font. Lucida Grande is the compact font Classic and Classic Dark bring (Tahoma, Verdana or Arial stand in where it is not installed); choosing either theme selects it for you, and you can switch back to System at any time. More fonts come later
Font Style	Regular / Italic / Bold / …
Font Size	A named step: System, Ex-Small, Small, Medium, Large, Ex-Large. The whole interface scales with it: buttons, icons, column headers and toolbars grow and shrink with the text so nothing looks cramped. Panels you already have open re-draw at the new size straight away (you do not have to close and reopen them), and since September 2026 that includes what is inside them: section headings, folder trees, article and message lists, preview panes, filter boxes and toggle buttons, with the toolbars, search boxes and list rows around them growing to match. System means "whatever size your computer is set to"; see Your computer's own text-size setting below. Choosing Classic or Classic Dark sets Font Size to the compact size that look was designed at (Ex-Small on a Mac, Small on Windows); any size you choose here afterwards is kept
Font Colour	The body-text colour on light surfaces (choices that would be unreadable are refused)

Scrollbars lie over the content and fade out when not in use (since 17 October 2026; see Record lists: the guide in Chapter 2); their colours follow the Theme and there is no setting for them. The ordinary scroll bars that remain (the calendar's day and week grids, the print preview, the PDF viewer) carry step arrows at each end in both themes: click one to nudge the list, and the bar's handle stops before them. An arrow dims when the list is already at that end.

Every piece of text is readable in both themes. Since October 2026 each text colour (body text, grey secondary text such as dates and captions, links, and the words inside status badges like "Active" or "Do not contact") is at least 4.5 times brighter or darker than whatever it sits on, the WCAG AA standard for normal text. The same colours are used on the desktop, the web and the phones, so all three meet it. Two things are deliberately fainter: a button or menu item you cannot use right now, which stays greyed out so you can tell it is off, and decorative lines and borders.

A theme change reaches panels you already have open. Switching Light ⇄ Dark re-colours the inside of every open panel straight away: the filter toolbar, the filter and view drop-downs, the toolbar buttons and the panel background, not just its border and title bar. Before the September 2026 update only the border and title bar followed, so a panel left open across a theme change kept white filter boxes on a dark panel until you closed and reopened it. Measured across the 18 panels that had one, all 28 filter drop-downs and every filter toolbar now follow the switch (one of those panels, Order Desk, has since been retired into Financials).

One thing still waits for its next redraw rather than changing on the spot: a panel shown in the borderless embedded mode. Dashboard indicator tiles now follow a theme change immediately, along with everything else. mode. Neither loses your choice; both pick it up the moment they redraw.

These settings are global: one choice styles every module, panel, dialog and toolbar. There are no per-window theme or font settings anywhere in the app. The Calendar's own Theme and Size rows are deliberately hidden inside TechieCRM (they still appear if you run the Calendar on its own), because a second, per-module colour or size control is exactly what makes panels drift apart.

Your computer's own text-size setting

Windows, Linux and macOS each have an accessibility setting that makes all text bigger. TechieCRM reads it and sizes itself to match, so you should not have to set anything twice.

Your computer	The setting	What TechieCRM does
Windows	Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Text size (100%–225%)	Text, icons, buttons, column headers and toolbars all grow together, and TechieCRM follows the change while it is running; see the note below
Linux (GNOME/KDE)	Accessibility ▸ Large Text, or the desktop's text-scaling factor	Same, and the same note below applies
macOS	There isn't one that applies to other people's apps. Apple's Accessibility ▸ Display ▸ Text size only affects Apple's own apps	Use Settings ▸ Font Style ▸ Font Size instead; it does exactly the same job

This is not the same thing as a high-resolution (Retina / 4K) screen. TechieCRM has always drawn crisply on those; what is new is that it now follows the text-size setting as well.

Two sizes multiply, and that is deliberate. Your computer's text size sets the starting point; Settings ▸ Font Style ▸ Font Size then scales up or down from there. So a Windows user at 150% who also picks Small gets a size between the two, and a Mac user, who has no computer-level setting, still has the full range in Settings.

Making things smaller is only ever your choice. If your computer reports a text size below the normal size for that system, TechieCRM ignores it and stays at its designed size, because shrinking below that clips labels. To get smaller text, pick Small or Ex-Small in Settings.

One axis, including the words themselves (September 2026). The body text now sits on the same size axis as the buttons, icons, column headers and toolbars around it, including the never-shrink rule above. Previously the reading described here governed everything except the words: on a computer whose interface font is smaller than the normal size for that system, the text could end up slightly smaller while the icons beside it stayed full size. It cannot now.

The icon bar grows with it too (September 2026). For a short while after the change above, the module names on the icon bar could be cut off at the right-hand edge at the Large and Ex-Large sizes, and in the narrow (small-icon) bar the icons themselves were clipped: the words had grown but the bar around them had not. The bar is now on the same axis as everything else; it widens as the text grows, its icons grow with it, and the narrow bar is always exactly wide enough for one whole icon. You do not have to restart: change Settings ▸ Font Style ▸ Font Size and the bar re-draws at the new width straight away, in both the wide and the narrow layout.

One label is still shortened in the wide bar: Compliance & SLA. That is not a size problem: it does not fit the bar's designed width at any text size, including the default, and the bar behaves identically at every size. Hover the button to see the full name.

Changing it while TechieCRM is running (September 2026). You no longer have to sign out or restart. When your computer announces a new text size, TechieCRM re-reads it and re-draws itself at the new size straight away: the words as well as the icons, buttons, panel title bars, ribbon and column headers. Before this, only the boxes moved: the icon bar and the panel chrome grew and the text inside them stayed as it was, which looked worse than not following the setting at all.

Two honest caveats. 1. This depends on your computer telling applications that the text size changed. Windows and most Linux desktops do. We have not been able to test it on a real Windows or Linux machine, only to prove that TechieCRM reacts correctly the moment the announcement arrives. If your screen does not update, signing out and back in (or restarting TechieCRM) still works, exactly as it always did; nothing was taken away. 2. macOS has no such setting for other people's apps at all, so there is nothing to follow there; use Settings ▸ Font Style ▸ Font Size, which has always applied immediately.

Toolbars, buttons and the ribbon are on the same axis (5 September 2026). A second pass put the last fixed-size surfaces on it: the small round icon buttons on every module's toolbar (and the toolbar strip that holds them), the ribbon's buttons and captions, the compact controls in the classic Clients / Related / Interactions headers, the row height and column-header height of the record lists, the toolbars in the record dialogs (Sales, Service, Marketing, Projects), and the rich-text editor's toolbars. All of them grow with the text and re-draw immediately on a live change; an icon is never left to be clipped inside a box that stayed small. Icons are re-drawn at the new size rather than stretched, so they stay sharp.

The TECHIECRM_BASE_PT support lever below is read once at startup, so changing that still needs a restart.

Support note. If a computer's text-size setting is not being picked up, set the environment variable TECHIECRM_BASE_PT to the point size you want as the starting point (for example TECHIECRM_BASE_PT=19.5 for 150% of the usual 13pt), and restart TechieCRM. As of September 2026 this scales the text as well as the icons and chrome; before, it moved everything but the text, which made it a poor way to check the setting.

If you're offline, TechieCRM keeps using the last theme you chose, and any change you make is saved on this computer and sent up the next time it connects; nothing is lost.

A note if you use more than one device: whichever device you most recently changed a setting on wins. Simply opening TechieCRM somewhere else does not overwrite a change you made elsewhere.

Icon Bar Icons on the web (25 Oct 2026)

On the web portal and on your office's local portal, the Icon Bar Icons section chooses which icons the left-hand menu's CRM list shows, and in what order. It is the same saved choice as the desktop's (Icon Bar Icons, above, where the desktop has it), so a change in one place shows in the other.

Where it is. Press Preferences on the ribbon's Setup tab.

• Workspace administrators get System Preferences: the section is at the top of the Theme Layout tab, above the workspace settings.
• Everyone else gets a Preferences window whose only tab is Theme Layout, holding the section. (System Preferences holds the workspace's settings and stays with its administrators.)
• Open as page at the top of the window opens the same thing as a page of its own.

Control	What it does
An icon in colour	It is shown in your menu. Click it to hide it.
A grey icon	It is hidden from your menu. Click it to show it.
Drag an icon (mouse)	Drop it on another icon: the left half of that icon means before it, the right half after it. Once you have dragged anything, your order is the whole order: beta modules are no longer grouped at the bottom, there is no dividing line, and a beta module keeps its green B wherever you put it.
Hold, then drag (touch screen)	Hold an icon still for half a second until it lifts, then drag it. Moving your finger before then scrolls the page instead.
Green B	The module is in beta review.
Padlock	The module is not included in your plan.
Clock	The module is not available here yet.
Point at an icon	Says whether it is shown, what a click will do, and how the menu will draw it.
Space or Enter	Shows or hides the selected icon. Arrow keys move the selection.
Ctrl+Arrow (Cmd+Arrow on a Mac)	Moves the selected icon one place.
Restore default	Forgets your choices: the default icons in the default order.

What you start with. The order is 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, SporeCycle, NitrateCycle, MeadCycle. Every icon is shown except the modules in beta review (hidden unless you are an approved beta tester; Connect counts as one) and the three add-ons (hidden for everyone).

What is not listed. HR & Payroll, for anyone not allowed to open it (Chapter 22). Connect, on the local portal. A module your security group cannot open.

Greyed in the menu. A shown icon is drawn greyed when it cannot be used in full: a beta module you are not testing opens view only, a module outside your plan opens the upgrade page, and a module not available here yet (Connect on the cloud portal, the three add-ons) is greyed while the add-ons still open their explanation page. One look for all three, the same as the desktop's.

What it changes, and what it does not. Only the menu. A hidden module still opens from the ribbon, search and links, and showing a module never changes what you may do in it.

Saving. Every click, drag and Restore default is saved the moment you make it and the menu changes at once; Save Preferences is not needed for it and does not undo it. Only the icons you clicked are remembered, so a module that leaves beta review appears by itself unless you had hidden it. If your preferences cannot be reached the section says so and offers no changes, and in a read-only workspace (no active licence) it can be seen but not changed.

What is deliberately not in Settings

Some things look as though they ought to be settings and are not. They are listed here so you can stop looking for them.

Not a setting	Why, and what to do instead
Backup schedule, retention, backup folder	Fixed in this release: an automatic pass at most every 7 days, newest 10 snapshots kept, written to ~/.techiecrm/backups. Database ▸ Backups shows all three and lets you back up or restore on demand.
A colour or text size for one window or panel	There is one colour control (Theme Layout) and one size control (Font Style). Per-window overrides are not offered on purpose. Size coverage is measured, not assumed: as of 5 September 2026 a size change reaches every one of the 1,315 controls across all 24 panels (100%), and an automated check stops that number falling. What is not yet on the axis is named in the section below.
To-Do defaults (priority, activity type, carry-forward, work days)	Not built. Agenda & To-Dos says so on the tab rather than showing empty boxes.
Service field values, response time, monitoring, action rules (on the desktop)	Below Assigning tickets (which is live), the desktop tab is a switched-off design preview. The same settings are live on the web portal.
Work Orders (honest notice, gear kept) · Messenger, Personal, Partners, Financials, Library, Quotas (gear removed, nothing to configure)	These seven modules have no settings of their own. Work Orders keeps a ⚙ that says so plainly instead of opening someone else's page (naming the three tabs (Theme Layout, Font Style, Database) that do govern it); the other six have no ⚙ at all. (Sales left this list in October 2026: its ⚙ opens the Sales tab, the completion reason editor.), since a gear that only ever opens a message box is a dead end with extra steps.
Order Desk settings	Order Desk has been retired into Financials (Chapter 24), so it has no settings anywhere. The tab that used to be called "Orders & Inventory" is now Inventory and holds only Inventory's Set Up Inventory Types…

Known gaps in text sizing (September 2026)

We measure how far the one size control actually reaches rather than assuming it reaches everywhere, because a control that silently misses a panel is worse than no control at all. As of 5 September 2026 it reaches all 1,315 controls across all 24 panels (100%). (Order Desk, one of the 24, was retired into Financials on 29 September 2026; the other 23 are unchanged.)

All twenty-four panels are fully covered. Agenda, To-Do, Notes/Documents & Library, Communications ▸ Email, Messages, Messenger, Clients, Related, Notes, Sales, Service, Marketing, Projects, Quotas, Inventory, Order Desk, Partners, HR & Payroll, Financials, Compliance & SLA, Work Orders, Maintenance Plans, Personal and the Dashboard panel: every control in them follows the size setting, and follows it while the panel is open; you never have to close and reopen a panel, or restart, to see the new size. The "BUSINESS HEALTH · THIS MONTH" caption that was the last hold-out now follows too.

That covers the panels' own content as well as their frames: section headings, folder trees, article and message lists, preview panes, toolbar titles, filter boxes and the toggle buttons. The boxes around that text grow with it too: toolbars get taller, the search and filter boxes get wider, list rows get deeper and the small round icon buttons get bigger, so nothing is clipped or cramped at the Large and Ex-Large settings.

Beyond the panels (5 September 2026). The main window's ribbon, its classic Clients / Related / Interactions headers and their toolbar buttons, the record-list row and header heights, the record dialogs' toolbars, the Administrator window's button fonts and the Cloud sign-in dialogs are verified on the same axis by an automated check that builds the real widgets at a simulated 150% text size. They are checked that way rather than by the panel measurement above, which needs a signed-in session to open the main window.

The Calendar is now on the axis too (5 September 2026). It used to be the one module that ignored the size setting entirely; it is a separate program embedded into TechieCRM, with its own sizing conventions. Everything you can see in it now grows and shrinks with the rest of the application, and does so while it is open:

• the toolbar across the top: Month / Week / Day, Call List, AP/AR, the settings gear, the previous/next arrows, and the Print / Export / Column Setup buttons that appear per view. The button and the symbol drawn inside it grow together, so nothing is clipped;
• the date and "whose calendar" selectors, and the lists they drop down;
• the Calendar Control bar down the side: the mini calendar, its month and year selectors, its navigation arrows, and the "Call List" and "Accounts Payable/Receivable" headings;
• the Day and Week grids: the hour column, the height of each time slot, the day-name band and the text painted inside the appointment blocks all move together, so a bigger appointment title is never squeezed into a slot that stayed small;
• the Month grid: the Sunday…Saturday band, the week-number column and the minimum size of a day cell;
• the Call Detail dialog, the Calendar's own Settings dialog (including the small value boxes for time interval, day start/end and lunch), and the Custom Date Range picker, whose pop-up calendar is a fixed-size box, so at a large text size it used to cut off the last week of the month;
• the 💵 / 🧾 symbol at the start of each Accounts Payable/Receivable row, re-drawn at the new size rather than stretched.

This works both inside TechieCRM and when the Calendar is run on its own.

What is still fixed-size.

Where	What stays the same size	Why
Calendar ▸ printed output (Print calendar, Print call list, Print invoices/bills)	the 9pt and 10pt text in the printed tables	Deliberate. A printed page should be the size the page needs, not the size the reader's screen is set to.
The Calendar's own window and the Administrator window	not measured by the panel check	Both need a signed-in session to open. The Calendar is covered instead by its own automated check, which builds the real Calendar window, control bar and grids at a simulated 150% and 225% text size; the Administrator window's button fonts are on the axis and the rest of it is unmeasured.

An honest note on what "verified" means here. The Calendar's sizing was proved on macOS, by feeding the application a simulated non-default text size and measuring the real widgets. It has not been checked against a real Windows Accessibility ▸ Text size setting, or a real Linux text-scaling factor, the same caveat that applies to the rest of the application, and for the same reason: there is no Windows or Linux machine here to test on.