What a template is and how it sets up your CRM

A template is a ready-made starting setup for your CRM. Pick one, preview it, choose what to bring, and apply it. Undo puts things back.

ConceptChecked 2026-10-10

A template is a starting setup for your CRM. It holds the objects (such as Companies, People and Deals), the fields on each, how those fields are laid out on a record, one pipeline of stages, products, sources, saved views, forms that feed it, automations and a dashboard. Everything it brings stays editable afterwards.

Why it matters

A blank CRM asks you to design everything before you can use it. A template gives you a sensible shape for your kind of business on day one, and you change what does not fit.

How a template sets up a workspace

Open Templates and setup in the CRM menu (the page is called Set up your CRM). Nothing changes until you press Apply on the last step.

The Set up your CRM page asking how you want to start
Set up your CRM, step one: how do you want to start?
  1. Start. Choose Start blank (Companies, People and Deals with names only), Basic CRM (the fields most teams need, a six-stage pipeline and the usual views), or Built for your sector.
  2. Template. For a sector, pick the trade, then a template.
  3. Preview. See the objects, the pipeline, the products, the views, the forms and the automations. Press Use this template.
The preview of the Basic CRM template showing its objects, pipeline and views
Step three, the preview of a template (sample data): its objects, pipeline, views and automations, before you press Use this template.
  1. Choose what to bring. Everything is ticked. Untick a section or one field to leave it out. Fields marked Sensitive are held more carefully.
  2. Your data. A new CRM starts empty. Choose to start empty or to import from another CRM with a CSV, which opens once the CRM is set up.
  3. Apply. It takes a few seconds. Undo puts back what you had.

What is ready today

Template What it is
Start blank Companies, People, Deals. Three views.
Basic CRM Leads, Companies, People, Deals. Six stages: Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won, Lost. Dashboard, Leads inbox and the usual views. Losing a deal asks why; won deals stamp the date.
Card payments consultancy The setup behind the example customer. See The Reeve Consult example customer.
Salon group Clients, salons, memberships and treatment plans.
Selling to salons Salon businesses and each of their salons, with your account there.
Builders' or timber merchant Trade accounts, quotes and projects.
Selling to merchants Merchant groups and their branches, listings and agreements.
Independent garage Customers and cars, jobs, MOT and service dates.
Car dealer Sales leads, vehicles, part-exchange and finance.
Selling to garages and dealers Garage and dealer businesses and their sites.

Accountants, Solicitors, Care homes, Manufacturing and Trades appear in the sector list marked Being researched. Start from Basic and shape it.

Limits

  • After a template is applied, stages, products, sources, option lists, layout and ways in are read-only for now. Fields, views and automations save as you change them.

  • A template is not a list of leads. It does not add businesses to your CRM.

    The Templates page under Customise is a separate store of workflow templates. Other templates there say Not in the store yet. Installing one adds its workflows to your browser only: it does not set up your CRM's records, stages, forms or documents, and nothing runs on your leads yet. A finance broker template built for one customer is not part of the base product and cannot be installed by you.