How to use CrewQCI.

What CrewQCI is#

CrewQCI runs the commercial side of a construction or trade business from first enquiry to cleared payment. One chain of records carries the whole story: a lead (an enquiry) becomes a quote (a price), a won quote becomes a contract (the job), and against the contract you raise invoices, credit notes, proformas and applications for payment as branded PDFs. From there, credit control chases the money for you — reminders, chasers, statements and retention requests, on a ladder you set.

Because it's one chain, nothing is retyped: details entered on the lead flow to the quote, the contract and every document, and a correction made once is pushed everywhere. Everyone in your company works from the same registers at the same time — two people can be in it at once without overwriting each other.

Creating your account and signing in#

Everyone gets their own personal login. There are two ways in: Continue with Google (one step, no password to remember) or an email address and password.

Registering with an email address#

1. Go to crew-qci.com and click Start Free Trial, then Create one on the sign-in page.
2. Enter your Email, Password and Confirm Password, then click Create account.
3. On the Verify your email screen, type the 6-digit code from the email you've been sent. Didn't get it? Click Resend — and check your spam folder.
4. Click Verify — you're signed in and taken into the app.

Signing in and out#

Open the app while signed out and the Welcome back page appears: use Continue with Google, or your email and password. To sign out, click the log-out icon at the top right of the header, or open the Account page (the round person icon) and click Logout.

Forgotten your password?#

1. On the sign-in page, click Forgot password?.
2. Enter your Email address and click Send reset link, then check your inbox.
3. Open the link, fill in New Password and Confirm Password, and click Reset password. Sign in with the new password.

If something's not right#

Your company, the trial and subscribing#

Every login belongs to one company workspace, and all your registers are private to your company. The first person from a business creates the company; everyone else joins it by invite. Creating a company also starts the whole team's card-free 14-day trial, and makes you the company Owner with full access.

Creating the company (first person only)#

1. Sign in for the first time — the Create your company page appears automatically.
2. Type your business name in Company name and click Create company.
3. You're in, and the 14-day trial has started for your whole team — no card details taken.
4. Head to Settings and fill in your company details, so they print on your documents from day one.

When the trial ends#

When neither the trial nor a subscription is active, the app shows the subscription page until someone on the team subscribes. One subscription covers the whole company — £55/month or £550/year (two months free) including VAT, unlimited users.

1. On the subscription page, click the Monthly or Annual plan box, then Start free trial.
2. Complete the secure checkout page you're redirected to.
3. You return to a confirmation — "Confirming your payment…", then "You're all set". Click Go to the pipeline. As soon as one person's payment confirms, the whole team is let in.

If something's not right#

Your team and who sees what#

Colleagues are added by invitation, so everyone shares the same registers. An invite carries the access the person will get — their access tier and, optionally, a custom list of pages. The invited person simply registers (or signs in) with the invited email address and lands straight in the company.

Separately from the tier, a user can be an admin — able to manage users and settings, and the only ones who can send invites. Your own tier is shown on the Account page under Access tier.

Installing CrewQCI on your phone or desktop#

CrewQCI installs straight from the browser — no app store needed — and then works like a normal app from your home screen or taskbar.

1. Click Install App — on the website, or on the Account page's Install CrewQCI card.
2. Accept the browser's prompt.
3. On iPhone or iPad, use Safari instead: tap the Share icon, then Add to Home Screen.
4. No prompt? In Chrome or Edge it's under Menu → Install CrewQCI; in Safari, File → Add to Home Screen.

Installing changes nothing about your account or data — it's the same app, just quicker to reach.

How it behaves on a phone#

• Swipe back closes what's open. Swiping back (or the Android back button) while a dialog is open closes the dialog rather than leaving the page — so a half-filled form is no longer lost by the gesture you'd naturally use to dismiss it.
• Dropdown lists rise from the bottom. Any list you pick from opens as a sheet pinned to the bottom of the screen, where the keyboard can't cover it, with the options spaced for a thumb.
• Pull down to refresh. From the top of any page, pull down to refetch everything on screen. It waits if something is still saving, so a refresh can never overwrite a save in progress.
• Registers remember where you were. A table's search text and column filters survive switching to another page and coming back.

Finding your way around#

The quickest route to help is always the ? button in the app's header: it opens this guide in a new tab, at the chapter for the page you're on.

After signing in you land on the Sales Pipeline overview, under the flow "Lead → Quote → Contract → Invoice / Proforma → Retention". Two figures sit in its header and answer the first question anyone asks: Outstanding today, everything unpaid, and Overdue, the part of it that is late — red as soon as there is any. Which tiles work for you depends on your access tier.

The tiles are gathered into four groups, so the page reads in the order the work happens:

• Sales pipeline ("From enquiry to won work") — Leads, Quotes, Contracts, Prospecting.
• Money in ("Billing, applications & getting paid") — Invoicing, Proformas/Applications, Retentions, Credit Control.
• Pricing & performance ("Cost the work, then see how it went") — Insights and Reports.
• Records & setup ("The register behind everything") — Clients and Settings.

Several tiles carry a live pill in their corner rather than a plain arrow: Leads shows "N new", Invoicing the outstanding total, Credit Control the overdue count (green at nought, red above it), Clients how many are on file. Below the groups sits the Overdue invoices table — invoice, client, due date, days overdue, credit limit and owing, worst first, colour-banded by age. It shows the worst eight, with Show all N overdue underneath to open the lot and Show the worst 8 only to fold it back. Chase in Credit Control → takes the list where it can be acted on.

The bar under the header carries the pages you work in all day: Overview, Leads, Quotes, Contracts, Invoicing, Proformas/Applications, Retentions, Credit Control, Prospecting and Insights. On a phone the same bar sits along the bottom of the screen. Two pages sit outside it:

• Settings — the ⚙ cog in the header, to the left of the ? button. It's on every page, including on a phone.
• Back — a Back button at the left end of the header, on every page. It steps back one page the way the browser's own back button does, so following a search result or a link and returning is one click rather than a hunt through the pill bar. It hides itself when there is nowhere to go back to — the first page of a session, or a link opened straight into the app.
• Reports — open Insights and click Reports & exports at the top right. Insights is the at-a-glance picture; Reports is where a figure gets filtered, printed and sent. Both are also tiles on the Overview.

Search: one box for everything#

The header search box — "Search the pipeline… use # to be exact" — finds clients, credit control, leads, quotes, contracts, invoices, proformas, retentions and prospects from one place. Press Enter for the results page. Results are grouped into one card per area, with a count strip across the top showing which areas the term appears in; click a count to jump to that card, or any result to open the record on its own page. Areas with hits sort to the front, and a long list shows the first six with Show {n} more underneath.

The search runs on the server. Each area asks the database for the records that match, instead of pulling a whole register into your browser and sifting it there. That means a term is checked against your complete history, however many years of it there are — not just the most recent few thousand rows.

• Each area returns at most 200 matches. An area that fills up shows its count as 200+ rather than a number. Read that as "there are more", and narrow the term — the reference with # is usually the quickest way.
• An area that fails says so. If one area can't be reached, its card reads "Couldn't search leads — there may be matches here" with a Retry button, and a line above the results names every area that failed. A broken area never reads as an empty one: when something failed and nothing was found, the page says "Nothing found in the areas that loaded" rather than "Nothing found in any area".
• An ordinary search matches anywhere: reference numbers, client names, sites, sectors, contacts, emails, notes and feedback.
• Punctuation and spacing are ignored, so "A & C Hobbs", "A and C Hobbs" and "A+C Hobbs" all find the account stored as "A&C Hobbs Ltd". Company endings like Ltd and plc are ignored too. This matters because the same client is rarely typed the same way twice.
• Client accounts match on their alias names as well, so a merged account is found under every name it has ever been invoiced under.
• Prefix with # (e.g. #6532) for an exact reference search — it matches the whole number only, so #653 will not return 6532, and #6532 will not return 16532.
• Searching a contract number also surfaces the quote it came from. Draft documents are excluded until issued.

If something's not right#

Working the registers#

Leads, Quotes, Contracts, Invoicing and Proformas all share the same spreadsheet-style table, so one set of habits works everywhere.

• Search — type in the search box above the table. On the bigger registers the first search quietly fetches the complete history ("Loading all records…"), so results cover everything, not just recent rows.
• Filter — click any column header to filter its values, Excel-style: tick the values to show, or Show all to clear. Active filters appear as gold chips above the table; click a chip to remove it, or Clear all filters. Date columns filter by UK financial year (e.g. "FY 2025/26").
• Columns — the Columns button switches columns on and off (several, like Phone, Email and Chase-ups, start hidden). Your choice is remembered per table on this device.
• Row actions — the icons at the right of each row (hover to see what each does). On a phone they collapse into a single ⋮ button that opens a sheet of larger buttons.
• Long lists — tables render 200 rows at a time; the footer offers Show more and Show all.

Leads#

The Leads page is your register of incoming enquiries: who asked, what for, where, who's handling it, and what happened to it. Nothing here is a price yet — a lead becomes a quote with one click, and from then on its status advances by itself as the deal progresses.

Adding a lead#

1. Open Leads and click Add Lead (top right).
2. Fill in Customer name — the only required field. You can pick an existing client or type a new name. The Save button stays greyed out until there's a name.
3. Add anything else you know: Date received, contact details, Job location, Subject, Lead source, Assigned to, Estimated value (£) and Notes.
4. Click Save — you'll see "Lead added."

Converting a lead to a quote#

1. Click the arrow icon on the lead's row (tooltip Convert to quote), or open the lead and click Convert to quote.
2. You land on the Quotes page with the Add quote dialog open and pre-filled from the lead — client, site, source, salesperson, value and contacts — with today's date and the next quote number already allocated.
3. Adjust anything, then click Save. Nothing is created until you save — closing the dialog abandons the conversion harmlessly.
4. On save, the lead links to the new quote and its status moves to Quoted by itself.

Once a lead has a quote, the same row button reads Go to quote — and the Quote # and Contract # (won) columns are clickable links straight to those records. When a contract is eventually raised from the quote, the lead marks itself Won and the contract number is stamped onto it.

Lead statuses and row colours#

If something's not right#

Quotes#

The quote register holds every price you've given: who quoted it, what it's worth, where it stands, and a log of every chase. The whole register is colour-coded by status, so anything gone cold is visible from across the office.

Adding a quote#

1. Click Add Quote (top right). The dialog opens with today's date, and Quote number briefly shows "Allocating…" while the next number in sequence is fetched. It fills in by itself — or you can overtype your own number at any time.
2. Complete the required fields (marked *): Quote number, Client, Sector, Lead source, Quoted by, Status and Value (£) — the value must be greater than zero. A new quote opens at Quoted, the first status in the list; change it here only if the quote is already further on. Picking the client from the list links the quote to that account rather than just copying the name, which is what lets the lifetime figures on Insights follow the client.
3. If the client is already on file and you have worked for them before, Lead source fills in as Existing Customer by itself, with a small line beneath saying where they originally came from — "Originally acquired via Google, 2021". Overtype it whenever this particular enquiry came from somewhere else; typing your own choice stops it being changed again.
4. Optionally add Site, contact details and Feedback.
5. Click Save. If anything required is missing, the dialog footer lists it ("Required: …") and the save is refused with "Please complete: …" naming exactly what's needed.

Recording chase-ups#

1. Open the quote (click its row) to see Edit quote.
2. In the Follow-ups / chase-ups section at the bottom, fill in the date, By (who chased) and Outcome, then click + to add it to the log.
3. Click Save. The Chase-ups column (switch it on under Columns) shows the count per quote.

Turning a won quote into a contract#

1. Open the quote and click Create contract (bottom left of the dialog).
2. The Contracts page opens with Add contract pre-filled from the quote — client, site, sector, source, salesperson, value, contacts — and the next contract number allocated.
3. Click Save. Any lead carrying this quote number moves itself to Won and is stamped with the new contract number.

Quote statuses#

The status list itself is yours to change under Settings → Quote Statuses. A brand-new quote saved without picking a status shows a neutral grey "Issued" chip — pick one of the listed statuses to get the proper colour.

If something's not right#

Contracts#

A contract is one confirmed piece of work for one client at one site. It's the record everything else hangs off: invoices, proformas and credit notes are raised against it, and its client, site and contact details are the master copy shared across every related record.

Adding a contract#

1. Click Add Contract — or better, open the won quote and click Create contract so everything is pre-filled.
2. Contract number shows "Allocating…" then fills with the next number in sequence. You can overtype it.
3. Pick the Quote number if the work was quoted — Contract value (£) auto-fills from the quote's value. A figure you type yourself is never overwritten by the auto-fill.
4. Complete client, site, sector, source and contact fields, and tick VAT zero-rated and VAT form returned if they apply.
5. Set Retention to what was agreed — Nil retention, 5% or 2.5% — or leave it at — not stated —. New invoices and proformas raised against the contract fill in their Retention (%) from it.
6. Click Save.

Raising documents and seeing what's billed#

Open any contract and use the buttons at the bottom left — Invoice, Proforma or Credit note — to start a new document pre-filled from the contract. The Documents raised panel in the same dialog lists everything already billed, newest first, each with a status badge (grey Draft, red Not Paid, orange Part Paid, green Paid, purple Credit); click a line to jump straight to that document.

For the money position on the whole job, click the contract number in the register, or the bar-chart icon on the row. The contract summary shows eight figures: Contract value, Invoiced to date (net, after credit notes), Applied for (open proformas and applications not yet invoiced), Still to invoice, Retention held, Invoiced total, Received and Owing now — which reads Client in credit when a credit note was raised after the invoice had already been paid. Underneath, every invoice, credit note and open application on the contract is listed oldest first; drafts show in grey and aren't counted until they're issued. Links at the foot take you to Open the contract record, Show these in Invoicing and, where retention is held, Show on the Retentions register.

The same summary opens from the Contract No. column on the Invoicing page and the Contract column on Proformas/Applications. Both columns start switched off — turn them on under Columns.

One correction, everywhere#

Fix a client name, site or phone number on the contract and save — the correction is pushed to the contract's quote, its invoices and proformas, the originating lead and the job diary. A toast confirms it: "Details updated on N other records for this contract." Enter details once, correct them once.

VAT zero-rated jobs#

Tick VAT zero-rated on jobs that qualify for zero rating. Until you also tick VAT form returned, the contract's row is highlighted amber and the VAT form column shows a Pending badge — a standing reminder to chase the client's certificate. Once returned, the badge flips and the highlight clears.

If something's not right#

Prospecting#

Prospecting is a call list that builds itself. Any client you've invoiced before but haven't worked for within your prospecting period (six months, unless you change it) appears automatically, biggest spenders first. Ring them, log the call, and when a contract is raised they drop off the list on their own — nothing to tidy up.

Working the list#

1. Read the four boxes across the top: Prospects, Past work (total historic £), Due a call and Never contacted.
2. Narrow the list with the filter buttons — All, Due a call, Never contacted, Quoted in period, New prospects — or the search box.
3. Read the cards by colour: white means nobody has rung them yet; amber means contact made and in hand; rose means a follow-up is now due; green means they're back on the books.
4. Click Log contact after each call (next section), and Quotes / contracts / invoices to see a prospect's full history before you dial.

Logging a call#

1. Click Log contact on the prospect's card.
2. Fill in the Date (defaults to today), How (Call, Email, Visit, Letter, WhatsApp or Other), Spoke to, Outcome and Status now.
3. Leave Follow up on at its default of two weeks ahead — or clear it if no follow-up is needed.
4. Click Save contact. When the follow-up date arrives, the card gains a rose Due badge and jumps to the top of the list.

Brand-new companies (not past clients) are added with New prospect — they carry a gold New badge and always show on the list. Remove takes a prospect off the list without deleting anything — it stays on file and can come back.

The Monday-morning email#

Optionally, CrewQCI emails a "Top prospects this week" digest every Monday: follow-ups promised for the week (overdue ones flagged red) plus the best-value clients nobody has rung. Set it up under Settings → Prospecting:

1. Set the Prospecting period (months) — not worked for in this long means due a call — plus Ignore below (£ historic work) and Top prospects in the email.
2. Turn on Send Monday email and fill in Email goes to (no address here means no email is sent) and optionally Copied to.
3. Click Test to send yourself a sample, then Save changes.

If something's not right#

Invoicing#

The Sales Invoicing page is one register of every issued invoice and credit note: what's been paid, what's owing, what's overdue, and what's gone to Sage. Payments, credit notes, retention posting and the Sage export all start from here.

Reading the register#

The status works itself out from the figures — you never set it by hand. Owing is the total minus payments, discount and retention. The Due Date comes from the invoice date and the Terms: "On Rec" means 3 days after the invoice date; "30 Days" (or any "N Days") means N days after the end of the invoice month. Reverse-charge documents show Rev Chg in gold under the VAT figure, and the In Sage column gains a tick once a document has been through a Sage export.

Filter with the buttons above the table — All, Unpaid / Part Paid, Overdue — or tick Not yet exported to Sage. The row icons, left to right: view/print the document, record a payment, raise a credit note, post the retention (shield), edit, delete.

Raising an invoice#

1. Click New Invoice (top right). The invoice number fills in automatically — or type your own. A typed number is refused at save if it's already in use; the suggested one is re-checked at save so two people can never get the same number.
2. Pick the Client and check the address block and contact details it fills in. The address here is the printed "Bill To" — anything you edit is saved back to the client record too. Picking a CIS-registered client ticks Reverse charge (CIS) for you.
3. Fill in Site, Contract no., Terms (they set the due date) and any Order no. (client PO).
4. Either type the Net (£), or click Add line and enter Qty, Details and Unit price per line — Net then becomes the sum of the lines and locks.
5. Check the VAT: leave VAT rate (%) at 20, change it, or tick Reverse charge (CIS) for CIS work — VAT becomes £0 and the document prints the proper reverse-charge wording.
6. Enter a Retention (%) if the contract holds retention. If the contract has its Retention set, a new invoice fills this in for you. The retention due date defaults to one year after the invoice date — set the real date for the whole contract later on the Retentions page.
7. Optionally add Work carried out dates and a printed Notes line (e.g. "Nil Retention"), and click Preview PDF to see exactly what will print.
8. Click Save invoice. If you entered a retention, a prompt offers to post it to the Retentions register — see Retentions.

Recording payments#

1. Click the banknote icon (Record payment) on the invoice row.
2. Enter the Amount paid (£) — the running total received to date, not just the latest cheque. For a second part-payment, enter the new combined total.
3. Add any Discount (£) or Retention amount (£) — both count towards settling the invoice.
4. Check the live "owing after these entries" figure, then click Save. The row's chip and colour update at once.

Credit notes#

Two routes, one result. The quick route: click the minus-circle icon on an invoice row, enter the Net to credit (£) and who it's Credited by, and click Raise credit note — the credit applies to that invoice immediately (its paid figure rises, so the owing figure drops). The standalone route: New Credit Note at the top of the page, where Against invoice is optional — pick the client first and their invoices appear.

Credit notes share the invoice number sequence and show with a CR prefix, a grey Credit chip and a purple row. Every application leaves an audit line in the invoice's notes, and editing an issued credit note re-applies it properly — backed out of the old invoice, applied to the new one.

Draft documents from CrewBook#

If your firm also runs CrewBook, coordinators can raise draft invoices, credit notes, proformas and applications from a job — without a document number. Drafts wait in a Draft documents panel at the top of the Invoicing and Proformas pages, excluded from every figure until issued, and their previews print with a diagonal DRAFT watermark so they can't be mistaken for the real thing.

1. Click Open on the draft and read the coordinator's note at the top.
2. Add the line items, check the VAT and the Reverse charge (CIS) tick, and fill anything missing.
3. Click the green Issue button — the next number is allocated, today's date is stamped, and the finished PDF opens ready to print, email or file. The number field reads "Allocated on issue" until then — numbers are never wasted on drafts.

If something's not right#

Printing, emailing and filing documents#

Every document raised in the app opens in a PDF preview — click the document icon on any register row, or Preview PDF inside a dialog. From the preview you can Print, Download PDF, Email… the client, Sent emails to see what has already gone out, or File to SharePoint.

Downloaded files are named after the document, not the job, so a folder of them stays readable: "Invoice 1234 - Acme Ltd.pdf", "Credit Note CR1234 - Acme Ltd.pdf", "Proforma Invoice 87 - Acme Ltd.pdf". Proformas used to be named after the contract, so every proforma raised against the same job downloaded over the top of the last one. Applications for payment and payment certificates carry their own number and the contract number as well.

Emailing a document to the client#

1. Open the document preview and click Email….
2. Check the To address — pre-filled from the client record where known.
3. Optionally add a Message, which is included in the email.
4. Click Send. The client gets a branded email under your company name with a download button (the link lasts 7 days), and the send is stamped on the record — hover Email… later to see "Last emailed to … on …".

Seeing what was sent, and resending it#

Every document email the app sends is kept, so "did that invoice actually go, and to whom?" has an answer. There are two ways in:

• For one document — open its preview and click Sent emails.
• For a whole register — click Sent emails in the header of Invoicing or Proformas/Applications. That view lists every send for that register and has its own search box across document number, client, address and subject.

Pick a send from the list to read the email exactly as the client received it. Each row shows when it went, the document, the client, the address, who sent it, and a Resend tag if it was itself a resend.

1. Select the email you want to send again.
2. Change the address under Resend to (change the address if needed) if it is going somewhere new — it starts as the address the email originally went to.
3. Click Resend.

A resend does not rebuild the document: it reuses the PDF that was actually sent and mints it a fresh 30-day download link, so the client gets the same paperwork with a working link. The record's "Last emailed to" stamp updates to the new address.

Filing to SharePoint#

With a SharePoint site name set in Settings, File to SharePoint drops the finished PDF into the right folder automatically — invoices into "Invoices year", credit notes into "Credit Notes year", and so on under "Quotes, Contracts & Invoices". Once filed, the button reads Re-file; re-filing after an edit deliberately overwrites the earlier PDF of the same name.

Your branding on the documents#

Company details, bank details, logo and footer text on every PDF come from Settings. Before issuing your first real document, open Account → Document samples and click through the Invoice, Credit Note, Proforma and Application tabs — the samples print with exactly the details real documents will use, without creating anything. Anything wrong or missing is fixed under Settings → Company details (documents) and Settings → Bank & document text.

If something's not right#

Proformas and applications for payment#

Both live on the Proformas/Applications page, and both ask for money before a VAT invoice exists — but they're different animals. A proforma is a letterhead-style request, typically for a deposit before works start, that later converts into an invoice. An application for payment is the QS-style staged claim used on contract work — numbered per contract (App 1, 2, 3…) with Tender / Previous / Current columns — which is certified into a Payment Certificate / VAT Invoice when the money is agreed.

Raising a proforma#

1. Click New Proforma — the number fills in automatically (proformas and applications share their own sequence, separate from invoices).
2. Fill the required fields: Client, Contract no., Prepared by, and a Net (or add line items — Description of works, Area/Qty, Rate, Total).
3. Optionally set Work due for completion and the printed Terms paragraph (e.g. "Terms net — 50% to be received prior to works commencing…").
4. Preview PDF to check the letterhead, then Save proforma — it joins the register as Open.

Raising an application for payment#

1. Click New Application and fill in Client, Contract no. and Prepared by.
2. Click Add line under Application items and fill each row's Tender, Qty, Unit, Previous and Current figures. Net is the sum of the Current column — the amount claimed this application. A live Cumulative figure shows per row.
3. Enter any Less discount (£), CIS tax (£), Retention (%), and check the VAT (including Reverse charge (CIS)). Retention (%) fills in from the contract when its Retention is set.
4. Save. The App number is allocated automatically — one running sequence per contract.

Payments received before conversion are recorded with the banknote icon, exactly as on invoices — the figures carry onto the invoice when you convert or certify, so an invoice raised after a 50% deposit arrives already Part Paid.

On the printed application and payment certificate, the VAT box at the foot follows the Reverse charge (CIS) tick. Normally it reads "Standard VAT Amount" with the VAT you are charging. On a reverse-charge document it reads "Reverse Charge VAT" with the figure the customer must account for to HMRC — 20% of the amount claimed on that document — above the line "REVERSE CHARGE SUPPLY - Customer to pay this VAT to HMRC". Your bank and company registration details print in a compact band under the Net Claim on the same page.

Converting and certifying#

1. Check the value first. The invoice is raised at the document's current figures — edit the proforma or application before converting if the final value differs. The confirmation dialog reminds you.
2. Click the green arrow icon on the Open row — Convert to invoice on a proforma, Certify — raise Payment Certificate / VAT Invoice on an application.
3. Confirm. The new invoice is dated today and carries over everything: client, site, contacts, terms, figures, the reverse-charge flag, any payments already recorded, and the work dates. The source flips to Converted with a link to its invoice.
4. If the application held retention, a prompt offers to post it to the Retentions register — or do it later from the Invoicing page.

A proforma that will never be paid is marked dead with the ban icon on its row (Mark dead) — the row greys out and it can't be converted. The same button, now a circular arrow, reopens it.

If something's not right#

Retentions#

The Retentions page tracks money your clients hold back until the end of a defects period. Retention comes off every invoice, but it is released for the whole contract when the main contractor completes — so the page shows one line per contract, with the invoices it was deducted from, the amount held, anything already returned, what's still outstanding and the date it falls due. Click a line to open its invoices underneath. The header counts the contracts and invoices and totals what's held.

Getting a retention onto the register#

This is the one thing that catches people out: entering a retention on an invoice does not list it here. The Retentions page shows posted retentions. Post one in any of three ways:

1. Accept the prompt when saving the invoice — "Post retention of £X to the Retentions register?" — by clicking Post retention.
2. Or later, click the shield icon (Post retention) on the invoice's row on the Invoicing page.
3. Or use the Click to Post column there — it reads Post when unposted, Posted when up to date, and Click to update if the invoice's retention figures have changed since posting.

Setting the contract's due date#

Each invoice's retention due date defaults to a year after that invoice, so a contract with several invoices usually carries several dates. The contract is aged and chased on the latest of them — the job can't have finished before its last application — and an amber mixed chip beside the date tells you they disagree.

1. Click Due date on the contract's line.
2. Enter the main contractor's completion date plus the defects period.
3. Click Save due date. The date is written to every invoice on the contract and to the source invoices on the Invoicing page, so the two always agree.

Recording a retention coming back#

1. Click Return on the contract's line. The dialog shows "Held £X · outstanding £Y" for the whole contract.
2. Amount to return (£) is pre-filled with the full outstanding balance. Leave it for a full return, or type less for a part return — the dialog warns "Part return — £X stays outstanding on the register." On a contract with several invoices, a part return is applied to the oldest invoice first.
3. Set the Date (defaults to today) and click Return in full or Record part return.

To return one invoice's retention on its own, open the contract's line and click Return against that invoice instead. A full return stamps the returned date on the source invoice too, and once every invoice on a contract has been returned the line leaves the page. A part return keeps the line listed with a purple Part returned chip and updates the figures. Either way an audit line is added to the notes, and the app-wide Undo can reverse a slip.

If something's not right#

Credit control: how chasing works#

Credit Control is where the money gets collected. Every open invoice ages from its due date and climbs a chase ladder you control — out of the box: a friendly reminder 7 days before it falls due, a note on the day, a first chaser at 7 days over, a second at 21, and a final notice at 45. Invoices on On Receipt terms are the exception: they fall due three days after they are issued, so every before-due rung is skipped for them and their first email is the one on the due date. A client gets one email per run, at the most severe stage they've reached, under your company name. Everything is driven straight from the invoice register, so the figure on screen is always the figure in the email.

The page has six tabs — Chasing, Statements, Retentions, Thank yous, Credit Limits and Settings — with the total overdue figure and today's queue count always in the header. It's an admin area: Admin and Super Admin tiers only.

Reading the queue#

Aged debt tiles run across the top — Not yet due, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days — and clicking one filters the queue to clients with money in that band. Each row shows the client, their stage (green = Friendly, amber = Firm, red = Final — the same colour appears on the email itself), how overdue, the amount this email chases, and their whole balance. Under the name: their Sage code, the address the chaser will go to, and the invoice numbers being chased.

An amber paused badge means the client is due a chaser but is deliberately held back, with the reason written on the row: "Promised payment by …", "Chasing paused — in dispute", "Balance below the £50.00 chase threshold", "Chased 3 days ago — minimum gap is 7 days", or "No accounts email on the client record". Sending by hand overrides every hold except a missing email address and test mode.

Sending chasers#

1. Click the eye icon on a row (Read the email before it goes) — the preview shows the To address, subject and the exact email.
2. Click Send now — or, for a batch, tick clients and click Send N chasers. The toast reports the outcome per client: "5 sent, 1 skipped, 1 failed". A batch of more than one client also emails the Daily run summary to address the same report the morning run sends, with “— sent by hand” on the end of the subject — so a hand-send leaves the same paper trail as an automatic one. Sending one client's chaser on its own doesn't raise a summary.
3. Or let the automatic morning run do it — see switching it on safely.

The Dry run button asks what today's automatic run would do — "would send N chasers covering £X, hold back N, and send N statements" — without sending a thing. The History button shows the audit trail: every email Sent (green), Test (blue), Failed (red) or Skipped (grey), so "why didn't this client get chased?" is always answerable.

Resending one that bounced#

When a chaser bounces or lands with the wrong person, you don't have to wait for the next stage. Open History and click the paper-plane icon at the end of any chaser or statement row (Resend this email — pick or type the address). It appears on reminders and statements that actually went out; skipped rows have nothing to resend.

1. The dialog names the email — the stage and the date it first went — and offers the addresses already known for that client: the Accounts email on the client record (or Main email on the client record where no accounts address is set), and Where it originally went.
2. Or choose A different address and type one in. Handy when a client tells you over the phone which mailbox their invoices should go to.
3. Click Resend. The toast confirms "Resent to …".

One client's credit record#

The small pencil beside a client's name — in the queue and in the History list alike — opens their client record for editing without leaving the page (Edit this client — accounts email, notes). It's the quickest way to fix the two things usually wrong when a chaser bounces. Renaming the account from here still carries the new name across their quotes, contracts and invoices, exactly as it does on the Clients page.

Click a client's name in the queue to open their full picture — outstanding, overdue, credit on account, and every open invoice with the ones that can't be chased greyed out with the reason. Four controls live here:

• Accounts email — where chasers and statements go (several addresses separated by semicolons; blank falls back to the client's main email).
• Promised payment date — chasing pauses until the day after. If they miss it, chasing resumes automatically.
• Hold all chasing — for disputes or instalment plans, with a recorded reason. They stay on statements and on the page; nothing sends automatically.
• Credit control notes — the last conversation, who to speak to, portal references.

If something's not right#

Switching credit control on safely#

Letting software email your customers about money is a big step, so the safeguards came first — nothing is sent automatically until the master switch is on, and you can prove the whole setup to yourself before a single client hears from it. The recommended order:

1. Under Settings → Who it comes from, fill in the Reply-to address — nothing sends without one — and the From name. Left blank, the From name falls back to your company name from the document settings; if both are blank, nothing sends.
2. Put your own address in Test address. From now on every chaser and statement is redirected to you and logged as a Test — nothing can reach a client while it's set.
3. On the Chasing tab, press Dry run to see exactly what today's run would do.
4. Set the Chase start date to your switchover day. Invoices due before it are never chased automatically — so turning it on doesn't fire final notices at your entire back book. That older debt stays visible on the page and on statements, to be dealt with by hand.
5. Read a few emails with the eye icon and send one or two to yourself.
6. Fill in accounts emails for any clients flagged in the "no email address" warning.
7. Tick Send chasers automatically and save, leaving the test address in place for a few days — the daily summary email shows what would have gone.
8. Clear the Test address and save. That's go-live.

The rules and the ladder#

The Rules card sets the guard-rails: minimum balance to chase, minimum days between chasers (7 by default), Weekdays only, how many invoice copies to attach per chaser, Leave disputed invoices alone, Exclude retention from the chased amount ("retention is not due until its release date — chasing it is what annoys a quantity surveyor"), and a Never chase these clients list.

The Chase ladder itself is fully editable: each stage has a name, its timing in days relative to the due date (negative = before it falls due), a tone (Friendly / Firm / Final), subject, opening and closing paragraphs, an on/off switch, and an optional attached statement. A stage timed before the due date carries the reminder "7 days before due · not sent on On Receipt invoices", because that rung never applies to them however you word it. Placeholders like {client}, {total}, {count} and {oldestDays} fill in automatically — with grammar helpers so the wording reads right for one invoice or several.

The Who it comes from card carries the sign-off (name, title, phone), an internal copy address, the Daily run summary to address, and small print for the foot of every email.

The automatic morning run#

Once live, a scheduled early-morning job does the whole round: one chaser per client at their most severe pending stage (worst debt first), the monthly statements on or after the configured day, retention release requests, and thank-yous — then emails the Daily run summary to address a report of the whole round. The subject is the headline — "Credit control — 3 chasers, 1 statement, 2 thank-yous sent, 1 failed" — and inside are three tables: what was sent (client, stage, address, amount), what was held back and why, and anything that failed, with the total chased.

A quiet morning still gets its summary, under the subject "Credit control — nothing due today". A run that sends nothing and says nothing looks exactly like a run that never happened, so silence is kept for a real problem rather than spent on a slow week. The one exception is a weekend that Weekdays only has closed and on which nothing else happened either — no note goes out then, because a quiet-day email every Saturday and Sunday is only noise. A Dry run never sends a summary at all.

Weekdays only holds back chasers at the weekend but never the statements (month-end on a Saturday still runs) or thank-yous. Per-run caps keep it civilised — chasers, thank-yous and retention requests over the cap are picked up the next morning, and nothing is ever sent twice. Statements are the one exception: with more than 120 due in a run, the remainder wait for the next month (or send them by hand from the Statements tab).

If something's not right#

Statements of account#

A statement lists a client's every open item with a running balance, the aged summary and any unallocated credit notes, on a PDF matching your invoice layout. The monthly run can send them automatically on a day you choose (1–28); the same list is on the Statements tab for sending by hand.

1. Click the eye icon (Preview the statement) — the dialog has two tabs, Statement PDF and Covering email — then Print, Download PDF or Email statement.
2. For month-end in bulk: tick the clients and click Send N statements — the button shows the combined balance in brackets as a sanity check before 200 emails leave the building.
3. To schedule it, turn on Send statements automatically under the Settings tab and pick the Day of the month.

Retention release requests#

Retention that has passed its release date gets its own tab — deliberately not part of the chase ladder. The client has done nothing wrong, so the email is a level, polite request that repeats gently (at most once per client every 30 days, configurable) until the register records the money returned. Amounts exclude VAT, and part returns are already netted off.

Each client gets one request listing one line per contract. Retention is released per contract, so a contract only appears once the release date of its last invoice has passed. Each line carries what a quantity surveyor needs to release the money — your contract number, the site and the client's purchase order — with the invoices the retention was deducted from underneath. Search by client, account code, contract, site or invoice number. Preview with the eye icon and Send request, or tick clients and Send N requests — a manual send deliberately overrides the spacing rule when you need to ask again sooner. Automatic sending has its own switch under the Settings tab.

Thank-yous and review requests#

The one credit-control email that's good news: a short thank-you when a client settles up — triggered by invoices marked Paid within the look-back window, and sent to the main contact (the person who had the work done) rather than the purchase ledger. Where the throttle allows, it also asks for a Google, Yell or Facebook review while the job is still fresh — a client is thanked every time they pay, but asked for a review at most once every 180 days (configurable), so repeat customers are never pestered.

On the Thank yous tab, a green star in the Review column means this email will ask for a review; a grey crossed star means "asked recently — the thank-you goes without". Several invoices settled in one payment produce one thank-you listing them all, and nothing is ever thanked for twice.

Only real payment evidence puts an invoice in the queue: the date it was marked Paid, or failing that the date of the last payment recorded against it. An invoice marked Paid with neither is never thanked for — so editing an old settled invoice, syncing its contract details or adding a note won't drag it back into the list.

Credit limits#

The Credit Limits tab sets each client's limit against their live outstanding balance. Limits live on the client records; balances are computed from the invoice register — net of VAT, the exposure a credit insurer covers. Remaining shows red when a client is over their limit and amber when less than 10% is left. A purple CIS badge marks CIS-registered clients.

Click a row to update or remove a limit, keep Credit limit notes (insurer decisions, conditions) and attach documents — each shows who added it and when.

Requests and approvals#

1. Anyone can raise a request: Request Limit, pick or type the client ("Select an existing client or type a new name…"), enter the Limit requested (£), add notes and attachments, and Send Request. It's emailed to the credit contacts set in Settings, with a copy to you. Type a name that isn't on file and an amber line reads "Not on file — a new client request will be raised". If anything close exists, Did you mean: offers it as a chip — one click ties the request to the real account instead of starting a second one.
2. Pending requests sit in a rose panel at the top of the tab. An admin (or configured stand-in) clicks Respond and chooses Approve (setting the Limit granted, which may differ from the ask), With underwriter (keeps it open), or Decline.
3. Send Decision emails the requester — and an approved limit is written straight onto the client record, so credit checks use it immediately.
4. Finished with a request that should never have been raised? The bin icon beside Respond (Delete this credit request) removes it. It asks "Delete the credit limit request for …?" with "This cannot be undone.", then confirms "Credit request deleted." The bin is shown to exactly the people who can Respond — company admins and anyone named in the credit request recipients — so a site login that can reach the page cannot destroy a credit record.

Going the other way, the flag icon on a client's row raises a review request — "this limit can be reduced or removed". It emails the credit contacts and sits in an amber panel until actioned; Done in Sage also updates the limit in the app.

What approving actually writes#

• The limit lands on the client. Where the request was raised under a spelling the account doesn't use, the match is still made and the toast says which account it went on — "Limit recorded against Hobbs Groundworks Ltd." That spelling is then kept on the account as an alias, because it is what the office will type next time.
• A client with no account gets one. Approving a name with nothing behind it reads "No client record matches … — approving will raise a pending client with this limit on it and email accounts to set it up." A stub account is raised, the limit goes on it, and it carries the Sage code PENDING (shown as "(account pending)") until your accounts team puts the real code on.
• A flagged credit status is cleared. If the granted limit covers what was asked for, a client sitting at Needs Checking or No Credit is moved to OK. A part-grant leaves the flag alone — and a deliberate Percentage Upfront or Special Authority is a standing instruction that a limit decision never overwrites.

If something's not right#

The client register#

One client register sits behind everything: names, addresses, contacts, credit limits, Sage codes, sectors and the CIS flag. The address on the client record is what prints on invoices, proformas and applications — change it once and every new document uses it. Open the register from the Clients tile on the Overview, or via Settings → Clients.

Each account also records how it was originally won. The Originally acquired via panel at the bottom of the client dialog shows the source, the date and the quote or lead reference it came from. It is filled in once — from that client’s first quote or lead carrying a real source — and then left alone, because it is the anchor every lifetime figure on Insights is measured from. Admins who need to correct it (a mis-keyed first quote, or a backfill that guessed wrong) click Override to unlock the three fields. Three columns — Acquired via, Acquired on and Acquired ref — are available under Columns, switched off by default.

Adding and editing clients#

1. Click New Client (or click any row to edit).
2. Type the Name — a Sage code is suggested automatically from it (letters and digits, up to 8 characters, unique). Edit it or click Generate for a fresh one. A red "Already used by another client" warning blocks saving — a clashing code would post invoices to the wrong Sage account.
3. Fill in the Address — one line per printed line (exactly how it prints on documents — if an address has more lines than the page has room for, the middle lines are joined onto one so the postcode always prints; the last line is treated as the postcode on Sage exports), contact details and Credit limit (£).
4. Tick CIS registered (reverse charge) for CIS clients — their invoices default to reverse-charge VAT and export with tax code T21.
5. Pick a Default sector — it also sets the sales nominal code from your sector mapping.
6. Click Save.

Two flags worth knowing: Dissolved / no longer trading keeps a dead company on file for history but out of prospecting calls, and Credit Status records the account's standing (new accounts start at "Needs Checking"). Under Also invoiced as you can list aliases — other names the client is invoiced under — and their activity and balances roll into this one account.

Click a client's name (rather than the row) for their activity register — every issued invoice and credit note since 2025 with live Invoiced, Credited and Outstanding totals, each document number a link to the register.

Unlinked names and new-client requests#

Type a client name on a contract or invoice that matches no account, and CrewQCI notices. An amber warning triangle appears next to the name wherever it's used; a red panel at the top of the Clients page counts every such name. For each one, either Link it to an existing account (it becomes an alias, and everything under that name rolls in) or Set up a new client with the form pre-filled.

Before it lets a duplicate through, CrewQCI checks the register for near-misses — typos, part-names and trading-name differences, so "K Dean" finds "Kevin Dean" and "FM Conway" finds "F M Conway Ltd". Where it finds any, a Did you mean: row of account names appears under the client field; click one to link straight to it. The red panel does the same, offering Possible match: buttons that open the link flow.

Raising a contract for an unknown name goes one better: a new-client request is raised automatically — a placeholder account is created with the code PENDING and the configured approvers are emailed. On the Clients page, an amber panel lists requests awaiting your Approve or Reject; approving emails the setup recipients step-by-step instructions, and the client sits in a grey "awaiting account setup" panel until the real Sage code replaces PENDING.

If something's not right#

Reports#

Open Reports from Insights — the Reports & exports button at the top right — or from the Reports tile on the Overview. The Reports page is the catalogue, its cards gathered under group headings — Sales & Credit holds Aged Debtors, the Retention Register and Chasing Effectiveness. Each card opens a full report with filters, key figures, a chart, a sortable table and PDF / Excel / CSV downloads. Every report is calculated from the same engines the credit-control emails use, so a report can never disagree with a chaser that's been sent. Reports are admin-level — Sales and Viewer tiers see "No reports available for your access level."

• PDF — a branded A4 document with your logo and the filters printed on it, for handing over.
• Excel — a branded spreadsheet with frozen headers, live totals and a second Basis sheet listing the filters, assumptions and warnings.
• CSV — raw machine values (no £ signs, ISO dates) for importing elsewhere, not for reading.

Downloads always match what's on screen, including the sort order. Filters and sorting live in the web address, so a report can be bookmarked or its link shared and it opens exactly the same way. And every report carries a collapsible How these figures are calculated panel — the same plain-English assumptions print on the PDF and in the Excel Basis sheet, so a figure can go to your accountant with its rules attached.

Choosing the period#

Reports that cover a span of time open with a Period picker. Most of what the office asks for is one click:

Whichever you pick is printed on the report and on every export, so a figure never travels without its period. Financial years run April to March. The Year box reaches ten years back and one year forward, so an old period is a click away without dropping to a custom range.

Aged Debtors#

Who owes you money, how old it is, and who's already being chased — always "as at today". Three Detail levels: One line per client (ageing buckets: Not yet due, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, 90+ days), Client with invoices (a headline per client with its open invoices beneath), and Invoice by invoice. Filter the Ageing (e.g. "90 days and over") and Chasing ("Being chased" / "Chasing paused").

Unallocated credit notes are listed for reference but never deducted from the totals — a warning calls them out instead. Other warnings flag clients excluded from chasing, missing Sage codes (so you know when it won't reconcile line-for-line with Sage), and invoices whose due date had to be derived from the client's terms.

Retention Register#

Retention held against your invoices, when it falls due, and what's already overdue — including, unlike the Retentions page, retentions already returned. Like the page, it shows one line per contract: the Invoices column lists what was issued, the money columns are the contract's totals, and the due date is the latest across its invoices, with "mixed due dates" in the Status column where they disagree. The default Status filter, Still held, matches the Retentions page exactly; switch to Returned or All for the history. Set Due to Overdue only to list retention you can now invoice back — the warning line totals it for you.

Chasing Effectiveness#

What happened after each chaser went out. It pairs every reminder that actually reached a client with what then became of the thing it chased — an invoice paid, a retention returned — and reports the pattern stage by stage.

Four filters shape it: the Period; Detail (One line per system or Stage by stage); Chasing (Both, Credit control or Retention chasing); and Counts an outcome within, the window an outcome must fall inside to be paired with the chaser — 14 days of the chaser through to 90 days of the chaser, 30 days by default.

If something's not right#

Insights#

Insights is the charts page — pipeline, win-rate, invoiced revenue and outstanding balances — with the Overdue invoices list at the top: colour-banded by age (orange over 15 days, pink over 30, red over 45), most overdue first, each invoice number a link straight to the register. Hover any bar or point for the exact £ figure. Draft documents are excluded from every figure here — a draft has no number and is not owed by anyone — and there is no hidden start date: an unpaid invoice counts towards Outstanding and Overdue however old it is. If these figures look higher than you remember, that is why. Older unpaid invoices used to be quietly left out; they are not any more.

One period selector drives the whole page. Pick This financial year, Last financial year, or the last 3, 6, 12 or 24 months, and every headline figure and chart moves together — no two cards can quietly cover different windows. The line under the heading always says which period you are looking at and what it is compared against. The comparison is like-for-like: the same-length period immediately before, or the same dates a year earlier for a financial year.

Four headline figures sit across the top — Invoiced revenue, Quotes won, Average days to pay and Outstanding today — each with a green or red percentage against the comparison period. Green always means "better", so a fall in days-to-pay shows green.

The Client column shows the account name from the register, not whatever spelling was typed on the invoice, so the list lines up with the Aged Debtors report and one client never appears as several rows. Where an invoice was raised under an alias, that name follows in smaller text as (inv: …).

The charts cover invoiced revenue by month (this period against the last), quote outcomes by value, quoted value by sector and by lead source split won/open/lost, top clients by invoiced revenue, and top clients by outstanding balance — credit notes netted off throughout. A chart showing "No data for this period" isn't broken; it fills in as records are added, or when you widen the period.

Where the work really came from#

A client’s first job carries its real lead source. Every job after that gets recorded as Existing Customer — so over time Google, your website and word of mouth all look as though they stopped working, when in fact they are the reason the repeat work exists at all. Insights answers both questions separately, from the same invoices:

• Invoiced revenue by enquiry source — each invoice’s own lead source. This is the familiar view: repeat jobs sit under "Existing Customer".
• Invoiced revenue by acquisition source — lifetime view — the same invoices, grouped by how that client was originally won. The two cards total the same figure, and the note on the card says so.
• New vs repeat business — a donut splitting the period’s revenue into new, repeat and Unknown / pre-app. "Repeat" means the client was won more than 90 days before the invoice.
• Client cohorts by acquisition year and source — for everyone won in a given year through a given channel: how many clients, their lifetime invoiced revenue (every invoice on file, not just this period), the average per client, and what share came back for more than one job. This one is not on the page — it was too much detail to take in at a glance. Find it in the Export workbook and in Reports.

Exporting the page#

Export (top right, beside Reports & exports) downloads everything on screen as one Excel workbook — twelve sheets, one per card, built from the very figures already on the page, so the spreadsheet can never disagree with what you were looking at. Each sheet carries the period and comparison period in its subtitle, a filtered header row and a totals row. The file is named for the period, for example Insights — Last 12 months — 2026-08-25.xlsx.

Exporting to Sage#

Two exports keep Sage in step, and both stamp what they've sent so nothing goes twice.

Customer records (Clients page)#

1. On the Clients page, click Export to Sage. Everything not yet exported with a real code is pre-ticked; tick Show already exported to re-send a record.
2. Click Export N — the CSV downloads in Sage's Customer Record FULL layout (account code, name, address split into Sage's columns, contact, credit limit, nominal, tax code T21 for CIS clients, T1 otherwise).
3. Import it with Sage's customer record import. Back in CrewQCI, exported clients show a green tick and the date in the Exported column.

Clients marked "Skipped — awaiting account code" have a blank or PENDING code and can't be ticked — Sage needs the account reference as its key field. Fix the code and export again.

Sales invoices (Invoicing page)#

1. On the Invoicing page, click Sage Export, set the From / To dates and leave Only documents not yet exported ticked for a normal run.
2. Review the list and untick anything to hold back. Check the amber panel for blocked documents — "no matching client record" or "account code missing or still PENDING" — which are left out and resurface automatically once fixed.
3. Click Export N. The CSV downloads (invoices as SI rows, credit notes as SC; tax codes T1 for VAT, T21 for CIS reverse charge, T0 for zero-rated) and each document is stamped with the export date.
4. Import the CSV into Sage as audit trail transactions — once only.

The nominal code per row comes from the sector's configured code first, then the client's default nominal, then 4000. Drafts never export.

If something's not right#

Settings, backups and the little helpers#

Open Settings with the ⚙ cog in the header, or from the Settings tile on the Overview. It's one page of company-wide configuration, saved all together with the single Save changes button at the top. It's an admin page (Admin and Super Admin tiers), and saved changes apply across the app immediately.

• The dropdown lists — Sectors, Lead Sources, Payment Terms, Quote Statuses and Sales People. Type a value and press Enter to add; click the × on a tag to remove. These drive the dropdowns across the whole pipeline.
• Sector nominal codes — one Sage sales nominal per sector, used when invoices export. A blank sector falls back to the client's default nominal, then 4000.
• Document settings — the two cards that print on everything: Company details (documents) (name, address, VAT/UTR/company registration numbers, registered office, phone, email) and Bank & document text (bank details, disputes footer, draft notifications email, logo URL, proforma footer lines). Fill these in before issuing documents — blank fields are simply left off.
• Prospecting — the reconnection-call options and Monday digest, covered in Prospecting.
• Clients — the card at the top links straight to the client register.
• Lifetime lead-source attribution — backfill — a one-off migration, shown to Super Admins only. See below.

Filling in how existing clients were won#

New quotes and leads record how a client was won as they are saved. For the clients already on file, the Lifetime lead-source attribution — backfill panel works it out from their history: it takes each client’s earliest quote (or earliest lead, if they have no quotes), and if that carries a real source it uses it; if not, it looks for a real source on anything in their first 90 days; and if there still isn’t one, it records Unknown (pre-app). Until this has been run, the lifetime views on Insights show most revenue as "Unknown / pre-app".

1. Take a backup first (above) — this writes to every client record that doesn’t already have a source.
2. Click Dry run. Nothing is written. You get the whole plan: how many clients, quotes and leads were read, how many already have a source, how many would be written and under which source, how each was decided, and a sample of the first forty rows with the reason for each.
3. Read the report. "Quotes / leads not matching any client" counts documents whose name doesn’t match any account — usually a spelling that should be added under Also invoiced as on the client.
4. Click Write to clients and confirm. It writes in paced batches until nothing remains, then reports "Acquisition backfill complete — N clients written."

Backups#

The Backup card on the Settings page takes a complete copy of your company's data — clients, quotes, contracts, invoices, proformas, retentions and credit control — and writes it to your own Google Drive, in a "CrewQCI Backups" folder with one file per table plus a manifest. Nobody else's data is in there, and yours is in nobody else's.

1. Next to Save backups to:, click My Google Drive.
2. Click Connect my Google account and approve in the tab that opens.
3. Click Back up now and wait for "Backup complete — N records across M tables." The card then shows the last backup date.

Undo, live updates and what's new#

• Undo — the round dark button fixed at the bottom-left of every screen. Hover it to see what the next undo reverses; click to undo, or open the arrow for "Recent actions — click to undo to here" and roll back several at once. It keeps up to 15 recent actions, newest first — and the history is per browser session, so don't rely on it after a reload.
• Live updates — when a colleague records a payment or edits a client, your screen refreshes itself within a moment (politely waiting until you've finished typing). Reports are the one exception: they have their own Refresh button.
• What's new — after an update, a "What's new in CrewQCI" popup lists what changed. Got it dismisses it for good on every device.

If something's not right#

Troubleshooting index#

Every fix in this guide, gathered in one place. Each entry links to the full answer in its chapter — or type what you're seeing into the search box in the contents panel.

Creating your account and signing in

• "Invalid email or password" when logging in
• "Invalid verification code" when registering
• No password-reset email arrives
• "Invalid reset link" or "Failed to reset password"
• "Access Restricted — you are not registered to use this application"

Your company, the trial and subscribing

• You were invited, but you see "Create your company"
• "You already belong to a company"
• The page stays on "Confirming your payment…"
• The team keeps seeing the subscription page after paying

Finding your way around

• "Couldn't search … — there may be matches here"
• An area's count shows "200+" instead of a number

Leads

• The Save button is greyed out in the lead dialog
• "Failed to add lead." / "Failed to save." / "Failed to delete."
• The table says "No leads yet" but leads exist
• Amber banner: "Couldn't load leads…"

Quotes

• "Please complete: …" when saving a quote
• The quote number shows "Allocating…" and stays empty
• Only one quote is showing
• "Failed to save quote." / "Failed to delete."

Contracts

• A contract row is highlighted amber
• The contract value keeps showing the quote's figure
• Save is greyed out in the contract dialog

Prospecting

• No Monday email arrives
• The Test button reports "Forbidden"
• "Allow pop-ups to print the call sheet"
• "Showing the top 200 of N dormant clients"

Invoicing

• "Invoice number … is already in use."
• The saved invoice got a different number from the one first shown
• The Net (£) box is greyed out
• A row has no document icon, so there's no PDF to print
• The number field says "Allocating…" and Save is disabled
• "Failed to issue — nothing was written. Try again."
• A coordinator raised a draft but no email reached the office

Printing, emailing and filing documents

• "Failed to send the email. The document was NOT sent."
• "SharePoint filing is not configured — set the SharePoint site name in Settings."
• "SharePoint filing failed… Check the folder exists."
• The PDF generates without your logo
• "Could not generate the document."

Proformas and applications for payment

• "Missing required fields: …"
• "This proforma is marked dead."
• "Couldn't post the retention — post it from the Invoicing page."
• "Convert failed."

Retentions

• A retention entered on an invoice isn't on the Retentions page
• The return dialog won't accept the amount ("More than the outstanding amount.")
• A retention shows no countdown or ageing
• An amber "mixed" chip shows beside a contract's due date
• "Invoice N predates the QCI system — its document lives in the SharePoint filing."

Credit control: how chasing works

• An invoice never appears in the chasing queue
• "Set a sender name … before sending — a chaser must not go out unsigned."
• "The chase history could not be read, so nothing was sent…"
• "Nothing was sent." after a batch send
• "None of the invoices on that email are still outstanding — there is nothing to resend"
• "The chase stage on that email no longer exists in the settings"
• "N overdue clients with no email address"

Insights

• A large slice of revenue shows as "Unknown / pre-app"
• The two lead-source charts show different totals

Switching credit control on safely

• "Automatic chasing is switched off — nothing goes out on its own."
• No daily summary email arrives
• A client on the "Never chase" list still got chased
• Red warning: "N clients would go straight to a final notice."

Thank-yous and review requests

• The thank-you goes but never asks for a review
• Old payments from months ago queue up to be thanked

Credit limits

• The Outstanding here differs from the balance on the Chasing tab
• "No credit request recipients are configured — set them in Settings."
• "No client record matches … — approving will raise a pending client with this limit on it"
• "… and the account could not be raised — the approved limit is NOT recorded anywhere."
• "Could not delete the credit request."
• There's no bin icon on a pending request
• "This request has already been approved/declined by …"

The client register

• Save is greyed out in the client dialog
• New-client approval emails never arrive
• A "new client" already exists under another name
• "No clients found"

Reports

• "No records for this period."
• "A record limit was reached, so this report does not cover every row."
• The Aged Debtors total doesn't match Sage line for line
• "You don't have access to this report."

Exporting to Sage

• "N documents are blocked from this export…"
• "The CSV downloaded but stamping failed…"
• The export dialog lists nothing

Settings, backups and the little helpers

• "Forbidden" when running a backup
• "Could not open the connection window."
• "Backup stopped before writing anything: some of your data could not be read."
• There’s no backfill panel on my Settings page
• "Undo failed — please check the record."

Questions people ask#

Getting help#

The ? button in the app's header brings you back to this guide from any page — straight to that page's chapter.

Stuck on something this guide doesn't cover, or found a snag? Email peter@edwardsapps.co.uk — you'll be talking to the person who builds CrewQCI, and the answer usually ends up in this guide for the next person. The exact wording of any error message, and the page you were on, make a fix much quicker.

The app's own legal pages — Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Cookie Policy — and the document samples live on the Account page, behind the round person icon in the header.