GETTING STARTED

Solar CRM Set Up: Get CrmLeaf Ready in Under an Hour

By the end of this tutorial, your workspace is fully configured for a solar business - pipeline, projects, warehouses, team, and integrations - and ready for your first live deal.

CrmLeaf TeamUpdated July 202645 min setupAdmins & Founders

Prefer to set up as you read? Spin up a free CrmLeaf workspace and complete each step with your own data.

Start Free Trial

Create Your Workspace & Company Profile

Why it matters: Your company profile drives currency, tax defaults, and the labels your whole team sees - get it right once instead of correcting it later.
  1. Go to Settings → Company Profile
  2. Enter your business name, logo, and primary service region
  3. Set your default currency and tax configuration
  4. If you operate multiple legal entities, enable Multi Organisation under Settings
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEYour company name and logo appear in the top navigation, and your currency shows correctly on a test quote.

Configure Your Sales Pipeline

Why it matters: A solar pipeline isn't a generic sales pipeline - inspection and proposal need to be distinct, trackable stages, not informal steps between "qualified" and "won."

Go to CRM → Deals → Pipeline Settings and build stages that match how your team actually sells:

  1. Lead In
  2. Qualified
  3. Site Visit Scheduled
  4. Inspection Completed
  5. Proposal Sent
  6. Won / Lost
Note: Keep "Inspection Completed" as its own stage rather than a checkbox on "Qualified" - this is what lets you later report on how long deals sit between inspection and proposal.
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEA test deal can move through all six stages in the pipeline view, in order.

Set Up Projects, Milestones & BOQ Defaults

Why it matters: A milestone template saves your project managers from rebuilding the same structure - permitting, delivery, installation - on every single job.
  1. Go to Work → Projects → Templates
  2. Create a milestone template with your standard phases (e.g. Permitting, Material Delivery, Installation, Final Inspection)
  3. Under BOQ Settings, add your common material and labor categories so they're ready to select, not typed from scratch
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONECreating a new project offers your milestone template as a one-click starting point.

Set Up Warehouses & Inventory

Why it matters: Inventory data is only trustworthy from day one if opening stock is accurate - retrofitting it after go-live means reconciling against real jobs already in progress.
  1. Go to Operations → Warehouses and add each physical location
  2. Under Products, add your catalogue with purchase cost and selling cost
  3. Import opening stock per warehouse via CSV, or enter manually for a small catalogue
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEThe Inventory dashboard shows correct opening stock for every warehouse and product.

Invite Your Team & Set Roles

Why it matters: Role-based permissions set now prevent an awkward conversation later about who can see payroll data or approve a purchase order.
  1. Go to Settings → Roles & Permissions and review the default roles (Sales Rep, Project Manager, Store Manager, Field Technician, Admin)
  2. Adjust module-level access per role as needed
  3. Go to Settings → Team and invite each team member by email with their assigned role
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEInvited teammates appear as "Pending" until they accept, then switch to "Active" with the correct role shown.

Connect Your Integrations

Why it matters: Connecting these now means every deal and email from day one is already synced - connecting later means backfilling or accepting a gap in history.
  1. Go to Settings → Integrations → QuickBooks and authorize the connection
  2. Go to Settings → Integrations → Email and connect Gmail or Outlook
  3. Confirm a test invoice syncs to QuickBooks and a test email logs to a Contact

Full walkthroughs: QuickBooks Integration

WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEBoth integrations show a green "Connected" status under Settings → Integrations.

Set Up Field Attendance & Geo-Tracking

Why it matters: Field technicians need this active before their first job, not after - retrofitting attendance tracking mid-project creates gaps in the record.
  1. Go to HRMS → Attendance → Settings
  2. Enable mobile check-in/out and geo-tracking
  3. Set each technician's resource hourly rate under HRMS → Employee Salary so logged time can be marked billable
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEA test check-in from the mobile app appears in the Attendance dashboard with a location pin.

Run the Go-Live Checklist

Why it matters: A five-minute check now catches a missing warehouse or an unassigned role before it becomes a problem on a real client's project.
  • Pipeline stages match your actual sales process, including inspection and proposal
  • At least one milestone template exists under Projects
  • Every warehouse has correct opening stock
  • Every team member is invited with the correct role
  • QuickBooks and Email both show "Connected"
  • At least one technician has completed a test mobile check-in
WHAT YOU SEE WHEN DONEEvery item above is checked - you're ready to create your first real deal.

You've completed this tutorial

Your workspace is live. Next: bring in your existing data, or run your first project from lead to commissioning.

Next: Lead to Commissioning