Settings & Configuration
Administrators configure SurelyCrm through the Settings panel. This guide covers user management, statuses, templates, custom fields, telephony, payment providers, and application-level configuration.
Admin Only: Most settings pages require the Administrator role. If you do not see these options, contact your system administrator.
User Management
Navigate to Settings > Users to manage team members.
Creating a User
- Click New User.
- Enter their name, email, and phone number.
- Assign a role: Administrator or Standard User.
- Set a temporary password or let the system generate one.
- Save. The user can log in immediately.
Managing Users
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Edit | Update name, email, role, or reset password |
| Lock | Prevent login without deleting the account |
| Unlock | Restore login access |
| Delete | Permanently remove the user. Reassign their customers first. |
Statuses
Statuses define your customer pipeline. Go to Settings > Statuses to create, edit, or remove them.
Each status has:
- Value — The display name (e.g., "Active", "On Hold")
- Colour — Visual indicator on customer cards
- Sort Order — Controls display order in dropdowns
Statuses can be referenced in workflows, custom views, bulk actions, and automated actions. Deleting a status that is in use may break existing customer records, so archive carefully.
Email & SMS Templates
Templates ensure consistent communication. Create them in Settings > Email Templates and Settings > SMS Templates.
Template Tokens
Insert dynamic values using the [Entity.Property] syntax — property names are matched exactly, including case:
| Token | Resolves To |
|---|---|
[Customer.Firstname] | Customer's first name |
[Customer.Surname] | Customer's surname |
[Customer.ReferenceNumber] | Unique reference number |
[Customer.EmailAddress] | Email address |
[Customer.MobilePhone] | Mobile number |
[Customer.HomePhone] | Home number |
[Customer.Address1] | First line of address |
[Customer.Postcode] | Postcode |
[Customer.ExtraField.FieldName] | Value of a custom field |
Any property of the record can be referenced this way. Dates render as dd/MM/yyyy, money as currency, and true/false values as Yes/No. Tokens that don't match a property are left as-is.
Cloning Templates
Use the Clone action to duplicate an existing template as a starting point. This is useful for seasonal campaigns or A/B testing variations.
Notification Groups
Notification groups are reusable recipient lists you can target from workflow Email and SMS stages. Manage them in Administration > Notification Groups.
Each group has a Group Name, an optional Description, a Group Type, and one or more entries. The type controls how entries are validated:
| Group Type | Validation Applied |
|---|---|
| Phone Numbers | Every entry is validated as a mobile number; use international format where possible (e.g. +447700900123) |
| Email Addresses | Every entry must be a valid email address |
| Free Text | No format validation; entries are stored as entered |
Entries are checked before the group is saved, and a group must contain at least one entry. When a workflow stage uses a group, the message is sent to every entry without creating customer notification history.
Custom Fields
Administrators create custom fields in Settings > Custom Fields. Each field has:
- Name — Internal identifier (no spaces)
- Label — Display name shown to users
- Type — Text, Number, Date, DateTime, Boolean, or Select
- Required — Whether the field is mandatory
- Active — Inactive fields are hidden but preserve data
- Display Order — Sort position on the customer form
For Select fields, define the allowed options as a comma-separated list. Custom fields appear on every customer profile and can be used in workflows, views, and calendar templates.
Document Types
Document types categorise uploaded files. Configure them in Settings > Document Types. Examples:
- Contract
- ID Verification
- Proof of Address
- Invoice
- Correspondence
You can clone document types and assign them display colours for quick visual recognition.
Telephony Configuration
To enable the built-in phone system, go to Settings > Application Settings and configure the Twilio section:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Twilio SID | Your Twilio Account SID |
| Twilio App SID | Your TwiML Application SID |
| Twilio API Key | API Key for token generation |
| Twilio API Secret | Secret for the API Key |
| Twilio Phone Number | Your purchased Twilio number |
| Enable Integration | Master toggle for telephony features |
| Hold Music | Audio played to callers on hold |
| Recording Channel | Mono or dual-channel call recording |
Security: Twilio credentials grant access to your phone system. Store them securely and rotate the API Secret regularly.
Payment Providers
SurelyCrm supports payment provider integrations for processing customer payments. Go to Settings > Payment Providers to configure them.
Currently supported:
- PayPal — Full integration with sandbox and live modes
- Stripe — Coming soon
- GoCardless — Coming soon
For each provider you will need:
- Client ID / Public Key
- Client Secret / Private Key
- Sandbox mode toggle (recommended for testing)
Click Test Connection to verify credentials before going live.
Bank Accounts
Bank accounts record the accounts you use to track bank transfer payments. Manage them in Administration > Bank Accounts under Payment & Financial.
Each account has:
- Account Name — A label for the account (e.g. "Main Business Account")
- Bank Name — The bank the account is held with
- Account Number and Sort Code — The account details
- Active — Only active accounts appear in payment forms
- Notes — Optional free-text details
All fields except Notes are required. Accounts can be edited or deleted from the list at any time.
Application Settings
The Application Settings page controls global behaviour:
- Company Name — Displayed in emails and the portal
- Default Email From — Sender address for system emails
- Portal Settings — Require authentication, enable messaging
- Twilio Integration — Telephony configuration
License Limits
Open Administration > License Limits to see which features are licensed for this CRM and the limits that apply. The status table shows, per feature:
- Status — Active or No License
- Limit — The licensed allowance, or Unlimited
- Valid From / Valid Until — The licence validity period
- License Code — The code currently applied
To activate a feature, enter the code supplied to you in the Claim License Code box — codes use the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX — and click Claim License. A success or error message confirms the result.
Application Logs
The Administration > Application Logs page is a searchable viewer for logs written by background services and system components. You can filter by:
- Date From / Date To — The period to search
- Sources — One or more components that wrote the logs
- Levels — Debug, Information, Warning, or Error
- Search — Free text matched against the message, exception, source, and tenant
Click Filter to apply the filters or Clear to reset them. Results show the timestamp, level, source, tenant, and message for each entry, with the full exception detail where one was recorded. Results are paged, 50 entries per page, with the total count shown above the table.
Feature Toggles
Administrators manage tenant-specific feature toggles from Administration > Feature Toggles. A toggle changes only the current tenant's CRM database.
Reference-backed campaign promotion
ReferenceBackedCampaignPromotion is disabled by default. Enable it only after
the tenant's database migrations have completed and the external integration is ready.
When enabled, it exposes the external campaign-location, campaign-selection, campaign-create,
and atomic Lead/Opportunity promotion endpoints. When disabled, all of those
/Api/external/... endpoints return 404. Existing UUID-based CRM
APIs stay available to their existing clients, but they are not an alternative contract for
Dark Leads and do not expose external references.
Before enabling the toggle, confirm that locations are active and campaigns are assigned to
their intended locations. Use opaque externalReference values for the
integration; a campaign's display referenceCode is not its external identity.
See the External Promotion API for retry,
conflict, and eligibility behaviour.
Automated sample-site claim
AutomatedSampleSiteClaim is disabled by default.
Enable it only when an external sample-site claimer is ready
to poll and claim Leads for the tenant.
When enabled, it exposes:
GET /Api/leads/byStatus— a bounded, status-filtered Lead listing that returns opaque external references, status, and created timestamps only. The listing is read-only.POST /Api/leads/claim— an atomic compare-and-set claim that transitions one Lead fromNewtoProcessingby opaque external reference. Concurrent claimers: exactly one succeeds; others receive409.
When disabled, both endpoints return 404. Neither
endpoint returns CRM UUIDs or contact data. See the
Lead Status List API
and
Lead Claim API.
SalesBrief
SalesBrief is disabled by default. Enable it to
show the SalesBrief textarea on the authorised Lead create
and edit form and to expose the
Lead Read API.
When enabled, the form shows a SalesBrief textarea with a
live character count and the same 8,000-character limit as
storage, and
GET /Api/external/leads/{externalReference}
returns the stored external reference, business name,
brief, and optional contact email and phone for the
tenant. The brief is plain text or simple Markdown stored
as untrusted text and is never rendered as trusted HTML.
While the toggle is disabled the form field and read API
are inaccessible: the field is hidden and a direct form
submission cannot store or replace a brief, and the read
endpoint returns 404. The external promotion
endpoint stores a supplied brief at Lead creation even
while this toggle is off; only the form and read API are
gated.
AI
AI is disabled by default. Enable it only after
you are ready to connect an AI provider and configure the
tenant on the AI Settings page.
When enabled, it exposes the whole AI family: the
AI Settings admin page (admin dropdown and
dashboard tile), AI auto-reply on inbound correspondence
email, the AI Reply Queue for reviewing
generated replies, and the Generate with
AI button on the Email Templates and SMS Templates
edit pages. When disabled, all navigation entries are
hidden and direct access to those pages returns
404. See
AI Email Assistant
for the configuration fields and reply workflow.
AI customer summary
AiCustomerSummary is a child of the
AI toggle and is disabled by default. It has
its own toggle because every summary consumes provider
tokens; both toggles (and a saved AI configuration) must be
on before anything summary-related appears. It can be
switched from the Feature Toggles page or directly from the
AI customer summary switch on the AI
Settings page — both flip the same toggle.
When enabled, the customer overview page shows an
AI Summary card that loads a short
summary of the customer's current position automatically
after the page renders (asynchronously, so page load is
unaffected). When either toggle is
disabled the card is hidden and the endpoint returns
404. See
AI Email Assistant
for details.
Unknown sender processing
UnknownSenderProcessing is disabled by default.
It is a rule-based email-agent feature, separate from AI:
no provider or API key is involved.
When enabled, the Unknown Sender Action setting appears on the Email Agent admin page and the email agent applies it to inbound correspondence whose sender matches no existing customer: do nothing (default), create a customer, or create a lead. When disabled, the setting is hidden and unknown senders are only logged to the inbound email ledger. See Unknown Sender Processing for the exact matching and creation rules.
Leads
Leads controls the top-level sales
modules. When enabled, Campaigns
and Leads appear in the main
sidebar and the Campaign
Locations entry appears in the admin
dropdown. When disabled, those navigation entries
are hidden. The Opportunities and Lead Tasks links
sit inside this section, so this toggle must be on
before either of them can appear.
Opportunities
Opportunities is enabled by default. It
enables opportunities to track deals and pipeline
value against leads: the
Opportunities sidebar link, the
Opportunities tab on the Lead form, and the
opportunity counts and recent opportunities on the
dashboard.
When disabled, the navigation entries and dashboard
cards are hidden and the Opportunities pages return
404. The sidebar link only appears when
the Leads toggle is also on.
LeadTasks
LeadTasks is enabled by default. It
enables lead tasks to create and track follow-up
to-dos against leads: the Lead
Tasks sidebar link, the Tasks tab on the
Lead form, and the open, overdue, and upcoming task
panels on the dashboard.
When disabled, the navigation entries and dashboard
panels are hidden and the Lead Tasks pages return
404. The sidebar link only appears when
the Leads toggle is also on.
Campaign Locations
Every campaign is assigned to a location, so set up locations before creating campaigns. Administrators manage the list from Administration > Campaign Locations (under Campaigns in the admin dropdown), or from the Add Location button on the Campaigns page. The entry is only visible while the Leads feature toggle is on.
Each location has:
- Name — Required; shown when assigning campaigns
- Description — Optional free text
- Active — New locations are active by default
Locations can be edited or deleted from the list. Choose the location when creating or editing a campaign; it is a required field on the campaign form.
Support Categories
Configure support ticket categories in Settings > Support Categories. Categories help route tickets and generate analytics. You can activate or deactivate categories without losing historical data.