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Overview of Database Management

Clients, Prospects, Web Leads and Contacts - four lists, and the three filters that make them searchable.

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What this covers

Everyone you deal with lives in one place, under Database Management. Clients, Prospects, Web Leads and Contacts — four lists with the same shape, so learning one teaches you all four.

This guide covers where the lists live, what you get when you open a record, and the three codes on every record that turn a list of names into something you can actually work with.

Step by step

1. Open Database Management Open

Everything starts here. Four lists sit under it — Clients, Prospects, Web Leads and Contacts — and they behave identically. Different words, same machine.

If you only ever use one of them, that is fine. Most sole practitioners live in Clients and touch the rest rarely.

2. Open a list

Each list has a Search box for when you know the name, and filters along the top for when you do not: Client Type, Rating, Web and Active.

The Filters column in the table shows each record’s three codes at a glance, so you can see how somebody is tagged without opening them.

3. Open a record and use the tabs

Open anyone and you get tabs: Main, Notes, Tasks, Emails, SMS/Texts, Invoices, Send File, Workflow and more. Everything about that person sits in one record instead of scattered across your inbox, your phone and a folder somewhere.

That is the whole argument for a CRM in one sentence. Before a meeting, one screen tells you what you discussed, what you sent, what you charged and what is still outstanding.

4. Set the three codes

This is the part that earns its keep. Every record carries three filters of your own:

Client Type — what kind of work this is. Electricians, carpenters, tax prep, whatever your practice actually has.

Client Rating Type — how you rank them. A/B/C, or by value, or by how much attention they need.

Lead Type — where they came from. A referral, a web form, a card you scanned, or a free tool they downloaded.

You build these yourself in Database Settings. Set them once on a record and they show on the list from then on.

5. Filter, and the list narrows

Pick one code and the list narrows to just those people. That is how you email everyone who downloaded your free tool and nobody else, or pull every Client rated A before a fee review.

A filtered list is the starting point for a Campaign and for a Database Report.

Tips and best practices

Code them as they arrive. Tagging a record takes five seconds when you create it and is a chore you will never do later. An untagged database is a list of names.

Start with three or four codes, not twenty. You can add more the moment you need one. Codes nobody applies consistently are worse than no codes at all.

Use Lead Type honestly. Knowing where people actually came from is the one piece of marketing data most small practices never collect, and it is a dropdown.

Do not force everyone into Clients. The four Database Types exist so you can treat people differently — and so a cold Web Lead does not sit in the same list as somebody paying you.

Search when you know the name, filter when you do not. They are different tools and people reach for the wrong one.

What this connects to

The database is the floor everything else stands on. Tasks attach to a record. Invoices are raised against one. Campaigns and Workflows select from one.

Which is why the three codes matter more than they look. They are not decoration — they are how every other part of the program finds the right people.

Troubleshooting

I cannot find someone I know is in there. Check you are on the right list. A Prospect will not appear in Clients.

My filters return nothing. Filters combine, so two narrow codes can rule out everybody. Clear them back to All and add one at a time.

Someone is missing from the list entirely. Check the Active filter. An inactive record is hidden rather than deleted.

The code I want is not in the dropdown. Codes come from your own Database Settings, and each one is set to show on particular Database Types. See Database Types and Database Settings.

A tab I need is not on the record. Tabs are switched on per account under Custom Views.

Common questions

What is the difference between the four lists?

Who the person is to you: a Client pays you, a Prospect might, a Web Lead arrived cold, and a Contact is everyone else. Database Types and Database Settings covers choosing between them.

Do I have to use all four?

No. Use the ones that match how you work and ignore the rest.

Can somebody move from Prospect to Client?

Yes — that is the normal path as a relationship develops.

How many records can I have?

Your plan sets the limit. The lists themselves do not care.

What are the three codes for?

Filtering. They decide who a Campaign goes to, who appears on a report, and who you can pull up in one click.

Where do I add my own codes?

User Settings › Database and Environment › Database Settings.

Can I get my existing list in from a spreadsheet?

Yes, and codes can be applied to the whole batch on the way in. See Import and Export Your Data.

Can my team see everybody?

Sub-user permissions decide what each person on your team can open.

Video transcript

Show transcript

Everyone you deal with lives in one place, under Database Management. Clients, Prospects, Web Leads and Contacts. Four lists, the same shape.

Open a list and you can search it, or narrow it with the filters along the top.

Open anyone and you get tabs. Notes, Tasks, Emails, Invoices, Files. Everything about that person, in one record, instead of scattered across your inbox.

Now the part that earns its keep. Every record carries three filters of your own. Client Type, Rating, and where they came from. This one came in through our free PDF tool, so that is what the Web Type says.

Set them once and they show on the list.

Then pick one, and the list narrows to just those people. Which is how you email everyone who downloaded the free tool, and nobody else.

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