CRM Menu & Navigation

AccuArk's Customer Relationship Management features are accessible through a dedicated CRM menu in the main menu bar. This menu serves as the central hub for all CRM functionality, giving you quick access to your pipeline, tasks, tickets, and configuration settings without needing to open a customer record first. Understanding how the CRM menu is organized — and which permissions control each menu item — will help you navigate the system efficiently from day one.

This article provides a complete walkthrough of the CRM menu, explains what each menu item does, lists the permission required for each item, and describes the other access points available throughout AccuArk for reaching CRM features.

Where to Find the CRM Menu

The CRM menu is located in AccuArk's main menu bar, positioned after the Business menu. If you are looking at the menu bar from left to right, you will see it listed alongside the other top-level menus such as Program, My Work, Employees, Business, and then CRM. The menu is always visible in the menu bar as long as your user account has at least one CRM permission assigned. If none of the CRM permissions are granted to your role, the CRM menu will not appear at all.

CRM Menu Items in Order

The CRM menu contains the following items, listed in the order they appear when you click the menu:

1. Dashboard

The first item in the CRM menu is Dashboard. Clicking this item opens the CRM Dashboard (FrmCRMDashboard), which is the primary overview screen for all of your CRM activity. The Dashboard consolidates your pipeline status, task list, ticket queue, and recent activity into a single view so you can get a quick read on your CRM workload without opening multiple forms.

• What it shows: Pipeline summary with deal counts and weighted values, overdue and upcoming tasks, open tickets assigned to you, and a feed of recent CRM activities.
• Permission required: CRM_VIEW_DASHBOARD
• Tip: Make the Dashboard your first stop each morning. It gives you an instant picture of what needs attention today.

2. Separator

A horizontal separator line divides the Dashboard item from the next group of items. This separator visually groups the Dashboard (overview) from the personal work items below.

3. My Deals

My Deals opens the CRM Dashboard with focus directed to the deals/pipeline panel. This is a shortcut for users who want to jump straight to their open deals without scrolling through the full Dashboard layout.

• What it shows: All deals currently assigned to you, organized by pipeline stage, with their values and expected close dates.
• Permission required: CRM_VIEW_OWN_DEALS
• Tip: Use this shortcut when you need to quickly check the status of a specific deal or review your entire pipeline.

4. My Tasks

My Tasks opens the CRM Dashboard with focus directed to the tasks panel. Tasks are follow-up items tied to customers, deals, or tickets that have due dates and priority levels.

• What it shows: Tasks grouped into three categories: overdue tasks (highlighted in red), tasks due today (highlighted in yellow), and upcoming tasks organized by due date.
• Permission required: CRM_VIEW_OWN_TASKS
• Tip: Check this view throughout the day to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Overdue tasks appear at the top for immediate attention.

5. My Tickets

My Tickets opens the CRM Dashboard with focus directed to the tickets panel. Tickets represent customer support requests, complaints, or issues that need resolution.

• What it shows: All open tickets assigned to you, sorted by priority and age, along with the most recent note on each ticket.
• Permission required: CRM_VIEW_OWN_TICKETS
• Tip: When a customer calls about an existing issue, use My Tickets to quickly pull up their ticket and review the history before responding.

6. Separator

A second separator line divides the personal work items (My Deals, My Tasks, My Tickets) from the administration items below.

7. Pipeline Settings

Pipeline Settings opens the Pipeline Settings form (FrmCRMPipelineSettings), which is the configuration screen for your sales pipeline. This is an administrative function used to define how deals flow through your sales process.

• What you can configure: Pipeline stage names, display order, stage probabilities (used for weighted pipeline values), stage colors (used in the Dashboard and grid displays), and auto-task rules that automatically create follow-up tasks when deals enter specific stages.
• Permission required: CRM_MANAGE_PIPELINE
• Tip: Set up your pipeline stages before your team starts creating deals. Changes to stages affect all existing deals, so it is best to establish your stage structure early.

8. CRM Settings

CRM Settings opens the CRM Settings form (FrmCRMSettings), which manages the reference data used across all CRM features. This is a separate administrative screen from Pipeline Settings, focused on lists and categories rather than pipeline structure.

• What you can configure: Lead sources (where customers come from, such as Website, Referral, Walk-in), activity types (the categories used when logging activities, such as Phone Call, Email, Meeting), ticket categories (groupings for support tickets, such as Billing, Technical, General), and client tags (labels you can attach to customers for segmentation and filtering).
• Permission required: CRM_MANAGE_PIPELINE
• Tip: Populate your lead sources and activity types before training your team. Consistent reference data makes reporting much more meaningful.

9. CRM Reports

CRM Reports opens the CRM reporting area, which provides analytical views of your CRM data including deal conversion rates, activity summaries, ticket resolution times, and pipeline forecasts.

• Permission required: CRM_VIEW_REPORTS
• Tip: Run reports weekly to identify trends in deal velocity, ticket volume, and team activity levels.

Permission-Based Visibility

Every item in the CRM menu is permission-gated. This means that if a user's role does not include the required permission for a particular menu item, that item is completely hidden from the menu. The user will not see it, and there is no indication that hidden items exist. This keeps the interface clean and prevents confusion — users only see the features they are authorized to use.

For example, a standard Employee role might have CRM_VIEW_OWN_DEALS and CRM_VIEW_OWN_TASKS but not CRM_MANAGE_PIPELINE. That employee would see My Deals and My Tasks in the CRM menu but would not see Pipeline Settings or CRM Settings.

If you cannot see a CRM menu item that you expect to see, contact your administrator. They can grant the appropriate permission through the role management system.

Other CRM Access Points

The CRM menu is not the only way to access CRM features. AccuArk provides several additional entry points throughout the application:

Customer Form Tabs

When you open a customer record (the Customer Form), you will find dedicated CRM tabs along the top of the form:

• Activities tab — View and log activities (calls, emails, meetings) for this specific customer.
• Deals tab — View, create, and manage deals associated with this customer.
• Tickets tab — View, create, and manage support tickets for this customer.
• Tasks tab — View and create follow-up tasks tied to this customer.

These tabs provide customer-specific CRM access, which is useful when you are already working with a particular customer and want to see or add CRM data in context.

Right-Click Context Menus

Within CRM grids (such as the Deals grid or Tasks grid on the Customer Form), right-clicking on a row opens a context menu with relevant actions. For example, right-clicking a task row may show options like "Mark Complete" or "Reassign." These context menus provide quick access to common actions without opening a dialog.

Double-Click to Open

Double-clicking any row in a CRM grid opens that record in its edit dialog. This works consistently across all CRM grids — deals, tasks, tickets, and activities. It is the fastest way to view or edit a specific record.

Toolbar Buttons

Each CRM tab on the Customer Form includes a ToolStrip at the top with buttons for the most common actions, such as New Deal, New Task, or New Ticket. These buttons provide one-click access to creating new CRM records.

Recommended Starting Point

The CRM Dashboard is designed to be the starting point for daily CRM work. Rather than navigating to individual customers to check for tasks or deals, open the Dashboard first to get a consolidated view of everything that needs your attention. From the Dashboard, you can click through to individual records as needed.

What to Read Next

• CRM Dashboard — Deep dive into the Dashboard panels, filters, and daily workflow
• Introduction to AccuArk CRM — Overview of all CRM features and how they work together