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KudosCRM

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Design your entire business flow on one CRM

Capture, qualify, close, deliver, bill, support and grow — every stage on one customer record. Answer eleven questions and get the operating blueprint your business would actually run on.

Every pipeline your model needs, with stages and exit criteria
The custom fields to create, and why each one exists
Automations tagged with the engine that actually runs them
Support SLAs, ticket types and the reports each role opens
An honest list of what KudosCRM will not do for you
No login 13 industries About 90 seconds

Operating blueprint

Revenue recovery

5 pipelines
StageWinDaysExit criteria
Detected601Failure confirmed against the billing system
Customer contacted702You have reached a human
Cause identified802Card, funds, bank block or dispute
Retry requested903Customer has agreed a retry or a new method
Recovered100—Payment cleared
Unrecoverable0—Reason recorded and the account suspended
13 custom fields5 automations6 honest gaps named
Step 1 of 3 — Your business
What kind of business is this?

It decides how many pipelines you need, which is the biggest single difference between setups.

Which industry?

This changes the vocabulary on your board and the fields you will need.

How a telecom, voip and connectivity business runs on KudosCRM

Most customers sign up without talking to anyone, and a minority raise a hand for a conversation. Numbers are a regulated national resource, not a SKU, and provisioning is a multi-week third-party workflow with its own clock. At 23 people across United States, India, this blueprint builds 5 pipelines, 13 custom fields and 5 automations. Governance starts to matter: who can see what, why a deal moved, and whether the numbers agree.

5

Pipelines

13

Custom fields

5

Automations

Professional

Plan needed

Section 01

Where the work arrives

Every channel you named, mapped to the surface that catches it — and how fast someone has to answer.

Self-serve signup

Push signup, first-call and plan-ceiling events to an inbound source. The plan ceiling is your hand-raise.

API & Webhooks

Pricing enquiry form

15 min

Ask which country the numbers are for. It decides the compliance path before a rep is involved.

Forms

Live chat

Sits on pricing and on the number-search page, where the questions are.

Support

Booking link

Let a qualified hand-raise book straight into a rep's calendar rather than waiting for a reply email.

Meetings & Booking
Section 02

The boards you need

Pipeline count is the real difference between businesses, not stage names. Each of these is its own board because it cannot honestly live inside another.

Revenue recovery

Failed payments are a queue, not an accident. Without a board they are worked from a spreadsheet and forgotten.

StageWin %Max daysExit criteriaRequired field
Detected601Failure confirmed against the billing system—
Customer contacted702You have reached a humancf:invoice_number
Cause identified802Card, funds, bank block or dispute—
Retry requested903Customer has agreed a retry or a new method—
Recovered100—Payment cleared—
Unrecoverable0—Reason recorded and the account suspended—

Close reasons: No response · Refused to pay · Disputed the charge · Business closed · Fraudulent signup

Self-serve conversion

No rep touches this. It exists so you can see where signups die, and so a hand-raise has somewhere to land.

StageWin %Max daysExit criteriaRequired field
Signed up52Account created and email confirmed—
Activated157The one action that predicts retention has happened at least once—
Habit3014Used in three separate sessions across two weeks—
Hand raised553Hit a plan ceiling, asked about pricing, or invited a teammate—
Live and billing100—First payment cleared—
Churned before paying0—Trial ended with no card and no reply—

Close reasons: Never activated · Missing capability · Price · Chose a competitor · No longer needed

Sales-assisted

A different motion with different stages. Mixing it into the self-serve board makes both conversion rates meaningless.

StageWin %Max daysExit criteriaRequired field
Hand raised101Contact reachable and use case captured—
Qualified253Seat count, timeline and the person who signs are knowncf:team_size
Demo booked357Meeting on the calendar with that person—
Demo done503Objections written down, not remembered—
Proposal sent705Quote issued from the price bookvalue
Live and billing100—Payment cleared—
Lost0—Reason recorded from the picklist—

Close reasons: Price · Competitor · No budget · No decision · Timing · Lost to status quo · Unresponsive

Renewal and expansion

Opened by a date

Opened by a date, not a person. Without its own board the renewal is remembered a fortnight late.

StageWin %Max daysExit criteriaRequired field
Renewal due (T-120)6030Owner assigned and usage reviewed—
Health checked7021Usage trend and open tickets reviewed together—
Conversation had8014The customer has said out loud whether they are staying—
Renewed100—Next term agreed—
Churned0—Reason recorded—

Close reasons: Budget cut · Missing capability · Poor adoption · Support experience · Moved to a competitor · Company closed or acquired

Porting and provisioning

A multi-week third-party workflow with its own clock and its own rejection reasons. Parked inside the sales board it makes every sales metric wrong.

StageWin %Max daysExit criteriaRequired field
Requested1002Customer has supplied the current bill and authorisation—
Documents verified1003Names, address and account number match the losing carrier exactlycf:kyc_status
Submitted to carrier10015Port order accepted by the losing carrier—
Scheduled10010Cutover date confirmed with the customer—
Live100—Numbers answering on your network—
Rejected0—Rejection reason recorded so the resubmission is not a guess—

Close reasons: Name or address mismatch · Wrong account PIN · Unauthorised signer · Missing customer service record · Customer withdrew · Numbers not portable

Section 03

The fields that earn their place

If you cannot say why a field exists, do not create it. An unused field is worse than a missing one.

EntityField keyTypeWhy it exists
dealteam_sizenumberDrives both qualification and the plan they will land on.
dealplan_tierselectThe tier under discussion, so forecast and expansion reporting agree.
dealactivation_donebooleanSeparates a real trial from a tourist.
dealrenewal_datedateThe field the renewal board is opened from.
dealnumber_countryselectDecides which identity documents you need before anything can be provisioned.
dealkyc_statusselectProvisioning cannot start until this is clear, so it belongs on the board.
dealseatsnumberThe plan ceiling that triggers a sales conversation.
dealmonthly_recurringcurrencyBase service only. Usage, rental and pass-through charges are separate lines and are not commissionable.
dealport_referencetextThe carrier reference for a number port, so support can answer without asking engineering.
dealgstintextNeeded on every B2B invoice, and it is the field finance will ask you for first.
dealtds_withheldcurrencyCustomers deduct tax at source, so the amount you invoice is not the amount that arrives.
dealtds_certificateselectWhether the Form 16A certificate has been received. Without this, reconciliation never closes.
contactrole_in_dealselectChampion, economic buyer, blocker. Three words that explain most losses.
Section 04

What runs without you

Two separate engines run these, and every rule names its own. Nothing here uses a trigger that would save quietly and never fire.

#When this happensDo thisEngine
A1A signup event arrives with a work email domainCreate the lead, score it, and assign an ownerWorkflow
A2A meeting is booked from the pricing pageCreate the prep task and move the deal to Demo bookedWorkflow
A3A deal is marked wonCreate the onboarding project and its first tasksWorkflow
I1A ticket mentions billing or a failed paymentRaise the priority, tag it and route it to the finance-trained poolSupport
I2First response time elapses with no replyEscalate the priority and post an internal noteSupport
Section 05

Answering people

Targets are measured against your business hours, so set those before you set these.

PriorityFirst responseResolutionBecause
Urgent15 minutes4 hoursService is down for a paying customer
High1 hour8 hoursDegraded service or a billing dispute
Normal4 hours24 hoursConfiguration and how-to
Low8 hours72 hoursFeature requests

Ticket types

Call quality · Billing and payments · Number porting · Provisioning and setup · Account and access · Abuse and fraud

Help centre sections

Getting started · Numbers and porting · Billing · Call quality troubleshooting · Integrations · Security and compliance

Section 06

What to read on Monday

One dashboard per role, and the single thing to actually look at on each.

Pipeline by stage

Sales lead

A stage where deals go in and do not come out.

Win/loss reasons

Founder

The reason that keeps repeating. That is your roadmap.

Activity report

Sales lead

Reps with pipeline but no logged conversations.

Deal cycle and stage dwell

Founder

Where time actually goes, versus where you think it goes.

Section 07

Rules for your markets

The ones marked as changing the build add fields and steps. The rest change how you word things.

MarketWhat changesDetail
USSales tax is a per-state questionNexus rules and rates vary by state, and there is no federal sales tax. Keep tax out of the CRM and let your accounting system own it.
USOutbound is regulated by channelCAN-SPAM governs commercial email (working unsubscribe, physical address, honest headers). Calls and texts fall under separate telemarketing rules with their own consent standard, which is stricter than email's.
INInvoiced is not the same as receivedchanges the buildBusiness customers deduct tax at source, commonly between 1% and 10% depending on the service. Without a withholding field and a certificate-chase step, every B2B account looks permanently overdue in your own reports.
INStatutory e-invoicingchanges the buildGST e-invoicing runs through the Invoice Registration Portal for businesses above the turnover threshold, and the invoice number must be unique within the April-to-March financial year and no longer than sixteen characters. KudosCRM does not clear invoices with the portal, so pair it with your accounting system.
INOutbound calling and SMS are tightly controlledCommercial SMS requires a registered DLT header and template, and marketing calls are restricted to designated number series. Plan outreach around email, WhatsApp and inbound.
INPersonal data lawThe Digital Personal Data Protection Act sets consent and notice obligations. Keep a record of what each contact agreed to and when.
Section 08

What KudosCRM will not do for you

Written from a registry of what actually ships, not from a brochure. Read this before you decide.

Subscriptions, renewals and churn as objects

There is no subscription object. Renewal and dunning run as a second pipeline plus workflows.

Calling and telephony

There is no telephony integration. Calls are logged by hand, one click, after the fact.

Call recordings and numbers on the activity

Duration, direction and outcome are stored on a call activity. Recording URL and the from/to numbers are not.

WhatsApp as a channel

Built on dev, not on production. Plan support around email, chat and phone for now.

There is no stale-deal trigger

Deals going quiet are flagged by a nightly sweep and surfaced as a badge and a board filter, not as a workflow event. Build the habit of opening the stalled filter; do not wait for an automation that cannot exist yet.

Invoicing here tracks money, it does not clear it

Your market has statutory invoicing rules that a CRM invoice does not satisfy. Raise invoices here for visibility and chasing, and let your accounting or e-invoicing provider be the system of record.

Section 09

Build it in this order

The first pipeline being used daily matters far more than the second pipeline existing.

WhenWhatOwnerEffort
Day 1Set working hours (Saturday and Sunday weekend) and your base currency. Everything downstream is measured against them.Admin15 min
Day 1Build "Self-serve conversion" with its stages, win probabilities and stale thresholds.Sales lead45 min
Day 1Turn on mandatory close reasons and load the picklist. Do it before anyone closes a deal, not after.Sales lead15 min
Week 1Add the 13 custom fields, then publish them.Admin1 hr
Week 1Stand up the capture surfaces: self-serve signup, pricing enquiry form, live chat.Marketing2 hrs
Week 1Import contacts and companies. Leave historic deals out unless you need them for a report you will actually run.Admin2 hrs
Weeks 2–4Configure ticket types and the SLA targets, and confirm business hours match the support rota rather than the sales one.Support lead90 min
Weeks 2–4Build the remaining 4 pipeline(s) once the first one is being used daily.Sales lead2 hrs
Weeks 2–4Create the 5 automations as drafts, test each one, then switch them on individually.Admin3 hrs
Weeks 2–4Set up the dashboards each role opens on Monday morning.Ops1 hr
Day 60Review win/loss reasons and stage conversion. This is the first point the data is worth acting on.Founder1 hr
Section 10

The plan this needs

Based on what the blueprint actually creates, against the limits enforced when you click save.

Professional

Professional, because of 5 pipelines (Basic allows three), and the quoting, support and reporting modules this blueprint relies on. At 23 people that is the honest answer rather than a nudge.

5 pipelines 13 custom fields 23 people
See what is in each plan
Take it with you

Send it to whoever runs operations

No sign-up needed for any of this. The link is the most useful one — a blueprint earns its keep when the ops lead and the support manager can both read it.

Bring this blueprint to the call and we will work through it with you. See our other free tools

Why it is useful

Most setup guides are a brochure with your industry name pasted on top

This one is composed from what the product genuinely does, and it tells you where the product stops.

Built around how you actually sell

Pipeline count is the real difference between businesses, not stage names. A tour operator needs a collections board, a telecom needs a porting queue, a recruiter needs one board per role — with win probabilities, exit criteria and stale thresholds already filled in.

Automations that will actually fire

Every rule names the engine that runs it, because ticket logic and workflow logic live in two different places. Nothing in your blueprint uses a trigger that would save quietly and never run — that is checked when this page is built, not when you find out.

The honest gaps, in writing

There is a whole section listing what KudosCRM will not do for your setup, with the workaround for each. Every other tool of this kind hands you a brochure. This one is drawn from a registry of what actually ships.

A rollout you can hand to someone

Day one, week one, weeks two to four, day sixty — each step with an owner and a rough effort. Plus the plan tier your configuration genuinely requires, based on the limits enforced when you click save.

How it works

Four steps, and you can skip three

Every answer is pre-filled the moment you pick a business type, so the whole flow is completable by pressing Next. There is a skip link on the first screen if you would rather just read the standard blueprint for your industry.

  1. 1

    Describe the business

    Your model and industry. This alone sets the shape: how many pipelines, what a win means, what delivery looks like.

  2. 2

    Say how customers buy

    Sales motion and the markets you sell into. Country is not a locale setting here — tax, consent rules and the working week change what gets built.

  3. 3

    Add your team

    Headcount by function, what you run on today, and the three things that hurt most. Team size decides what to leave switched off.

  4. 4

    Read, print or forward it

    The full blueprint renders immediately, no email required. Copy the link, print to PDF, or download the machine-readable version.

Why a blueprint beats a template

A blank CRM is the hardest place to start, and a template gallery does not really solve it: you get a pipeline and are left to work out whether it fits how you sell. The questions that actually matter are structural. How many boards do you need? What has to be true before a deal moves? Which of your rules belongs in a workflow and which belongs in the support engine? What should you deliberately not switch on in your first month?

Those answers change with your business model far more than with your industry. A subscription business and a project business can sit in the same vertical and need completely different boards. So this tool composes from four layers — model, industry, markets and team size — and the size layer subtracts as much as it adds, because the fastest way to kill a CRM rollout is to switch everything on at once.

It also tells you where the platform stops. Every blueprint ends with a section naming the gaps for your specific setup, drawn from the same registry the rest of the document is built from. We would rather you read that here than discover it in week two.

When you are ready, the CRM ROI calculator handles the financial case, the features directory covers each capability in depth, and industry pages go deeper on how teams like yours work.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

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