Start with one journey, not a feature list
Choose a journey with a clear start and finish: a furniture enquiry becoming a reviewed invoice, a job receiving approval, or a client submitting a support request. Write one row for each step. Name the person responsible, the input they receive, the record they change and the next owner.
A dashboard is a view of the work. It does not explain who creates the underlying record, who can change it or how another person knows the next action is ready. Map those dependencies before requesting screens or automation.
Use the worksheet in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets
The download contains three completed demonstration rows and six blank rows. Open the CSV in your spreadsheet application, duplicate the blank rows as needed and save your working copy in that application’s native format. The file has plain text and no macros or formulas.
Keep customer names, account details, passwords and production records out of a brief shared with potential suppliers. Use invented references to explain relationships. The example rows are labelled Invented planning example; they are not Queen Style customer records or a measurement of its performance.
Worked example: enquiry, deal, quote and invoice
The deployed Queen Style CRM case shows connected deal, quote and invoice interfaces. The worksheet below is a proposed scoping example grounded in that journey; its role rules and exception handling are requirements to agree, not a claim that every rule is currently implemented in the client system.
- Create and assign the deal. Sales staff receive invented enquiry DEMO-001, create the deal and identify its owner. Acceptance means reopening the saved deal and finding the correct owner and stage.
- Prepare the related quote. The owner records the agreed items against the deal. If an item is unavailable, revise the scope before approval. Acceptance means the quote retains its items and relationship to the same deal.
- Create the invoice for review. Authorised staff carry the accepted quote into the related invoice. Missing details prevent completion. Acceptance means reopening the saved invoice and verifying the relationship and values.
This establishes one complete first release. Payment collection, delivery planning, customer messaging and reporting need their own rows and checks if they belong in the project. Do not assume them from the word “CRM”.
Agree permissions and recovery beside each step
Specify who may view, create, edit, approve and send. Name the record that is authoritative when two tools disagree. Explain what happens with duplicates, invalid data, missing approvals, interrupted connections and a supplier outage.
For example, “sync invoices” is incomplete. Identify the source and destination, what triggers the transfer, how a duplicate is recognised, who sees a failure and how the user recovers. Leave an unknown integration blank until its actual capability is confirmed.
Define an acceptance check a person can perform
Replace “the screen looks right” with a saved outcome: complete the journey, reload it, confirm the record and relationships, then try a disallowed action with the relevant role. Include the phone, tablet or computer the team will use.
Ask suppliers to explain how they will demonstrate those checks, hand over accounts and source, support the system and recover data. Our app development cost guide explains how scope and ongoing responsibilities affect comparable quotes.
Use the same workflow to compare three options
First test whether your current software can be configured to complete the journey. Then assess a supported integration between existing tools. Consider a custom build when the workflow cannot be handled reliably by those options and the business is prepared to own hosting, maintenance and support.
Platform choice comes after that decision. Read the web versus mobile app guide for device, connectivity and shared-work requirements. This template does not require a custom build and does not establish a budget or promised time saving.