Three concrete edits that mean a support ticket and a wait in an off-the-shelf CRM: adding a custom field, reordering the sales stages and hiding prices from part of the team. Here's what they look like when they're settings.
Most companies don't fall out with their CRM over the big things. They fall out over three small ones that can't be done: a missing field, the wrong order of stages, and the fact that sales can see purchase prices.
This piece shows what those three edits look like when they're settings rather than a request to a supplier. Together they take about twenty minutes and need nobody technical.
Edit 1: adding a “lead source” field
Why you want it. Without this field you can't answer the question that decides your marketing budget: where do the jobs that actually earn us money come from?
What it looks like. In the deals database you add a new column of type “Select” and fill in the options: Referral, Website, Trade show, Cold outreach, Repeat client. Done.
From then on, every new enquiry gets a source, and in three months you have your first usable number. In a year you have a basis for a decision.
What it does to existing data. Nothing. Existing records have the field empty and you fill it in when you next touch them - or never.
Edit 2: stages that match your process
Why you want it. The default pipeline in every CRM looks roughly the same: Enquiry → Quote → Negotiation → Won. But between enquiry and quote you have a site survey, and that's the stage where most of your deals get stuck.
If it isn't in the pipeline, you can't see them getting stuck.
What it looks like. You add a “Site survey” value to the status column and move it into second place. The kanban redraws itself; existing records stay where they were.
A small detail worth mentioning. Removing stages nobody uses is just as useful. A pipeline with five real steps reads better than one with eight theoretical ones.
Three edits that mean a support ticket elsewhere
A new field, reordered stages and a hidden price column. All settings - no development, no waiting on a supplier.
Edit 3: who sees the value of a deal
Why you want it. This isn't about distrust. It's that a salesperson on commission has no reason to see purchase prices, a temp shouldn't see every client contact, and a contractor should see only their own jobs.
What it looks like. On the “Value” column you set which roles can see it. You switch the Sales role to hidden. The column disappears from the table, from the record detail, from exports and from views - everywhere, not just on screen.
What to watch for. Hiding a column and restricting access to a whole database are two different things. The first governs “what they see inside a record”, the second “which records they can reach at all”. Most companies need both, in different places.
A test that tells you more than a demo
Whenever you're trialling any system, try doing exactly these three things in the first hour. If you can do them yourself, you'll still be able to in two years. If you hit “write to us and we'll set it up”, you know what every future change will look like.
What this actually changes
On the face of it these are three small things. In practice they change your relationship with the system.
You stop getting used to the bypass. Most companies adapt to a missing field by keeping it somewhere else. When it can be added, the second set of records stops appearing.
Changes stop being an event. When an edit takes three minutes, it gets done when it's needed. When it takes three weeks and costs €600, it gets done once a year and only for the most painful item.
The system follows the company, not the other way round. Processes change - a new service line, a new way of pricing, a new role. A system that adapts stays useful. One that doesn't slowly empties out.
Why an off-the-shelf CRM gradually becomes a system nobody opens is covered in You're paying for a CRM you use 20% of. The full procedure for building your own CRM is in Build a CRM without a developer. Details on roles and data visibility are on the Permissions and roles page. The whole selection process is covered in the guide to choosing a CRM.
Common questions about editing a CRM
Won't this break the data we already have?
Adding a field or renaming a stage doesn't touch existing records - the new field is simply empty on them. Caution is only warranted when deleting columns or changing a field's type, where the system warns you about the consequences.
Who should be allowed to make edits like these?
In practice one or two “workspace admins” works well - typically someone in operations or the back office who understands the process. Everyone else has ordinary roles without rights to change the structure.
What if we need a genuinely unusual field?
There are over twenty column types available, including formulas, relations to other databases, signatures and files. If even that isn't enough, there's webhooks and API - but for ordinary business records it rarely comes to that.