Why a sales CRM fails an agency
A classic CRM is optimised for a funnel: many prospects, one conversion event, then the record goes quiet. Agency life is the opposite shape. You win a client, and that is when the record should get busy. Three projects, eleven invoices, a signed contract, a scope change, two new contacts after their marketing lead leaves.
So agencies end up splitting the client across tools. Contact details in the CRM, work in a project app, money in accounting, contracts in a signing tool, files in a drive. Each one holds a partial client. Answering “how is this account doing?” becomes a research task, which means it mostly does not get asked. We wrote about the compounding cost in how to keep all client work in one place.
The failure shows up at handoff. Someone new picks up the account and has no way to read its history, so they ask the client questions the client already answered. That is the moment a relationship starts feeling replaceable.
What the Arpixa CRM is
The Arpixa CRM is a client record built for work that continues. It holds the details you expect — display name, company, email, work phone and mobile, website, address, client since, type — and then keeps going: pipeline stage, internal notes, custom fields, contacts, and a timeline of what has happened.
Two separate fields describe where a client stands, and the distinction is deliberate. Status is the state of the relationship: Lead, Active, or Churned. Stage is the state of the deal: Lead, Contacted, Meeting, Proposal, Closed Won, or Closed Lost. A client can be Active with a new deal sitting at Proposal, which is a normal week at an agency and impossible to express with a single dropdown.
What you can do on a client record
The record is designed to answer the questions that come up in real conversations: who do I talk to, what did we agree, what is running, and have they paid.
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Seven tabs, one account | Each client record carries Overview, Activity, Projects, Invoices, Payments, Documents, and Contacts. The relationship, the work, and the money live under the same header instead of in three separate systems. |
| A real contact model | A client company is not one email address. Add multiple contacts with first and last name, email, phone, role, and a primary flag, so you know who signs, who approves, and who to chase. |
| An activity log that fills itself in | Notes, calls, meetings, emails, and system events sit in one timeline. Arpixa logs the moments that matter automatically: profile created, pipeline stage changed with the before and after, profile updated, payment recorded, invoice created and status changes. |
| Custom fields for how you actually work | Beyond the standard fields for company, email, phones, website, address, and client since, you can add your own key and value pairs to a client and they render on the Overview tab. No schema request, no workaround spreadsheet. |
| A health score you can explain | Each client gets a score based on payment history and project activity, shown with the payment percentage, active project count, and lifetime value behind it. It is a prompt to look closer, and it shows you its reasoning. |
| Financial visibility by role | Overview, Invoices, and Payments only appear for people whose role allows financial access. A Manager can run the client relationship without seeing revenue, and a Member sees only the projects they are assigned to. |
A tour of the seven tabs
Overview is the briefing. Company details and your custom fields sit beside recent activity, an agency performance panel with on-time delivery, active project count and total revenue, a list of active projects, and the client health score. If the client has chosen to share their own profile, a “Shared By Client” block shows what they provided: company, job title, phone, website, LinkedIn, timezone, and bio.
Activity is the complete log. You can add a note with a title and description at any time, and Arpixa writes system entries for you when the profile is created or updated, when the pipeline stage moves, when a payment is recorded, and when invoices are created or change status. It is the record you hand to whoever picks up the account next.
Projects lists the client's work with inline editing for status, fee, amount paid, start date, priority, and notes, plus a button to share a portal link covering all of their projects. Invoices shows their billing, and Payments shows payment history with date, method, reference or invoice, and amount, headed by a total collected figure and a Record Payment action. Recording a payment against an invoice updates that invoice, marking it Paid when it is fully covered or Partially Paid when it is not.
Documents collects the contracts, briefs, NDAs, and proposals tied to the client, each showing Draft, Sent, Approved, or Signed, with multi-select for bulk cleanup. Contacts holds the people, so a company with a founder, a marketing manager, and an accounts inbox is modelled the way it actually is.
Four apps holding one client, or one record
A client's contact details, delivery, billing, and paperwork usually live in different tools, so nobody sees the whole account. Arpixa keeps them on the same record.
Contacts
Delivery
Billing
Files
ArpixaAll of it, connectedRoles, privacy, and client access
Not everyone on the team should see everything, and the CRM respects that. Financial visibility is a role setting, so the Overview, Invoices, and Payments tabs simply do not render for someone without financial access. A Manager can own the client relationship without seeing what the account bills, and a Member is scoped to the projects they are assigned to. The full permission model is on the Members page.
Client-facing access is a separate decision, made per client. You can generate a portal link for one client or one project and set it to a public link or restrict it to specific email addresses, which requires a Starter plan or above. Or you can connect the client to their own portal account for the full client portal experience. In both cases, internal notes and the activity log stay internal — see how to keep internal notes private from clients.
How it connects to the rest of Arpixa
The client record is the hub the rest of the workspace hangs off.
- Accepted leads from the Lead Inbox arrive as client records with the original inquiry attached.
- Proposals are addressed to a client and can be sent to several of their contacts at once.
- Contracts and NDAs auto-fill the first signatory from the client record.
- Projects and invoices surface on the record, so delivery and billing read as one account.
- Analytics rolls client records up into pipeline, conversion, and client profitability views.
This is what Arpixa as an agency workspace is for: the client is a single object, not five copies of a name.
Give every client one record
Start free in minutes, or log in to your Arpixa workspace. See pricing for plan details.
Arpixa has a real Free plan (not a trial), with Starter at $12/month, Pro at $29/month, and Advanced at $89/month. Free includes 1 active client, Starter includes 12, and Pro and Advanced are unlimited. Portal share links require Starter or above. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly cost, and the pricing page is the source of truth for current plan limits.
How to use the CRM
The habit that makes a CRM worth having is small and repeatable.
- Add a client, or accept a lead in the Lead Inbox so the record is created for you.
- Fill in company details and add any custom fields your agency tracks.
- Add the people: contacts with roles, and a primary contact for approvals.
- Log calls, meetings, and notes as you go, and let Arpixa record system events automatically.
- Review the Overview tab for on-time delivery, active projects, total revenue, and the client health score.
- Share a client portal link, or invite the client to their own portal account, when you want them to see their work.
For the wider workflow, see client database software and how to spot clients at risk of leaving.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Arpixa CRM?
The Arpixa CRM is the client record inside your agency workspace. Instead of storing contact details in one app and delivery in another, each client has one record with Overview, Activity, Projects, Invoices, Payments, Documents, and Contacts tabs, plus notes, custom fields, and a pipeline stage. It is built for agencies running active client work, not for managing a cold outbound list.
What client statuses and pipeline stages does Arpixa use?
A client has a status of Lead, Active, or Churned, which describes the state of the relationship. Separately, a pipeline stage tracks the deal: Lead, Contacted, Meeting, Proposal, Closed Won, or Closed Lost. Moving a client between stages on the pipeline board is logged in the activity timeline with the previous and new stage.
Can I keep notes that the client never sees?
Yes. Client notes and the activity log are internal. Clients only see what you deliberately share through the branded client portal or a portal share link, and portal visibility is controlled per client. Internal discussion, rates, and account notes stay on your side.
How is the client health score calculated?
It combines payment history and project activity: the share of fees the client has actually paid, whether they have an active project, and whether they have any project history at all, capped at 100. Arpixa shows the payment percentage, active project count, and lifetime value alongside the score so you can see what produced it rather than trusting a number.
What happens when I delete a client?
Deleting a client archives it rather than destroying it. The record is removed from your lists and its portal link stops resolving, but it can be restored. That matters in a client-service business, where a deleted account often turns out to still have an unpaid invoice or a contract attached.
Does the CRM include a client portal?
Yes, and there are two routes. You can share a portal link for a single client or a single project, set to a public link or restricted to specific email addresses, which requires a Starter plan or above. Or you can invite the client to their own portal account, where they get a full dashboard of projects, deliverables, documents, invoices, payments, and messages.