1. Start with clean customer records
Do not treat CRM as an address book only. A useful customer record should make the next action easier. At minimum, keep a consistent company name, primary contact, email or phone, source of the relationship, and a short note about the latest meaningful interaction.
Useful fields
- Company and contact name
- Email and phone
- Industry or market classification
- Lead source and customer grade
- Consultation or follow-up history
Common mistake
Creating multiple records for the same company because names are entered differently. Before adding a new customer, search by company, contact, email, and phone.
2. Separate purchasing cost from management cost
A small importer or distributor may buy in different currencies, but management reporting still needs a consistent cost basis. ERPHAUS uses Cost Price as a purchasing reference and Book Cost as the standardized cost used for inventory value and sales gross-profit analysis.
3. Keep sales documents connected
| Document | Primary purpose | Recommended discipline |
|---|---|---|
| Quotation | Commercial offer before order | Use registered customers and items so approved information can be reused. |
| Invoice | Billing and revenue workflow | Keep Bill To and Ship To accurate; confirm revenue only when appropriate. |
| Packing List | Shipment record | Track destination, quantities, carrier, and tracking information. |
| Purchase Order | Supplier order | Use supplier and Item Master information, then adjust agreed price and currency. |
4. Make CSV backup a routine
Business data should never exist in only one location. ERPHAUS provides CSV export functions for this reason. A simple backup habit is more valuable than a complicated policy that nobody follows.
Export regularly
Export important customer, item, sales, and expense records on a schedule appropriate to how often your data changes.
Use dated file names
For example: sales_2026-09-05.csv or customers_2026-09-05.csv. This makes it obvious which copy is newest.
Keep a separate copy
Store backups outside the ERPHAUS server — for example on your own computer, approved cloud storage, or another secure location.
Back up before major changes
Export data before bulk imports, cleanup projects, account closure, or other significant changes.
5. Import data in the right order
When moving from spreadsheets, relationships between data matter. Customer and item records should exist before historical sales lines are imported.
Use CSV UTF-8, keep required header names unchanged, and test with a small file before importing a large dataset.
6. Newsletter sending is intentionally conservative
The current CRM newsletter action is limited to a small recipient batch as an operating safeguard while a more scalable email-delivery solution is being evaluated. Unsubscribed and bounced addresses should remain excluded from future sends.
Where to get more help
How It Works
Follow one complete business workflow from customer registration to confirmed revenue.
Community
Approved members can discuss usage, bugs, ideas, small-business operations, and future GitHub contributions.
Full operational guide for approved users
After login, ERPHAUS members can access the current online User Guide and News / Notice area with module instructions, templates, and update information.