Getting Started with AI Engage CRM: Your Complete Setup Guide

Welcome to AI Engage CRM. This guide walks a brand-new administrator through every configuration step in the order the steps depend on each other. By the end you will have a working CRM — with the right people, the right permissions, and your existing data already imported.

Almost everything below lives under Setup — the gear icon at the bottom of the left rail. The groups outlined above (General, Security Control, Customization and Data Administration) hold the settings for Phases 1–6.

The setup sequence at a glance#

The setup sequence#

Phase 1 — Your own account#

Start with the account you are signed in to. Everything later is set up by this user, so secure it first.

1. Sign Up & Verify Your Account — create the account and confirm your email address.

2. Set Up Your Personal Profile — your name, photo, timezone and date / number formats. The timezone decides when your reminders and scheduled items fire.

3. Change Your Password & Account Security — set a strong password for the admin account.

4. Two-Step Verification — add an email code to every sign-in. Strongly recommended for the account that controls everyone else’s access.

Phase 2 — Your organisation#

Company-wide settings come next, because every user and record you add afterwards inherits them.

1. Organization Settings — company name, logo, contact details and address.

2. Set Your Home Currency — the currency deals, quotes and reports are totalled in. It can be set only once, so choose it before any money is entered.

3. Billing & Subscription — check your plan and buy enough seats for the people you are about to invite.

Phase 3 — Permissions: profiles and roles#

Build these before inviting anyone. The invite form asks for a Profile (what the person can do) and a Role (whose records they can see), so both must already exist.

1. Understanding Profile Permissions — what each permission controls.

2. Create Profiles — one permission template per job type — for example Sales Rep, Manager, Support.

3. Understanding the Role Hierarchy — how the reporting line decides who sees whose records.

4. Create Roles — build the hierarchy that mirrors your organisation chart.

Phase 4 — Your team#

With profiles and roles in place, invite people. Teams and sharing rules come after the invites, because both are built from users who already exist.

1. Invite Your Team — give each teammate a login and assign their profile and role.

2. Accepting Your Invitation — send this to the people you invite; it walks them through their first sign-in.

3. Create Teams — group users for lead routing, reporting and sharing.

4. Understanding Sharing Rules — when the role hierarchy alone is not enough.

5. Create Sharing Rules — open specific records to other roles or teams.

Phase 5 — Shape the CRM around your data#

Add the fields and modules you need before importing, so every column in your spreadsheet has a field to land in.

1. Create a New Module — only if your business tracks something the standard modules do not (projects, properties, stores…).

2. Customize Modules and Fields — add the fields specific to your business.

3. Field Layouts and Required Fields — arrange the forms and make key fields mandatory.

4. Advanced Field Types — formulas, rollups, auto-numbers, lookups and subforms, if you need them.

Phase 6 — Bring your data in#

Add one record by hand first to check the form, then import the rest.

1. Add Your First Contact — create one contact manually and check every field behaves as expected.

2. Bulk Import Contacts — bring your existing contacts in from CSV or Excel.

3. Import Data into Any Module — the same importer for companies, deals and custom modules.

4. Find & Merge Duplicates — clean up any duplicates the import brought in.

Phase 7 — Get comfortable with daily work#

Now that there is real data to look at, set up the views your team will use every day.

1. The Record Detail Page — related lists and pinned fields on each record.

2. Create, Share & Manage Custom Views — saved list and Kanban views for each team.

3. Choose & Reorder List Columns — show the columns that matter.

4. Bulk Actions on Records — update, merge or delete many records at once.

5. Sidebar Bookmarks — pin the pages you use most.

Phase 8 — Go live#

Check everything once, then move on to automation and campaigns.

1. Pre-Launch Checklist — verify the whole setup before your team starts using it.

2. What’s Next — explore workflows, campaigns, integrations and AI.