Your CRM is live —
synced with Direct.
01 · This is UAT
Finding the rough edges is the point
You are part of the pilot group testing the CRM before it reaches the wider team. What you see is real and live — and it isn't finished. Nothing you flag is too small.
1
Create two test events, confirmed into HMR Direct
Name them so they're unmistakably tests — e.g. TEST — Giuliana 1. The build slides walk you through it.
2
Note what you find on your tab of the feedback sheet
Each of you has a named tab with the tasks pre-listed. Short notes are fine; the Severity column tells us what stings. About 40 minutes end to end, including two short sync waits.
3
Anything urgent, or easier to show than type
Email support@datastudios.ai — screenshots welcome. That inbox feeds the fix queue directly.
Why this week matters
Your feedback shapes what the wider team sees at the rollout training on July 29. If something confuses you, it will confuse them — telling us now is the most useful thing you can do.
02 · Getting in
Everyone signs in at crm.hmrdesigns.com
Accounts are created by an admin — there is no public sign-up. Passwords are shared separately, never in this document. Once you’re in, you can change yours anytime from the user menu (your initials, top right).
Good to know
A sun/moon toggle (top-right) flips light and dark, remembered per screen. This walkthrough and the feedback sheet always live under Resources in the top menu.
| Name | Login email | Access |
|---|
| Mal Marencik | malm@hmrdesigns.com | Admin (existing) |
| Giuliana La Porte | guilianal@hmrdesigns.com | Standard |
| Mathew Kuntz | mathewk@hmrdesigns.com | Standard |
| Michael Metiva | mmetiva@hmrdesigns.com | Standard |
03 · What the CRM does
Your day-to-day workspace, mirrored with HMR
A cleaner, faster place to work than HMR Direct — that stays in step with it automatically.
You drive
Events, contacts, venues, stages, email
Create and edit events, people and venues; move leads across the kanban; log email and meetings onto records. Edits to shared fields flow up to HMR automatically.
HMR owns
Financials, status, commissions
Totals, event status, and the commission structure are computed in HMR. The CRM shows them, kept current automatically — you don't edit them here.
The one mental model
Whatever changes most recently on a shared field wins, and the change flows to the other side. The Inquiry stage is the only one that stays CRM-only — the moment an event moves to Qualified (all 14 required fields in), it is created in Direct.
04 · Your two test events · build
A record here is a record in HMR
A new contact becomes an HMR user, a new venue an HMR location, a new event an HMR event with client, planner, and venue linked. This is the core ask for the week.
1
Create a test client contact — Contacts, then Add Client
A clearly fake name, phone, email.
Saves in the CRM and creates the matching user in HMR.
2
Create a test venue — Venues, then Add
Name and address.
Creates the matching event location in HMR.
3
Create the event; attach that client and venue, plus a planner
There's a “No Planner” option too. Save it with a few required fields still empty — on purpose.
The header reads something like “8 of 14” — required fields done. The marks jump you straight to what's missing.
04 · Your two test events · qualify & confirm
Qualified is the moment it becomes real
4
Complete the required fields, then move it to Qualified
Pick an open date — not a closed one; see the known edges near the end.
The event is created in HMR Direct with client, planner and venue linked — open Direct and confirm it's there with an event ID.
5
Repeat for your second test event
Two events, both visible in Direct — note both on your feedback tab.
Heads-up on speed
Creating an event does several things in HMR behind the scenes — create and link the client, planner, venue, then the event — so it can take a few seconds, and the board is a little slow to reload afterward. A known performance item being improved; the record is created correctly. Give it a moment.
05 · Two-way sync · the core
“I changed it over there — and it's here too”
Best tried with the CRM and HMR Direct open side by side, using one of your test events once it has synced into Direct. Never a real job.
1
Edit from the CRM side
Change the event's name or date; open its client and change a phone; open its venue and change the address.
Give the auto-sync up to ~15 minutes, then refresh Direct — all three edits are there.
2
Now reverse it — edit from HMR Direct
Change the same event's name, the client's email, the venue's city.
Give it ~15 minutes and refresh the CRM — it shows the HMR-side edits. Both directions proven.
The takeaway
Work in whichever system you're in front of. The CRM and HMR stay matched — no double-entry, no “which one is right?” The most recent edit wins and carries across.
06 · Stages & the pipeline
Drag freely — HMR has the final say
The kanban drives the pipeline, but HMR is the authority for what stage a lead can actually be in. Two behaviors to know:
A · Drag past what HMR supports
It reverts, and tells you why
The card lands, then pops back within a few seconds, with a note that HMR doesn't support that stage yet. The history shows the auto-revert — nothing gets silently out of step.
B · HMR advances the event
The CRM follows on its own
Mark an event closed in HMR: on the next sync, the CRM card moves to match — no manual drag. The history records it as an HMR-driven move.
The 15-minute rhythm
A full two-way sync runs automatically every 15 minutes — nothing to press, nothing to remember. Each pass takes ~5–8 minutes, so a change can take up to ~15–20 minutes to appear on the other side. That wait is normal, not a problem — runs never overlap or pile up.
07 · Activities · email on the pipeline
Every message knows which job it belongs to
Separate from the HMR sync, the CRM connects to your Google account — so email and meetings live right next to the pipeline, attached to the event, client, or company they belong to. This is the surface you'll live in day to day.
One-time setup · connect Google
Open the user menu (your initials, top right) → Email Integrations, then click Connect Google and approve. Standard OAuth — the CRM never sees your password, and you can disconnect anytime. Each person connects their own account.
The one-email habit
Start one email from the event (“Email event”) when the first real communication goes out — typically the proposal. After that, reply and carry on from your normal Gmail: every message in the thread keeps tracking onto the event on its own. Clients see your regular address, never a CRM one.
07 · Activities · try it
Inbox, logging, and the firm-wide feed
1
Open the Inbox — user menu → Email Inbox
Your Gmail with CRM signals: sent / received badges, grouped threads, search and date filters. Long threads get a one-line AI summary.
2
From a test event: “Email event”
Send yourself a test message, then reply from your normal Gmail.
The reply appears on the event's thread — the chain tracks itself after that first message.
3
Open a message — “Log to Record”
The picker opens with the event, contact, and company it recognized already suggested. “Add all,” or search by hand, then Log.
4
Re-open the same message
It shows “Logged” with who and when. Logging again extends the same record — org-wide, so no duplicates if a colleague logged it first.
5
Open the Activity Feed — the hub
Everything logged, firm-wide: notes, meetings and email across every record. Filter by type, owner or date; “suggested” items are matched and ready for one-click logging.
6
Open a record's Activity tab
Every email and meeting logged to that event or contact — the whole history in context.
08 · Known edges
Already on our list — no need to re-report
Straight talk: these came out of the July 10 session and our own testing, and fixes are in progress. If one bites you in a new way, that is worth a note.
- Don't re-assign an existing event's client. HMR rejects a client swap unless the client-contact link updates too; fix in progress. Editing name, date, venue or producer is fine.
- Edit after the first sync, not in the same breath as creating. A brand-new event's first sync pulls HMR's baseline in and can overwrite a same-moment edit. Create, let one sync pass, then edit.
- Closed dates. Direct blocks event creation on closed dates; the CRM doesn't warn you yet — the event will quietly fail to appear in Direct. Pick clearly open dates for tests.
- Gmail replies can lag on the event thread. Seen live on July 10; we're on it. Give it a refresh and a few minutes first.
- Planner dropdown lists some designers. Known data mix-up, being cleaned.
One more thing — Overview (preview only)
You’ll notice an Overview item in the top menu — a first look at the season and pipeline in numbers. It’s actively being developed and shown as a preview only: browse freely, but please don’t make decisions from those figures yet — we’re still validating them against Direct.
09 · If something looks off
Sync, check both sides, then tell us
1
Give it ~15 minutes, then refresh
Most “it didn't update” moments are just the sweep not having run yet.
2
Check the record on both sides
Confirm whether the change is on the CRM side, the HMR side, or both.
3
Write it on your feedback tab — or email support if urgent
Everything is logged on our side, so any specific record can be traced and re-synced.
Direct line
Urgent, or easier to show than type:
support@datastudios.ai — screenshots welcome.