Sell it, then deliver it
CRM with project and task management
Most businesses buy a CRM for selling and a project tool for delivering, then spend years copying between them. Joining the two is not hard. Deciding where the boundary sits is the part that needs thinking about.
The copying tax
The pattern is identical across agencies, consultancies, installers and fit out firms. A deal is won in one system, and somebody retypes the client, the scope, the value and the dates into another. Then two things drift.
The scope drifts, because the project tool holds what was set up at kickoff and the deal holds what was actually sold, including the two things added during negotiation.
The numbers drift, because the sold value lives in one place and the delivered cost in another, so nobody can say what a project earned without an afternoon and a spreadsheet.
The cost is rarely the retyping. It is that the question which kind of work is actually profitable cannot be answered, so the business keeps selling the work that feels good rather than the work that pays.
Where the boundary belongs
One system is not automatically right. The question is whether your delivery work is genuinely complex or merely sequential.
| Your delivery looks like | Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A repeatable sequence of tasks per job | One system | A checklist per job type covers it, and a second tool adds only friction |
| Projects with phases, dependencies and a budget | One system | This is well within what a built CRM does, and the profit reporting is the payoff |
| Software delivery with sprints and issue tracking | Two systems, connected | Developers will not leave their tracker, and they should not have to |
| Construction with programmes and subcontractors | Two systems, connected | Scheduling software here is genuinely specialised |
| Retainers renewing monthly | One system | The renewal is a sales event and a delivery event at once |
Where two systems is the right answer, the connection is narrow and one directional: the CRM creates the project and holds the commercial truth, the delivery tool owns progress, and progress comes back summarised rather than task by task.
What one system gives you
When delivery belongs in the CRM, four things become possible that are awkward otherwise.
- A project created from the won deal, carrying the scope as sold, the value, the contacts and the documents, with a task template chosen by job type.
- Tasks with an owner and a date, visible in the same place as everything else that person owes, rather than in a tool they open on Mondays.
- Time and cost against the sold value, so margin per project is a number rather than a feeling, and the pattern across fifty projects tells you what to sell more of.
- Invoicing at the right trigger, on a milestone, a percentage or completion, pushed to your accounting system without anybody watching for it.
The fourth is where the money usually is. Businesses that invoice on milestones almost always invoice late, because it depends on somebody noticing, and a system that notices instead is worth more than the build within the first year.
Keeping it from becoming a second job
The failure mode of a combined system is that it asks delivery staff to maintain a project plan they did not want. Three rules avoid it.
Tasks are generated, not written. A job type carries a template, so a new project arrives with its tasks and dates already in place, and the team edits rather than authors.
Progress is a status, not a percentage. Nobody can honestly say a task is sixty percent done. Not started, in progress, blocked and done are answerable in one second, which is why they get answered.
Time is captured where the work is, as a start and stop on the task or a single number at the end of the day, on a phone. Anything that requires a timesheet screen at week end produces fiction, and fiction in the time data destroys the profitability reporting that justified the whole thing.
The practices behind this are the same ones in CRM best practices, applied to delivery rather than to selling.
CRM in Jira, and when it stops working
Teams that already live in Jira often try to use Jira as a CRM: a project for clients, an issue per deal, custom fields for value and stage. It works for a small number of deals, because the people closing them are the same engineers tracking the work.
It breaks in three places. Contacts and companies are not first class in Jira, so the same client exists as text in fifty issues. Email and calls are not logged against anyone. And sales reporting, such as pipeline value by month or win rate by source, has to be rebuilt from issue exports every time someone asks.
The pattern we build instead keeps Jira for delivery and support tickets and puts clients, deals and contracts in the CRM. When a deal is won, the CRM creates the Jira project or epic; ticket counts and status flow back onto the client record. Account managers see open tickets before a renewal call, and engineers never have to update a sales pipeline. The same approach works for CRM ticketing software needs with Zendesk or a helpdesk built into the CRM.
What we build
What the delivery side includes
The sale and the work it becomes, in one place, with the numbers joined up.
Projects from won deals
Created automatically with the scope as sold, the contacts, the documents and a task template picked by job type.
Tasks where people already look
Owners and dates in the same queue as everything else, on a phone, with statuses that can be answered in a second.
Time against budget
Captured at the work rather than at week end, reported as margin per project and as a pattern across job types.
Milestone invoicing
Triggered by the system on a milestone, a percentage or completion, pushed to your accounting system as a draft.
Questions we get asked
Can a CRM handle project management?
For repeatable job sequences and for projects with phases, dependencies and a budget, yes, and the payoff is profitability reporting that two systems cannot produce easily. For software sprints or construction programmes, keep the specialist tool and connect it, because those teams will not leave their tracker and should not be asked to.
Should sales and delivery be in one system?
If your delivery is sequential or budget driven, one system removes the retyping and answers what a project earned. If delivery is genuinely specialised, use two and connect them narrowly: the CRM creates the project and holds the commercial truth, the delivery tool owns progress and reports back summarised.
How do you stop it becoming admin for delivery staff?
Generate tasks from a template per job type so teams edit rather than author, use statuses instead of percentages because nobody can honestly say sixty percent, and capture time at the work on a phone. Week end timesheet screens produce fiction, and fiction destroys the profit reporting entirely.
Can we see profitability per project?
Yes, and it is usually the reason people ask for this. The sold value, the time recorded and any purchased costs sit on the same record, so margin per project is a number rather than an afternoon with a spreadsheet. Across fifty projects it tells you which work to sell more of.
Does it handle retainers and recurring work?
Yes, and retainers are a good case for one system, because a renewal is a sales event and a delivery event at the same time. Monthly value, hours used against the allowance, and a renewal date that raises a task before it arrives rather than after a client questions an invoice.
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