Customers

Customers holds the cyclists who bring their bikes to you: contacts, registered bikes, job history and documents. Almost everything else in the app starts here, because a work order, a quote and an invoice always have a customer attached.

You'll find it under Customers›Customer list. Search by name or email; the list shows phone, the cyclist's plan and how many bikes they have, and clicking a row opens the full record.

The record is global, not shared#

On CrankPal a cyclist has one profile, identified by their email, valid across the whole platform. If your customer is already registered because they use the app or have been to another workshop, you don't create a copy: you ask to be linked to their profile.

This prevents duplicates and keeps contact details current even when the customer changes number. But "global" does not mean "visible to everyone": each workshop only sees the customers who linked it, and the notes you write stay private to your workshop.

The cyclist can revoke the link at any time. When that happens the record shows a No longer linked badge: you keep the documents you already issued, but you no longer see up-to-date contacts, bikes or messages. From there you can invite them to link you again.

Creating a customer#

You always start from the email, because the email decides whether you are creating a new profile or asking for access to one that already exists.

1. Open New customer and type the email

   CrankPal checks whether that address already belongs to a CrankPal account. If the customer has no email you can carry on without one: the record will only live inside the app.

2. If the cyclist is already registered, send an invite

   We can't add them automatically. They receive a request to add your workshop to their favourites, by app and notification; once they accept you see their profile and bikes.

3. If they're new, fill in the record

   First and last name are required. Phone, marketing consent and billing details are optional at this point: you can add the billing details when you actually need them.

4. Add their bikes

   From the customer record, in the Registered bikes panel. Bikes are only added here, never from the Bikes list. See Bikes and census.

If you enter a new email, the customer gets a welcome message that confirms the address and activates the customer portal. Until they confirm, the record shows Not confirmed next to the email and you can resend the message.

The details you need to invoice#

The Customer and billing details panel holds the fields an electronic invoice needs: company name, address, postcode, town, province, country, VAT number, tax code, recipient code (SDI) and certified email.

You don't need all of them. A valid invoice needs, as a minimum:

• who it is made out to — a company name, or first and last name for a private individual;
• an identifier — tax code or VAT number;
• address, postcode and town — always;
• the province — if the customer is in Italy.

When you fill the address with assisted search, postcode, town and province fill themselves in from the verified map data.

If you ticked Requires an invoice, the same warning also appears in orange under the customer's details.

What's on the customer record#

The record has no tabs: it is one page of side-by-side panels, so you have everything in front of you while the customer is on the phone.

• Customer and billing details — contacts, address, marketing consent, billing fields and internal notes (private to your workshop).
• Registered bikes — each bike with make, model, kilometres and a health bar; click to open it.
• Booking history and Work orders — what has been through the workshop, with status and total.
• Invoices and receipts — the documents you issued, with their transmission status.
• Counter sales and quotes — only appears if there is at least one.
• Messages from the customer — incoming messages from every channel, with a link to the inbox.

At the top you can read how long they have been a customer, how much you have taken from them and how many orders are open.

Importing customers from your old software#

If you're coming from another system, don't retype the list by hand. The import accepts an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file with a header row, or text pasted straight in.

1. Export and upload

   Export the customers from your previous software and upload the file. Comma, semicolon and tab are detected automatically. The old .xls format is not supported: open it and save it again as .xlsx or CSV.

2. Map the columns

   You say which column holds first name, last name, email, phone, address, notes and — if you have them — the bike's make, model and type. CrankPal guesses from the headers; you correct it. Only the name is required.

3. Check the preview

   Every row is classified before anything is written: New, CrankPal invite (the email is already an account), Already present, Duplicate (email repeated in the file), Invalid (missing name or malformed email). This is where you catch mistakes while they still cost nothing.

4. Confirm

   At the end you see how many customers were created, how many bikes, how many invites went out and how many rows were skipped.

Duplicates are never created: if an email matches an existing account an invite goes out instead, and the cyclist has to accept before you see their profile and bikes.

Privacy: export and deletion#

The GDPR data button on the record downloads a file with everything your workshop holds on that customer: their details, your private notes, bikes, bookings, work orders, invoices, quotes, messages, maintenance plans and reminders. It is a ready-made answer to a data access request.

Deletion is not done by the workshop. The profile belongs to the cyclist: they can delete it themselves from the customer portal, or ask CrankPal, which verifies their identity. This is deliberate — a workshop cannot erase an identity that is valid across the whole platform.

Common problems#