PBJ CRM 1.22.0, Helpdesk 2.14.0, Dispatch 1.3.0 and Invoicing 1.15.0 — Add a Customer From Anywhere, and Hide the Ones You Are Done With

Four updates went out together today: PBJ CRM 1.22.0, PBJ Helpdesk 2.14.0, PBJ Dispatch 1.3.0 and PBJ Invoicing 1.15.0. They are one release wearing four version numbers, and the thread running through them is simple: wherever you are in the suite, the customer you need should be one box away — even when they are not in your list yet.

Add a brand-new customer without leaving the screen you are on

Every “who is this for?” box across the suite now works the same way. Click into it and your most recent records appear; type a few letters and matching people and businesses appear together, with businesses marked. And when nobody matches — the new caller, the walk-in, the customer you are invoicing for the first time — the box offers to add a new person or business right there: a small name, email and phone form, filled in on the spot.

That means an agent taking a call can raise the ticket for somebody brand new without hopping over to the CRM first. A visit can be booked for them in the same breath. An invoice or estimate can be written to them mid-draft. And a task can be tied to a customer — new or existing — right on the task form. It only ever offers: nothing is saved until you press Save on that little form.

A “Start something” row on every customer record

Working from the other direction: open any person or business in the CRM and there is now a row of buttons for what you can start for them. One press begins a task with their name already picked. With the help desk installed the row gains New ticket; with Dispatch it gains New visit and New appointment — each landing on its own form with that customer already filled in, and still changeable before anything is saved. The row only shows what you are actually allowed to start.

Hide the clients you are done with

Some customers are finished business — but deleting them throws away history you may want. You can now hide a person or a business instead. A hidden record keeps everything: its notes, its jobs, its invoices, its old links all still work. It simply drops out of your lists, your searches and every “pick a customer” box, so your working day is only the people you actually work with.

Bringing one back takes one button. There is a new Hidden records tab under Companies & People ▸ Manage everything, and every row on it has “Put back”. It is a shelf, not a bin — nothing there is ever deleted on a timer. And hiding says nothing about marketing email: who may be emailed is still governed only by the record’s marketing status and the do-not-email list, so hide someone and unsubscribe them if you mean both.

Imports that count before they write

Importing contacts is no longer a button you press and hope about. Whatever the source — Square, Google Contacts, Microsoft Outlook or a CSV file — the import now walks you through it: pick the source, see what goes where, and run a check that counts exactly what would happen. How many people would be added, how many updated, how many are already up to date, how many rows have a problem — with the first ten rows shown.

Nothing at all is written until you press the one confirm button, which states those counts on its face: “Bring in 12 new people and update 30.” Walk away and nothing is imported; wait too long and the check runs again first, so the counts you agreed to are always the counts that happen. Scheduled syncs carry on exactly as before.

Miles round trip, written down when the job closes

In Dispatch, marking a visit done now records the round-trip miles, shown on the visit’s timeline with the other closing facts. If the customer’s record already carries a number in the designated field — “Miles round trip” out of the box — it is filled in automatically and nobody is asked. Otherwise whoever closes the visit is asked once, and can leave it blank: the visit still closes. Appointments never ask, because they happen at your own place.

Map links, with an off switch

Every address in the CRM now offers “Open in Google Maps” and “Open in Apple Maps” links. They are built in your browser and sent to nobody until somebody actually clicks one — and if you would rather no page of yours linked out to a maps provider at all, there is a tick box under Settings ▸ The basics that removes them entirely.

Updating

All four updates are available through the license manager as usual, arriving on your WordPress updates screen, free to owners of the current major versions. Update PBJ CRM first — it is the hub, and the new shared picker and “Start something” row in the other three come from CRM 1.22.0. On an older CRM each module simply keeps its previous behaviour; nothing breaks.

The CRM update adds one column to the contacts table (database version 17) and Dispatch adds two columns to the visits table — both applied automatically, nothing to re-enter. Helpdesk 2.14.0 and Invoicing 1.15.0 make no database changes. Full detail on every release is in the changelogs: PBJ CRM, PBJ Helpdesk, PBJ Dispatch and PBJ Invoicing — and the whole suite is listed on the WordPress Plugins page.