The Three Board Strategy: What Goes Where

It is easy to get your tasks confused when you have multiple boards running. Here is a clear breakdown of how your three boards serve entirely different purposes:

Board Name	Purpose	What Tasks Live Here
Master Client Pipeline	Tracking individual client contract lifecycles.	Client Master Cards (permanent roster) and spawned Mid-Term/Renewal tasks.
Master Campaigns	Tracking your 5-week marketing cycles.	One master task for each specific Feature or Holiday campaign (e.g., "Nappies and Paws").
This Week / Regular Activities	Managing your day-to-day and weekly operational chores.	Recurring administrative tasks, like your Wednesday task to push the Donation Programme.

Master Client Pipeline: Understanding Your Tasks

This board operates on a "Task Spawner" method to keep your pipeline clean and automated.

• The Master Card: Every paying client gets one permanent task card sitting in the "Live and Scheduled" stage.
• The Static Roster: This Master Card never moves. It acts as your permanent visual roster of everyone currently paying you.
• The Spawned Tasks: When a client reaches a reporting milestone, the CRM automatically creates a brand new, temporary task directly in your "Mid-Term Report Due" or "Renewal Due" columns.
• Completing Work: You perform the required report on the spawned task, and then mark that specific task as completed or delete it.
• Existing Clients (The Transition): Because your current clients are already mid-contract, you manage their next milestone manually by setting a Due Date directly on their Master Card in the "Live and Scheduled" stage.
• Opting In: When an existing client renews, you clear their manual due date and apply the Status: Automation Ready tag to officially hand them over to the automated system for the future.

The CRM Foundation: Lists vs. Tags

Your database is strictly organized to prevent clutter and make email targeting effortless.

• Lists define the relationship: A contact should live on only one broad list that defines where they live in your system (e.g., "Active Clients," "Business Leads," or "Community Groups & Clubs").
• Tags define the details: Tags are specific filters used to track what a contact bought, their directory sector, or their campaign participation.
• Automated Data Entry: Never manually tag a contact if a website form can do it. Always map your form fields to tags during setup so the system categorizes contacts automatically based on their dropdown selections.
• Targeted Emailing: When sending a newsletter or sales pitch, you select the broad List to dictate who receives the email, and you use Tags to dictate exactly who is targeted or excluded.

The Automation Engine: The Timeline Funnel

This is the behind-the-scenes engine that does the heavy lifting for your client contract lifecycles.

• The Starting Trigger: The funnel only begins when you apply the specific Status: Automation Ready tag to a client (using either the 6-month or 12-month version depending on their plan).
• Sequential Wait Timers: The system acts as a conveyor belt, waiting for a specific amount of time to pass (e.g., Wait 130 days) before moving to the next action.
• Spawning the Board Task: When a wait timer expires, FluentCRM instantly creates the new "Due" task on your Master Client Pipeline board for you.
• The Clean Slate Reset: The very last step of the funnel removes the "Automation Ready" tag. This automatically resets the client's profile so they are perfectly ready for their next 12-month journey when you re-apply the tag upon renewal.

This completely eliminates manual date tracking for new clients and ensures your boards only populate when work actually needs to be done!

Website Form Integration

As we established for your manual, the golden rule here is: Never manually tag a contact if a form can do it. You must always map your form fields to tags during the setup process.

Assuming you are using a standard WordPress form builder (like Fluent Forms, which pairs perfectly with FluentCRM), here is the step-by-step guide on how to integrate your forms so they automatically trigger your new CRM logic.

Phase 1: Standard Directory Sign-Ups (The Dropdown Method)

When a business signs up for a listing, we need the form to automatically figure out their List and their Sector Tag based on what they choose.

1. Build Your Form: Create your standard registration form and ensure you add a Dropdown or Radio Button field for "Business Industry / Sector".
2. Match the Options: Make sure the choices in that dropdown exactly match the names of the Sector: tags you created in FluentCRM (e.g., "Professional Services", "Marine", "Health & Beauty").
3. Set Up the CRM Integration: * Go to the settings/integrations section of your form and add a FluentCRM Integration Feed.
   • Map the basic fields (First Name to First Name, Email to Email).
4. Assign the Core List: In that integration feed, set the primary list assignment. If this is a free listing form, set the List to Business Leads. If it's a paid checkout form, set it to Active Clients.
5. Enable Dynamic Tagging: Look for the option in the feed that says "Dynamic Tags" or "Map Tags from Field." Select your "Business Industry" dropdown field.
   • Result: When the user selects "Marine" from the dropdown, the form tells the CRM to automatically apply the Sector: Marine tag.

Phase 2: Feature Campaigns (The Hidden Field Method)

If you build a specific landing page to capture sign-ups for a 5-week campaign (like "Nappies and Paws"), you don't want the user to have to select the campaign manually. The form should just know.

1. Build the Campaign Form: Create the registration form for the specific campaign.
2. Add a Hidden Field: Add a field to the form and set its type to Hidden.
3. Set the Default Value: Make the default value of this hidden field the exact name of your tag (e.g., Feature: Nappies and Paws).
4. Map It: In your FluentCRM Integration feed for this form, map that hidden field to your Tags.
   • Result: The business fills out their standard details, but behind the scenes, the form secretly passes the Feature: Nappies and Paws tag straight to their CRM profile.

Phase 3: Competitions & Giveaways (The Checkbox Method)

Competitions bring in a lot of traffic, but you only want to keep the people who actually want to hear from you.

1. Build the Competition Form: Create your entry form.
2. Add an Opt-In Checkbox: Add a checkbox at the bottom that says something like, "Subscribe to the Linku2 monthly newsletter."
3. The Base Integration: Set the main FluentCRM integration feed for this form to automatically place everyone onto the Competition Entrants list.
4. The Conditional Integration: Create a second FluentCRM integration feed on this same form.
   • Set this feed to assign the user to the Public Users / Subscribers list.
   • Use Conditional Logic so this feed only runs if the "Subscribe" checkbox is checked.
   • Result: Everyone goes to the temporary holding list for the prize draw, but only the people who checked the box are safely copied over to your permanent newsletter list.

The Ultimate Benefit: By mapping these out carefully, a business can sign up, be categorized by their industry, tagged for a specific marketing campaign, and dropped onto the correct mailing list—all while you are sleeping!

Task and Board Mapping and Management

You actually don't manually create any new tasks yourself. How you handle the tasks depends entirely on whether the client is an existing client (who you are managing manually for this final cycle) or a new/renewed client (who is already in the automated system).

Here is your step-by-step guide on exactly how to handle both scenarios on your Master Client Pipeline board.

Scenario A: Existing Clients (The Manual Transition)

These are the clients currently sitting in your "Live and Scheduled" stage with manual Due Dates. You are walking them across the finish line of their current contract.

1. Spot the Work: You see their "Master Card" in the Live and Scheduled column has an upcoming Due Date that you manually set.
2. Process the Report: Open that Master Card, do your mid-term or renewal report work, and send it to the client.
3. Clear the Task (Don't Delete): Once the work is done, open the task and remove the Due Date entirely. Leave the date-less Master Card sitting permanently in "Live and Scheduled".
4. Hand Over to Automation (Renewals Only): If this was their renewal and they signed on for another year, go into FluentCRM and apply the Status: Automation Ready tag to their profile. This officially puts them onto the automated conveyor belt for all future reports.

Scenario B: Automated Clients (The "Task Spawner" Method)

This is your workflow for all new clients (and existing clients who have renewed and been tagged). The CRM is now doing the heavy lifting.

1. The Master Card Stays Put: The client's original Master Card sits untouched as a permanent visual roster in your Live and Scheduled column.
2. The System Creates the Task: When the 6-month or 130-day timer expires in FluentCRM, the system automatically spawns a brand new, temporary task directly in your Mid-Term Report Due or Renewal Due column. You don't create this; it just appears!
3. Process the Work: You see the newly spawned task in your "Due" column, perform the report work, and send it to the client.
4. Complete the Spawned Task: Because the Master Card is safely sitting in your active column, you simply mark this temporary, spawned task as "Completed" (or delete it to keep the board clean).
5. Reset the Clock (Renewals Only): If this was a renewal report, go into FluentCRM and re-apply the Status: Automation Ready tag. This resets their automated clock to zero for their next contract cycle.

Quick Reference Summary

Client Status	Who Creates the Task?	Where does the Master Card go?	What happens when the work is done?
Existing (Manual)	No new task created. You use the existing Master Card.	Stays in Live and Scheduled.	Clear the Due Date. Apply Automation Ready tag if renewing.
Automated (New)	FluentCRM automatically spawns a new task in the "Due" column.	Stays in Live and Scheduled.	Complete/delete the spawned task. Re-apply Automation Ready tag if renewing.

This process ensures your "Live and Scheduled" column remains a perfectly clean list of active clients, while your "Due" columns only populate with temporary tasks when work actually needs to be done.