Feb 26, 2026

How to Set Up Carly as Your Lightweight CRM

If you’re a freelancer, salesperson, founder, or anyone who manages relationships, you’ve probably tried a CRM. And you’ve probably also abandoned a CRM because it was too much overhead for what you needed.

Carly has a lightweight CRM built right in. No separate app. No data entry. Just tell Carly what to track, and she keeps your contacts organized as you go about your normal email life.

What It Does

Carly’s CRM lets you:

Add custom columns to your contacts (like “Company,” “Last Meeting,” “Deal Stage”)
Set up Skills — automatic rules that update contact info based on triggers
View everything in a clean table on your dashboard

Think of it as a spreadsheet that updates itself.

Setting Up Custom Columns

From Your Dashboard

Go to your Carly dashboard
Navigate to CRM
Click Add Column
Name it and choose a type (text, date, dropdown, etc.)

Example columns you might add:

Column	Type	Example Values
Company	Text	”Stripe,” “Figma,” “Freelance”
Role	Text	”VP Product,” “Designer,” “CEO”
Deal Stage	Dropdown	”Lead,” “Proposal,” “Closed”
Last Meeting	Date	Auto-updated
Notes	Text	Free-form notes
Introduced By	Text	”Met at SaaStr 2026”

Via Email

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: CRM setup

Add these columns to my CRM: Company (text), Role (text), Deal Stage (dropdown with options: Lead, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed Won, Closed Lost), and Last Meeting (date).

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: CRM setup

Done! I’ve added 4 columns to your CRM:

Company (text)

Role (text)

Deal Stage (dropdown: Lead, Proposal, Negotiation, Closed Won, Closed Lost)

Last Meeting (date)

You can view and manage these in your dashboard under the CRM tab.

Adding Contact Information

Manually via Email

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Contact update

Update Sarah Chen’s CRM info:

Company: DesignLab

Role: Head of Product

Deal Stage: Proposal

Notes: Interested in our enterprise plan, follow up after Q1

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: Contact update

Updated Sarah Chen’s CRM record:

Field Value
Company DesignLab
Role Head of Product
Deal Stage Proposal
Notes Interested in our enterprise plan, follow up after Q1

Field	Value
Company	DesignLab
Role	Head of Product
Deal Stage	Proposal
Notes	Interested in our enterprise plan, follow up after Q1

On Your Dashboard

Click any contact in the CRM view to edit their fields directly. It’s a simple table interface — click a cell, type, done.

The Power Feature: Skills

Here’s where it gets interesting. Skills are instructions you give Carly that tell her to automatically update CRM fields when certain things happen.

What’s a Skill?

A Skill is a rule like: “When someone mentions funding in an email, update their ‘Funding’ field with the details.”

You define the trigger and what to update. Carly watches your email conversations and acts on it.

Setting Up Skills

To: carly@usecarly.com Subject: New skill

Create a skill: When anyone mentions their company raising funding or a funding round in an email, update their CRM “Funding” field with the amount and round type.

From: carly@usecarly.com Subject: Re: New skill

Skill created! Here’s what I’ll do:

Trigger: Someone mentions funding/fundraising in an email Action: Update their CRM “Funding” field with the details

I’ll apply this automatically going forward.

Skills in Action

Say you get an email from Alex:

From: alex@techstartup.io Subject: Re: Partnership discussion

Hey! Quick update — we just closed our Series B, $30M led by a16z. Exciting times. Let’s definitely chat about that integration next week.

Carly automatically updates Alex’s CRM record:

Field	Value
Funding	Series B, $30M (led by a16z) — Feb 2026

You didn’t have to do anything. The info just appears in your CRM.

More Skill Ideas

Track role changes:

Create a skill: When a contact mentions a new job, title change, or promotion, update their Role and Company fields.

Log meeting frequency:

Create a skill: After every meeting I have with a contact, update their “Last Meeting” field with the date.

Track project mentions:

Create a skill: When a contact mentions a specific project name, add it to their “Active Projects” field.

Flag follow-ups:

Create a skill: When I tell someone I’ll follow up, add a note to their CRM with the follow-up topic and date.

What Your CRM Looks Like

On your dashboard, the CRM view shows a clean table:

Name            Company      Role            Deal Stage    Last Meeting    Notes
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Sarah Chen      DesignLab    Head of Product Proposal      Feb 20, 2026    Enterprise plan interest
Alex Rivera     TechStartup  Co-founder      Lead          Feb 15, 2026    Series B, $30M (a16z)
Jamie Torres    NewCo        VP Design       Closed Won    Feb 22, 2026    Signed annual contract
Marcus Lee      Acme Corp    Director        Negotiation   Feb 18, 2026    Needs legal review
Pat Nguyen      Solo         Consultant      Lead          Feb 10, 2026    Referred by Jamie

Click any row to see the full contact details, email history, and meeting history.

Real-World Use Cases

Freelancers & Consultants

Track your pipeline without a heavy CRM:

Columns: Company, Project, Rate, Status, Last Invoice
Skill: When a client mentions a new project, add it to their record

Sales Teams

Lightweight deal tracking alongside scheduling:

Columns: Company, Deal Size, Stage, Decision Maker, Next Step
Skill: When a contact mentions budget, pricing, or decision timeline, update their record

Investors & VCs

Track portfolio and deal flow:

Columns: Fund Stage, Sector, Funding Round, Intro Source
Skill: When a founder mentions metrics or milestones, log them

Networkers

Remember everyone you meet:

Columns: Met At, Introduced By, Topics Discussed, Follow-Up
Skill: After every meeting, log the date and any action items discussed

Pro Tips

Start simple. You don’t need 20 columns. Start with 3-4 that matter most:

Company
Last Meeting (auto-updated)
One field specific to your workflow (Deal Stage, Project, Relationship)

Let Skills do the work. The whole point is that Carly updates your CRM as you go about your normal email life. Set up 2-3 Skills and let the data fill itself in.

Review weekly. Spend 5 minutes on Monday morning scanning your CRM view. It’s a quick way to see who you’ve talked to recently and who you should follow up with.

Combine with delegated outreach. See a contact you haven’t met with in a while? Tell Carly to reach out and schedule a check-in — right from the CRM view.

Get Started

Go to your Carly dashboard
Navigate to CRM
Add a few columns
Set up your first Skill

Or just email Carly and describe what you want to track — she’ll set it up for you.

Ready to automate your busywork?

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