A small business client database is the single record of who your clients are, what you have sold them and what you know about them, kept where the whole team can find it. This article is about its design: which fields each client record needs, how records link to companies and deals, and how to build that structure on the platform so it stays clean as the team grows. Get the design right and anyone can answer a client question in seconds. Get it wrong and the database fills with free text that nobody can search or report on.
What a client database has to hold
Every client record answers four kinds of question. Who is this person and how do we reach them? Which organisation do they belong to? What have they bought, and what is open now? What do we know that the next person to speak to them needs?
Those four questions map to four parts of the database: the contact record, the company record, the opportunities linked to them, and a small set of custom fields for business facts. Notes and conversations sit on top, but the structure underneath is what makes the database usable.
Before you start
- A list of the facts your team asks about clients most often, gathered from a week of real questions.
- Your current client data in whatever form it exists: a spreadsheet, an accounting system, an old CRM, email.
- One person who will own the database design and approve new fields.
- Admin access to the platform.
How to set it up
Build the structure before importing anything. Changing a field after a few thousand records have landed is far harder than getting it right on an empty system.
- Review the standard contact fields and decide which ones you will use.
- Go to Settings, then Custom Fields, and click Create field.
- Choose a dropdown, date or number Field type wherever possible.
- Enter the Field name and Folder name, then Create custom field.
- Write your tag policy: purpose, owners and a short starting list.
- Go to Settings, open Business Profile and find Contact Duplication Preferences.
- Turn Allow Duplicate Contact off and match on Email or Phone.
- Prepare one row per person, with a company name column.
- Go to Contacts and click Import Contacts.
- Map each column to its field, then start the import.
- Go to Contacts, then Smart Lists, and click + Add smart list.
- Add the filters for each view, click Apply, then Create.
- Check a sample of records before the database goes live.
Suppose the broker gathers a week of client questions and finds the same eight recurring: product type, lender, rate expiry date, adviser, referral source, property value band, protection in place, and next review date. All eight would become custom fields: six dropdowns and two dates, with free-text notes kept for context. The payoff would be a one-click list of every client whose rate expires in the next 90 days, a job that could take half a day of searching emails.
Why field types matter more than field count
Most client databases go wrong in the same way. Someone needs to record a fact, a free-text field is the quickest option, and over two years the same fact appears as "Yes", "yes", "Y", "agreed" and "see notes". None of it can be filtered, so none of it can be reported on.
Use the most restrictive field type that fits. A dropdown keeps values consistent. A date field lets you build lists such as renewals due next quarter. A number field can be summed and averaged. Keep free text for context a person reads, not for facts a list or report needs.
What the database is for in a company with flat revenue
A well-designed client database turns existing clients into a source of growth. Once renewal dates, services held and last contact sit in proper fields, you can see which clients are due a review, which have bought only one of your services and which have gone quiet. That is where the easiest new revenue is, and a free-text database hides it.
It replaces the accounting system as the place people look up clients, the adviser's personal spreadsheet and the inbox search that takes ten minutes. The routine that acts on these lists is covered in the client management routine.
The time it takes
Designing the fields takes half a day once you have the list of questions. Building them takes an hour or two. Cleaning and importing existing data takes longer, typically one to three days depending on how scattered it is. After that, the owner spends perhaps 30 minutes a week reviewing new tags and field requests.
The mistake most people make
Letting anyone create fields and tags. Within a year there are three fields for the same fact and dozens of tags nobody remembers creating. One owner approves every new field, and tags follow a short written policy.
When not to add structure
If you have only a handful of clients and one person serves all of them, a detailed field design is more work than it saves. Keep the standard fields and good notes. Add custom fields when a second person needs to answer client questions without asking the first.
If your aim is a list of everyone you have ever dealt with, including prospects and suppliers, read contact management for small business as well, because the rules for capturing and cleaning non-clients are different. For paying customers and purchase history, the customer database guide covers the commercial side.
Troubleshooting
Imported values do not match the dropdown options. The source data uses different spellings. Standardise the column in your file to the exact dropdown values before importing, or add the missing option if it is genuinely needed.
Contacts are not linked to their companies. The company name in the file differs slightly from the existing company record. Make the names consistent and re-run the link for the affected rows.
Smart lists show the wrong clients. The filter uses a free-text field where values vary. Change the field to a dropdown, clean the values and rebuild the list.
The contact record has become hard to read. Too many fields are visible at once. Move rarely used fields into a separate folder and keep the most-used group at the top.
Frequently asked questions
How many custom fields should a client database have?
As many as your recurring client questions need, and no more. For most firms of 10 to 250 people that lands somewhere between eight and twenty. Every field should be filled in for most clients; a field that is empty on almost every record should go.
Should clients and prospects live in the same database?
Yes, in the same system, distinguished by a field or a pipeline stage rather than kept apart. When a prospect becomes a client, their whole history comes with them. Use smart lists to separate the views.
Where should notes go versus fields?
Facts you will filter, sort or report on go in fields. Context a person reads before a call, such as how a meeting went, goes in notes. If you find yourself searching notes for the same fact repeatedly, it should be a field.
Can we change the field design later?
Yes, but every change after import means updating existing records. Adding a field is easy. Changing a free-text field into a dropdown means cleaning every value first. Design carefully before the first import and change sparingly after it.