Getting Started with HARi CRM: Your First 30 Minutes

You just signed up for HARi CRM. Now what?

Most CRM platforms dump you into a dashboard full of empty charts and leave you to figure things out. We think that’s backwards. You should feel productive within your first half hour, not your first half year.

This guide walks you through six steps that will take you from a blank account to a working system with your contacts, your pipeline, and your first follow-up task already scheduled. Total time: about 30 minutes.

Let’s go.

Step 1: Sign Up (30 seconds)

Head to app.haricrm.com/register and create your account. You only need four fields: your name, email, company name, and a password. That’s it. No credit card, no 20-question onboarding survey, no waiting for a sales rep to “activate” your account.

Once you hit Register, you’re in. Your workspace is ready immediately, with a clean dashboard, a default sales pipeline, and all core features unlocked for your 14-day trial.

Quick tip: invite your team right away. HARi doesn’t charge per user, so there’s no reason to wait. Go to Settings > Team and add anyone who needs access. They’ll get an email with their login link.

Step 2: Import Your Contacts (5 minutes)

Your CRM is only as useful as the data inside it. The fastest way to get started is to import the contacts you already have.

If you have a spreadsheet (Excel or CSV):

1. Go to Contacts in the left sidebar.
2. Click the Import button in the top-right corner.
3. Drag and drop your file, or click to browse.
4. HARi will automatically detect your columns and suggest field mappings. Review them — most of the time the auto-mapping is correct — and click Start Import.

That’s the whole process. A file with 500 contacts typically imports in under 10 seconds.

If you’re starting from scratch:

No spreadsheet? No problem. You can add contacts manually by clicking + New on the Contacts page. But before you start typing one by one, consider this: even a quick export from your email client or phone contacts will save you a lot of time. Most email apps (Gmail, Outlook) let you export contacts as a CSV file in a few clicks.

What about companies?

If your spreadsheet includes a company name column, HARi will automatically create company records and link your contacts to them. You don’t need to import companies separately.

Step 3: Set Up Your Pipeline (3 minutes)

A pipeline is simply the stages a deal goes through before it closes. HARi comes with a default pipeline that looks like this:

Qualification > Proposal > Negotiation > Closed Won / Closed Lost

For many businesses, that works right out of the box. But your sales process might be different — maybe you have a demo stage, or a trial period, or a contract review step. Customizing your pipeline takes about two minutes.

1. Go to Settings > Pipelines.
2. Click on the default pipeline to edit it.
3. Add, rename, reorder, or remove stages to match your actual sales process.
4. Hit Save.

Think about how you actually close deals today. What are the key milestones between “someone expressed interest” and “they paid us”? Those milestones are your stages.

Don’t overthink it. You can always adjust your pipeline later as you learn what works. Three to six stages is the sweet spot for most small businesses.

Step 4: Send Your First Email (2 minutes)

One of the most useful things about a CRM is that all your communication lives alongside your customer data. No more digging through your inbox to find that one email from three months ago.

Try it now:

1. Open any contact you imported in Step 2.
2. Click the Email tab on the contact record.
3. Compose a quick message — maybe a check-in, a follow-up, or just a “Hi, testing my new CRM.”
4. Hit Send.

The email is sent from your connected email address and automatically logged on the contact’s timeline. When they reply, that reply appears in the same place. Your entire conversation history with this person, in one view, forever.

If you haven’t connected your email yet, HARi will prompt you to do so. It takes about 60 seconds through OAuth — just sign in with your Google or Microsoft account and grant permission.

Step 5: Create Your First Task (1 minute)

Deals don’t close themselves. Behind every won deal is a series of follow-ups: calls to make, proposals to send, meetings to book. Tasks make sure none of those fall through the cracks.

1. From the same contact record, click + Task (or go to Tasks in the sidebar).
2. Give it a title: “Follow up on proposal,” “Schedule intro call,” whatever makes sense.
3. Set a due date.
4. Assign it to yourself (or a teammate).
5. Save.

That’s it. The task now appears on your dashboard, on the contact’s timeline, and in your task list. When the due date arrives, you’ll get a notification. No more relying on memory or sticky notes.

A good habit to build: every time you finish a conversation with a prospect, create a task for the next action. “Send pricing by Friday.” “Call back after their board meeting.” “Check in next month.” This one habit alone will transform how you manage relationships.

Step 6: Check Your Dashboard (see it all come together)

Now go back to your main Dashboard. What was an empty screen 25 minutes ago now shows real data:

• Your contacts are in the system, organized and searchable.
• Your pipeline reflects your actual sales process, ready for deals to flow through.
• Your recent activity shows the email you just sent and the task you just created.
• Your upcoming tasks remind you what needs to happen next.

This is the power of a CRM in its simplest form: everything in one place, nothing falling through the cracks.

As you keep using HARi over the coming days, you’ll notice the dashboard gets more valuable. Charts will show your pipeline health. Activity feeds will track your team’s momentum. AI suggestions will surface contacts you haven’t followed up with in a while.

But all of that builds on the foundation you just set up in 30 minutes.

What to Do Next

You’ve covered the essentials. Here are a few things to explore when you’re ready:

• Create your first deal: go to Opportunities, click + New, and link it to a contact and a pipeline stage.
• Try the AI enrichment: open a contact and click Enrich. HARi will pull in company info, social profiles, and recent news automatically.
• Set up a workflow: automate repetitive tasks like “send a welcome email when a new contact is created” or “notify me when a deal has been stuck for 7 days.”
• Explore on mobile: HARi works on any device. Open it on your phone next time you’re heading to a client meeting.

The best CRM is the one your team actually uses. And the best way to make sure they use it is to make it useful from day one.

You just did that in 30 minutes.

Start your free trial — no credit card required, unlimited users.