> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.tiny.plus/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.tiny.plus/why-tiny+.md).

# Why tiny+

Why tiny+ is the CRM for design firms: the thinking behind it and who it suits.

tiny+ is a CRM for design firms: architects, engineers, planners, interior designers and the consultants who work with them. It's built for firms where winning work is everyone's job, not a sales team's.

## The problem

Design firms win work through relationships, over years. A client who was happy with the last project brings the next one, and a contact who moves to a new company brings an introduction. Most of what a firm knows about those relationships lives in people's heads and inboxes, and leaves with them.

Traditional CRMs don't fix this, because they're built for salespeople logging calls against a quota. Designers don't use them, so the data dies, and the firm is back to the spreadsheet.

tiny+ starts from the other end. It gives everyone in the firm a reason to open it every day, and the relationship data follows.

## Three things it does

**A pipeline for your projects.** Every lead, proposal and job sits in a [pipeline](/guides/getting-started/designing-your-project-pipeline.md) of statuses and phases that you design to match how your firm wins work. Drag a project along the board as it moves, and tiny+ keeps the fees, the odds and the history. The [built-in reports](/guides/reports/built-in-reports.md) answer the questions a director asks: what's open, what we won and lost, where proposals fall out, and what revenue is ahead.

**Relationships you manage on purpose.** Companies carry a [relationship status](/guides/getting-started/designing-your-client-relationship-pipeline.md) and a health rating that fades when a relationship goes quiet. A [relationship plan](/guides/everyday/relationship-plans.md) puts a client on a schedule of follow-ups; tiny+ books each one as a task, asks what happened, and books the next. [Lists](/guides/everyday/building-lists.md) hold your target clients and your event invitations.

**A news feed everyone uses.** Every project, company and contact has a [news feed](/guides/everyday/news-feed.md), and the posts flow into one feed for the firm. Met a client? Post the story. Won the job? tiny+ posts that for you. People follow the records they care about, mention each other, and comment. This is what makes the data live: the stories that never fit in a field are captured where the record is, and the whole firm shares one picture of its clients.

## What a week looks like

* Monday morning, everyone gets **My Week** by email: their tasks, meetings, proposals due and follow-ups, built from what they can see.
* A director reads **Followed by you** over coffee: a site photo from a project architect, a competitor's win shared from the news, a comment thread on a fee.
* A proposal moves to Won on the board. An [automated action](/guides/reports/automated-actions.md) creates the kickoff task and posts the news.
* After lunch with a client, the associate logs the follow-up on the company's relationship plan. The notes go on the feed, and the next catch-up is booked for a month's time.
* Someone types *"won jobs over 100k in health this year"* into the search box, and [Ask](/guides/everyday/ask-and-ai-assistants.md) answers.
* Friday afternoon, the **Weekly Update** goes to the feed: what moved, what was added, and who did it.

## Built for the way design firms work

* **Everyone has a login.** tiny+ is designed so that the whole firm uses it, from the graduate to the director. The relationship knowledge is in all their heads, so it needs all of them.
* **It fits your firm.** Pipeline phases, categories and tags, custom fields, forms and the panels on each record are yours to shape. Nothing has to be called what tiny+ calls it.
* **It works where you are.** On the web, in the [iPhone, iPad and Android apps](https://crm.tiny.plus/downloads), and alongside Outlook, with your contacts and calendar in sync.
* **It connects.** Two-way sync with [Synergy](/guides/integrations/synergy.md) practice management, lists to [Mailchimp](/guides/integrations/mailchimp.md) and [Campaign Monitor](/guides/integrations/campaign-monitor.md), [Zapier](/guides/integrations/zapier.md), an open [API](/api/intro.md), and AI assistants such as Claude through MCP.
* **It respects who can see what.** Roles, confidential records, two-factor sign-in and single sign-on, and reports that are built for each reader from what they're allowed to see.

## Who it suits

tiny+ suits firms that:

1. value openness, and want to take down the silos between studios, offices and disciplines;
2. look outward, and want everyone thinking about the client;
3. have long partnerships with their clients and their industry, rather than transactional sales.

It isn't a practice management system. Timesheets, invoicing and resourcing belong in a tool built for them, such as Synergy, and tiny+ syncs with it rather than replacing it.