Picking up a FreeCRiM workbook a teammate already created
A team's first FreeCRiM workbook only needs creating once. Everyone who joins after that connects Microsoft 365 and picks the same file - they do not create their own.
Why picking, not creating, is the right move
FreeCRiM ties one Excel file to exactly one CRM: the file's own Microsoft identifier is what makes it your team's workbook, not a name or a folder. A second person who creates a new workbook gets a second, empty file with no relationship to the first - two disconnected companies lists, two disconnected pipelines. Picking the existing file instead means you and your teammate are reading and writing the same Companies, Contacts and Deals sheets from day one.
How to pick it up
- Connect Microsoft 365, the same step described in connecting Microsoft 365 and creating your first workbook - it is the same connect step whether you go on to create or to pick.
- Browse to the file your teammate shared with you, or that your team already keeps in a shared SharePoint library.
- FreeCRiM checks the file has the sheets and columns a FreeCRiM workbook is expected to have before adding you to it, and tells you plainly if something does not match rather than guessing.
Once added, you show up alongside your teammate as someone who can open the workbook - the file itself, not an invitation from FreeCRiM, is what decides who can reach it, exactly as it always has been in OneDrive and SharePoint.
What you get on day one
Everything already in the workbook - every company, contact, deal and activity your teammate entered - is there the moment you pick the file, because it was never anywhere else. There is no import step and nothing to wait for.