CRM records and timeline
How a WhatsApp conversation is linked to a Bitrix24 contact, lead, deal or Smart Process item, what is written on the CRM timeline, and who becomes the responsible of the records WASync creates.
Every WhatsApp conversation in WASync is linked to a Bitrix24 contact and, by the rules you set, to a lead, a deal or a Smart Process item. The contact is how the customer is recognised by phone number. The lead, deal or item is the record the team works on.
That link decides three things: who sees the chat in WASync Chat, which stage and responsible show on the conversation, and where the messages are written on the CRM timeline. This page describes each piece and where to change it.
Contacts
WASync stores every customer phone number in one canonical form: digits only, country code first, no "+" and no spaces. A number typed in national format (for example 0745 823 433) is completed with the Default Country of the portal, then with the country of the WhatsApp number it is sent from. If the country cannot be worked out, nothing is created and WASync asks for the country code.
On QR connections the customer's WhatsApp name and profile photo arrive in the Open Channel chat with their first message. If the photo is not ready within about a second and a half, the message is delivered anyway and the photo follows later.
An administrator can also copy them to the CRM contact. Open Settings and find CRM contact name and photo, then turn on Copy the WhatsApp name and profile photo to the CRM contact when they are empty.
- It is off by default.
- It fills the name and photo only when they are empty on the contact. It never overwrites what your team entered.
- It happens once per contact.
- On WhatsApp Business API numbers only the name is available, because Meta does not provide customer photos.
Every lead WASync creates comes with a contact: an existing one found by phone or email, otherwise a new one.
Leads and deals
When a customer writes, WASync links the conversation to their open record in this order: an open deal, then an open lead, then the contact. When the number is not in your CRM, the New chats from unknown numbers rule decides whether a lead is created and who gets it. That rule, round-robin, and the re-contact window after a closed lead are described in Leads from WhatsApp chats.
When a lead or deal has several contacts, the conversation of any of them is linked to that lead or deal, not only the primary contact's.
Each number creates its own lead
By default an open lead or deal counts for a conversation whatever channel it came from. The option Each number creates its own lead (off by default) changes that: an open record counts only if it was created or linked from the same WhatsApp number the customer wrote to.
Use it when one customer can reach you on several numbers and each number is a separate channel or branch with its own team, or when another WhatsApp tool runs next to WASync and creates its own leads. With it on:
- a customer who writes to a new number gets a new lead for that number, attached to their existing contact, assigned by your rule;
- the old record is not touched, and later messages on that number go to the new lead;
- the CRM timeline, the record shown on the conversation row and the stage filter follow the record of the number the last message came through.
Records created before the option was turned on have no number, so they are not matched per number.
Ad attribution
When the first message comes from a click-to-WhatsApp ad, WASync writes the UTM fields and the ad name on the lead or deal. The attribution is written on the contact as well and on every open deal that has none, and a later ad does not overwrite an existing attribution. A deal created a few minutes after the message still receives it.
Smart Processes
WASync treats a Smart Process item like a lead or a deal: the WASync tab on the item card shows the conversation with the item's client, a conversation in WASync Chat can be linked to an item, and messages are written on the item's timeline. WASync robots and Chat Flows can run from a process's automation rules.
The item needs a client with a phone number, so the process must have Client enabled. See Smart Processes (SPA) in WASync for the requirements and setup.
What is written on the timeline
Each WhatsApp message is written as a comment on the CRM timeline of the linked record: messages sent and received, files, send errors and robot sends. An administrator controls it in Settings under CRM Timeline Log.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Log WhatsApp messages in the CRM timeline | Off stops every timeline comment WASync writes. Nothing is deleted: the conversation stays in the CRM widget and in WASync Chat. |
| Write the comment only on the conversation's record | One comment per message, on the record the conversation is linked to: the open deal or lead, otherwise the contact. |
Without the second setting, every message is logged on every lead, deal, contact and company that carries the customer's number. For a customer with several records that buries the calls, tasks and notes your team needs to see, so most portals with many records per customer benefit from turning it on.
Some details:
- A reply sent from the Open Channel is logged once.
- A message sent by an operator is written as that operator's comment, so Bitrix24 shows them as the author, not the person who installed WASync.
- Incoming messages are logged by the app's user, because the customer is not a Bitrix24 user.
- Ad attribution is still written to the UTM fields when the timeline log is off.
Moving a conversation to another record
A conversation that is linked to a lead or a deal has a Change record button in WASync Chat, next to the responsible person. It opens the same search as Link to record. Pick the lead, deal or contact, confirm, and the conversation moves.
Only WASync's link changes. The old record keeps what is already written on its timeline, and new messages go to the new record. With Each number creates its own lead on, the link of that number is replaced and the target must be a lead or a deal.
If the deal a conversation was linked to is deleted in Bitrix24, you do not need to do anything. WASync confirms the record is gone, drops the old link and re-links the conversation: an open deal first, then an open lead, then the contact. A record you simply cannot read is never treated as deleted.
The responsible of records WASync creates
When WASync creates a lead for a new chat, or a Chat Flow creates a contact, lead or deal when it starts, the responsible is taken from the New chats from unknown numbers rule: the fixed person, or the next person in the round-robin list. Records created from the Create lead button in WASync Chat are assigned to the operator.
With the rule set to Off, no responsible is given, and Bitrix24 puts the record on the app's user: the administrator who installed WASync.
If your Open Channel routes conversations to the CRM responsible, every conversation of that customer then goes to the administrator who installed WASync. Set New chats from unknown numbers to Fixed person or Round-robin so that records created by WASync start with the right owner.
Related
- Leads from WhatsApp chats: the new-chats rule, round-robin and the re-contact window.
- Smart Processes (SPA) in WASync: the WASync tab and automation on items.