Multi-branch CRM · Roles & permissions

A multi-branch CRM with role-based access down to every stage

Xale is a multi-branch CRM for study-abroad and education consultancies that have outgrown one shared list of leads. Counsellors work the leads assigned to them, branch managers see their own branches, and admins see the whole organisation. Underneath sits a permission dial on every pipeline stage, so you decide who can edit, bulk-update, move or roll back a lead at Application, Deposit or Visa.

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Updated September 2026 · By the Xale team

Why teams outgrow a flat CRM

Running five branches and 100+ counsellors without chaos

Growth breaks a CRM in predictable ways. A counsellor calls a student another branch is already working. A new joiner exports the whole lead list in week one. Two people think they own an application, and each assumes the other followed up.

Xale answers with three rules. Every user belongs to one or more branches. Every role has a level on every pipeline stage. Every lead and every deal has at most one active owner per role. The sections below walk through each control, what it does, and where its limits are.

counsellor calls synced to leads in a single month: 60,000+
WhatsApp messages handled in a single month: 25,000+
new leads captured every month: 10,000+
user seats in our largest single workspace: 150+

Platform figures, September 2026. Anonymised totals across Xale workspaces; demo and test workspaces excluded.

CRM user roles and permissions

Build roles in four steps from a ready starting point

Roles are built in a four-step wizard from one of four role templates: Admin, Manager, Counsellor or Custom. Each template fills in sensible stage, lead-source and lead permissions as a starting point, and you can change any of it before saving. A new study-abroad workspace already has Super Admin, Admin, Manager, Counsellor and Telecaller roles, so most teams start by editing rather than building from scratch.

1
Basic details
Name the role and pick its starting point: Admin, Manager, Counsellor / Sales staff, or Custom (which starts from Counsellor and lets you set everything by hand).
2
Modules
Choose which parts of the CRM the role can open, such as leads, reports, automations, WhatsApp and settings. Anything left out disappears from that role's sidebar.
3
Permission
Set the role's level on every pipeline stage, then its access to each lead source, each pipeline track and specific custom-field values.
4
Preview
Read back everything the role will be able to do before you save it and assign it to people.

CRM with role-based access, stage by stage

A permission dial on every pipeline stage

One set of permissions for every lead stops working once each stage belongs to a different team. Xale sets them stage by stage. A telecaller can work leads freely at Inquiry and Qualify, read them at Application, and be kept out of Deposit entirely, where fees are discussed. Lead management on each stage has five levels, and that level also decides whose leads the role can reach there. The other controls on the stage have their own, simpler settings.

The five levels, and whose leads each one reaches

Stage permission levels and the leads each level can reach
Level on a stage	Leads the role reaches in that stage	Typical holder
Admin	Every lead in that stage across the user's branches, plus leads not yet placed in any branch	Head office, operations
Manage	Every lead in that stage across the user's branches	Branch managers, team leads
Edit	Only the leads and deals assigned to the user, which they can update	Counsellors, telecallers
View	Only the leads and deals assigned to the user, read-only	Trainees, auditors
Deny	Nothing. The stage is closed to the role	Anyone who has no business at that stage

What the dial controls on each stage

Controls that are set per pipeline stage for each role
Control	What it covers	Settings
Lead management	Opening and working leads in the stage. Its level also decides whose leads the role reaches there.	Admin · Manage · Edit · View · Deny
Follow-ups	Scheduling and handling follow-ups on leads in the stage	Edit · View · Deny
Deadlines	Setting status-to-status deadlines and closing them by hand with a note	Edit · View · Deny
Activity history	Seeing the lead's timeline and call history, in full or only from the moment the lead reached this person	Full view · From assignment onwards · Deny
Bulk edit	Changing many leads at once from the list	Allow · Deny
Move	Moving leads forward from the stage	Separate right on each stage
Rollback	Sending leads back to an earlier stage	Separate right on each stage

Beyond stages, a role can be given or refused access per lead source, per pipeline track and per custom-field value, which is how the territory controls further down work.

Branch-wise lead management

Who sees what across your branches

Branch visibility for admins, branch managers and counsellors
Person	What they see	How it is set
Admin	The whole organisation: every branch, every lead	An admin account
Branch manager	Every lead in the branches they belong to	Manage level on the stages, linked to one or more branches
Counsellor or telecaller	Only the leads and deals assigned to them	Edit or view level on the stages

How it works, in plain words

Behind that table is one rule, applied stage by stage. Admin-level stages show the leads in your branches plus any lead not yet placed in a branch, so head office catches enquiries nobody has routed. Manage-level stages show everything in your branches. Edit- and view-level stages show only what is assigned to you. Denied stages show nothing, and a role with no stage access sees no leads at all, the safe default for a new role.

Because the rule runs per stage, one person can manage leads at Application and only see their own at Visa. People can belong to several branches, and when someone leaves a branch the membership is revoked rather than deleted, so the record of where they worked is kept.

Finer controls

Territories, hidden fields and masked phone numbers

Territory access by field value

Grant a country manager the UK value of your Country field with Manage rights, and they see every UK lead in the branches they belong to, including leads assigned to other counsellors. Values such as a destination country can also be restricted to specific users.

Hide a whole field from a role

Deny a custom field to a role and it disappears from that role's pickers, lead cards and filters. Use it for fee negotiations, partner commissions or internal ratings that front-line staff should not see.

Mask numbers on list views

Switch on masking and phone numbers on the list, grid and board views show only the last two digits, so one screenshot cannot leak your lead base. The lead drawer still shows the full number, so calling is unaffected.

Hierarchy and ownership

One owner per role, and a history that is never deleted

Every lead and every deal can have one active owner per role: one counsellor, one telecaller, one manager. The database itself enforces this, so an import or an automation cannot leave a student with two counsellors. The same role can repeat across deals, so a student applying to three universities can have a different counsellor on each application.

When ownership changes, the old assignment is revoked, not deleted. The lead keeps a record of everyone who held it, and a workspace setting lets admin-level users see previous assignees on the lead itself, dimmed and labelled.

Conversations follow ownership too. Each lead and application has an internal team thread, and anyone who can open the lead can read and post, so a new owner sees the whole discussion and a previous one loses it unless their role still covers the lead. See internal team chat in the CRM.

Role hierarchy in team filters

Roles are ranked from Super Admin down. When a manager filters the dashboard, reports or follow-ups, Xale offers only their own role and roles ranked below it, and a role can exclude specific roles from those pickers. This tidies the choices; it does not change which leads anyone can read or who can be assigned.

Round-robin lead distribution

Fair lead distribution by role, branch and country

Distribution runs as automation actions, so you choose when it fires: on a new lead, a stage or status change, an assignment change, a re-enquiry, or a time-based rule such as an idle lead. Automatic assignments pass the same eligibility checks as manual ones, and business-hours windows and cooldowns keep them from firing at the wrong moment.

Least-loaded assignment

Each new lead goes to the eligible user with the fewest assignments that day, filtered by role and by one or more branches.

Fair per country

Balance by a custom-field value such as destination country, so one counsellor does not collect every UK enquiry.

Separate owners per application

Distribute deals rather than leads, so each university application under one student can go to its own counsellor.

Strict round-robin reshuffles

Move stale leads, such as those with no follow-up or no activity for a set time, to the next branch in strict rotation, then optionally hand each one to the least-loaded eligible counsellor in its new branch.

CRM for large counselling teams

Departments, team performance and dashboards for each role

Departments

Departments group roles and people the way your organisation chart does, for example admissions, visa and accounts, and they work as a filter on role and user lists. They do not decide who sees which lead.

Team performance

Reports are scoped the same way the lead list is: counsellors see their own numbers, branch managers their branches, admins everything, and exports never show more than the viewer can see in the app. The reports include counsellor scorecards, a per-user daily activity grid, and targets against actuals per branch, role or counsellor. See how role-scoped reports and drill-downs work.

Dashboards for each role

In the role editor, an admin allows or denies each dashboard widget for a role, or a whole section at once: Summary, Leads, Calls, Payments, Performance, Insights or Tracks. The server leaves denied widgets out of that role's dashboard, so they are not just hidden on screen. A telecaller's dashboard can stay on calls and follow-ups while a branch manager's shows branch performance and payments.

Favourite views and saved report views

On the leads list, anyone can save a set of filters as a favourite view (Favorite Views in the app). It gets its own sidebar entry and can be shared with the roles you choose. Relative dates such as “last 7 days” stay relative, and a view someone has edited can be reset to what was saved. On the reports page, any tab's filters can be saved as a report view, shared with the team and scheduled by email or WhatsApp. See what is live today in reports and dashboards.

Role-based follow-ups

Follow-ups that know whose job each one is

In a consultancy, several people work the same student: a telecaller, a counsellor, an application or visa team. With one shared follow-up date, whoever touched it last decides everyone's day. Xale gives each role its own.

One follow-up per role, on every lead and deal
The telecaller's callback and the counsellor's document check sit side by side on the same student, and each university application carries its own. One role's date never overwrites another role's.
Rules set by stage
Stage permissions decide, stage by stage, which roles carry a follow-up, which can move the date and which can only see it.
India calendar days, reminders on the minute
Overdue, Today and Later split at IST midnight. When a follow-up comes due, its owner gets a web popup, a mobile push and an inbox alert.
Hand-overs and a team view
Each role's follow-up stays with that role's owner on the lead or deal. Managers see the total for the roles in their team.

How role-based follow-up management works in Xale

White-label CRM on a custom domain

Your domain and your logo on the login page

Run Xale on your own subdomain, such as crm.yourconsultancy.com. Settings walks you through DNS verification with a TXT record and a CNAME, Xale then provisions the SSL certificate automatically, and the login page shows your company name and logo. The custom domain and branded login are what white-labelling covers today.

A workspace that is ready on day one

Pick your industry at signup and Xale builds the workspace: default roles, a pipeline with stages, statuses and sub-statuses, lead sources, a main branch, dashboard widgets and email templates. There are six industry templates: Study Abroad, Education, Manpower, Video Production, Academy and Travel. The study-abroad pipeline runs Inquiry, Qualify, Application, Deposit, Visa and Enrolled, and you can rename or extend any of it. Then bulk-import leads from Excel or CSV, 1,000 rows per batch by default, with duplicate phone numbers caught before anything is written.

Activity timeline, sign-in logs and Trash

Every change to a lead or deal lands on its activity timeline with who made it and when. A separate admin system log records sign-ins and destructive actions such as deletions and disconnections, with the user, IP address and device. Deleted leads go to Trash first and come back in one click, though moving a lead to Trash permanently removes its documents and internal team chat. For how workspaces are kept apart and backed up, read the Xale platform and security overview.

Limits worth knowing before you choose

No single sign-on (SSO or SAML). People sign in with email and password, or with their Google account.
Phone masking guards against screenshots. It does not stop an allowed user from seeing the number in the lead drawer.
The admin system log covers sign-ins and destructive actions, not every settings change.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about multi-branch access in Xale

What is a multi-branch CRM?

A multi-branch CRM keeps one organisation's leads in a single system while controlling which branch, team and person can see and change each lead. In Xale, users belong to branches, every role has a level on every pipeline stage, and each lead or deal has one active owner per role.

Can counsellors in one branch see another branch's leads?

Not unless you allow it. A counsellor with edit or view level sees only the leads and deals assigned to them. A branch manager with manage level sees the leads in the branches they belong to. Only admins see every branch; anyone else sees another branch's leads only if you add them to that branch or assign them a lead there.

Can one person have different access at different stages?

Yes. Permissions are set per stage, so the same role can manage leads at Application and only view its own at Visa. The level on each stage decides what the person can do there and whose leads they reach.

What does the stage permission dial control?

Lead management on each stage takes one of five levels (admin, manage, edit, view or deny), and that level also decides whose leads the role reaches there. Follow-ups and deadlines are set to edit, view or deny; the activity timeline to full view, view from assignment onwards, or deny; and bulk edit to allow or deny. Moving leads forward and rolling them back are separate rights on each stage.

How does Xale stop two counsellors owning the same lead?

Each lead and each deal can have only one active owner per role, and the database itself enforces the rule, so imports and automations cannot break it either. When ownership changes, the old assignment is revoked rather than deleted, so the lead keeps its ownership history.

Does Xale support round-robin lead distribution?

Yes, through automation actions. You can assign to the least-loaded eligible user by role or branch, balance by a field such as destination country, give each university application its own owner, and reshuffle stale leads across branches in strict round-robin order.

Can we hide sensitive fields or phone numbers from some roles?

Yes. A whole custom field can be denied to a role, which removes it from that role's pickers, lead cards and filters. A workspace setting also masks phone numbers on list, grid and board views, showing only the last two digits, while the lead drawer still shows the full number for calling.

Can we run Xale on our own domain?

Yes. You can run the CRM on your own subdomain. Xale guides you through DNS verification, provisions the SSL certificate automatically, and shows your company name and logo on the login page.

Can different roles see different dashboards?

Yes. In the role editor, an admin allows or denies each dashboard widget for a role, or a whole section at once: Summary, Leads, Calls, Payments, Performance, Insights or Tracks. The server leaves denied widgets out of that role's dashboard, so they are not just hidden on screen.

Do departments control who sees which leads?

No. Departments group roles and people the way your organisation chart does, and they work as a filter on role and user lists. Who sees which lead is decided by branches and by each role's level on each pipeline stage.

Does Xale support single sign-on (SSO)?

Not today. People sign in with email and password, or with their Google account. If single sign-on is a hard requirement for your organisation, raise it with us before you roll Xale out.

Set up your branches and roles, then bring the team in.

Start with the workspace Xale builds for your industry, adjust the roles and stage permissions, and import your leads.