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Overview: Navigating The Menu, Search, And Layout


What is the left navigation bar in Exterio?

The left-hand bar is your primary navigation. It holds the + New button, global Search, every main page in the product, and your settings, notifications, and profile at the bottom.

How do I create a new contact, project, or task from anywhere?

Use the + New button at the top of the left navigation, or use the keyboard shortcut:

  • Windows: Ctrl + .
  • Mac: Cmd + .

You get three options:

Option What it opens
New Contact The new contact modal
New Project The new project modal — you can create a new contact while creating the project
New Task The new task modal

This works from anywhere in the product. You don't have to navigate to the Contacts page to add a contact.

 

How do I search across everything in Exterio?

Click the search bar, or use the keyboard shortcut:

  • Windows: Ctrl + K
  • Mac: Cmd + K

Global search covers more than records. Searching a name returns matching contacts, projects, estimates, and proposals. Searching a term also returns company settings — search "proposal" and you'll see proposal defaults, proposal templates, and proposal components.

What does each page in the navigation do?

Page What's there
Dashboard Your default landing page — your tasks, your leads, and your calendar for today (adjustable by day)
Contacts Every contact in your CRM. Search, open, edit, call, text, or email from here
Projects All current projects, shown on the Kanban board by default. Also viewable as a list
Calendar Your Exterio events plus connected Google or Outlook events, for you and the team
Tasks Your tasks, and company-wide tasks depending on your access credentials
Proposals Proposals in progress, sent, or signed
Campaigns Automated communication to customers, plus tasks, triggered by contact or project events
Workflows Automations based on triggers — changing a project or notifying internal team members
Files Internal company files, organized by your folder structure
Reporting Automated reports for the account

 

What's below the divider in the navigation?

Below the light gray divider are four items:

  • Help — the knowledge library, where you can search articles, submit support tickets, and see what's new in Exterio
  • Settings — your personal settings, plus account and feature settings depending on your credentials
  • Notifications — a preview of new notifications and access to view all of them
  • Your profile — manage your account, or sign out

 

Where is the AI support assistant?

Look for the purple book icon in the bottom right of the screen. Click it to ask questions about how to do something in Exterio.

Use it when you can't remember where a feature lives and don't want to leave what you're working on.

 

What's the difference between Campaigns and Workflows?

Campaigns handle communication going out to customers — automated emails, texts, and related tasks, triggered by contact or project events.

Workflows handle what happens inside your business — automations that change a project or notify your internal team based on triggers.

If the customer receives it, it's a campaign. If your team acts on it, it's a workflow.

 

Tips and gotchas

  • Learn the two shortcuts and you'll stop navigating. Ctrl/Cmd + . to create and Ctrl/Cmd + K to search cover most of what people click through menus for. On a busy day taking calls, this is the difference between capturing a lead and losing it.

  • Search settings, not just records. Most people don't realize global search returns settings pages. If you can't remember where proposal templates live, search "proposal" rather than hunting through the settings menu.

  • What you see depends on your permissions. The Tasks page shows company-wide tasks only if your access allows it. If a page or option in this article isn't visible to you, that's a permissions setting, not a missing feature — check with your admin.

  • The Projects Kanban board isn't your only view. It defaults to Kanban, but the list view is often better for filtering and scanning a large volume of jobs.

  • Create the project, not just the contact. The New Project option lets you create the contact at the same time. When a lead call is clearly a job, use New Project and skip the two-step.