NextClient

NextClient is a Laravel 13 + Vue 3 + Inertia.js CRM for freelancers and small service businesses. It ships with custom Fortify-based authentication, optional Socialite login, a polished SaaS-style dashboard, client management, searchable records, client notes, archive workflows, reminder tooling, and production-safe defaults.

Stack

• PHP 8.3
• Laravel 13
• SQLite by default
• Vue 3 + Inertia.js
• Tailwind CSS v4
• Laravel Fortify
• Laravel Socialite
• PHPUnit

Core Features

• Custom login, registration, password reset, remember me, logout, and email verification
• Optional social login with Google, Facebook, and GitHub
• Dashboard stats for total clients, active clients, leads, due follow-ups, recent clients, and recent notes
• Workspace-aware dashboard widgets for open tasks and recent communications
• Follow-up reminder panels for overdue and upcoming clients
• Daily reminder email preferences plus CLI reminder commands for local development
• Personal and shared workspaces with member roles, workspace switching, and invite-by-email membership
• Client create, edit, show, archive, restore, and permanent delete after archive
• Admin/user roles with a simple admin workspace screen
• CSV export with current filters applied
• CSV import with validation and safe email-based updates
• Client notes timeline
• Client task tracking with priorities, due dates, and completion states
• Client communication logging for calls, emails, meetings, and messages
• Proposal and invoice lite tracking tied to each client
• Secure token-based client portal links for shared client-facing document views
• Private client attachments with upload, download, and cleanup on delete
• Client tags, smart views, and saved views for repeat filtering
• Client activity timeline and dashboard activity feed
• Quick contact actions for email, phone, and marking a client as contacted
• Search by name, company, email, and phone
• Status filtering and archived filtering
• Authorization policies to keep users scoped to their own data
• Friendly 403, 404, 419, 500, and 503 behavior

Local Setup

1. Install PHP, Composer, Node.js, and npm.
2. Install dependencies:

composer install
npm install

3. Create your environment file and application key:

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

4. Create the SQLite database file:

touch database/database.sqlite

5. Run migrations:

php artisan migrate

6. Optionally seed local sample CRM data:

php artisan db:seed

7. Start the app for development:

composer run dev

If you prefer separate processes:

php artisan serve
php artisan queue:listen --tries=1 --timeout=0
npm run dev

Social Login Setup

Social sign-in buttons are only shown when the matching provider keys are configured.

Set these values in .env as needed:

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=
GOOGLE_REDIRECT_URI="${APP_URL}/auth/google/callback"

FACEBOOK_CLIENT_ID=
FACEBOOK_CLIENT_SECRET=
FACEBOOK_REDIRECT_URI="${APP_URL}/auth/facebook/callback"

GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=
GITHUB_REDIRECT_URI="${APP_URL}/auth/github/callback"

If a provider is missing credentials, NextClient hides that button and fails gracefully if its callback is hit directly.

Demo Accounts

If you run the local sample seeder, NextClient creates these accounts:

• owner@example.com / password Role: admin Use case: primary administrator with the largest demo dataset, useful for testing the dashboard, admin panel, imports, exports, reminders, and social login linking.
• admin@example.com / password Role: admin Use case: second administrator so you can safely test admin-to-user role changes without removing the last admin from the system.
• freelancer@example.com / password Role: user Use case: normal solo freelancer account for testing the everyday CRM flow without admin access.
• user@example.com / password Role: user Use case: second regular user with separate client records, useful for confirming that users cannot see or change each other’s data.

Each seeded account has its own client records and notes so you can test data ownership properly.

The sample seeder also creates a shared workspace called Acme Collaborative with all four demo users added as members. Use the Workspace settings page to switch into it and test the multi-user workspace flow, shared clients, tasks, communications, proposals, and portal links.

User Types and What They Can Do

• admin Main use case: manage the workspace itself. Can: open the Admin screen, review users, and change user roles. Cannot: see other users’ clients, notes, attachments, or activity just because they are an admin. Data ownership rules still apply.
• user Main use case: run their own CRM workspace. Can: manage only their own clients, notes, attachments, reminders, imports, exports, and saved views. Cannot: open the Admin screen or change roles.

Useful Commands

Build frontend assets:

npm run build

Run the test suite:

php artisan test

Preview reminder emails without sending anything:

php artisan crm:preview-followup-reminders

Preview reminders for one user on a specific date:

php artisan crm:preview-followup-reminders --user=owner@example.com --date=2026-03-30

Queue reminder emails manually:

php artisan crm:send-followup-reminders

Queue a reminder digest for one user right away:

php artisan crm:send-followup-reminders --user=owner@example.com --force

Create a timestamped SQLite backup:

php artisan crm:backup:sqlite

Create a backup in a custom folder:

php artisan crm:backup:sqlite --path=/absolute/path/to/backups

Run formatting and static checks:

composer run lint:check
npm run types:check
npm run format:check

SQLite and Writable Paths

Make sure these paths are writable by the web server user in local or production:

• storage/
• bootstrap/cache/
• database/database.sqlite

The default drivers are chosen for simple VPS deployment:

• DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
• SESSION_DRIVER=database
• CACHE_STORE=database
• QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

For SQLite-specific backups, NextClient includes:

php artisan crm:backup:sqlite

That command copies your active SQLite file into storage/app/backups/sqlite with a timestamped filename.

Reminder emails are queued, so for local testing you should keep a worker running:

php artisan queue:work --tries=1 --timeout=90

Production Checklist

1. Set a real APP_URL.
2. Set APP_ENV=production.
3. Set APP_DEBUG=false.
4. Configure mail, session domain, and HTTPS at the web server level.
5. Create database/database.sqlite if you are deploying with SQLite.
6. Ensure storage, bootstrap/cache, and the SQLite file are writable.
7. Install dependencies and build assets:

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
npm ci
npm run build

8. Run database and cache steps:

php artisan migrate --force
php artisan optimize
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

9. Run a queue worker:

php artisan queue:work --tries=1 --timeout=90

Notes

• Archive is separate from client status.
• Permanent delete is only allowed after a client has been archived.
• Client attachments are stored privately on the local disk by default and are removed from storage when an attachment or archived client is permanently deleted.
• Tags are user-owned, so each account keeps its own labeling system and saved views.
• The admin screen manages elevated access only. Users still only see their own clients, notes, attachments, and activity.
• OAuth access tokens are not persisted.
• CSV imports create new clients or update existing ones when the email already belongs to one of your clients.
• The dashboard now includes reminder and activity sections so follow-up work is easier to prioritize.
• The database schema stays Eloquent-first and database-agnostic so moving to PostgreSQL or MySQL later is straightforward.