Capsule CRM suits a sole broker or a small broker-assistant team that wants one shared place for client conversations, follow-up tasks and pipeline stages. It is a general CRM, so the loan application, lender assessment and lodgement stay in your aggregator’s system. A growing brokerage can still use Capsule, but only on a plan with user roles and teams, and only if someone owns the manual handoff between the two systems.
The rest of this review tests that verdict against three fictional brokerages.
Decide Where Capsule Fits a Brokerage
Capsule belongs in a brokerage that wants better relationship follow-up and already runs its loans through an aggregator system. Capsule CRM stores people and organisations, tracks deals as opportunities through pipeline milestones, runs post-sale work as projects and assigns tasks to users. None of those records assesses a borrower against lender policy or sends an application to a lender.
The verdict changes with the size of the team:
| Brokerage | What it needs from a CRM | Capsule verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Sole broker | Follow-up reminders, email history and a pipeline view | Good fit on a lower plan, because access control matters little |
| Broker and one assistant | Shared tasks, consistent stages and a clear owner for each next action | Good fit if tracks and milestones are set up before go-live |
| Growing brokerage with several brokers | Restricted access, team reporting and a reliable handoff to the aggregator | Workable on Growth or above, with a written handoff rule |
The value of Capsule is simpler client follow-up. A broker who uses it to remember review calls, chase documents and see every email with a client gains a tidy relationship record. Capsule’s integrations directory lists no Australian aggregator, lender or lodgement connection. The aggregator CRM still holds the application, so Capsule adds a second record to keep current.
Assess Clients, Joint Applicants and Multiple Loans
Capsule models a household best as an organisation record with both applicants linked to it as people. Its contacts guide says a person can belong to only one organisation, and an organisation can have many people linked to it. A person’s history also appears on the linked organisation.
Here is how each structure handles a fictional couple, Sam and Priya, who buy a home and later an investment property:
| Modelling choice | How Capsule supports it | Consequence for the file |
|---|---|---|
| Household organisation with Sam and Priya linked as people | Supported: an opportunity linked to Sam sets the organisation as the main contact and adds Sam as an additional contact | Both applicants’ history shows on one record, so a search for either name finds the household |
| Sam and Priya as separate people with no organisation | Supported, but the second applicant is a manual convention, such as a tag or custom field | Priya’s emails stay on her record and don’t show on the loan, so the assistant can miss them |
| One opportunity for each loan application | Supported: each opportunity has its own milestone, owner, expected close date and value | Purchase and investment loans report separately, and each keeps its own tasks |
| One opportunity reused for repeat business | Not a supported pattern, only a manual one | Won and lost dates no longer describe one application, so pipeline reports mislead |
The opportunity guide confirms that an opportunity must link to a contact. When that contact is a person in an organisation, Capsule sets the organisation as the main contact and adds the person as an additional contact.
The household structure has one limit. Because a person can belong to only one organisation, a client who is also a director of a company you track as an organisation can’t link to both. Pick one convention for that case and write it down.
Notes are where a wrong link does the most damage. A note added to the household shows across every loan for that household. A task created on an opportunity stays with that opportunity, not the contact, according to Capsule’s tasks guide. Agree that loan-specific notes and tasks go on the loan’s opportunity, and household conversations go on the organisation.
Review Tasks, Permissions and Consent Evidence
Capsule gives each next action an owner, but it limits who sees what only on the Growth plan and above. Test both against one fictional team made up of broker Dana and her assistant Lee.
Tasks first. A track is a set of tasks an administrator defines in advance, according to Capsule’s tracks guide. Each task falls due a set number of days after the track starts or after the previous task is completed. Each step can go to a named user, to the opportunity owner or to whoever completed the previous step.
For Dana and Lee, a document-collection track might give Lee the requests and reminders, then give Dana the broker review once Lee finishes. The track records who completed each task and when. A completed task shows only that a user ticked it. It doesn’t prove that the client consented or that Dana approved the recommendation.
Capsule’s user roles guide sets out what each role can see:
| Role | Records the user can see | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Restricted user | Only records and tasks assigned to them | Growth, Advanced or Ultimate |
| Standard user | Unassigned records and records assigned to their teams | All plans, with team restriction on Growth and above |
| Administrator | Every record in the account, plus account settings | All plans |
Standard users see every task in the account. When they lack access to the linked record, they see only the task description. A record assigned to an owner but no team is visible to all standard users. To keep a sensitive file away from most staff, assign it to a separate team with only the people who need it.
Removing a staff member is handled cleanly. When an administrator deletes a user, Capsule keeps the emails and notes that user entered. It reassigns their open tasks, projects, opportunities and contacts to a user you choose. A suspended user can’t log in but stays on the bill, so delete a departing assistant rather than suspend them.
These permissions protect what each user sees inside Capsule. They don’t create consent evidence. Keep signed privacy consents, credit guide records and identity documents where your licensee’s record-keeping rules require. Your handling of them still has to meet the Australian Privacy Principles. Capsule’s full export excludes file attachments, so documents stored only in Capsule don’t leave with the export.
Follow a File Into the Aggregator Workflow
Capsule moves an enquiry up to lodgement, then a person copies the file into the aggregator’s system by hand. Follow one fictional enquiry through Dana and Lee’s setup.
- A client fills in a web form, and a form integration such as Jotform creates the contact and an opportunity. Lee can also forward an email to Capsule’s Mail Drop Box, which can create an opportunity from it.
- Lee starts the document-collection track. Each request and reminder is a dated task assigned to Lee.
- The opportunity moves to a “Broker review” milestone, and the track assigns Dana her review task.
- Dana enters the application in the aggregator’s system. Lee copies the aggregator’s deal reference into a Capsule custom field and moves the opportunity to “Lodged”.
- After lodgement, status changes such as conditional approval and settlement happen in the aggregator’s system. Someone updates the Capsule milestone to match.
Steps 4 and 5 carry the burden. Every identifier and stage change is entered twice, and Capsule can’t tell when the two systems disagree. Give one person responsibility for the handoff. Add a final track task, such as “Confirm lodged and record the deal reference”, assigned to the opportunity owner, so a missed handoff appears as an overdue task.
The complete file then lives in two places. Capsule holds the conversations, follow-up history and pipeline position. The aggregator’s system holds the application, the documents and the lender correspondence. The deal reference in the custom field is the link between them, so a file without one can’t be traced quickly.
Commission data stays outside Capsule too: its integrations directory lists no aggregator connection, and trail for a settled loan arrives in the aggregator’s commission report. Track My Trail reads those reports to show which clients were added, discharged or refinanced each month, beside whichever CRM keeps your client follow-up.
Weigh Integrations, Portability and Operating Effort
Capsule’s integrations cover email, calendars, accounting and automation, but every link to broking software is a custom build. Here is what the documentation supports:
| Connection | What it exchanges | Direction and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail and Outlook email sync | Sent and received emails, stored on the matching person or organisation | Automatic logging into Capsule, which you can turn off and store chosen emails only. The pricing page lists email sync on Growth and above |
| Gmail add-on and Outlook add-in | Contacts, conversations and opportunities, worked from the inbox | Manual saving from the inbox |
| Google and Outlook calendars | Calendar events, shown beside Capsule tasks | You can create events from a contact record or the Capsule calendar |
| Zapier and Make | Records Capsule exposes, such as contacts and opportunities | Automation you build and maintain |
| Developer API | Capsule records for a custom integration | Requires a developer, and an aggregator system with its own API |
The Gmail and Outlook announcement says teammates see recent emails on a record even when they weren’t copied in. That helps an assistant follow a client’s thread. It also means client emails become visible to everyone with access to that record.
Portability is partial. Capsule’s export guide produces a ZIP of three CSV files for contacts, opportunities and projects, with note and email history in the last column. The full export excludes file attachments, which must be downloaded record by record, and the guide doesn’t list tasks. Only administrators with export rights can run it. If you leave Capsule, plan the move as a CRM migration and check the export against your source records.
Operating effort comes from plan requirements and setup. Capsule’s pricing page bills paid plans per user, monthly or annually. Its features step up across five plans:
- Free allows two users and 250 contacts with one sales pipeline.
- Starter adds email templates, a shared mailbox and premium integrations such as Xero.
- Growth adds user roles, permissions and access controls, workflow automation, email sync and up to five project boards.
- Advanced raises pipeline and project board limits to 50 each.
- Ultimate adds a dedicated account manager and custom training.
Paid plans include a 14-day free trial with no card. Moving to a lower plan requires the account to fit that plan’s limits first.
An administrator sets up milestones, custom fields, tracks, teams and project boards. Plan that work as a scoped CRM implementation with an acceptance check, not an afternoon’s configuration. Budget for ongoing administration too: every new staff member, pipeline change or aggregator change needs someone to update Capsule.
Choose Capsule for the Scenario It Can Support
Capsule earns its place where follow-up is the problem and the team is small enough to keep two systems in step. Each fictional brokerage reaches a different verdict:
| Brokerage | File structure | Handoff burden | Access needs | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sole broker | Household organisations and one opportunity per loan | Low: the broker enters both records | None | Adopt if the aggregator CRM’s reminders aren’t enough |
| Dana and Lee | Same structure, plus a document-collection track | Medium: Lee copies references and stage changes | Light: both users see every file | Adopt on a plan with tracks, with the handoff task in every track |
| Three brokers with two assistants | Same structure, with team-assigned sensitive files | High: several people update two systems | Restricted users and teams, so Growth or above | Adopt only with one named handoff owner and a weekly check of open opportunities |
A different documented limit decides each verdict. The sole broker weighs the missing aggregator connection, which makes Capsule a second record. Dana and Lee rely on tracks, and a completed task doesn’t prove consent or approval. The growing brokerage needs access control and email sync, which start on Growth.
Set one acceptance threshold before you commit. Run a normal fortnight of real enquiries through Capsule beside the aggregator system. Adopt it only if every file keeps the correct household and loan links, has a visible next action and points to retrievable consent evidence. The deal reference must also match the aggregator record after normal staff use. If you want a mortgage-specific system instead, compare the options in our mortgage broker CRM guide.
