How we built a custom CRM dashboard in 3 days with Retool
A client needed a custom dashboard to track their sales pipeline. Here's how we built it in a fraction of the time and cost.
A B2B SaaS company was spending $2,000/month on a CRM tool that did way more than they needed. Their sales team used maybe 10% of the features and complained about the complexity daily. They asked us if there was a better way. There was.
We built them a custom CRM dashboard in Retool in just three days. It connects directly to their existing PostgreSQL database and Stripe account, pulling in exactly the data they need — active deals, revenue forecasts, customer health scores, and team activity metrics.
Day-by-Day Breakdown
Day 1 was all about understanding their actual workflow — not what a generic CRM thinks their workflow should be. We sat with their sales team, watched how they worked, and identified the five key views they needed: pipeline overview, deal detail, customer timeline, team leaderboard, and forecast.
Day 2 was build day. Retool's drag-and-drop interface combined with custom SQL queries let us move incredibly fast. We built all five views, added interactive filters, and connected real-time data sources. The AI-powered features — like automatic deal scoring and next-action suggestions — were implemented using Claude API calls triggered by Retool workflows.
Polish and Results
Day 3 was polish and handoff. We refined the UI, added mobile-responsive layouts, set up automated email alerts for stale deals, and trained the team on how to use (and customize) their new dashboard.
The result: a tool that does exactly what they need, costs $0/month in software fees (Retool's free tier covers their usage), and that their team actually enjoys using. Their deal close rate improved 23% in the first month — not because of fancy features, but because the right information was finally easy to find.
Share this article
