# Off Topic > Hello..Introduce yourself >  >  Long time member but haven't posted in a while

## excelstone

Hi Guys, i registered years ago but haven't been on in a while, using Excel for Mac 2011 extensively each day & need advice from the forum to refresh my skills.

Currently using excel as a light CRM tool for work & another CEO sheet for work related projects, calendar events & sorting my life.

If there anybody else that uses excel as a CRM tool or project tracker or works in Seattle area, a few friends of mine are wanting to get a Excel meetup once a week.

Glad to be part of the online community & if you needed to reach me you can private message me. Anybody that could recommend a download or be willing to share/trade templates (with data cleared of course) Message me privately... hopefully i have that turned on.

Live in Kirkland & a coffee addict.

I used excel for about 15 years so there are hundreds of little tweaks that I learned over time & looking forward to sharing knowledge with the group.

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## arlu1201

Hello excelstone, 

Welcome to Excelforum. Be a part of large Excel community. Enjoy Learning.

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## excelstone

Thanks, is there a place I can go where people have some templates posted or a way to search for them?

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## AB33

This is my suggestion:
I used excel as CRM. It was a nightmare to say is understatement. It will be disaster-in -waiting if you are going to share it with other users.
In simplest term, CRM is a database. Excel is not designed for storage, particularity strings. The last time I used MS Access was 15 years, so hardly remember anything, but database is the best tool for CRM. Mind you unlikely to use it for calculation and data  manipulation.
I think there are some freebies CRM on- line.
I used ZOHO which you can easily integrate it with excel. It was cheap, $3 per month.
But if you really really want  excel as CRM, I would use "Tables" in excel.

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## excelstone

Hi AB33, oddly enough I am just getting your message & we have been using ZOHO for a few months now.

Its been a helpful tool for centralizing our data.

When you say integrate excel with zoho, can you give an example of what that accomplishes or what it does?

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## AB33

Hi Excelstone,
Glad to know you are not using excel as CRM. I used ZOHO over 3 years ago, so my memory of the product is fading.
I think you can built-in user defined functions in ZOHO (Formula)
If you link ZOHO to excel, all your data are stored in ZOHO, but you can import the data in to excel and use Excel's native functions to analyse and manipulate the data. It is similar to Excel's function of data import from external source.
I think you can also request the API from ZOHO and if you have some IT people who can easily integrate it with excel, but I am not sure if ZOHO are willing to give the API.

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