Settings Reference

Every setting in GroupCRM, what it does, and its default. Group settings apply to one group. Global settings apply to your whole account.

Where settings live

Where	What
My Groups → Settings (per group)	Mode, Approval criteria, Messages, Sheets & integrations, Test rules
Settings (global)	Automation safety limits, active hours, groups refresh, password
Cross-Group Rules	Fallback approve/decline rules shared across groups
Message Templates	Reusable message texts used by every group
Integrations	Mailchimp, ConvertKit (Kit), HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, webhooks

Group settings save from any tab. Press Save in the bar at the bottom of the page (or Cmd/Ctrl+S). Leaving with unsaved changes asks you to confirm.

Modes

Set on the group's Mode tab. New groups start in Lead saving only.

Mode	Internal name	What it does
Off	`off`	GroupCRM does not check this group. Existing leads stay in your CRM
Lead saving only	`capture`	Every join request is saved: name, answers, email, phone, profile and lead score. Sheets and integrations receive each new lead. You approve or decline on Facebook yourself; GroupCRM never does
Lead saving + auto-approve	`auto`	Everything in Lead saving, plus GroupCRM approves or declines requests using your approval criteria and cross-group rules, and can send messages

Check interval

Setting	Default	Range
Check for new join requests every	15 minutes	15 to 60 minutes

Shown when the mode is not Off. GroupCRM checks around the clock (or within your active hours) while the computer and Chrome are on. If the computer was off or asleep, it catches up on all requests as soon as it's back.

Approval criteria

Set on the Approval criteria tab. These criteria only act in Lead saving + auto-approve mode. In other modes you can still prepare them and try them on the Test rules tab.

All criteria are off or empty by default. Leave a number empty for no minimum.

What happens to people who don't qualify

Setting	Default	What it does
Decline people who don't meet the criteria	Off	On: anyone who fails your criteria is declined. Off: they stay in Pending Requests for you to review
Decline if answers contain blocked keywords	Off	Declines anyone whose answers contain one of your blocked keywords (comma separated, not case sensitive). Checked first, before any other criteria
Decline people who were declined before	Off	Declines people who were declined from this group before and request to join again

Approve only if the person...

Everything you turn on must be true for an approval.

Setting	Default	What it checks
Answered all membership questions	Off	No membership answer is blank
Included an email address	Off	An email address appears somewhere in the answers
Included a phone number	Off	A phone number (at least 10 digits) appears somewhere in the answers
Agreed to the group rules	Off	Only checked when your group has rules people must agree to and Facebook reports their status
Has a complete profile	Off	Profile link, profile photo and Facebook join date are all visible
Gave specific answers	Off	For each entry you add (Question 1 to 10 + text), that answer must contain the text. Not case sensitive

Lead quality

Setting	Default	Range
Minimum lead score	Empty (any)	0 to 100. See lead score
Minimum total answer length	Empty (any)	0 to 10,000 characters, counted across all answers

Setting	Default	Options
Facebook account age	Any age	At least 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. Skipped when Facebook doesn't show a join date
Located in	Empty	Text the person's city must contain, e.g. `New York`. Skipped when Facebook doesn't show a city
Minimum mutual friends	Empty (any)	Mutual friends with you
Minimum friends in the group	Empty (any)	The person's friends who are already members
Minimum groups in common	Empty (any)	Groups you are both in

Order of evaluation

In auto-approve mode, each pending request goes through these steps. The first step that decides wins.

Blocked keywords: if on and an answer contains a keyword, decline
Declined before: if on and the person was declined from this group before, decline
Approval criteria: if at least one criterion is set and the person meets all of them, approve
Ask to finish answering: if that message is on, "Answered all membership questions" is on, and the person left questions blank, message them once and keep the request pending
Decline people who don't meet the criteria: if on (and at least one criterion is set), decline
Cross-group rules: the first matching rule, top to bottom, approves or declines
Otherwise the request is left for your review in Pending Requests

If you choose auto-approve but set no criteria, GroupCRM does not approve everyone. Requests are left for review unless a cross-group rule matches.

Lead score

Every captured request gets a lead score from 0 to 100. It is shown on the member and can be used as a criterion (Minimum lead score).

Signal	Points
Email found in answers	+30
Phone number found in answers	+20
Facebook reports the email as verified	+10
Mutual friends	+5 for 2 or more, +10 for 5 or more, +15 for 10 or more
Friends already in the group	+5 for 2 or more, +10 for 5 or more
3 or more groups in common	+5
Facebook account age	+5 for 6 months or more, +10 for 1 year or more
All membership questions answered	+10
Average answer length	+5 above 20 characters, +10 above 50 characters

The total is capped at 100.

Messages

Set on the Messages tab. Messages are sent from your Facebook account through Messenger, one at a time, within your daily message limit.

In Lead saving only mode GroupCRM doesn't approve or decline, so messages are only sent when you approve or decline from the GroupCRM Pending Requests page.

Setting	Default	What it does
Welcome message	Off	Sent after a request is approved. Pick a template
Welcome message delay	0 minutes	Wait before sending, 0 to 1,440 minutes
Decline message	Off	Sent after a request is declined. Use sparingly: people who were declined are the most likely to report messages
Ask to finish answering	Off	Auto-approve mode only. Messages people who left questions blank. Requires Answered all membership questions
Ask to finish answering delay	0 minutes	0 to 1,440 minutes

A message that is turned on needs a template (or a matching conditional message below), or the settings won't save.

Conditional messages

Under Use a different template when an answer matches, you can add rules that pick a different template. Each rule has:

Field	Options
Trigger	When approved, When declined, Unanswered questions
Condition	Always, Answer contains..., Answer is exactly..., Has an email, Has no email
Question	Question 1 to 10 (for answer conditions)
Template	Any template
Delay	0 to 1,440 minutes
Order	0 to 100. Lower runs first. The first matching rule wins
On	Turn the rule on or off

If no rule matches, the default template for that message is used.

Message templates and variables

Create templates on the Message Templates page. Template types are Welcome, Decline, Pre-Approval and Follow-up. These variables are replaced when a message is sent:

Variable	Replaced with
`[first_name]`	The member's first name
`[full_name]`	The member's full name
`[group_name]`	The group's name (or "our group" if unknown)
`[admin_name]`	Your name (or "Admin" if unknown)

Sheets & integrations

Set on the Sheets & integrations tab.

Setting	Default	What it does
Google Sheet link	Empty	The sheet this group's leads are written to. Must be a `https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...` link, shared with the GroupCRM service account address shown on the tab. Nothing is written until you click Verify
Add leads to the sheet as soon as they request to join	On	In auto-approve mode, Off means only approved members are added. In Lead saving mode leads are always added when captured

Email tools, CRMs and webhooks are connected on the Integrations page, where you choose events per integration. See Google Sheets and Webhooks.

Test rules

The Test rules tab runs your current settings, including unsaved changes, against up to 100 recent requests captured from this group. Each request shows Would approve, Would decline, Left for review or Would be messaged, with the reasons. Nothing is approved, declined or sent.

If no requests have been captured yet, run the group in Lead saving only for a while first.

Cross-group rules

Set on the Cross-Group Rules page. Rules are a global fallback that run only for groups in auto-approve mode, after each group's own criteria, top to bottom (lower priority number first). The first matching rule decides. Use Apply to groups to limit a rule to selected groups; with none selected it applies to all groups.

Condition	What it checks
All membership questions answered	No blank answers
Requires email in answers	An email is present
Has NO email in answers	No email is present
Answers contain any of these words	At least one of the words appears in the answers
Answers contain none of these words	None of the words appear in the answers
Minimum answer length (characters)	Total characters across all answers
Minimum Facebook account age (days)	Skipped when Facebook doesn't show a join date
Minimum mutual friends	Mutual friends with you

Every condition you set must match. A rule with no conditions never matches. The action is Auto-Approve or Auto-Decline.

Automation safety

Set under Settings → Automation safety. These limits apply across all your groups. The extension picks up changes on its next sync.

Setting	Default	Range	What it limits
Daily message limit	30 messages/day	0 to 100	Welcome, decline and ask-to-finish messages sent per day. Above 50 the dashboard shows a warning
Hourly action limit	50 actions/hour	10 to 100	Approve/decline actions on Facebook per hour
Daily action limit	150 actions/day	20 to 300	Approve/decline actions on Facebook per day

Messages are also spaced out: GroupCRM waits 45 to 120 seconds between messages.

Active hours

Setting	Default	What it does
Run all day (24/7)	On	GroupCRM checks your groups around the clock while the computer and Chrome are on
Start / end time	8:00 AM to 10:00 PM when you first turn 24/7 off	Only runs between these hours, in your computer's local time. Windows can run overnight. Requests that arrive outside the window are picked up when it opens

Other global settings

Setting	Default	Options
Groups refresh interval	Every 7 days	Every 3, 7, 14, 21 or 30 days. How often your list of admin groups is refreshed from Facebook
Change password	-	Update the password you use to sign in to the dashboard (at least 4 characters)

Rule Recipes: ready-made combinations of these settings
Auto-Approve Members: how approval works
Troubleshooting: when automation pauses or messages don't arrive

Settings Reference

Every setting in GroupCRM, what it does, and its default. Group settings apply to one group. Global settings apply to your whole account.

Where settings live

Where	What
My Groups → Settings (per group)	Mode, Approval criteria, Messages, Sheets & integrations, Test rules
Settings (global)	Automation safety limits, active hours, groups refresh, password
Cross-Group Rules	Fallback approve/decline rules shared across groups
Message Templates	Reusable message texts used by every group
Integrations	Mailchimp, ConvertKit (Kit), HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, webhooks

Group settings save from any tab. Press Save in the bar at the bottom of the page (or Cmd/Ctrl+S). Leaving with unsaved changes asks you to confirm.

Modes

Set on the group's Mode tab. New groups start in Lead saving only.

Mode	Internal name	What it does
Off	`off`	GroupCRM does not check this group. Existing leads stay in your CRM
Lead saving only	`capture`	Every join request is saved: name, answers, email, phone, profile and lead score. Sheets and integrations receive each new lead. You approve or decline on Facebook yourself; GroupCRM never does
Lead saving + auto-approve	`auto`	Everything in Lead saving, plus GroupCRM approves or declines requests using your approval criteria and cross-group rules, and can send messages

Check interval

Setting	Default	Range
Check for new join requests every	15 minutes	15 to 60 minutes

Approval criteria

Set on the Approval criteria tab. These criteria only act in Lead saving + auto-approve mode. In other modes you can still prepare them and try them on the Test rules tab.

All criteria are off or empty by default. Leave a number empty for no minimum.

What happens to people who don't qualify

Setting	Default	What it does
Decline people who don't meet the criteria	Off	On: anyone who fails your criteria is declined. Off: they stay in Pending Requests for you to review
Decline if answers contain blocked keywords	Off	Declines anyone whose answers contain one of your blocked keywords (comma separated, not case sensitive). Checked first, before any other criteria
Decline people who were declined before	Off	Declines people who were declined from this group before and request to join again

Approve only if the person...

Everything you turn on must be true for an approval.

Setting	Default	What it checks
Answered all membership questions	Off	No membership answer is blank
Included an email address	Off	An email address appears somewhere in the answers
Included a phone number	Off	A phone number (at least 10 digits) appears somewhere in the answers
Agreed to the group rules	Off	Only checked when your group has rules people must agree to and Facebook reports their status
Has a complete profile	Off	Profile link, profile photo and Facebook join date are all visible
Gave specific answers	Off	For each entry you add (Question 1 to 10 + text), that answer must contain the text. Not case sensitive

Lead quality

Setting	Default	Range
Minimum lead score	Empty (any)	0 to 100. See lead score
Minimum total answer length	Empty (any)	0 to 10,000 characters, counted across all answers

Setting	Default	Options
Facebook account age	Any age	At least 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. Skipped when Facebook doesn't show a join date
Located in	Empty	Text the person's city must contain, e.g. `New York`. Skipped when Facebook doesn't show a city
Minimum mutual friends	Empty (any)	Mutual friends with you
Minimum friends in the group	Empty (any)	The person's friends who are already members
Minimum groups in common	Empty (any)	Groups you are both in

Order of evaluation

In auto-approve mode, each pending request goes through these steps. The first step that decides wins.

Blocked keywords: if on and an answer contains a keyword, decline
Declined before: if on and the person was declined from this group before, decline
Approval criteria: if at least one criterion is set and the person meets all of them, approve
Ask to finish answering: if that message is on, "Answered all membership questions" is on, and the person left questions blank, message them once and keep the request pending
Decline people who don't meet the criteria: if on (and at least one criterion is set), decline
Cross-group rules: the first matching rule, top to bottom, approves or declines
Otherwise the request is left for your review in Pending Requests

If you choose auto-approve but set no criteria, GroupCRM does not approve everyone. Requests are left for review unless a cross-group rule matches.

Lead score

Every captured request gets a lead score from 0 to 100. It is shown on the member and can be used as a criterion (Minimum lead score).

Signal	Points
Email found in answers	+30
Phone number found in answers	+20
Facebook reports the email as verified	+10
Mutual friends	+5 for 2 or more, +10 for 5 or more, +15 for 10 or more
Friends already in the group	+5 for 2 or more, +10 for 5 or more
3 or more groups in common	+5
Facebook account age	+5 for 6 months or more, +10 for 1 year or more
All membership questions answered	+10
Average answer length	+5 above 20 characters, +10 above 50 characters

The total is capped at 100.

Messages

Set on the Messages tab. Messages are sent from your Facebook account through Messenger, one at a time, within your daily message limit.

In Lead saving only mode GroupCRM doesn't approve or decline, so messages are only sent when you approve or decline from the GroupCRM Pending Requests page.

Setting	Default	What it does
Welcome message	Off	Sent after a request is approved. Pick a template
Welcome message delay	0 minutes	Wait before sending, 0 to 1,440 minutes
Decline message	Off	Sent after a request is declined. Use sparingly: people who were declined are the most likely to report messages
Ask to finish answering	Off	Auto-approve mode only. Messages people who left questions blank. Requires Answered all membership questions
Ask to finish answering delay	0 minutes	0 to 1,440 minutes

A message that is turned on needs a template (or a matching conditional message below), or the settings won't save.

Conditional messages

Under Use a different template when an answer matches, you can add rules that pick a different template. Each rule has:

Field	Options
Trigger	When approved, When declined, Unanswered questions
Condition	Always, Answer contains..., Answer is exactly..., Has an email, Has no email
Question	Question 1 to 10 (for answer conditions)
Template	Any template
Delay	0 to 1,440 minutes
Order	0 to 100. Lower runs first. The first matching rule wins
On	Turn the rule on or off

If no rule matches, the default template for that message is used.

Message templates and variables

Create templates on the Message Templates page. Template types are Welcome, Decline, Pre-Approval and Follow-up. These variables are replaced when a message is sent:

Variable	Replaced with
`[first_name]`	The member's first name
`[full_name]`	The member's full name
`[group_name]`	The group's name (or "our group" if unknown)
`[admin_name]`	Your name (or "Admin" if unknown)

Sheets & integrations

Set on the Sheets & integrations tab.

Setting	Default	What it does
Google Sheet link	Empty	The sheet this group's leads are written to. Must be a `https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...` link, shared with the GroupCRM service account address shown on the tab. Nothing is written until you click Verify
Add leads to the sheet as soon as they request to join	On	In auto-approve mode, Off means only approved members are added. In Lead saving mode leads are always added when captured

Email tools, CRMs and webhooks are connected on the Integrations page, where you choose events per integration. See Google Sheets and Webhooks.

Test rules

If no requests have been captured yet, run the group in Lead saving only for a while first.

Cross-group rules

Condition	What it checks
All membership questions answered	No blank answers
Requires email in answers	An email is present
Has NO email in answers	No email is present
Answers contain any of these words	At least one of the words appears in the answers
Answers contain none of these words	None of the words appear in the answers
Minimum answer length (characters)	Total characters across all answers
Minimum Facebook account age (days)	Skipped when Facebook doesn't show a join date
Minimum mutual friends	Mutual friends with you

Every condition you set must match. A rule with no conditions never matches. The action is Auto-Approve or Auto-Decline.

Automation safety

Set under Settings → Automation safety. These limits apply across all your groups. The extension picks up changes on its next sync.

Setting	Default	Range	What it limits
Daily message limit	30 messages/day	0 to 100	Welcome, decline and ask-to-finish messages sent per day. Above 50 the dashboard shows a warning
Hourly action limit	50 actions/hour	10 to 100	Approve/decline actions on Facebook per hour
Daily action limit	150 actions/day	20 to 300	Approve/decline actions on Facebook per day

Messages are also spaced out: GroupCRM waits 45 to 120 seconds between messages.

Active hours

Setting	Default	What it does
Run all day (24/7)	On	GroupCRM checks your groups around the clock while the computer and Chrome are on
Start / end time	8:00 AM to 10:00 PM when you first turn 24/7 off	Only runs between these hours, in your computer's local time. Windows can run overnight. Requests that arrive outside the window are picked up when it opens

Other global settings

Setting	Default	Options
Groups refresh interval	Every 7 days	Every 3, 7, 14, 21 or 30 days. How often your list of admin groups is refreshed from Facebook
Change password	-	Update the password you use to sign in to the dashboard (at least 4 characters)

Rule Recipes: ready-made combinations of these settings
Auto-Approve Members: how approval works
Troubleshooting: when automation pauses or messages don't arrive

#Settings Reference

#Where settings live

#Modes

#Check interval

#Approval criteria

#What happens to people who don't qualify

#Approve only if the person...

#Lead quality

#Profile & social filters

#Order of evaluation

#Lead score

#Messages

#Conditional messages

#Message templates and variables

#Sheets & integrations

#Test rules

#Cross-group rules

#Automation safety

#Active hours

#Other global settings

#Related

#Settings Reference

#Where settings live

#Modes

#Check interval

#Approval criteria

#What happens to people who don't qualify

#Approve only if the person...

#Lead quality

#Profile & social filters

#Order of evaluation

#Lead score

#Messages

#Conditional messages

#Message templates and variables

#Sheets & integrations

#Test rules

#Cross-group rules

#Automation safety

#Active hours

#Other global settings

#Related

Settings Reference

Where settings live

Modes

Check interval

Approval criteria

What happens to people who don't qualify

Approve only if the person...

Lead quality

Profile & social filters

Order of evaluation

Lead score

Messages

Conditional messages

Message templates and variables

Sheets & integrations

Test rules

Cross-group rules

Automation safety

Active hours

Other global settings

Related

Settings Reference

Where settings live

Modes

Check interval

Approval criteria

What happens to people who don't qualify

Approve only if the person...

Lead quality

Profile & social filters

Order of evaluation

Lead score

Messages

Conditional messages

Message templates and variables

Sheets & integrations

Test rules

Cross-group rules

Automation safety

Active hours

Other global settings

Related