Search for a CRM for migration agents and you get two kinds of answer: general CRMs with a migration template bolted on, and products built around how a registered agent works. The difference is not the contact list. Every CRM has a contact list. The difference is everything that happens after the client says yes.
We build Centrio, so weigh that. The list below is the one we would use to judge any product, including ours.
CRM versus practice management
A CRM manages the relationship until the sale: the enquiry, the consultation, the quote, the follow-up. A practice management system manages the work after it: the matter, the documents, the dates, the accounting and the lodgement.
In migration these are the same person’s file. The client who enquired in March is the client whose bridging visa expires in October. If the two live in separate products, someone re-keys the record at handover, and that is where errors start. Look for one record that carries a client from enquiry to decision.
What a general CRM leaves out
1. Service agreement before fees. The Code of Conduct requires a written agreement. A migration CRM should make the signed agreement a step in onboarding, and ideally stop a fee being recorded before it exists.
2. Client money. Receipts, disbursements and refunds against each client, with a balance that reconciles to the total you hold. See the client money rules.
3. Deadlines that mean something. Response dates, bridging visa expiry, nomination windows and the dates in section 33 of the Code. A generic task list does not know that a date carries a consequence.
4. Subclass-aware applications. The checklist for a 482 is not the checklist for a 190. The product should know the difference rather than make you rebuild it per client.
5. ImmiAccount. Re-typing a client’s details into the form is the largest recurring admin cost in most practices. Look for something that fills from the client record in your own session and leaves lodgement to you. Our post on offshoring versus software puts numbers on it.
6. A client portal. Document upload, questionnaires and status for the client, so the email chase stops.
7. Education, if you do it. If you also place students, commission and CoE tracking should sit on the same client. We cover that in education agent commission tracking.
A five-minute test
Take one real matter, with the client name removed, and try to do this in the product:
- Create the enquiry and move it to “consultation booked”.
- Generate the service agreement and have it signed.
- Try to record a fee before it is signed. A good product refuses.
- Add a response deadline from a request for further information.
- Record a client money deposit and see the balance.
- Open the ImmiAccount form and fill it from the record.
A general CRM will manage steps 1 and 2 and need help with the rest.
Where to start
If you are comparing, the ten checks go deeper, and the nine-product comparison lists prices with sources. Centrio’s Solo plan is free for one agent and up to 10 clients, enough to run steps 1 to 6 on real matters. If you are looking at the free end of the market, read what free actually gets you.
This is general information, not legal or migration advice. Prices were checked on 18 October 2026 and change; confirm with each vendor.
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