MapFirms User Guide

1. What is MapFirms and what is it for?

MapFirms is a Windows program that makes it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to find new customers and keep track of them. It comes with the MapFirms Mobile phone app, which puts the same companies in your pocket. It works whatever industry you are in: you type what you are looking for, and the program does not assume an industry.

The workflow has five steps:

1. Find — You type a term such as "furniture manufacturer", "hotel" or "CNC workshop", and select a country, region and city. The program searches public map and directory sources (Google, Yandex and Bing Maps, B2B directories, OpenStreetMap) and adds the companies it finds to your list with their name, phone, address, website and location.
2. Qualify — E-mail addresses, extra phone numbers and the contact person's name are read from the companies' websites; each company is given a priority score from 0 to 100; you narrow the list down with filters.
3. Get in touch — The Contact screen brings the companies up one after another: you call, open a WhatsApp or e-mail draft, and record the outcome with a single key.
4. Quote — You enter the line items and produce a printable quote; quotes are tracked as open / won / lost.
5. Follow up — On the Pipeline screen the companies sit in columns according to their status; follow-ups that are due appear on the Today screen.

All of this is at your fingertips on your phone too: you call the company, write on WhatsApp, save it to your contacts, get directions, and even start a new search from the phone (see Section 11).

What does the program not do?

• It does not send messages on its own. WhatsApp, e-mail and SMS always open in your own app, at your touch; you are the one who presses "Send". The bulk send pages, too, only offer ready-made links.
• It does not guarantee that the data is accurate. The information is what is visible in public sources at that moment; it may be incomplete, outdated or wrong. The program does not make up information; you can see where each value came from in the Where from? window in the company details.
• It does not "verify" e-mail addresses. "Check e-mail domain" only looks at the spelling of the address and at the domain's mail server (MX) record; it does not show that the address really exists or is read.
• It does not get past security checks (CAPTCHA), and it does not enter closed pages or pages that require membership.

Your responsibility

How you use the program is up to you. Complying with the terms of use of the platforms you search; complying with the rules that apply in your country and in the recipient's country when you process the contact details you collect and when you send commercial messages (for example KVKK and the commercial message legislation in Türkiye, the GDPR in the EU); and obtaining the recipient's consent where required are the user's obligation. This guide is not legal advice; if you are unsure, consult a specialist.

2. Installation

Requirements: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), an internet connection and Google Chrome. Searches are carried out through Chrome; if Chrome is not installed, the program warns you before the first search.

1. Double-click the setup file that was sent to you (MapFirms-Setup-….exe).
2. Windows may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" window and list the publisher as "Unknown publisher". This is because the setup file does not yet carry a digital signature. If you are sure the file was sent to you by your MapFirms administrator, press More info › Run anyway. If the file came from anywhere else, do not run it.
3. In the wizard, select the language (the language you select also becomes the program's interface language), read and accept the agreement, and confirm the installation folder. If you wish, leave "Create a desktop shortcut" checked.
4. Press Install; when it finishes, open the program with Launch now.

The installation is made only for your own Windows user; no administrator permission is required. Your data (companies, quotes, settings, backups) is kept separately from the program folder, in the %LOCALAPPDATA%\MapFirms folder, and is preserved during updates.

Uninstalling: Windows Settings › Apps › MapFirms › Uninstall. The uninstall wizard does not delete your data by default; check the "Also delete my user data" box only if you want to delete everything permanently.

3. Signing in

MapFirms works with a personal account. Your user ID and password are given to you by your MapFirms administrator; you cannot create an account yourself from inside the program.

1. Type the ID you were given (in lower case) in the User ID field and your temporary password in the Password field, then press Sign in.
2. You are asked to change your password at the first sign-in. The new password must be at least 10 characters long, contain at least two kinds of characters such as letters and digits, and be different from the old password; sequences such as "1234…" and your company name are not accepted. This step cannot be skipped. Only you know your password.
3. You sign in once; on later launches the program renews your session by itself.

When there is no internet: If the server cannot be reached, the program works offline for up to 7 days with your last authorization token; the account chip in the sidebar shows "Offline". Connecting to the internet once before the 7 days are up is enough. (Searching and sending to the phone need the internet anyway.)

Forgot password: Passwords are not stored on the server in readable form; that is why nobody can tell you your old password. Ask your administrator to reset your password; they give you a new temporary password, and at the first sign-in you again set your own password.

Other cases: if you see "Account closed" or "Expired", contact your administrator. The device limit warning means your account has reached the number of computers it is allowed; your administrator can remove an old device. You can change your password later with Settings › Account › Change password, and end the session on this computer with Sign out.

4. First-run setup wizard

When the program is opened for the first time, a wizard with six short steps appears. You can reopen it later from the command palette (Ctrl+K › "Setup wizard").

5. Find Companies

The ＋ New Search button in the sidebar (Ctrl+N) opens this screen. There are three tabs at the top: Targets (the search form), Live scan (the counters of the running search) and History.

Searching step by step

1. What are you looking for? — Type one term per line: furniture manufacturer, hotel, CNC workshop… Each line becomes a separate search. If Vary in every language is on, a single word is enough: the program multiplies the term according to the language of the target country ("furniture" → furniture manufacturer, Möbel Hersteller…). Preview shows which queries will be generated; Dictionary lets you add your own translations; + Product profile makes your terms permanent.
2. On which networks? — Check the sources: Google Maps, Yandex Maps, Bing Maps, B2B industry directories, OpenStreetMap (open data). More sources mean more companies and a longer run.
3. Where? — Check one or more countries in the list on the left (you can search by name or by code: DE, US…). When you check a country, its regions open on the right; if you select no region at all, the country is scanned as a whole.
4. Depth — Determines how far below the selected region the search goes: Whole region (a single query, the fastest) · Top 10 cities · Top 20 cities · All cities · Districts (where data is available). The deeper you go, the more companies are found and the longer it takes. City lists are fetched from OpenStreetMap when needed.
5. Industrial zones — If on, the region's organized industrial zones are also scanned one by one (for Türkiye only, for now).
6. The summary line at the bottom of the form tells you how many targets, how many queries and what estimated duration will result. Press Start scan. For a very large selection the program asks for confirmation first.

While the search is running, you follow the query, found, added, duplicate / skipped and remaining-time counters on the Live scan tab; Stop finishes the active query and stops. When it is done, View new companies shows only those added in this search, and View results on map opens the map. The same company is not added a second time; if there is new information, the existing record is enriched.

Nearby scan and City focus

• Nearby scan scans the companies within a certain radius of a point. You choose the center in one of three ways: Scan nearby in a company's details, Address… or My location (if it is defined under Settings › Contact). While nearby scan is on, the country / region selection is ignored.
• City focus scans a single city very thoroughly: district by district, industrial areas, quarter by quarter. Select the country and the region / city and press Prepare plan; select the layers (All / Recommended / Quick); the plan shows how many targets, how many queries and roughly how long it will take. You run it with Start scan, or save it as a "city watch" and repeat it every week / month.

Save / schedule and History

Save / schedule saves the selection in the form under a name; you can repeat it Daily / Weekly / Monthly. Scheduled searches start by themselves while the program is open; the "Also add to Windows Task Scheduler" option makes them run even when the program is closed. The History tab lists each search's date, source, scope, terms, and found and added counts; double-clicking a row loads that search into the form, and Repeat sets it up again with one click.

Tips

• Type what your customer calls itself ("office furniture manufacturer"), not your own product.
• Try Whole region first; if there are few results, increase the depth. The Coverage layer on the map shows which targets came up empty.
• For other countries, keep Vary in every language on; the term is searched in the language of the target country.
• So that the computer does not go to sleep during long searches, sleep is prevented for as long as the program stays open; plug your laptop in.

Limits and etiquette

The program browses the sources like a person, at intervals: it waits a random time between two queries (2.5–7 s by default) and reads a limited number of results per query (40 by default). You can change these values under Settings › Search; shortening the waiting times too much may lead the source to block you temporarily. If a source shows a security check (CAPTCHA), the program does not solve it; results from that source decrease or the search stops — wait a while and try again. Complying with the sources' terms of use is the user's responsibility.

6. Companies

All the companies you have found are kept in this table. Clicking a row opens the detail panel on the right; you edit by double-clicking a cell (F2), mark a favorite with ★, and sort by clicking a column header.

Filters and chips

The top bar contains the search box (company, address, number, e-mail — Ctrl+F), the country, region / province and status menus, and the Filters drawer. The groups in the drawer:

Active filters appear as chips; Clear removes them all. The summary line below the table tells you how many companies have a mobile number and an e-mail address.

Detail panel

At the top of the panel are the priority score and data quality rings, and below them the quick actions: Open in WhatsApp, Call, Copy number, Send e-mail, Website, Show on map. These are followed by the profile (mobile, landline, e-mail, address, distance, hours, contact person, site languages…), the Talking points (observed information only, such as "The site mentions 'export'" or "+12 Google reviews in the last 90 days"), the Next step date (+3d / +7d, and an .ics file with To calendar), Tags, Notes and the Timeline.

Tools:

• Find e-mail — reads the company's website (up to 5 pages): e-mail, extra phone, WhatsApp link, social media, contact person's name. Only information that is openly stated on the site is taken.
• Check e-mail domain — asks DNS about the spelling of the address and the domain's mail server (MX) record; nothing is sent to the address. The result is "domain valid / invalid / unknown".
• Scan nearby · Find similar — sets up a nearby scan centered on this company, or a new search in the same category and region.
• Where from? — the evidence log: on which page and when each value was seen.
• Company sheet — a one-page printable summary. Directions — a Google Maps route from your own location.
• Prepare quote · Quotes — see Section 10.

Bulk actions

Find e-mail in the header reads the sites of all the companies in the filter (or the selected ones) one after another; press Stop whenever you like. Export… saves the companies as an Excel, CSV or Contacts (Google Contacts / vCard / Outlook) file; you choose the scope: current filter, selected records or all.

In the ··· menu: Import… (your Excel / CSV list; columns are recognized from their headers, and if the same number exists the record is merged), Check e-mail domain, Duplicates, Trash, Clear list.

• Duplicates shows candidate pairs saved with the same website, the same landline or a very similar name. Merge gathers the information in a single record; the other one goes to the trash, and no data is lost.
• Trash — deleted records wait here for 30 days (can be changed under Settings › Data); you can restore them.

The right-click menu offers the same actions. With multiple selection using Ctrl / Shift, you get bulk status change, favorite, adding a tag, visit pack, directions / visit route and deletion (Delete).

7. Map

Companies appear on the map as markers, and as regional clusters when viewed from a distance. The filters at the top (country, region, status) are the same as those on the Companies screen; you select the tile type as Map / Satellite / Dark. Clicking a marker opens the company card on the right, and clicking a cluster opens the list of companies in that region.

• The shape of the marker shows how precise the location is: exact location, address location, or region / country center (approximate). Approximate locations are not real addresses.
• Locate from address — converts records that have an address but no exact location into coordinates using OpenStreetMap (one query per second; it may take a long time and can be stopped).
• Coverage — draws the search targets of the last 60 days as circles: red came up empty, yellow few added, green companies added. Clicking a circle shows that target's query, found and added counts.
• White space — marks with a dashed circle the regions where you have no records at all or are below average: it shows where the next search should go.

Map tiles come from the internet; when you are offline the tiles do not load, but the markers keep working.

8. Contact

The Contact screen is a call queue: the companies come up one by one, you call or write, and you record the outcome with a single key.

1. Select the filters on the left (status, priority, distance, country, region, tag; Mobile numbers only, Skip those contacted today, Favorites) and press Build queue.
2. The order is as follows: follow-ups that are due → favorites → those open now → priority score. The Nearest first switch sets the order according to your location.
3. Call on the card hands the number to the Windows phone app (Phone Link, Teams…); WhatsApp and E-mail open a draft filled in with the selected template. Sending is always up to you.
4. When the conversation is over, select the outcome:

You can also write a note together with the outcome (N). Every outcome is recorded on the company's timeline. The other keys are in Section 16.

Message templates and placeholders

In the Message templates window you keep ready-made texts for WhatsApp and e-mail; the program comes with a few examples for your language. The placeholders in the text are filled in for each company:

The English equivalents of the placeholders ({company}, {my_company}…) also work in every language. The Preview on the right shows the text with a sample company.

Bulk send page

Bulk send page in the header produces a WhatsApp page or an E-mail page that opens in the browser for the companies in the queue filter: next to each company there is a ready-made link filled in with your template. When you click the link, WhatsApp or your e-mail program opens with the message written to that company; you send each message yourself, one by one, from your own account. The program sends nothing on your behalf. Before sending commercial messages, respect the recipient's consent and the applicable rules.

9. Pipeline

The Pipeline screen shows your sales pipeline in five columns: New → Contacted → Quote stage → Deal agreed / Not a fit. You change a card's status by dragging it from one column to another; the change is written to the company's timeline. At the top are the search box, the country and tag filters, and the Favorites switch; clicking a card opens the company on the Companies screen.

Follow-ups that are due (those whose "Next step" date in the company details is today or in the past) appear in the Today's follow-ups card on the Today screen and at the very top of the Contact queue. That way, the answer to "who was I going to call?" is ready every morning.

10. Quotes and Catalog

Preparing a quote

Select a company in Companies and press Prepare quote in the detail panel.

1. If you wish, type a subject; select the currency.
2. Enter the line items: description → quantity → unit → unit price; Enter in the price box opens a new row. If you click a line item in the Catalog list on the right, it drops into the row.
3. Enter the VAT rate, whether the prices are VAT included, and, if any, the Discount % and Validity (days) values. The Note field (delivery, payment terms) appears on the quote and comes pre-filled on the next quote.
4. Create quote produces a printable quote file and opens it in the browser; from there you print it or save it as a PDF. The company moves to the "Quote stage" status.

Quotes screen

Quotes in the sidebar has two tabs. The Quotes tab lists all your quotes as All / Open / Follow-up due / Won / Lost; at the top you see the open, won and lost amounts and the win rate. On a quote, Open opens the file; with Follow-up ▾ you set a reminder for +3 / +7 / +14 / +30 days later; Won also sets the company to "Deal agreed"; if you closed it by mistake, use Reopen.

The Catalog tab remembers every line item you write on a quote, with its unit and last price. You can add a line item, correct the price, or remove it from the list with Archive (it is not deleted; typing the same name again brings it back). The product, unit and price are always what you typed; the program does not suggest prices.

11. MapFirms Mobile

What is it?

MapFirms Mobile is a web app: you do not download it from an app store; it opens in your phone's browser and, once added to the home screen, works like a normal app. It works on Android and iPhone. The data is stored on the phone; your company list opens even when there is no internet.

Your computer and your phone do not talk to each other directly. The desktop encrypts your companies and leaves them on a server; the phone downloads this encrypted package and opens it on the device itself. Because only you have the key, the server cannot read the content (see "Security" below).

Pairing with QR — step by step

1. On the desktop, open the Mobile page from the sidebar and press Pair (QR). A large QR code appears on the screen.
2. Scan the QR with your phone's camera and tap the link that comes up. MapFirms Mobile opens in the browser and says "paired".
3. Add the app to the home screen:
   • Android (Chrome): browser menu (⋮) › Install app or Add to Home screen. If you opened the link inside WhatsApp, choose "Open in Chrome" first.
   • iPhone (Safari): Share button › Add to Home Screen. On iPhone, the app on the home screen cannot see Safari's storage; that is why you need to carry the code over once: before adding, tap ⋯ Menu › Copy pairing code in the app, then open the app on the home screen and press Paste. (The Copy code (iPhone) button on the desktop gives the same code.)
4. On the desktop, press Send to phone. All your companies, your searches and your message templates are encrypted and sent; when you open the app on the phone, they download by themselves.

Afterwards: if the Send automatically after each search switch is on (after the first manual send), new companies go to the phone in the background. At any time you can press the Send to phone chip at the bottom of the sidebar or the button on the Today screen. For a second phone, Add phone (QR) shows the QR of the same pairing again.

What can you do on the phone?

There are five tabs at the bottom of the app: Companies · Searches · New Search · WhatsApp · E-mail. The ⋯ menu at the top right contains the sync, contacts, appearance and language settings.

• Find and filter — search by company, address, phone or category. Quick filters: Favorite · Follow-up due · Never contacted · WhatsApp · E-mail · Acted on by me; status, country, region and more under Filters; arrange the list with Sort. The Searches tab shows the companies by the search they came from.
• Call — your phone calls with a single tap from the company card.
• WhatsApp — a chat opens without saving the number to your contacts; if you select a template, the message comes ready. Sending is up to you.
• E-mail and SMS — open in your phone's own app, with a template if you wish.
• Save to Contacts — a single company: Save to Contacts on the card. In bulk: check the companies with Companies › Select and then Save to Contacts (n), or get them all as a single .vcf file with ⋯ Menu › Contacts. Companies with no phone and no e-mail are skipped.
• Directions — the company's location opens in your maps app.
• Statuses and history — you see each company's status on the desktop (New, Contacted, Quote stage…), its note and its history, and you filter by status. The actions you take on the phone (called, WhatsApp opened…) are marked on the card and collected under the Acted on by me filter. You make status changes on the desktop; they are reflected on the phone at the next send.

WhatsApp and E-mail tabs: sequential send

These two tabs list the companies that have WhatsApp (or an e-mail address) and offer sequential send: you select a template and the recipients and press Start sequential send; the app prepares the message on the screen for each company, you tap the Open in WhatsApp (or Open e-mail) button, send the message yourself, and move on to the next company. If you stop halfway, you continue with Resume. Templates come from the desktop (read-only); you can also write new templates on the phone.

The app does not send messages on its own: only the links you tap open in your phone's own app. Before sending commercial messages, respect the recipient's consent and the applicable rules.

New Search from the phone

A search comes to mind while you are in the field: on the New Search tab, type the term, select the country / region and the depth, and send it. This is what happens:

1. The phone leaves the request on the server in encrypted form.
2. If MapFirms is open on your computer at the office and Accept search requests from the phone is checked on the Mobile page, the program usually picks up the request within a minute, fills in the Find Companies form for you and starts the search. If another search is running at that moment, your request joins the queue.
3. The status is followed live on the phone: Waiting for computer → Queued → Running → Finished (or Failed / Cancelled / Rejected). You can cancel the request from the phone.
4. When the search is finished, the results are sent to the phone; View results opens the new companies.

The search is always carried out by your computer; the phone only passes the request on. If the computer is off, the request waits and starts when the program is opened. On the desktop you see incoming requests in the Search requests from the phone list on the Mobile page and in the Mobile card on the Today screen.

Security — in plain terms

• End-to-end encrypted. Your companies are encrypted on your computer and opened only on your phone.
• The key is only in the QR. The key is in the part of the QR link after the # sign; browsers do not send this part to the server. The key is kept only on your computer (protected by Windows) and on your phone.
• The server cannot read it. The server holds only meaningless, encrypted bytes; neither company names nor phone numbers are visible. Whoever operates the server cannot read the content either.
• If the phone is lost / stolen: on the desktop, press Mobile › Reset pairing. All the phones you have paired lose access and the encrypted copy on the server is deleted. Then pair your own phones again with a new QR. Always protect your phone with a screen lock; the data downloaded to the phone depends on the phone's own protection.
• When handing the phone over: in the app, ⋯ Menu › Remove pairing deletes the data and the key on that phone.

Troubleshooting

12. Settings, language, backup and updates

Settings has six tabs; changes are applied with Save, and Undo returns to the previous values.

Language: Select it under General › Language, save, and press Restart. There are six languages: Türkçe, English, Deutsch, Français, Español, العربية. The language of the phone app is selected separately from the ⋯ Menu.

Backup and restore: On the first launch of each day the program takes an automatic backup of the database and keeps the last 7 backups (the number can be changed). Back up now produces a manual backup; you select a backup in the Manage / restore backups window; the backup first goes through an integrity check and is put in place when you restart the program. A safety copy of the current database is also taken; if you selected the wrong backup, you can go back to it. Open data folder shows the folder where the backups are kept; at important times, copy this folder to an external disk as well. When moving to a new computer, it is enough to move the same folder.

Danger zone: "Clear company list" and "Clear search history" are permanent; nothing goes to the trash. Export to Excel or take a backup first.

Update: Once a day at launch, the program checks whether there is a new version; you can also ask manually with Check for updates under Settings › Account › Update. If there is a new version, Download downloads the new setup file; you close the program and run the setup. Your data and settings are preserved.

13. Administrator: Accounts

The Accounts screen lists the customer accounts: ID, name, company, role, status (active / closed / expired), expiry date, number of devices and last sign-in.

Opening a new customer account

1. Press ＋ New customer.
2. The Customer name is required; enter the company, your own note (the customer does not see it), the expiry date (preset terms or No expiry), the device limit (on how many computers it can be used) and, if you wish, a user ID (if you leave it blank, it is generated from the company name). Press Open account.
3. The sign-in details card appears on the screen: the user ID and a one-time temporary password. The password is not shown again — the card closes after a short time or when the screen changes. Copy puts the details on the clipboard (the clipboard is also cleared after a short time). Share via WhatsApp opens WhatsApp with a ready-made text; this text contains only the user ID and the installation instructions, and you send the message yourself. Pass the password to the customer through a separate channel (for example, over the phone).
4. The customer runs the setup file, signs in with these details and sets their own password at the first sign-in.

Row actions

An administrator cannot delete their own account. Customers' company lists, quotes and phone pairings are kept on their own computers; the administrator cannot see them.

14. Frequently asked questions and troubleshooting

The search finds no companies at all, or very few. Simplify the term (add a general pattern such as "manufacturer" or "production"); check one more source; increase the depth. Make sure Chrome is installed and up to date. If a source is showing a verification screen, take a break for a while. Settings › Data › System check (Diagnostics) shows missing components.

The search takes a very long time. The number of targets × terms × sources determines the number of queries; look at the estimated duration at the bottom of the form. Scan the regions piece by piece, or schedule it for the night as a saved search.

Some companies have no mobile number. The source may list only a landline. Find e-mail also brings in the extra phone numbers and the WhatsApp link stated on the site. You can turn off saving companies with only a landline under Settings › Search › Saving policy.

The "Call" button does nothing. There is no app on Windows to open the tel: link. Pair Windows Phone Link with your phone, or change the protocol under Settings › Contact; until then the number is copied to the clipboard. The easiest way: call the company from your phone (Section 11).

The WhatsApp draft does not open. WhatsApp Desktop must be installed on the computer, or WhatsApp Web must be open in the browser.

The same company appears twice. Merge them with Companies › ··· › Duplicates.

I deleted something by mistake. Restore it from Companies › ··· › Trash (30 days). For anything older, restore from a backup under Settings › Data.

I cannot sign in. Make sure you typed the ID in lower case. After repeated wrong attempts the account is temporarily locked (starting at 15 minutes); wait, or ask your administrator to reset your password. If it says "Cannot reach the server", check your internet connection and your network filter, if any.

The program does not open / unexpected error. Command palette › Diagnostics produces the system summary; the log files are in the logs folder inside the data folder. When asking for support, send your administrator this summary and a screenshot taken at the moment the error appeared.

Where is my data, and who can see it? Your companies, notes and quotes are kept only on your own computer (%LOCALAPPDATA%\MapFirms). Only your account sign-in and — if you have paired a phone — the unreadable encrypted mobile package go to the server.

Support: Your MapFirms administrator (the person who gave you your account) is your first point of contact.

15. Limitations

• The Arabic desktop layout is left-to-right. In the desktop program the Arabic texts are translated, but the window layout (menus, columns) stays left-to-right; this is a limitation of the interface framework used. MapFirms Mobile works with a right-to-left layout in Arabic.
• Unsigned setup warning. The setup file is not yet digitally signed; Windows SmartScreen shows an "Unknown publisher" warning (Section 2). Run the file only if you received it from your administrator.
• Map sources may change. Google, Yandex, Bing and the directory sites may change their page structures and terms without prior notice. After such a change, a source may temporarily return fewer results or none at all; this is fixed with an update. Use the other sources in the meantime.
• The data is only as good as the public sources. Not every company's phone, e-mail or correct location may be available; "approximate" locations show the center of the region.
• The computer must be on for searching. Scheduled searches and searches requested from the phone do not run while the computer is off or asleep.
• Windows only. The desktop program is for Windows 10 / 11; the phone app works on Android and iPhone.
• The phone is for viewing and getting in touch only. Editing company information and statuses is done on the desktop.

16. Keyboard shortcuts

Everywhere

Companies table

Contact queue

MapFirms 8.1.1 · This guide comes with the program: command palette › Guide.