How to set up call recording: MicroSIP on Windows, Nerd Dial on Mac

NerdCRM records calls through a softphone on the rep’s computer. On Windows the softphone is MicroSIP (free), plus a small uploader we ship. On a Mac it is Nerd Dial, our own softphone for Apple Silicon Macs, which has the uploader built in. The uploader sends each recording straight to private cloud storage, and the server attaches it to the contact whose phone number matches the call.

Call recording is a paid feature. The free plan includes 100 recordings so you can set the whole thing up and hear it working before you pay. See your free allowance. If the allowance runs out, the uploader keeps the recordings queued on the rep’s machine and sends them once you upgrade, so nothing is lost.

What you need

• For each rep who records calls: a Windows 10+ PC, or an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer, macOS 13 or later)
• A SIP trunk or VoIP provider that gives you SIP credentials (your existing PBX works too)
• An admin or owner login to NerdCRM to create the rep’s recorder key

Step 1: Create a recorder key for the rep (admin)

1. Go to Settings → API keys. (Set up recorder on the Recordings page takes you to the same place.)
2. Click Create key
3. Give it a name such as “Rahim recorder”, choose the scope Recorder agent and pick the rep under Person
4. Click Create key in the dialog
5. The new key is shown once, in a message at the top of the page. In that message, for a Windows PC click Windows installer (.zip); for a Mac click Mac installer (.zip)

The zip is personal to that rep: it already contains the rep’s key and the server settings (on a Mac, Nerd Dial itself too). Send it to the rep.

Step 2 (Windows): set up MicroSIP and install the uploader

1. Install MicroSIP from microsip.org and add your SIP account (Menu → Account)
2. In Menu → Settings → Audio, turn on call recording. The zip contains enable-call-recording.png showing exactly where
3. Unzip the installer and double-click install.bat
4. If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”, click More info → Run anyway
5. A tray icon appears within about 10 seconds (it may be behind the ^ arrow on the taskbar). Right-click it to see the status: Watching • 0 queued means it is working

The uploader starts by itself every time the rep logs in to Windows.

Step 2 (Mac): set up Nerd Dial

1. Unzip the installer your admin sent and open Nerd Dial. macOS shows its usual “downloaded from the Internet” prompt: click Open. It may also ask to let Nerd Dial use your Downloads folder
2. Nerd Dial connects to NerdCRM by itself, using the key in the zip. When it offers, click Move to Applications
3. Add your SIP account. You can import an existing MicroSIP .ini
4. Open Settings → CRM to check the connection. If it isn’t connected, ask your admin for a config.json (Download config in your key’s menu in Settings → API keys, which also replaces the old key), then click Import config.json… and choose it
5. In Settings → Recording, make sure call recording is on. You can choose the recordings folder there (default Desktop/Recordings)

There is nothing else to install: Nerd Dial uploads each recording and the call list itself. The Logs tab shows a cloud mark on every recorded call once it is in the CRM. Recordings of calls made before you connected can be sent with Settings → CRM → Upload Last 30 Days of Recordings.

Step 3: test the auto-link

1. Call a number that exists as a contact in your CRM
2. Hang up
3. Within about 20 seconds the recording appears as a call activity on that contact, and on their open deals. If you had scheduled a call with that contact, that activity gets the recording and is marked done

To listen to it, open Recordings and click Play on the call. View activity, in the call’s menu, opens its call activity in a window right there on Recordings, where you can also edit it, mark it done, schedule a follow-up or delete it.

If the recording doesn’t appear:

• Open Recordings. The Recorder agents card shows each rep’s recorder: a green dot means we heard from it in the last 24 hours, amber means it has gone quiet
• On Recordings, turn on Unmatched to see calls that aren’t linked to a contact. On Activities, the Unlinked recordings filter shows the same recordings as activities. A recording lands there when no contact has that phone number. Add the contact, or correct the number, so the next call links
• Check that the contact’s number is stored with the right country code (for example +8801… for Bangladesh)
• In Settings → API keys, check the rep’s key: Last used should be recent

On Windows, recordings made before the uploader was installed are not uploaded (on a Mac, use Upload Last 30 Days of Recordings).

Every dial, answered or not, is also listed on the Call log tab of Recordings, and on the rep’s daily timeline: My day for the rep, Analytics → Daily timeline for admins.

Storage and retention

Recordings are kept for 45 days from the call and then deleted automatically. There is no storage fee. With the AI Call Analysis add-on, the transcript summary, scores and lead recommendation stay on the contact after the audio is gone.

Changing the rep or rotating a key

If a laptop is lost or a rep leaves, open the three-dot menu at the end of their key’s row in Settings → API keys and choose Revoke. Their uploader stops working at once.

To move a rep to a new key, use the same menu: Windows installer (.zip) or Mac installer (.zip) download a fresh installer zip, and Download config downloads a fresh config.json (on a Mac, the rep loads it with Settings → CRM → Import config.json…). Each one asks you to confirm first, because it makes a new key and the old key stops working right away.

To update Nerd Dial on a Mac that’s already set up, download App only (.dmg) — for updates from the Recorder apps card on Settings → API keys. It is the app with no connection of its own, so the rep keeps the connection they already have. New reps should get the Mac installer (.zip) instead.

Need a different softphone?

The uploader is built for MicroSIP (Windows) and Nerd Dial (Mac). If your team uses another SIP client, email hello@nerddevs.com and we’ll talk through compatibility.