Leads & Sales Pipeline

The sales pipeline tracks prospects from first contact through to becoming customers. This guide covers working with Leads, tracking deals with Opportunities, and managing follow-up work with Lead Tasks.

Feature Toggles

These modules are controlled by tenant-specific feature toggles, managed by administrators in Administration > Feature Toggles:

• Leads — shows or hides the Campaigns, Leads, Opportunities, and Lead Tasks entries in the main menu.
• Opportunities — enabled by default. When disabled, the Opportunities menu item is hidden and the Opportunities pages are inaccessible.
• OpportunityKanban — disabled by default. When enabled alongside Opportunities, the separate opportunity board view and navigation link are available.
• LeadTasks — enabled by default. When disabled, the Lead Tasks menu item is hidden and the Lead Tasks pages are inaccessible.
• LeadTagsAndCustomFields — controls Lead tags and active Lead custom fields. When disabled, custom-field controls are hidden and crafted custom-field values are ignored.
• Lead bulk actions — no separate toggle. When Leads is enabled, Administrators can also target non-converted Leads from the Bulk Actions page. The existing ProcessBulkActions toggle must also be enabled for background processing.

A separate SalesBrief toggle (disabled by default) controls the Sales Brief field on the lead form. See Settings & Configuration for details.

Leads

A lead is a prospective customer, usually sourced from a campaign. Open the lead list from Leads in the main menu.

The Lead List

The list shows each lead's business, contact, campaign, status, attempt count, next eligible time, and creation date. Leads that have been converted to customers are highlighted in green. From the list you can:

• Click Search to reveal the search panel, then search across business name, contact person, email, phone, website, and preferred site
• Filter the list to a single Campaign
• Page through large lists with the pager at the bottom
• Open a lead with the edit (pen) button

Bulk actions for Leads

Administrators can use Bulk Actions for non-converted Leads whenever the Leads feature is enabled (there is no separate LeadBulkActions toggle). Choose a saved Lead view or use the existing manual search and Campaign filters. Preview shows the matching count and up to 10 sample Leads, then creation captures the matching Lead IDs for the job. Individual Lead checkbox selection is not supported.

• Change Status (SetStatus) uses a tenant-local Lead status.
• Start Workflow (StartWorkflow) uses an active Lead-typed workflow.
• Send Email (Email) and Send SMS (Sms) use Lead contact details and the established Lead tokens.
• Successful Email and SMS sends create Lead-owned communication history. Email tracking preserves the pre-tracking body, and bulk SMS deducts one credit after a successful send.

Converted Leads are excluded when targets are selected. If a Lead is converted or otherwise fails after capture, the job records that Lead's error and continues with the remaining records. The existing Bulk Actions licence limits the target count, and workflow starts also require the WorkflowExecution licence. Customer bulk jobs keep their existing behaviour.

Creating and Editing a Lead

1. Click Add Lead from the lead list.
2. Select the Campaign the lead belongs to (required).
3. Enter the lead's details and click Create Lead, or click Save Changes when editing an existing Lead.

When LeadTagsAndCustomFields is enabled, active Lead custom fields appear in the same Lead Details form for new and existing Leads. The main create or save action stores the standard and custom values together from one submission. An unchecked checkbox stores false; blank text keeps the established custom-field value behaviour.

Field	Notes
Campaign	Required. Every lead belongs to a campaign
Business Name	The prospect's business or organisation
Contact Person	Your main contact at the business
Contact Email / Contact Phone	Used for outreach and the sample-site workflow
Website URL / Preferred Site	Existing site and the site the prospect would prefer
Sample Site URLs	One URL per line, or as JSON
Sales Brief	Only shown when the SalesBrief toggle is enabled; free text up to 8,000 characters with a live character count
Attempt Count / Next Eligible At	Number of contact attempts made and when the lead is next eligible for contact
Custom fields	Active Lead fields shown when LeadTagsAndCustomFields is enabled; saved by the main create or edit action

New leads start with the tenant's Lead status named New. The migration seeds this name for compatibility; it is tenant data, not a fixed application catalogue. If the tenant renames or removes it, creating a lead fails until the required status is restored.

Lead Statuses

A lead's status shows where it sits in the engagement process. The tenant's Lead statuses are maintained in Settings > Statuses. A migrated tenant normally has these compatibility names:

• New, Processing, ReadyForEmail, WaitingForReply, ReplyReceived
• EmailFailed, BuildFailed, NoResponse, Error
• Converted, Rejected

The application does not provide a fixed Lead-status catalogue. Tenant administrators may add, rename, or remove Lead statuses when they are not assigned to a Customer or Lead record.

The stable cross-product automation wire names are New, Processing, BuildFailed, and ReadyForEmail. They remain response names for external automation while each tenant's Lead rows provide runtime resolution.

To change a status manually, open the lead, edit Status under Lead Details, and click Save Changes. Every change is recorded in the lead's activity history.

Activity History

The Activity History tab on a lead is a timeline of everything that has happened to it. Use the form at the top to add a note manually. SurelyCrm adds entries automatically for:

• Status changes
• Emails sent and failed
• Workflows started and stages completed
• Opportunities created, moved, or closed
• Tasks created, changed, or completed
• Conversion to a customer

Each entry shows the type, description, date and time, and who recorded it.

New notes and received email messages are stored in the shared action log and appear in this timeline. Select View message details to read the stored message. Plain text is displayed as text; formatted email keeps safe formatting while scripts, tracking images, remote resources, and unsafe links are removed. Send entries without stored message content remain in the timeline and say when their original content is unavailable. Reading a message does not record an email open or change click data.

Sending a message to a Lead manually

When the Leads toggle is enabled, an unconverted lead shows a Send Message button. Use it to contact the lead over Email or SMS, using a saved template or free text.

• Choose a channel, then a mode. Only templates for the selected channel appear; switching channel clears the other channel's template choice.
• The recipient is always the lead's current saved contact (email or mobile phone); it is not editable on the composer and nothing posted can redirect it. A missing or unusable contact produces a field-specific error and no send.
• Email template mode uses the template's subject and body; email free text lets you type a subject and message. Both apply the lead's existing tokens and the global email wrapper.
• SMS template mode renders the template's tokens; SMS free text is sent verbatim. The subject field is hidden for SMS.
• If the provider accepts the message, exactly one Sent Email or Sent SMS entry is added to the lead's activity history. Email history stores the message body before open/click tracking is applied; SMS history stores the plain text. Reading history in the CRM never records an open or a click.
• SMS requires an available credit. The credit is deducted once after the message is sent. If that deduction cannot be recorded, the CRM warns staff but the sent message and its history are kept.
• Converted leads cannot use manual sending: the composer shows a link to the customer's existing actions instead.
• If a message is accepted but its history could not be saved, the CRM warns that the send completed but the history entry is missing. Nothing is resent automatically.

Replying to a received email

When both toggles are enabled and the lead is not converted, each Received Email entry in the lead's activity timeline and its message detail page shows a Reply action. Sent messages, SMS, notes, and historical entries without a stored email do not offer Reply. Selecting Reply opens the composer on the Email channel with a Replying to indicator and an editable subject carrying a single Re: prefix; repeated prefixes are collapsed and an empty original subject becomes Re:. The body starts empty — the original message is not quoted.

• Choosing an email template supplies its body but never replaces the reply subject. A normal (non-reply) template email still uses the template's subject.
• You can switch a reply to SMS. The reply indicator stays, but SMS uses its own content and templates and carries no email thread headers.
• The reply is sent only to the lead's current saved email address. The received message's stored Message-Id, In-Reply-To, and References metadata sets the outbound reply's In-Reply-To and References headers so it threads in the recipient's mail client. Client-supplied or edited header values are never used.
• Older or malformed received messages without usable thread details still offer Reply; the composer explains that email-client threading is unavailable and the reply is sent without fabricated headers. Thread details are never inferred from subjects or other leads.

Workflows

The Workflows tab lists the workflow instances running against the lead, with their status, current stage, start time, and next run time. Select an active Lead-typed workflow and click Start Workflow to automate engagement with the lead.

Workflows are typed by primary record: only Lead-typed workflows can run against leads (Customer-typed workflows run against customers). Leads can also be enrolled automatically — database triggers can be defined on the Lead entity (Lead created / Lead modified) so every new or updated lead starts the matching Lead-typed workflows without manual action. See Workflow Automation for how workflows are configured, including which actions and conditions apply to lead workflows.

Converting a Lead to a Customer

When a lead agrees to buy, convert it rather than re-keying the details:

1. Open the lead and click Preview Conversion.
2. Review the mapped fields, custom-field copies or skips, linked Opportunities, and plans or balances that would be created.
3. Click Convert to apply the current configuration.

The lead's status changes to the tenant's Lead status named Converted and a View customer link appears at the top of the page. Converted leads stay in the list (highlighted green) for reference and cannot be converted again or deleted.

Conversion always loads the tenant's saved Lead Conversion Configuration. It applies the scalar and optional custom-field mappings; unmapped Lead custom values stay on the Lead. All Opportunities link to the Customer, and each ClosedWon Opportunity can create its own Customer Plan using its title, value, and Revenue Frequency. A positive one-time plan also creates the customer's initial balance. There is no conversion feature toggle. See Lead Conversion Configuration.

Deleting Leads

Administrators can delete a lead that has not been converted using the delete (bin) button on the lead list. Deletion is permanent.

Opportunities

Opportunities track potential deals against leads — their value, likelihood, and stage in your pipeline. Open the opportunity list from Opportunities in the main menu (requires the Opportunities toggle). The separate board view requires both Opportunities and the disabled-by-default OpportunityKanban toggle.

The Opportunity Board

When OpportunityKanban is enabled, opportunities are shown as a board with one column per stage, from Prospecting through to ClosedWon and ClosedLost. Each column header shows the number of opportunities and their combined value; each card shows the title, lead, value, probability, status, and expected close date. Click a card's title to open it.

Click Search to filter the board by:

• Free text (title, description, or the lead's business or contact person)
• Lead
• Stage
• Status

Creating and Editing an Opportunity

Click Add Opportunity on the pipeline board, or use Add Opportunity on a lead's Opportunities tab (which pre-selects the lead).

Field	Notes
Title	Required
Lead	Required. The lead this deal belongs to
Description	Free-text summary of the deal
Value / Currency	Deal amount; currency defaults to GBP
Probability (%)	Likelihood of closing, 0–100
Revenue Frequency	Optional. How often the deal's revenue recurs: OneTime, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. Used as the billing frequency when a customer plan is created from this opportunity at conversion
Owner	The team member responsible; can be left unassigned
Stage	Prospecting, Qualification, Proposal, Negotiation, ClosedWon, or ClosedLost
Status	Open, ClosedWon, or ClosedLost
Expected Close Date	When you expect the deal to conclude

New opportunities default to the Prospecting stage and Open status.

Moving and Closing Opportunities

Update the Stage and Status on the opportunity and save to move it along the pipeline. When you set the status to ClosedWon or ClosedLost, SurelyCrm records the Actual Close Date automatically and displays it on the opportunity. Every stage move and closure is written to the owning lead's activity history, so the full story of the deal is visible from the lead record.

Deleting Opportunities

Administrators can delete an opportunity from its edit page. Deletion is permanent.

Lead Tasks

Lead tasks are follow-up to-dos attached to leads — calls to make, emails to send, proposals to chase. Open them from Lead Tasks in the main menu (requires the LeadTasks toggle).

The Task Board

Tasks are shown as a board with one column per status: NotStarted, InProgress, Completed, and Cancelled. Each card shows the title, description, lead, assignee, priority, and due date — overdue dates on incomplete tasks are shown in red. Click a task's title to open it.

Click Search to filter the board by:

• Free text (title, description, or the lead's business or contact person)
• Lead
• Assignee
• Status
• Priority

Creating and Editing a Task

Click Add Task on the task board, or use Add Task on a lead's Tasks tab (which pre-selects the lead).

Field	Notes
Title	Required
Lead	Required. The lead the work relates to
Description	What needs to be done
Assigned To	The team member responsible; can be left unassigned
Status	NotStarted, InProgress, Completed, or Cancelled
Priority	Low, Normal (default), High, or Urgent
Due Date	Optional deadline

When you mark a task as Completed, SurelyCrm records the completed date automatically; reopening the task clears it. Task creation, status changes, and completion are all recorded on the owning lead's activity history.

Deleting Tasks

Administrators can delete a task from the task board or its edit page. Deletion is permanent.