How to Assign Lead Agents and Set Goals in CrmLeaf
All editions. Core feature - no add-on required.
Availability: All editions. Core feature - no add-on required.
Overview
A lead agent is the user who owns leads and deals. An agent is defined as a user together with a category, and agents have configurable goals. Agents are the mechanism that makes ownership-based visibility work: because a rep with an owned permission scope sees only the records they own, agent assignment decides who works what. Agent categories and goals then give you a way to organise the sales team and measure it.
How It Works
You create agents from your users, group them with categories, set goals, and then assign leads and deals to them. Ownership drives both visibility and accountability.
Create agents → Set categories → Set goals → Assign leads and deals → Review against goals
- A lead agent is a user plus a category, so the same team can be grouped by specialism, territory or product line.
- The agent on a lead or deal is its owner. Roles with an
ownedscope see only their own records; roles withallsee everything. - A watcher can be set on a deal so a second person follows it without owning it.
- Agents have configurable goals, which give you a target to compare activity and pipeline against.
- Organisation filtering applies on top of ownership, so an agent in one workspace does not see another workspace's records.
Who Can Use This Feature?
Administrator
- Create lead agents from existing users.
- Maintain agent categories.
- Configure agent goals.
- Assign and reassign lead and deal ownership.
- Set the Lead and Deal permission scopes that make ownership meaningful.
This functionality is available only to Administrators.
Prerequisites
- Administrator access to the account.
- The users who will act as agents already added to the account with CRM access.
- An agreed way of dividing the market, such as territory, product line or account size, before you define categories.
- The correct organisation workspace selected, if your account uses more than one.
For Administrators
Step 1: Create the lead agents
What to do: Create a lead agent for each user who will own leads and deals, selecting the user and the category that applies to them. Only create agents for people who genuinely carry ownership; a long agent list makes assignment slower for everyone.
What to verify: Open the lead or deal creation form and confirm each new agent is selectable.
Step 2: Define agent categories that match your market
What to do: Set the categories you will group agents by. Use one dimension consistently, such as territory or product line, rather than mixing several, so the grouping stays readable in reporting.
What to verify: Every agent has a category, and the category list contains no near-duplicates.
Step 3: Set the Lead and Deal permission scopes
What to do: Set each role's Lead and Deal scope to none, owned, added, both or all. Agent assignment only changes what people see if the scope is ownership-based; with all, everyone sees everything regardless of the agent.
What to verify: A representative sees only their own records, and a sales manager sees the full pipeline.
Step 4: Configure the agent goals
What to do: Set goals for your agents. Set them for a period your team actually reviews, and communicate the target and the review date at the same time, so the goal is a management tool rather than a number in a settings screen.
What to verify: The goals you set are recorded against the intended agents.
Step 5: Assign the existing pipeline
What to do: Set the agent on existing leads and deals, including anything imported or captured through a public form. An unassigned record can be invisible to a team working with an owned scope.
What to verify: No active lead or deal is without an agent, and each agent can see their own list.
Step 6: Review and reassign as the team changes
What to do: When someone joins, leaves or changes territory, reassign their records before removing their access. Add a watcher where a manager needs to follow a specific deal through a transition.
What to verify: After a reassignment, the new owner sees the records and the deal activity timeline shows the history is intact.
Expected Result
Every user who owns sales records exists as a lead agent with a category and a goal. Leads and deals carry an agent, and roles with an ownership-based scope see exactly the records assigned to them.
Why This Matters for Service Organisations
In a professional services firm the seller is often a partner, practice lead or senior consultant who also delivers. Ownership therefore has to mean something real: it decides whose pipeline a pursuit belongs to, who is answerable for it at the review, and — because visibility is ownership-scoped — who can see it at all.
How It Supports Professional Services
- A lead agent is a user plus a category, so a firm can group the people who sell by practice, service line or territory and read pipeline the same way it organises delivery.
- The agent on a lead or deal is its owner, so agent assignment is what makes an
ownedscope useful: consultants work their own pursuits while a practice head withallreads the whole book. - Lead agents have configurable goals, giving each seller a target to compare pipeline and activity against at a review the firm actually holds.
- A watcher on a deal lets a delivery lead follow a pursuit without owning it, which is how firms give delivery visibility of incoming work without transferring accountability for the sale.
- Reassigning ownership when someone joins, leaves or changes practice moves the records without disturbing the deal history, so a handover keeps its context.
Typical Service Workflow
Agent → Lead → Deal → Client → Project → Billing
Agents and goals govern who owns the front of the sequence. Assignment changes visibility immediately where the role's scope is ownership-based; measuring performance against a goal remains a management review, not an automated calculation.
Other Product-Type Use Cases
The same ownership and goal structure serves a manufacturer's regional sales team or a solar business splitting enquiries between residential and commercial reps.
Related PSA Capabilities
- How to Create and Work Deals — the records an agent owns.
- How to Configure Ownership-Based Permissions — the scopes that make agent ownership meaningful.
- How to Use Time Log and Task Reports — the billable and non-billable hours a firm derives utilisation from.
- How to Use Lead and Deal Reports — reports pipeline by owner.
Important Notes
- Menu names and their position can differ between product editions and can be customised for your account, so your sidebar may not match these paths exactly. Use Search or your Quick Access items if you cannot find a screen.
- Ownership only restricts what people see when the role's permission scope is ownership-based. Review agents and permission scopes together.
- Reassign records before you remove a departing user's access, or the records may be left without a visible owner.
- Organisation filtering applies in addition to ownership. An agent working in one organisation does not see another organisation's leads and deals.
- Automatic or round-robin assignment of leads to agents is not documented for the CRM module. Plan assignment as a manual or managed step.
Common Scenarios
Example: territory split. A company divides its market into three regions. The Administrator creates a category per region, assigns each agent to one, and sets the representative role's Lead and Deal scope to owned, so each agent works their own region while the sales manager holds all.
Example: an agent leaves mid-quarter. Before removing access, the Administrator reassigns the departing agent's open deals to two colleagues and adds the sales manager as a watcher on the largest ones, so nothing is lost during the handover.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Possible Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| No agent can be selected on a lead or deal. | No lead agents have been created for the account. | Create lead agents from your existing users. |
| An agent sees no records. | Nothing is assigned to them, their scope is none, or they are in a different organisation. | Assign records, set an appropriate scope, and confirm the organisation. |
| Everyone sees every lead despite assignment. | The role's Lead scope is all. | Change the scope to owned, added or both. |
| Records became invisible after a user was removed. | They were still owned by the removed user. | Reassign the agent on those records. |
| A user cannot be made an agent. | The user does not exist in the account, or lacks CRM access. | Add the user and grant CRM access first. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is a lead agent?
A user together with a category, used as the owner of leads and deals.
Does assigning an agent restrict who can see the record?
Only when the role's permission scope is ownership-based. A role with all sees every record regardless of the agent.
What is the difference between an agent and a watcher?
The agent owns the deal. A watcher follows it without owning it.
Can leads be distributed to agents automatically?
Automatic distribution of leads to agents is not documented for the CRM module. Round-robin auto-assignment is documented for support tickets, not for leads.
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