How to Create and Manage Lead Contacts in CrmLeaf
All editions. Core feature - no add-on required. Some capture sources, such as Meta Lead Ads or Calendly, depend on their own add-on modules.
Availability: All editions. Core feature - no add-on required. Some capture sources, such as Meta Lead Ads or Calendly, depend on their own add-on modules.
Overview
A Lead Contact is the person you are selling to. In CrmLeaf a lead record holds the individual and their contact details, the lead company they work for, the agent who owns them, and the source and category used for routing and reporting. Lead Contacts are the entry point of the sales chain: from a lead you create one or more deals, and from a deal you move forward to estimates, proposals and invoices.
How It Works
Leads arrive by manual entry, CSV import or the public web-to-lead form. Once a lead exists, an agent owns it, works it through notes, files and follow-ups, and creates a deal for each opportunity that lead represents.
Capture → Assign an agent → Create a deal → Work follow-ups → Convert
- A Lead Contact is the person. The organisation the person belongs to is held separately as a Lead Company.
- One lead can have many deals, so a repeat prospect does not need to be re-entered for each opportunity.
- A public form submission creates the lead contact and a deal together, placing the deal at the first stage of the selected pipeline.
- Lead visibility is ownership-scoped. Depending on the scope set for their role, a User sees no leads, only the leads they own, only the leads they were added to, both, or all leads. Organisation filtering applies on top of this.
- Every action taken on a lead's deal is recorded on that deal's activity timeline.
Who Can Use This Feature?
Administrator
- Configure lead settings, sources and categories.
- Set the Lead permission scope for each role.
- Add custom fields so leads capture the data your business needs.
- Assign lead agents and reassign ownership.
User
- Create and edit lead contacts within your permitted scope.
- Add notes, files and follow-up dates.
- Create deals from a lead.
Access depends on the modules and role assigned by your Administrator.
Prerequisites
- Access to the CRM module with a Lead permission scope other than
none. - At least one pipeline configured, if you intend to create a deal at the same time.
- Lead agents created, if leads are to be assigned on creation.
For Administrators
Step 1: Configure lead settings
What to do: Review the lead configuration for your account, including the sources and categories your team should choose from. Keep the list short enough that reporting stays meaningful.
What to verify: Open the lead creation form and confirm your sources and categories are selectable.
Step 2: Set who sees which leads
What to do: Set the Lead permission scope for each role. Use owned for representatives who should see only their own prospects and all for sales managers.
What to verify: Confirm with a colleague in that role that the lead list shows only the expected records.
Step 3: Add custom fields for data you must capture
What to do: If your process needs values that are not part of the standard lead record, create custom fields for leads so they appear on the lead form and on the public web-to-lead form.
What to verify: Create a test lead and confirm the custom fields save correctly.
For Users
Step 1: Open the lead list
The list shows the lead contacts your permission scope allows you to see, in the organisation you are currently working in. Use Search and Filter to narrow the list.
Step 2: Create the lead contact
Select Add and complete the lead record. Enter the person's name and contact details, select the lead company they belong to, choose the source and category, and assign the owning agent. Complete every mandatory field before you save.
Step 3: Save and check for duplicates
Select Save. Before creating a new record, search for the email address first: leads captured through the public web-to-lead form can be de-duplicated by email, and manual entry of an address that already exists creates avoidable duplicate work.
Step 4: Create a deal for the opportunity
Open the lead and create a deal for what the prospect actually wants to buy. Select the pipeline, the stage, the owning agent, the deal value and the expected close date. Create a separate deal for each distinct opportunity rather than reusing one deal.
Step 5: Work the lead
Add notes to record what was discussed, attach files such as requirement documents, set the next follow-up date, and create tasks for actions you owe the prospect.
Field and Option Reference
| Field / Option | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Lead contact details | The person's name and contact information, including the email address used for de-duplication. | Yes |
| Lead Company | The organisation the contact works for. Links the person to an account-level record. | No |
| Lead agent | The user who owns the lead. Determines what owners-only roles can see. | Yes |
| Source | Where the lead came from. Used for routing and reporting. | No |
| Category | Free-form classification used for segmentation and reporting. | No |
| Lead status | An additional status dimension on the lead, separate from the pipeline stages that drive deals. | No |
| Next follow-up date | The date the lead should next be contacted. Drives overdue follow-up surfacing on the CRM dashboard. | No |
| Custom fields | Any additional fields your Administrator created for leads. | Varies |
Expected Result
The lead contact is saved and appears in Lead Contacts, owned by the assigned agent, visible to the roles whose permission scope includes it, and available to attach one or more deals to.
Why This Matters for Service Organisations
A professional services enquiry usually arrives before anyone knows what the work is. The organisation has to hold the conversation, the requirement documents and the shifting cast of people involved somewhere durable, because whoever eventually delivers the engagement inherits that record. Where the same consultants sell and deliver, a lead record that captures context properly is what stops a scoping call being repeated from memory.
How It Supports Professional Services
- A Lead is the person and a Lead Company the organisation, which maps directly onto how service firms track several buyers — a practice sponsor, a technical evaluator, a procurement officer — inside one client account.
- One lead can carry many deals, so a retained client returning for a second engagement is worked as a new opportunity without re-entering the relationship.
- Notes and files hold the briefs that later become the engagement scope; notes can be password-protected where the material is confidential.
- Sources and categories let a firm report on where work originates — referral, partner, campaign — and on which service line it belongs to.
- Ownership-scoped visibility means a partner or delivery head with an
allscope reads the whole book while a consultant withownedsees only their own prospects. - Custom fields carry the qualification data a service firm needs at intake, such as indicative timeline or engagement type.
Typical Service Workflow
Lead → Deal → Client → Project → Delivery → Billing
This capability sits at the very front of the sequence. A public form submission creating a lead contact and a deal together is an automatic step; everything after that — creating the Client record and the delivery project once the work is won — is a documented relationship the organisation operates deliberately, not a silent automation.
Other Product-Type Use Cases
The same record serves any business with a considered purchase: a manufacturer tracking a procurement contact and their technical team, a solar or construction business logging an enquiry about a site, or a general business simply keeping its prospect list in one searchable place.
Related PSA Capabilities
- How to Manage Lead Companies — holds the prospect organisation the contacts belong to.
- How to Create and Work Deals — where the engagement value and expected close date are tracked.
- How to Manage Clients and the Client Portal — the customer account a won prospect becomes.
- How to Create and Manage Projects — where delivery of the won engagement is run.
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.
- A lead is not a client. Converting a won prospect into a managed customer creates a separate client record with its own portal access.
- Deal progress is driven by configurable pipeline stages, not by the lead record. Do not rely on the lead status field alone to report on pipeline position.
- Notes on a lead can be password-protected where sensitive information must be restricted.
Common Scenarios
Example: one contact, three opportunities. A procurement manager at a manufacturer asks for three separate quotations over a year. You keep one lead contact and create three deals, so the contact's history stays in one place while each opportunity is tracked and forecast separately.
Example: representatives who should not see each other's prospects. The Administrator sets the Lead scope to owned for the representative role and all for the sales manager role. Each representative works their own list; the manager reports across the whole team.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Possible Cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| A lead you created is not visible to a colleague. | Their role's Lead scope is owned and they do not own the record. | Reassign the agent, add them to the record, or ask the Administrator to widen the scope. |
| Leads are missing from the list. | You are working in a different organisation, or a filter is applied. | Switch to the correct organisation and clear the filters. |
| The lead cannot be saved. | A mandatory field, including a mandatory custom field, is empty. | Complete every mandatory field and save again. |
| The same prospect exists twice. | The record was created manually while the same email had already been captured. | Search by email before creating, and merge or delete the duplicate according to your internal process. |
| No agent can be selected. | No lead agents have been created for the account. | Ask the Administrator to create lead agents. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a Lead Contact and a Lead Company?
A Lead Contact is the person. A Lead Company is the organisation that person works for. Several lead contacts can belong to one lead company.
Can one lead have more than one deal?
Yes. One lead can have many deals, which is the recommended way to handle repeat or parallel opportunities from the same contact.
Can a User create a lead?
Yes, if the Administrator has granted access to the CRM module with a Lead permission scope that allows adding records.
Do leads from the public form arrive differently?
A public form submission creates the lead contact and a deal at the same time, and places the deal at the first stage of the pipeline the form points to.
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