Manage leads

A lead is someone who might present a new business opportunity. A lead does not belong to an account. A lead is different to a contact.

During your Phocas implementation, we often import your Contacts and Leads as a one-time process. However, you might want to re-import these items occasionally, for example, to update custom fields in bulk. You can’t do this task yourself, but you can contact your Customer Success Consultant to arrange for our Professional Services team to do it for you.

View a list of all leads

Click the Phocas menu button > Leads.

The Leads screen displays a list of all the leads you have permissions to view. You can view, edit and delete individual leads from here.

Find a lead

On the Leads screen, you can find a particular lead using the filter and search options above the grid or by sorting the list.

Use the Active filter to switch between viewing active and inactive leads in the list.
Use the Owner filter to display only your leads or leads that belong to another user (that you have permissions to view).
Use the Team filter to display leads allocated to a specific team to which you belong.
Use the Search box to search for a specific lead by name. This performs an is like search on the name column.
Click a column heading to sort data into ascending or descending order.

Filters remain active until you turn them off, so if you apply a filter and move away from the screen and then return, the filter will remain. To clear any filter you have applied, select All from the dropdown list.

Add a lead

On the Leads screen, click New.
Enter the lead’s details as required (items marked with an asterisk * are mandatory). Expand the section below to learn more about each item (field).
Click Save. If successful a new tab displays, allowing you to add activities to the campaign. You can come back to this tab later.
Click Close.

Field	Field type	Description

Field	Field type	Description
Prefix	Dropdown list	The salutation of the lead. Choose from Dr, Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Prof.
First Name	Free text	The first name of the lead. This field is mandatory.
Middle Name	Free text	Middle name (or initial) of the lead.
Last Name	Free text	Surname of the lead. This field is mandatory.
Company	Free text	Can be used to indicate which company the lead represents. Typically when a lead is converted, this would be the account field.
Job Title	Dropdown list	Typically this field will indicate the lead's area of responsibility, rather than their exact job title. For example, the job title of Northern Region Sales Executive could be simply recorded as Sales. Note: this is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using Edit options in CRM dropdown lists
Owner	Dropdown list	May be used to identify the person who normally looks after this lead. Owners are CRM users.
Is Active	Y/N	Active leads typically include people who are potentially doing business with you. Inactive leads might no longer present an opportunity for future business. Rather than delete the entire lead and all the associated activities, it is often better to mark these leads as inactive.
Communication fields
Phone	Free text	Direct (landline) phone number of the lead.
Fax	Free text	Direct fax number of the lead.
Email	Free text	Email address of the lead.
Website	Free text	Typically the website of the lead's company
Cell	Free text	Cell phone (mobile phone) number of the lead.
Contact Method	Dropdown list	Typically used to record the way that particular person prefers to be contacted – e.g. via phone or email. Note: this is a customizable field that can be edited by administrators using Edit options in CRM dropdown lists
Address fields
Street/city	Free text	Street address and city of the lead.
State	Free text	State in which the lead is based, if applicable.
Postcode	Free text	Zip or Postcode of the lead.
Country	Free text	Country the lead is located in.
Is Mail Address	Y/N	Choose ‘Yes’ if the mail address is the same as the street address. Choose ‘No’ if the mail address is different, and enter in the details in the section below.
Mail address fields
Street/city	Free text	Postal street address (or PO box) and city of the lead.
State	Free text	Postal state of the lead, if applicable.
Postcode	Free text	Postal Zip or Postcode of the lead.
Country	Free text	Postal country the lead is located in.
Custom fields
	Custom	Any field not listed in this table is a custom field. Administrators can create custom fields, typically from data that already exists in your ERP or other systems.

View and edit a lead

On the Leads screen, click the lead name (blue link) to open the lead record.
On the lead record:
- Lead tab - View and edit the lead’s details, such as its name, owner, and address, and assign the lead to another owner (CRM user responsible for communicating with that lead).
- Activities tab - View and edit the activities assigned to the campaign, or delete (remove) activities from the campaign.
Click Save > Close.

Convert a lead into a contact

Typically, when the lead becomes a customer, you can convert the lead records into contacts. Contacts, unlike leads, cannot exist in isolation in CRM and must be assigned to an account.

When you convert a lead to a contact, the lead disappears from the list on the Leads screen and displays in the list on the Contacts screen instead. Any activities assigned to the lead are retained.

Prerequisite: Check the account is in CRM. If not, create a new account.
On the Leads screen, select the lead row (it turns blue) and click Convert.
Select the appropriate account and click Save.

Delete a lead

If you do not have delete permissions, the Delete button might not display or you might see a message at the top of the screen indicating you do not have permission to delete. Talk to your administrator about your permissions. Deleted items can be restored by administrators.

On the Leads screen, select the rows of the leads you want to delete (they turn blue) and click Delete.

In older versions of Phocas, deleting a lead also deletes activities associated with it, so you are deleting the entire history of that lead. An alternative is to mark the lead as inactive.

Documentation