Creating custom lead statuses

In this article, you'll learn how to build your own list of lead statuses. Job statuses come with a fixed core, but lead statuses are entirely yours, so you can make the pipeline match how your office actually works a lead.

Your lead statuses are the tiles across the top of the Leads page, in the same order as this list. They're also the choices you get when you change a lead's status.

To open Lead statuses:

  1. In the menu, click the gear at the bottom (Settings).
  2. Under Jobs & leads, click Lead statuses.
Note: You need to be an admin to change this list. Someone with the Lead Settings permission can open the page, but adding, renaming, reordering and deleting are admin-only.

Add a status

  1. Type a name in the New lead status box.
  2. Click Add (or press Enter).

The new status lands at the bottom of the list, which means it also shows up as the last tile on the Leads page. If you type a name that already exists, nothing is duplicated.

Change the order, and the starting status

Drag a tile by its ⠿ handle and drop it where you want it. The order saves as soon as you let go, and the Leads page tiles follow.

The status at the top of the list is where every new lead starts. To change what a new lead starts as, drag a different status to the top.

Rename a status

  1. Click Rename on the tile.
  2. Change the name and click Save (Enter also saves, Escape cancels).

Leads already sitting on that status move to the new name with it, so nothing gets stranded.

Delete or archive a status

Click the X at the right end of the tile.

  • If no leads are on that status, it's deleted.
  • If leads still use it, the status is archived instead. You'll see a line saying how many records still use it, and the tile drops into a collapsed Archived list at the bottom of the page.

An archived status leaves the Leads page tiles and the status choices, but the leads on it keep their status text.

Restore an archived status

  1. Click Archived at the bottom of the page to open the list.
  2. Click Restore next to the status.

It comes back into the live list and onto the Leads page.

On the phone app

The phone app has the same screen. Open the menu, tap the gear, then under Jobs & leads tap Lead statuses. You'll land on the Lead statuses tab of the Settings screen, with the same New lead status box, Add, Rename, X and Archived list with Restore.

Reordering works a little differently on a phone: tap the ⠿ handle on the tile you want to move, then tap the tile you want it to sit in front of. Deleting asks you to confirm first.

Good to know

Lead statuses don't have sub-statuses. That's a job status thing only.

Tip: The CRM moves leads forward by itself when something real happens to them. Put a date on a lead and it moves to Scheduled. Create an estimate for it and it moves to Estimated. When that estimate is approved it moves to Approved. These moves look for statuses with exactly those names (any capitalization). If you rename or remove one, leads just stop moving to it on their own, so keep those three names if you want the automatic moves.

Automatic moves only ever go forward in your list, never back. A lead on Lost or Won is treated as finished and won't move anywhere on its own.

Note: Lost sits outside the pipeline on the Leads page. Leads you mark lost aren't counted in the All tile.

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