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Create a Lead

Capture a new inquiry as a lead, link it to a client, and schedule the on-site estimate.

A lead is the lightest way to get an inquiry into BranchSite: one client, one location, one note. You don't need pricing yet — that comes later, when you promote the lead to a proposal.

Start a new lead

You can create a lead from several places:

  1. Click the Create button in the top bar and choose New Lead, or
  2. Open the Jobs page, click the New job button, and choose New lead, or
  3. On a client's detail page, open the Jobs tab and click + Add Lead — the client is pre-filled.

Each route opens the same job form.

Fill in the essentials

  1. Pick a Client. If the caller isn't in your system yet, click + Add next to the client field to quick-add a minimal client without leaving the form — you can flesh out contacts and locations later from the Client detail page.
  2. Pick an Operation (your service division, such as Tree Care or Lawn Care).
  3. Enter a Job name. Something your team recognizes at a glance works best — often the address or scope, like 12 Maple Ave — fall pruning.
  4. Optionally assign a Sales rep and choose a Visit location from the client's saved service addresses.
  5. Add notes if you have them. Notes flow to different audiences: Internal notes stay office-only, Client notes appear on the proposal and invoice, and Crew notes appear on the work order.
  6. Click Create job.

You can add line items to a lead right away if you already know part of the scope, but it's optional. Recurring-service settings are not available at the lead stage — promote to a proposal first.

Note: If you're entering several inquiries for the same customer, turn on Retain client + location on Save & New and use Save & New — the next form pre-fills the same client and visit location.

Schedule the on-site estimate

When creating a lead, the form shows a Schedule on-site estimate section. Check Add a Task to schedule a visit to the lead's site, then set the Date, Start time, End time, and an Assignee (typically the sales rep). Saving the lead creates a scheduled task that appears on the Calendar.

The default title for this task comes from the Default Lead Task Name setting under Setup → Settings → Jobs.

Leads from the Client Portal

If you accept inquiries through your Client Portal, incoming requests appear on the Jobs page tagged Portal Lead. Open one and click Confirm Client to either create a real client record from the lead's details or attach it to an existing client — BranchSite flags a match when a client with the same email already exists.

What happens next

New leads sit in the Leads tab of the Jobs page. From a lead you can:

  • Promote to proposal — the usual next step once you've scoped the work.
  • Convert via Template — apply a job template to build the proposal in one step.
  • Reject… — record a lost inquiry with a reason, so it counts in your sales-lost reporting.

A lead that hasn't been promoted within 30 days is flagged with a Stale chip, and you can filter the list with Show stale only to work the backlog.