An overview of Leads

JACK's CRM via Leads covers your entire sales process, from a client's first phone call through to signing a job.

This article walks through how it all fits together with examples: Capturing leads, tracking your pipeline, building estimates, and converting to a job.

For step-by-step instructions for any individual stage, follow the links throughout the article or see the full list at the bottom.

Every job in JACK starts life as a lead. As a lead moves through your sales pipeline, you attach a client, record notes, files, and tasks, capture the budget, build an estimate, and share progress with the client through the portal.

When the client is ready to proceed, you convert the lead and attached estimate directly into a job, carrying over everything you've already recorded. If a lead doesn't go ahead, you archive it rather than delete it, so nothing is lost if the client comes back.

Leads move through your pipeline as cards you can drag between stages, from initial contact through to estimate, proposal, and close. JACK ships with a set of default stages, and you can rename each one to match the language your business already uses.

Client types work the same way. You can use the defaults or add your own from Settings > Data Setup > Client Types.

See Set Up Your Sales Pipeline and Set Conversion Rates for Stages in Your Sales Pipeline for how to customise and forecast against your pipeline.

Start a new Lead from the Sales tab by clicking + Lead. Record the essentials: the client's name, where they found you, their postcode, and the Project Type, then connect the lead to an existing client record or create a new one.

Every lead has a dedicated notes section, so context from a phone call or site visit stays attached to the lead throughout its lifecycle, whether it becomes a job or is archived.

Tags let you group leads by location, Project Type, or Client Type. Tagged leads can also trigger automations, such as follow-ups or task assignments, based on the tag.

Each lead has its own file storage area. Folders can be set with individual permissions, so sensitive files stay visible only to the supplier, contractor, or clients who need them. Files stay attached to the lead as they convert into a job, so nothing needs to be reorganised.

You can also create a Project Type, which will automatically apply a file structure to your lead. You can alter the Project types in Settings > Data Setup > Project Types

Add an estimate from the Estimate tab in the lead, either from scratch or by importing an estimate template.

Not every lead needs to see everything in your system. From the lead's contact details, you can send a portal invite so the client can view exactly what you've shared, whether that's an estimate, job progress, or documentation.

If a lead's contact also exists in Xero, you can link the two manually from the contact details screen. Nothing syncs automatically at the lead stage; linking is always a deliberate step, and it ensures invoices map to the correct contact later.

💡Linking to Xero here will mean you don’t have an issue creating a deposit invoice ahead.

Create a task directly from a lead so a follow-up doesn't slip. Categorise it, set a due date, assign it to a staff member, and add notification controls. Overdue tasks turn red in your Tasks.

Once a client is ready to proceed, use Convert to Job from the lead. Everything you've already recorded, address, client details, notes, files, and tasks, carries across automatically. You'll choose a pricing method (Cost Plus or Fixed Price), set invoice retention options, and select a job template or continue with manual control.

If a client goes cold or chooses another builder, archive the lead rather than deleting it. An archived lead retains its full history, notes, files, tasks, and communications, and can be recovered later if the client returns. Deleting a lead removes it permanently.

Making a lead as Lead Lost will move it to the Lost pipeline category.