Customers, leads and clients
One record for each person or organisation, at one stage.
Everyone your business knows has one record, and that record keeps their whole history: what they asked for, what you delivered, when you met, and what they paid. What changes is the stage they are at.
The four stages
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Lead | Someone who might become a client. |
| Client | Someone you already work with. |
| Lost | A real opportunity that didn't go ahead. You can set a date to look again. |
| Not a real opportunity | Never a genuine prospect — a duplicate, a wrong fit, someone outside your area. |
A customer is at one stage at a time, and only you move them. CLEO never promotes someone because they booked or paid.
Where they live
In the menu, under Customers:
- Leads — everyone still deciding, split into Waiting on you and Being handled.
- Clients — the people you work with. The list carries whatever word your business uses for its customers.
- Pipeline — your open opportunities, grouped by where each conversation stands.
- Top customers — who matters most financially, from money you recorded.
Adding someone
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Someone who might become a client | Add lead on the Leads page |
| Someone already working with you | Add a customer on the Clients page |
| A website client who needs a sign-in to their own portal | Add client with portal |
Customers also arrive on their own: an enquiry from your website, or someone booking online, creates a lead. If it may be someone you already have, CLEO marks it and asks you rather than deciding for you.
What the Leads list tells you
Each lead carries one line saying where things stand, so you can answer the list without opening anyone:
Just arrived.
— in the last few hours.No one has responded yet.
— nobody has recorded anything, and it's been longer than that.They booked an appointment
— they took a time themselves online.You last wrote about them
… — the most recent note, with when.- A planned follow-up, or one that is due, with its reason.
The button on each row is the next sensible step: Respond, Follow up, Convert to client or Open lead.
Turning a lead into a client
On the lead's record, Convert to client keeps everything already known and asks only for what a client account needs: a plan, billing currency and subscription details. Converting also creates portal access and emails an invitation.
Their history doesn't restart. Same record, same notes, same appointments — a different stage.
Closing a lead that isn't going anywhere
From Pipeline, each card can be closed as Lost (with an optional date to look again) or Not a real opportunity. Keeping the two apart is what stops your lost list from filling with things that were never real.
The two customer pages
Which page you land on depends on the stage:
- A lead or other customer opens a record with Overview, Details and History, plus what CLEO noticed about them and their appointments and work.
- A client opens a fuller record, with tabs for Work, Requests, Appointments and Payments, and their client account.
From a client's record you can reach both; a Client shows an Open the client profile button.
Archiving
Archiving keeps the record. It takes a customer out of your active lists and keeps their history; Reactivate brings them back. An archived customer can't take new work or requests until they return.