What's the difference between a contact, a lead, and a customer?

A new record starts as a Contact, becomes a Lead when you create or send it a proposal, and becomes a Customer only after the resulting contract is fully signed.

Contacts, leads, and customers

Every person you add to Apropos is contact. As they move through your sales pipeline, Apropos updates them automatically.

• Contact — a saved person with their contact details. Every new person you add by hand starts with this status.

• Lead — a contact you're actively proposing to. A record becomes a Lead when you create or send it a proposal.

• Customer — a contact whose contract has been fully signed. This is the final status.

When does a lead become a customer?

A record becomes a Customer only when the contract is fully executed, not when the proposal is accepted. When the client accepts the proposal, the proposal moves to Accepted and the contact stays a Lead. If Generate contract on acceptance is on, Apropos creates the contract and starts the signing flow; if it's off, no contract is created and the record does not become a Customer.

What if countersignature is required?

Countersignature changes who completes the transition. If your organization skips countersignature, the client's Sign Contract action moves the proposal to Signed and promotes the contact or lead to Customer. If countersignature is required, the owner's Counter-Sign Contract action is what completes the transaction, moving the proposal to Signed and promoting the contact or lead to Customer.

Why did my contact stay a lead after the client accepted?

Acceptance alone does not convert a record. The transition to Customer happens only at full contract execution, so a record stays a Lead after the client accepts and until the contract is fully signed, including the owner's countersignature when required.

Can I change a status by hand?

No. There is no manual status selector or convert button. On a contact's detail page the Type field shows the current status and is marked as managed automatically, so the status changes only through the workflow above.

What about QuickBooks customers?

Records synced from QuickBooks are written as Customer records. If a contact is already saved in QuickBooks it's because you've sold to them before, therefore, they are a customer. See Connect QuickBooks and QuickBooks customer matching.