Pipeline
The Pipeline is your sales lead board—a kanban-style view that shows all your prospects organized by stage. Use it to track incoming leads, move them through your sales process, and see your total pipeline value at a glance.
Understanding the Pipeline Board
The Pipeline displays leads as cards arranged in columns. Each column represents a stage in your sales process, such as New, Contacted, Proposal Sent, or Closed Won. At the top of the page, you'll see a summary showing the number of open leads and your total pipeline value (the combined value of all leads in non-terminal stages).
Leads appear as cards within their current stage. Each card shows:
Lead name — links directly to the customer record
Source — where the lead came from (Google Ads, Yelp, Referral, etc.)
Follow-up timing — when the next follow-up is due
Assignment and proposal info — who owns the lead and proposal status
Creating a New Lead
To add a prospect to your pipeline:
Click New Lead at the top of the Pipeline page.
Fill out the lead form with customer details, estimated value, source, and any notes.
Click Save Lead to add the lead to your pipeline.
The new lead appears in the first stage of your pipeline, ready to be worked. If the email matches an existing customer, Tide flags the conflict so you can link to the existing account instead of creating a duplicate.
Moving Leads Through the Sales Process
Drag a lead card from one column to another to update its stage. You can move a lead to any other stage, including into and out of Closed Won and Closed Lost. When you drop a card:
The stage updates immediately (the board updates optimistically while the change saves).
The header shows Updating lead… while the save is in progress.
Pipeline totals recalculate automatically.
If you drag a lead to an empty column, the empty state changes from No leads to Drop here to confirm it's a valid destination. If the save fails, an error message appears inline—just try the move again.
Viewing Won and Lost Leads
By default, the Pipeline shows only active stages—closed won and closed lost leads are hidden to keep the focus on work in progress.
To see your closed leads:
Check the Show won/lost box at the top of the page.
Closed Won and Closed Lost columns appear at the end of the board.
Uncheck the box to hide them again.
Marking a Lead as Lost
When you move a lead to a Closed Lost stage, Chisel Tide prompts you to capture why the deal didn't close:
A dialog appears asking Why was this lead lost?
Select a reason from the dropdown.
If you choose Other, you'll need to provide additional notes.
Click Mark as lost to confirm.
This information helps you identify patterns in lost opportunities and improve your sales process over time.
Lead Sources
Every lead tracks its source so you can measure which channels bring in the most business. Available sources include:
Online: Google Ads, Google (Organic), Yelp, Facebook, Nextdoor, Thumbtack, Website
Referrals: Referral, Realtor, Landscape Architect, Builder
Offline marketing: Yard Sign, Phone Book, Door Knock, Mailer
Other: Other (with custom notes)
When creating a lead, select the source that best matches how the prospect found you. You can filter and report on sources later to evaluate your marketing spend.
Finding Leads
Use the search field at the top of the Pipeline to filter leads by name or other details. Type your search term and the board updates after a short delay, showing only matching leads across all visible stages.
From Lead to Customer
Leads in the Pipeline are linked to customer records. Click the lead name on any card to open the customer detail page. When you move a lead to a Closed Won stage, Chisel Tide automatically promotes the associated customer to active status—the prospect is now a customer, ready for service visits, invoicing, and ongoing management. Sending a proposal does not automatically move the lead to a new stage; confirm the stage change when prompted if you want the board to advance with the send. From an accepted proposal, you can also create a work order when the sold work should run as a job. See Proposals for how to create, send, and track proposals.
What's next: Once a lead becomes a customer, you can set up their properties, assign them to routes, and begin scheduling service. See your Customers list to manage converted accounts.
Add an existing customer as an opportunity
To add a customer who is already in your account to the pipeline without creating a duplicate contact, open the customer's profile and choose New opportunity from the actions menu. The opportunity opens with the customer attached and no new contact is created. If the customer already has an open lead, Tide warns that saving adds a separate opportunity.