A lead is a prospective booking. The Leads page shows them as a list or a board, one column per pipeline stage. Switch with the list / kanban toggle at the top right of the page.
The board
On the board, drag a lead's card to another column to move it to that stage. It moves immediately; if VenueDB can't make the change, the card goes back and a message says why. Every move is recorded in the lead's history, exactly as if you'd changed the stage from the lead's page.
While you're dragging, the stages that aren't columns — such as Converted and Lost — appear on the right as boxes you can drop onto. Dropping on a Won stage marks the lead converted.
Only people who can edit leads can drag cards. On a phone, open the lead and change its stage there.
Adding leads
- By hand: Leads → New lead. First and last name are required; everything else (email, phone, event type and date, guest count, budget range, source, notes) is optional.
- From your website: create leads with the API (
POST /leads). They arrive with the sourceapi. - From a spreadsheet: use the CSV importer (below).
New leads start in your first active pipeline stage.
Pipeline stages
Stages are yours to define in Settings → Custom Lists → Lead stages. Each stage has a name, a color, an order and a kind:
| Kind | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open | Still in play — shown on the board and counted in your pipeline. |
| Won | The lead booked. Moving a lead here marks it converted. |
| Lost | The lead went elsewhere. Record a lost reason. |
| Archived | Set aside — not lost, not active. |
The starting set is New, Contacted, Tour Scheduled, Toured, Quote Sent, Proposal Accepted, Converted, Lost and Archived. Rename, recolor, reorder or deactivate them freely.
Every change of stage is recorded in the lead's history.
Following up
Each lead has a timeline of notes, emails and calls, plus follow-ups — dated reminders assigned to a teammate ("Call about the tour", "Check on the proposal"). Overdue and due-today follow-ups are surfaced so nothing slips.
If you've connected your email, replies from the lead are threaded into the lead's timeline automatically.
Importing leads from a spreadsheet
Leads → Import. Upload a CSV with a header row using these columns (all optional except the two names):
firstName, lastName, email, phone, eventDate, eventType, guestCount, budgetMin, budgetMax, source, notes
VenueDB checks every row, shows you the rows that are valid and the rows with problems (with the spreadsheet row number and the reason), and lets you confirm before anything is created.
When a lead books
Move the lead to a Won stage, then create the event from Events → New event for the same client. See Events and functions.
Tips
- Keep Event types and Referral sources tidy in Custom Lists — they feed filters and reports.
- Use probability and budget ranges to keep your forecast honest.