Leads

Creating leads, converting them to contacts and opportunities, and the conversions that run the other way.

On this page:

Creating and managing leads
Customizing for lead management
Converting

Creating and managing leads

A lead is someone who might be interested in what you sell, before they’ve been qualified into your pipeline. Leads might come from a purchased contact list, a form on your website, trade shows and meetings where you gathered business cards, and other marketing efforts.

My Open Leads List View in Insightly CRM — The image shows the Leads section of Insightly CRM displaying a list called “My Open Leads” with five entries including names, titles, and organization details. This view helps users understand how to locate and manage their assigned leads from the main leads dashboard.

You can create leads in a few different ways: enter them on the Leads tab, import them from a CSV or Excel file, scan business cards with the mobile apps (available with a paid subscription), add a Web to Lead form to your website so visitors can submit their own information, or add leads through the Insightly API if you have technical resources.

ℹ️ Since Insightly creates a contact record from a converted lead for you, don’t create sales leads as contacts (from the Contacts tab) or you’ll end up with duplicate records.

To create a lead directly in Insightly:

Select Add New Lead in the quick links at the top of the page.
Enter the lead’s information. A last name is required.
Click Save.

Adding a New Lead in Insightly CRM — The image shows the quick-add dropdown menu in Insightly CRM with “Add New Lead” highlighted and selected. This helps users locate the correct option among several choices like Add New Task, Contact, and Opportunity when creating a lead for the first time.

¹ Adding a New Lead in Insightly CRM

Add New Lead Form in Insightly CRM — The screenshot shows the “Add New Lead” form in Insightly CRM, displaying fields such as Name, Title, Organization, Lead Status, User Responsible, and Lead Rating. This form is used to manually create and assign a new sales lead, with the example showing a lead named Jebediah Bush with a status of “OPEN - Not Contacted” assigned to Tony J. Roma.

² Add New Lead Form in Insightly CRM

Customizing for lead management

Configuring your account for how your team actually qualifies leads.

Enabling and disabling leads. Administrators can enable and disable leads by going to System Settings > Leads and checking or unchecking the Lead Management enabled checkbox.

Validation rules. Administrators can write formulas to verify that certain conditions are met before records are saved. To have Insightly run and verify a lead’s validation rules before conversion, go to System Settings > Leads and check Run Lead Validation Rules before conversion to Opportunity. If any rules are invalid, the lead’s edit page opens and displays the errors that must be corrected before the conversion can continue. Validation rules also run when a lead’s status is changed through a pipeline or the Change Status modal, and any errors will stop the status change.

Lead status. Lead statuses track where leads are in your sales process. Each status corresponds to one of two status types, OPEN or CLOSED. Insightly ships with defaults including “OPEN - Not Contacted” (the default open status), “OPEN - Attempted Contact,” “OPEN - Contacted,” “CLOSED - Disqualified” for leads that aren’t qualified, and “CLOSED - Converted,” which Insightly automatically applies to converted leads. To create a status, go to System Settings > Lead Statuses, enter a name in the Status field, choose OPEN or CLOSED from the Status Type dropdown, and click Add Status. Use the radio button to set a default and drag the handle on the left to reorder statuses.

Lead source. The Lead Source field identifies where a lead’s information came from, such as “Trade Show,” “Referral,” or “Phone Inquiry.” Insightly includes a web source for leads created through the Web to Lead form. To create a source, go to System Settings > Lead Sources, enter a name in the New Lead Source field, and click Add Lead Source. Set a default with the radio button, reorder by dragging the handle, and delete unused sources with the trash can icon.

Converting

A lead converts into a contact and a sales opportunity. Leads can also be changed to contacts and back, and custom field values can be copied through the conversion.

When you convert a lead, Insightly will:

Mark the lead as “CLOSED - Converted.”
Create a contact from the lead’s information, or let you link to an existing contact.
Create an organization, or let you link to an existing organization.
Create an open opportunity linked to the contact, organization, and closed lead.
Copy custom field values to the opportunity, contact, and/or organization if you’ve cloned and mapped those custom fields.
Apply any visibility permissions from the lead to the new records.
Link all of the lead’s files, tasks, emails, events, and notes to the new opportunity.
Create a task linked to the new opportunity, if you enter task information.

ℹ️ Tags are not transferred from the lead to the new records, because tags are unique to each record type.

Lead Qualification Flow in Insightly CRM — When a lead is qualified in Insightly, it automatically converts into three linked records: an Opportunity, an Organization, and a Contact. This conversion process helps sales teams transition prospective leads into actionable CRM records for tracking deals and relationships.

To convert a lead:

From a qualified lead, click the Actions menu and select Convert Lead.
Enter a name for the new sales opportunity.
Choose a responsible user from the dropdown. Check the box on the right to send them an email about their new opportunity.
Verify or edit the contact name. Insightly looks for a matching contact, and creates a new one if you don’t select an existing match. This field is required.
Verify or edit the organization name. Insightly looks for a matching organization, and creates a new one if you don’t select an existing match. Adding an organization is not required.
Optionally enter information in the Add Follow Up Task section to create a task for the responsible user, linked to the new opportunity.
Click Save at the top of the record.

After converting, you’re taken to the new opportunity page. Opportunities created from converted leads include a Converted from Lead field with a link to the closed lead, and the new contact includes the same field. You can still view or edit the closed lead, but you can’t change its status.

Converting a Lead in Insightly CRM — The screenshot shows a lead record for Alexander Hamilton with the Actions dropdown menu open, highlighting the “Convert Lead” option with a red arrow. This illustrates the exact steps a user would take to convert an existing lead into a contact, organization, or opportunity within Insightly.

Convert Lead Form with Linked Organization — The Convert Lead screen in Insightly CRM shows fields for creating an opportunity, assigning a responsible user, and linking a contact and organization when converting a lead. This is relevant for users learning how to turn a lead record into an active opportunity tied to a specific contact and company.

Changing a lead to a contact

If a lead turns out not to be a lead, you can change it to a contact without creating a sales opportunity. This can only be done one lead at a time, and it deletes the original lead. Most of the lead’s information transfers to the new contact, but tags, custom fields, and other lead-only fields (like Lead Source and Lead Score) do not. If the lead is connected to an organization that already exists in Insightly, it can be carried over, or you can create a new organization from the Organization dropdown.

Open the lead record and click Actions.
Select Change Lead to Contact.
Review the information and click Save.

Change Lead to Contact Option in Actions Menu — The Actions dropdown menu is open on a Lead record for Sirius Black, with an arrow highlighting the “Change Lead to Contact” option. This shows users exactly where to find this feature when they need to convert an existing lead record into a contact within Insightly CRM.

¹ Change Lead to Contact Option in Actions Menu

Converting a Lead to Contact in Insightly — A dialog box in Insightly CRM shows the process of converting a lead named Sirius Black into a contact, with a warning that the original lead record will be deleted and links to other records cannot be carried over. This is important for users to understand before confirming the conversion, as the action is irreversible and some associated data will be lost.

² Converting a Lead to Contact in Insightly

Changing a contact to a lead

If a contact should have been entered as a lead, you can change it from the Actions menu. This creates a new lead and deletes the original contact record, and it isn’t available for bulk editing. Transferred to the lead: all default fields common to both contacts and leads (first name, last name, title, organization name, addresses, phone numbers, and so on), custom fields set up the exact same way for leads (matching field name, data type, and list values), events, notes, uploaded files, and links to emails and tasks. Not transferred: custom fields set up for contacts but not for leads, and links to other records (those records stay intact but won’t be linked to the new lead).

View the contact and click the Actions menu.
Select Change Contact To Lead.
Add or adjust any information, such as Lead Status or Lead Rating.
Click Save to create the new lead and delete the original contact.

Converting a Contact to a Lead in Insightly — The screenshot shows the “Add New Lead” dialog that appears when converting an existing contact (Antonio Roma) into a lead, pre-populated with details like name, title, organization, and lead status. A prominent warning banner explains that the original contact record will be deleted and that links to other records cannot be carried over, which is critical for users to understand before completing the conversion.

⚠️ Both directions are irreversible. Changing a lead to a contact, or a contact to a lead, deletes the original record. Links to other records can’t be carried over either way, so confirm you’re ready before converting.

(Keep the existing “Mapping custom fields for conversion” and “Merging duplicates” sections as they are, adding to the merge section the note below.)

For the merge section, add after the intro sentence:

The lead you merge from is the “source” and the lead you merge to is the “target.” Field values already populated on the target are kept; empty target fields are filled from the source; and links to files, emails, notes, tasks, and events are copied to the target. The source lead moves to the Recycle Bin. If the source has custom fields the target doesn’t, that information is lost, so create those custom fields on the target before merging.

Open the duplicate lead (the source). The record you are viewing is the one that will be merged and deleted.
Click Actions and select Merge Into Lead.
Begin typing

¹ Data Administration Menu in Insightly CRM	² Lead Conversion Field Mapping Settings
³ Lead Conversion Field Mapping Configuration Screen	⁴ Saving Field Mappings in Insightly CRM