From CRM lead to active project
A pursuit shouldn't start over when it's won. Follow one lead from a website inquiry to a contact and opportunity, through the stages to Won, and into a project that keeps the whole relationship history.
Two ways into a project
Before there's a project, contacts and opportunities live in company intake. They move into a project in one of two reviewed steps, and their IDs and history move with them.
Lead, pursuit, project
01 An inquiry waits for a person
A first-party website inquiry form drops submissions into a private Inquiries queue. A submission isn't a contact yet: a reviewer checks the exact-email contact suggestions, then converts it to a new contact and opportunity, or dismisses it with a reason. Reviewer, priority and a first-response target keep the queue honest.
02 Contact and opportunity, before a project exists
Company intake holds contacts, opportunities and follow-ups without a placeholder project. Search before you add; each contact has a relationship owner. Follow-up activities show up in My open and My overdue.
03 Move the pursuit through the stages
Qualification, Site visit, Estimating, Proposal, Negotiation, then Won or Lost, on a table or a drag-and-drop board. Each move records the stage, amount, probability and close date, so the pipeline has a history instead of a snapshot. Lost asks for a loss reason.
04 Into a project, reviewed
Attach to project moves a contact with all its opportunities and activities into an existing project, at any stage, once you have edit access on both sides. Or, when the opportunity is Won, a company administrator chooses Review new project, checks the full group that will move, names the project and confirms Create project and move records. The project gets normal defaults, and the relationship history moves in with its existing IDs. There's no undo in this preview, so the review step matters.
05 Inside the project
The project's CRM tool carries proposals: an internally approved proposal revision can be handed to Bidding as a draft bid package, and in Bidding an awarded bid creates a draft commitment with explicit cost codes. That's the bridge from pursuit to cost, on the same core as the job.
What the forecast tile is adding up
Weighted open value multiplies each open amount by its entered win probability and adds them: $28.4M open becomes $9.7M weighted. It's an estimate, not booked revenue. Illustrative sample data, not real pursuits.
What moves, and what doesn't
| Item | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Website inquiry to contact and opportunity | Live | Reviewed conversion from a private queue |
| Stage, value, probability history | Live | Recorded on every move; earlier history before migration can't be rebuilt |
| Attach to an existing project | Live | Contact, opportunities and activities move together; no undo |
| New project from a Won opportunity | Live | Company administrators, after reviewing the full group |
| Proposal to draft bid package | Live | Reviewed handoff; no bidders or invitations until a vendor release is approved |
| Awarded bid to draft commitment | Live | Created in Bidding with explicit cost codes |
| Won creates a contract, budget or revenue | No | Set those up in the project's financial tools |
| Broad import, export and external CRM sync | Planned | Contact CSV import and export exist today |
Keep going
Keep exploring
Related across os.construction
- BlogWhy your CRM and your BI should share the job's data coreMost contractors run the pipeline in one system, the jobs in another and the dashboards in a third, then argue about whose number is right. When the pursuit, the project and the report read the same records, the arguments get shorter and the answers get better.
- DocsAnalytics BI guideGet started with Analytics, build a dashboard from the metric catalog, read the CRM & Pipeline pack, share and schedule results, and understand exactly which rows each person sees.
- DocsConstruction CRMThe CRM module, app by app. Pipeline, contacts, follow-ups, website inquiries, organizations and people, inquiry forms, import and export, then the project handoff, proposals, service and warranty.
- GlossaryPipeline ValueThe total estimated value of every open pursuit: work you're chasing that hasn't been won or lost yet.
- GlossarySales CycleHow long a pursuit takes from first entry to a win, averaged over won pursuits.
- BlogWin rate, weighted pipeline, sales cycle: the pipeline numbers a contractor should watchA big pipeline number feels good and tells you little. Six pipeline metrics, how to calculate each one honestly, the mistakes that inflate them, and how they connect to backlog.
Sample project included
Try this workflow on the sample project
Every trial workspace includes a sample project with sample data, so you can follow these steps in the app before touching a live job.
Want this on live job data?
CRM is in preview in os.construction: intake, pipeline, the project handoff and proposals are live. Won doesn't create a contract or financial records, and external CRM sync is planned.
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All figures are illustrative sample data, not a real project. Contract terms and state law decide how retainage, stored materials and change orders work on your job. Check both.