Clients, Prospects, Web Leads and Contacts - what each is for and how someone moves between them.
Internoodle keeps four kinds of people: Clients, Prospects, Web Leads and Contacts. They work the same way and look almost identical, which raises the obvious question — why have four?
The short answer: so you can treat them differently. This guide explains what each is for, how to decide, how someone moves from one to another as the relationship develops, and why it is fine to ignore the ones you do not need.
People you do business with. They get the full set of tools — Invoices, Payments, Send File, e-Signatures, Financial Plans. If money changes hands, they are a Client.
People you would like to do business with. Warm: you have spoken, they know who you are, and they are somewhere in your pipeline. Prospects are for following up.
Cold, usually arriving from your website through a Web Campaign or a form. You have not qualified them yet, and many never become anything. Keeping them separate stops your Client list filling with names you have never spoken to.
Everyone else you need on file but will never invoice — suppliers, your lawyer, your Accountant, a referral partner, centres of influence. They belong in the database because you need their details and your history with them, not because they are a sales opportunity.
If you are torn between Prospect and Web Lead, ask whether you have actually had a conversation. That is the line.
A Web Lead replies and turns into a real conversation — they become a Prospect. A Prospect signs — they become a Client. Internoodle handles this by copying the record across, keeping the details, and marking the original inactive so nothing is lost and nothing is duplicated.
The old record stays in the background as history. Reports and Campaigns use the new one.
Use fewer types, not more. Plenty of businesses only ever use Clients. Switch the others off in Custom Views if they add nothing — a shorter menu is easier to work in.
Do not park everyone in Clients. If your Client list contains people who have never paid you, your reporting stops meaning anything.
Contacts are underused. Your Accountant, your insurance broker, the supplier you call twice a year — having them in the same system as everything else is worth more than it sounds.
Convert, do not retype. When a Prospect signs, convert the record. Typing them in again loses the history of how you got there.
Set the Client Type as well. The four record types are broad. The Client Type field is where your own segmentation lives, and it is what you will filter on.
The record type decides what is available. Invoices and Financial Plans belong to Clients. Campaigns can be aimed at one type or another, so you can email every Prospect without including people you already work with.
It also shapes your reporting. “How many Prospects did we convert this year” is only answerable if Prospects were kept as Prospects while they were.
I cannot invoice this person. They are probably a Prospect or Contact. Convert them to a Client.
Some record types are missing from my menu. They can be switched off in Custom Views. Turn them back on under User Settings.
I converted someone and now they appear twice. The original is kept and made inactive by design. It should sit at the bottom of the list, out of reports.
My Web Leads list is full of rubbish. That is what it is for. Mark the junk inactive rather than deleting, so your Campaign statistics stay honest.
I renamed Clients and now the guides do not match. The label is yours to change — the behaviour is the same whatever it is called.
No. Use what fits and hide the rest.
Yes. Clients can become Members, patients, students — and the same applies to the others. Custom Labels changes the wording everywhere.
It is kept and marked inactive, so the history survives without cluttering your lists.
Yes. Convert them the same way — suppliers who become customers are common.
Campaigns are aimed at a record type, which is usually what you want. Run separate Campaigns if you need to reach several.
Web Leads. That is what the type exists for — unqualified arrivals kept apart from people you actually know.
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