Track every lead from first contact to signed client.
A lead is someone who has asked your firm for help and is not a client yet. In Esqase each one sits on a shared board with a stage, a source, an owner, and the follow-up already queued.
One board for every inquiry, however it arrived
Someone types a lead in, a prospect books a consult, or a prospect submits your public form. All three open the same record on one pipeline, tagged with its source, and create the contact.
The intake pipeline
Open a lead from one dialog, then drag it between stages as the conversation moves.
Each card carries the name, practice area, source tags, and assignees, so the board answers who is doing what without anyone opening a record.
Managing leadsBooked consultations
A booking opens the lead and puts the meeting on your calendar.
Public intake forms
A submission opens the lead and brings the answers with it.
Your stages, your outcome, your next step
Name the columns your intake uses. A lead leaves the board hired or not hired, and a hired one converts into a matter with its contact, practice area, folder, and checklist in place.
Set up your intake pipeline.
Browse the docsFAQs
Stages, sources, outcomes, and what happens at conversion.
What counts as a lead in Esqase?
A lead is a prospective client your firm has not yet decided to take on. It sits in your intake pipeline with a stage, a source, assignees, and its own follow-up checklist, and creating one also creates the contact record for that person or company. It stays on the board until you mark it hired or not hired.
Does Esqase create leads from bookings and forms?
Yes. When a prospect books a meeting on your booking page or submits a public intake form, Esqase creates the contact and the lead for you. A booking arrives tagged with a Booking source and puts the meeting on your calendar; a form submission carries the answers with it. Both land in the same pipeline.
Can I change the stages in the pipeline?
Yes. Add, rename, reorder, and delete the stage columns so the board matches how your firm screens an inquiry. Each column is typed as to do, in progress, or done, which sets its color accent but does not move leads on its own. Deleting a column is permanent, so move any leads out of it first.
What happens when I mark a lead hired?
Esqase screens the contact for conflicts first and holds the button until you acknowledge any high-priority matches. The lead then moves off the intake board into the Hired tab, and Edit and Archive switch off so its record stays consistent with the matter it will produce. The checklist stays editable, a Convert to matter button appears, and until you convert you can still mark it not hired or put it back on the board.
What carries over when a lead becomes a matter?
The contact becomes the matter's primary client and bill recipient, and the practice area, matter types, document folder, workflow checklist, and logged communications come across with it. Custom field values, the statute of limitations date, and related contacts do not, so you add those on the matter.
Can I hide a lead from the rest of the firm?
Mark it private. A private lead is visible only to the members it is assigned to and to firm owners, so it does not appear on the board or in the outcome tables for anyone else. You can set this when you create the lead, or change it later from the Edit dialog.
Can I delete a lead?
Only after archiving it. Archiving keeps the record but takes it out of your active views, and the Delete option then appears on archived leads if your role includes delete access. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone, so archive anything you might want to look at again.