Working an Inquiry
An inquiry is a catering lead before it is an order. The public store's Contact form creates one. You can also add one yourself when someone calls.
Pipeline is on the Operations plan. If that menu item is locked, the contact form still accepts the message. You'll work the lead here after CRM is on your plan.
Open Sales & Finance → Customers & CRM → Pipeline.
What the customer filled in
On the store, Contact opens Get in touch. They click Send inquiry.
| Field | Required? |
|---|---|
| Name, Email, Phone | Yes |
| Event type, Guest count | No |
| Event date & time | No. When your delivery or pickup hours are saved, they pick from those times |
| Tell us about your event | No |
The form does not add a stranger to Customers. A submission you already know, because that email is on file, is linked to that customer. Everyone else stays on the inquiry until you link a customer, create one, or start a quote.
The inquiry opens in New Inquiry.
The board
Pipeline is a board. The columns, in order, are:
| Stage | Means |
|---|---|
| New Inquiry | The lead came in and nobody has answered yet |
| Contacted | You replied, or finished a call, email, or meeting with them |
| Quote Sent | A quote went out |
| Accepted | The customer accepted (signed) the quote |
| Won | The order is confirmed, or a deposit is paid |
| Lost | Every quote was declined or cancelled, or you marked it lost |
New Opportunity and the New Inquiry column are on that board.
Drag a card to another column to change its stage, or pick a Stage on the open inquiry. A card you moved yourself shows (manual). You can also filter the list by Stage, Owner, Sales Team, and Source.
Cards move on their own
You don't have to drag every card. Pipeline moves an inquiry forward as the work happens:
- Reply to the customer, on the inquiry or on its quote, and it moves to Contacted. Completing a call, email, or meeting activity does the same
- Send a quote and it moves to Quote Sent. A draft doesn't count until you send it
- When the customer accepts the quote, it moves to Accepted
- Confirm the order, or take a deposit, and it moves to Won. A linked prospect becomes a client
- When every quote is declined or cancelled, it moves to Lost
Cards only ever move forward. If you dragged a card to Accepted, sending another quote won't pull it back to Quote Sent. A deal you marked Won or Lost stays closed, with two exceptions. Confirming an order always marks it Won. And if Pipeline marked it Lost because every quote died, sending a new quote reopens it.
Every move shows on the inquiry's Timeline, for example Moved to Quote Sent automatically — quote sent or Moved to Contacted by Jane.
To change this, open Actions on Pipeline and choose CRM Settings. Under Pipeline auto-progress, one switch turns all of it off. Each rule below it also has its own switch.
New Opportunity starts a lead that didn't come from the website:
- Click New Opportunity
- Enter an Opportunity name
- Search Customer if you already have one. You can leave it blank
- Click Create Opportunity
Archive asks Archive this opportunity? before it runs. Archived inquiries come back from Archived with Restore.
Turn it into a quote
Open the inquiry and click New Quote. That starts a sales order tied to this pursuit. Send it the same way as any other quote. See Creating a Quote.
New Quote and Mark Won are on the open inquiry.
Confirming the order marks the inquiry Won for you. To close it without an order, click Mark Won. The prompt says a linked prospect will be promoted to a client. Mark Lost asks Mark this opportunity as lost? before it closes the lead. Won and lost can be told apart later; they leave the open columns.
My Activities lists follow-ups across every pursuit. Mine is your list. All is the whole team.
Follow-ups can be created for you when an inquiry has an event date. On Pipeline, open Actions and choose CRM Settings. Turn on Automatically schedule follow-up activities. When that switch is off, activities are only created if you add them.
Common Questions
Q: A contact-form lead didn't create a customer.
A: That's how the form works. Link the customer from the inquiry, or click New Quote and attach them there.
Q: I dragged a card to the wrong column.
A: Drag it back. Mark Won and Mark Lost ask before they close the deal.
Q: A card moved by itself.
A: That's auto-progress. The inquiry's Timeline says why it moved. Drag it back if you disagree. Pipeline only moves it forward again when something new happens.
Q: I don't want replies to move cards.
A: In CRM Settings, turn off Move to Contacted when we reply…. The other rules keep working.
Q: Where do tasting samples fit?
A: A sample is something you ship against a pursuit. See Sending Tasting Samples.
Next Steps
- Publishing Your Store — the public site that hosts Contact
- Creating a Quote — the quote you send from New Quote
- Sending Tasting Samples — ship a tasting against this pursuit
Last updated: October 09, 2026