Getting started with Orbit Pulse
What this page is — the order to configure Pulse in on a new tenant, and why that order and not another.
What it is for — getting from an empty CRM to a working one without discovering halfway through that a step needed something you have not built yet.
The problem it solves — the configuration screens have dependencies that none of them mention. Scoring rules need custom fields; assignment rules need agents; conversion needs a deal pipeline. Doing these in the wrong order means going back. It also names the three things people assume are automatic and are not.
1. The shortcut
Before configuring anything by hand, check whether the tenant already has defaults:
Lead Settings → Pipelines & Statuses. If it is empty, there is a setup action that seeds a default pipeline with a full set of statuses in one call. It is gated on Manage Lead Pipelines.
Seeding gives you a working pipeline whose statuses already carry the right categories — new,
working, qualified, converted, lost. Getting those right by hand is fiddly and the funnel
report depends on them. Seed, then rename and reorder.
2. The order, and why it matters
| # | Step | Why here | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lead sources | Every lead wants one, and reports cannot attribute without it | Sources |
| 2 | Pipelines and statuses | A lead with no status appears on no board | Pipelines |
| 3 | Grades | Scoring writes a grade, so the grades must exist first | Grades |
| 4 | Custom fields | Scoring and assignment rules can test them — but only if the definitions exist | Custom fields |
| 5 | Queues and agents | Assignment rules can only target agents that are enabled | Queues · Agents |
| 6 | Scoring rules | Needs custom fields and grades in place | Scoring |
| 7 | Assignment rules | Needs agents and queues, and can test the score | Assignment |
| 8 | Conversion rules | Needs a deal pipeline to convert into | Convert to deal |
3. The admin contract
Things that must be true elsewhere before Pulse works:
| Requirement | Without it |
|---|---|
| A project is selected | Every list renders empty. Pulse data is project-scoped |
| The module is in the org's package | The screens do not appear at all |
| The role holds Manage Lead Sources | The Lead Settings hub cannot be opened, whatever else is granted |
| A deal pipeline exists | Lead-to-deal conversion has nowhere to put the deal |
| Users are enabled as agents | Assignment rules match and then have nobody to assign to |
Not on a settings permission. A role granted pipelines and queues but not sources cannot open the hub that contains them. Grant Manage Lead Sources to anyone who administers lead configuration.
4. A first lead, end to end
- Leads → Create Lead. A name plus either an email or a phone is the minimum.
- Pick a pipeline and status. Nothing forces you to, and a lead without them is invisible on the board.
- Save. If an assignment rule matches, the lead is routed immediately — assignment is the one piece of automation that runs on create.
- The score is 0. It will stay 0 until somebody runs Recalculate. This is not a configuration error. See status, grade and score.
- Work the lead — log activities, add notes, move it through statuses.
- Convert it. That writes a contact, a deal, or both, and links them back to the lead.
5. What is not automatic
Worth knowing early, because all three surprise people:
| Expected to be automatic | Reality |
|---|---|
| Lead scoring | Runs only from the Recalculate action. Never on create or update |
| Lead de-duplication | Only the inbound webhook de-duplicates. The CSV import and the API do not |
| Pipeline and status defaults | Not applied. A lead created without them has neither |
Lead assignment is automatic, which makes the others more surprising than they would otherwise be.
6. Don't confuse this with…
| This | Not this |
|---|---|
| Lead Settings — the eight-section hub | Deal Settings, a separate screen for deal pipelines |
| Lead sources | UTM fields. A source is configuration; UTMs are captured per lead |
| Grades | Scores. A grade is a letter you can set; a score is computed |
7. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Every list is empty | No project selected |
| Cannot open Lead Settings | Missing Manage Lead Sources. Section 3 |
| New leads have no owner | No assignment rule matches, or no agents are enabled |
| New leads score 0 | Expected. Section 5 |
| A new lead is missing from the board | It has no pipeline or status. Section 4 |
Full list in troubleshooting.