Orbit Pulse
What this page is — the map of Orbit Pulse: which eight modules make up the CRM, what each one owns, and where the CRM stops and marketing begins.
What it is for — orientation before you configure anything. Pulse is spread across three separate permission categories with no category actually called "Pulse", so the shape is not guessable from the menu.
The problem it solves — people look here for blogs and campaigns because the product used to be called Marketing Suite, and they look for lead scoring without realising it has to be switched on. This page tells you what is here, what is not, and which page answers which question.
Orbit Pulse is the CRM — it captures a lead, qualifies it, routes it, and turns it into a contact and a deal. Seven modules and 87 permissions cover that path.
The rebrand left traces. /product/marketing-suite redirects to /product/pulse, the RBAC category
is still called Marketing Suite. None of that is a mistake — but it is why people expect blogs and
campaigns here and do not find them. See Where Pulse ends.
1. What Pulse is
A lead is someone who might buy. A contact is someone you have a relationship with. A deal is money you might make. Pulse is the machinery that moves a person from the first to the third.
| Lead | Contact | Deal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers | Might this person buy? | Who is this person? | What might we earn? |
| Created by | Web form, webhook, import, or by hand | Conversion, import, or by hand | Conversion, or by hand |
| Has a pipeline | Yes — status within a pipeline | No | Yes — stage within a pipeline |
| Has a score | Yes | No | No |
| Ends when | Converted or lost | Never — contacts persist | Won or lost |
| Table | leads | contacts | deals |
2. How Pulse spreads across the application
| Module | Route | Permissions | What it owns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manage Leads | /org/marketing/leads | 53 | Leads, and all nine of their configurable subsystems |
| Lead Settings | /org/marketing/leads/settings | 1 | The settings hub's gear-menu entry |
| Contacts | /org/marketing/contacts | 12 | Contacts and contact groups |
| Deals | /org/marketing/deals | 8 | Deals, deal pipelines and stages |
| Orbit Customers | /org/crm/customers | 5 | Customer records |
| Orbit Vendors | /org/crm/vendors | 5 | Vendor records |
| Lead Analytics and Reports | /org/analytics/lead | 8 | Five lead reports |
| Customer Tickets | /org/crm/customers/tickets | 0 | Nothing — see permissions |
Those eight modules are spread across three RBAC categories — Marketing Suite,
Customer Relationship and Analytics. There is no category called Pulse or CRM.
3. Where to start
New tenant, in order:
- Lead sources — where leads come from
- Pipelines and statuses — how they progress
- Grades and custom fields
- Queues and agents — who works them
- Scoring and assignment rules
- Conversion rules — what a won lead becomes
Getting started walks that path, including the one action that seeds most of it in a single click.
4. The four quality signals, which are not the same thing
A lead carries four separate indicators of how good it is, and they are independent:
| Signal | Set by | Holds |
|---|---|---|
| Status | A person, or a conversion rule | A status belonging to one pipeline |
| Lifecycle stage | A person, or whatever created the lead | One of five fixed values |
| Grade | A person, or a recalculate | A letter, e.g. A |
| Score | Scoring rules, on recalculate only | A whole number |
They disagree constantly, and the screens do not always show the one you set. Status, grade and score is a page in its own right because of it.
5. Where Pulse ends
| Area | Owner | Why not here |
|---|---|---|
| Forms, blogs, marketing pages, campaigns | Marketing Suite | The other 21 permissions in the same RBAC category. A form creates a contact; Pulse works it |
| Voice calls on a lead | Orbit Vox | Calls show on the lead record, and Add to VOX Backlog is a conversion target. Pulse documents the handoff, Vox the dialler |
| Storefront shoppers | Orbit Storefront | A shopper account is not a CRM contact — different table, different login |
| Timesheet analytics | Ops / People | Two of Lead Analytics' permissions are timesheet ones, misfiled. See permissions |
6. Don't confuse this with…
| This | Not this |
|---|---|
| The Analytics tab inside the leads list | Lead Analytics and Reports, a separate module with five reports |
| The Queues tab on the leads list — working a queue | Queues configuration — creating one |
| Contacts in Pulse | Storefront customers, who can log in |
| A lead's pipeline | A deal's pipeline — different tables, different stages |
7. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| A new rule has not affected existing leads | Rules apply going forward; use Recalculate to catch up. See scoring rules |
| A grade and a score seem to disagree | They are separate signals. See status, grade and score |
| A role holds a permission and the module is still hidden | The module's Menu… permission is missing. See permissions |
| A lead is missing from the board | Its pipeline may differ from the one the board is showing. See the board |
| An export has fewer rows than expected | It reflects the filters that were applied. See contacts |
More in troubleshooting.