• Define consistent and repeatable pipeline processes
• Automatically assign leads to team members
• Automatically assign tasks to yourself and others
• See what tasks and leads need attention
• Capture comments and other customer information

In future message we will look at how to:
• Capture leads from your website
• Automatically send emails to your prospects (subject to strict anti-spam compliance)

Click on the users link under the Setup section of the menu bar. When you start, there will be only two users, you and the automatically created email user. Create additional users here as needed. These two users are fine to get started.

Tracks form the basis of the leadsonrails.com system. Leads are not required to be placed on a track, but by doing so you get the benefits pipeline visibility and workflow management. If you have an existing lead management process, let's go ahead now and set up LeadsOnRails to follow that.

1. Click on the "Tracks" link.
2. Click on "Create a new track."
3. Give your new track a title and description and then click "Create this track."
4. Now that the track is created, you can add steps to it.
5. Click on "add a step"
6. Fill in the step details, click "Add this step", and you're done. To get started, make the first task Days=0 and User = yourself.
7. You can add as many steps as you like.

The "Enter a new lead" link remains in the upper left corner of the system on every single screen. This is important because ready access to entering new lead information ensures that you and your team instantly enter any new customer information gathered from any source. No matter where you are in the system, you can always click on "Enter a new lead" and be brought instantly to a simple form for capturing information at hand.

For purposes of Getting Started, go ahead and click on that link, enter a lead, and put it on the track that you just created. After a lead is saved, you can enter detailed lead information. If you assigned the first step in the track to yourself and set Days = 0, it will show up on your dashboard today. If you assigned the first step to email and selected a message template, the email will be automatically delivered.

The dashboard is your home screen when you log in. Your dashboard is where you see what tasks are due today, keep track of what tasks you've completed, and enter new leads. Leads appear on your dashboard when a lead is at a step for which you are responsible or when someone manually assigns a 'to do' to you. Tasks that are passed due are highlighted with a red alert icon. You can also see what is on deck for future dates for any user. Ensure the ball keeps moving!