A sales lead ends in Sales. You make an offer, a hold or a sale from the lead, or link one you have already made, and from then on the lead follows that record by itself. Artworks the client does not take continue in a lead of their own, and every rejected artwork and every lost lead keeps its reason. This article describes how a lead becomes an offer, a hold or a sale in WrkLst 10.
Before you start
- Offers, holds and sales belong to leads with the goal Sale. Leads with another goal — an exhibition, a press feature, a loan — are moved by hand; see Lead goals, settings and the Leads report.
- The lead needs a contact, because that contact becomes the client. For someone who is not in your contacts yet, first choose Link to …, Link an existing contact… or Create contact on the lead.
- New offer is only offered when your account uses offers: Activate offers as a precursor to a hold/sale under Settings › General Account.
- Creating an offer, a hold or a sale needs the right to edit Sales; linking one you already made needs access to Sales. Where something is missing, the choice is greyed out and says why, for example needs the right to edit Sales.
Create an offer, a hold or a sale
Open the lead and choose Create in the bar at the bottom, then New offer, New hold or New sale. The sale form opens with the client, the lead's artworks, the person the lead is assigned to as Facilitator (or you, if the lead is unassigned or you may only see your own sales) and, for a confidential lead, Confidential (if you may make confidential sales) already filled in. A line in the form says Saving links this to …'s lead. Nothing is reserved or sold until you save.
Artworks that are no longer available, and artworks the client rejected, are left out; a message tells you how many.
When the lead has two or more open artworks, WrkLst first asks which of them go into the offer, hold or sale. Tick them, and the dialog shows which of the others will continue in a new lead with the same person once you save. Artworks that cannot go into the deal are marked, for example Not available — moves to the new lead.
Back on the lead after saving, WrkLst asks When is the next step? if the deal took the lead into In contact or Offer and it has no follow-up date yet.
The lead follows its record
From the moment an offer, a hold or a sale is linked, the lead's stage follows it:
- an offer puts the lead at Offer, a hold at Hold, a sale at Sale;
- when the hold is released or the sale cancelled in Sales, the lead goes back to In contact, and the record stays linked;
- when the record is deleted, or its client changed to someone else, the lead goes back to In contact and the link is removed.
Hold and Sale are never set by hand: a hold reserves the artwork, so it needs a hold in Sales, and a sale needs a sale record.
The Create menu changes with the record. With an offer linked it offers Turn the offer into a hold and Turn the offer into a sale, which open the same record in Sales, where you change its type and save. New separate hold and New separate sale make a new record instead, which the lead then follows. With a hold linked, Turn the hold into a sale takes the next step; the other choices say what to do first.
The lead's Linked sale section shows the record — for example "Offer #1043" — with its total and, for a hold, when it expires. Edit in Sales opens it in the sale form, Share as makes its documents from your templates, and Unlink removes the link without changing anything in Sales. The sale in turn shows the lead it came from in its own Leads section.
Once a lead follows an offer, a hold or a sale, only people who may see that record in Sales see the lead.
Link a record you have already made
Made an offer straight from the work, or in Sales, after the enquiry came in? The lead suggests it: an offer, a hold or a sale for the same contact, made since the lead came in, about one of its artworks and not yet linked to another lead, shown as for example "Offer #1043 for Anna Berg, made 12 Oct 2026", with Link it. Nothing is linked until you click.
You can also link any of the contact's records yourself. Choose Move to and the stage — Offer, Hold or Sale — and then Link an offer, Link a hold or Link a sale. The list shows that contact's records where the contact is the client. If there is none, the dialog says so, for example This contact has no open hold to link.
Moving a sales lead
Move to lists every stage. A stage the lead cannot go to right now is greyed out and says why. When nothing needs to be chosen, the move happens at once and the message offers Undo. Otherwise the move dialog asks What to do:
- Only change the stage — moves the lead and its open artworks. Nothing is sent, reserved or sold.
- Change the stage and … — the step that belongs to the new stage: Create an offer, Create a hold or Create a sale; Link an offer, Link a hold or Link a sale; turn the linked offer or hold into the next record; release or cancel the linked record in Sales; add artworks to it or remove them from it in Sales; or Unlink it.
A step that is taken in Sales opens the record there with a short hint, for example "In Sales, set Type to Hold, then save." When a move takes a lead without a follow-up date into In contact or Offer, the dialog asks When is the next step? as well.
Artworks that are not part of the deal
A lead stays one conversation, but its artworks split at the deal. When the offer, hold or sale covers only some of the lead's open artworks — because you chose them in the dialog, linked a record that holds fewer, or removed a line in Sales — the others continue in a new lead with the same person, the same assignee, follow-up date, tags and notes. An artwork that is on hold or sold in Sales always stays where it is.
The message Artworks moved to a new lead with … says how many, with Open the new lead. The new lead's Source reads Split from another lead, its timeline starts with Split off from and the earlier lead, and the entries from before show Before the split, on that lead.
You can also split by hand. Move to a new lead… at the foot of the lead's Artworks moves the artworks you tick into a new lead with the same person; this lead keeps the rest and its timeline. Under Goal of the new lead you can give the new lead another goal. Rejected artworks stay, and at least one open artwork always stays. It needs two or more open artworks and a contact.
Each artwork's own stage
On a lead with two or more artworks, each artwork has its own stage track under its title. On a sales lead the steps are New, In contact, Offer, Hold and Sale, followed by Invoiced, Payments pending and Paid in full — or, at the end, Rejected, Donation or Gift. On the board a lead appears in every column where it has artworks.
You set New, In contact and Offer on an artwork yourself, with the arrow on its row; from Hold on, the artwork follows its record in Sales. An artwork set further than its lead takes the lead with it: The lead moved to Offer with this artwork.
An artwork that is reserved or sold through another record shows On hold elsewhere, Sold elsewhere, Donated elsewhere or Given elsewhere — never whose. Lines under the artworks point out what needs a decision, for example that an artwork follows another sale (with Open in Sales), or Artworks not part of the hold, with Reject artworks… and Move to a new lead….
Rejecting artworks
When the client says no to some of the works, choose Reject artworks… in the bar, or Reject… on one artwork's row. In Rejected artworks, tick what was turned down and choose Why they were rejected. An artwork you untick is open again; Undo rejection on a row does the same at once.
- Rejected artworks are left out when you create an offer, a hold or a sale from the lead, and when you Reply.
- An artwork that follows its hold or sale cannot be rejected until the record is released or cancelled in Sales.
- An artwork rejected while it is still on the linked offer stays on it until you remove it in Sales; the lead points this out, with Edit in Sales and Review….
- When every artwork is rejected and none is on hold or sold, the lead becomes Lost: Every artwork was rejected, so the lead is now Lost. Undo one rejection and the lead is open again.
Each rejected artwork is counted, with its reason, in Works declined in the Leads report.
Why a lead was lost
Moving a lead to Lost always asks Why it was lost: Price, Bought elsewhere, No reply, Not available or Other reason. Confirm with Mark as lost.
- With an offer linked, the lead is closed as Lost and the offer stays linked, as the record of what was offered.
- With a hold or a sale linked, release the hold or cancel the sale first: Release … in Sales or Cancel … in Sales opens it there, and when you come back, WrkLst asks why the lead was lost.
A lost lead gets no follow-up reminders and is never marked Expired. If the client comes round after all, move the lead back with Move to; if every artwork had been rejected, they are open again.
What a lead is worth
A lead has no amount of its own. Its value is the total of its linked offer, hold or sale, in that record's currency, never converted, and it appears on the lead's row and on its card on the board. Board columns add up their values per currency, and the list grouped by contact shows each contact's Sales value. A lost lead counts only the offer it declined; a released hold, a cancelled sale, a donation or a gift counts nothing. In Reports & Analytics, the Leads tab converts the values to your account's currency.
Still using WrkLst Classic? Classic has no Leads page, so offers, holds and sales are made from a lead in WrkLst 10. An offer, a hold or a sale you change in Classic still moves the lead that follows it, and one you make there for the lead's contact can be suggested on the lead with Link it.