Key Concepts: Leads vs. Customers, Jobs vs. Visits, Service Plans vs. Quotes
Rotor keeps several pairs of objects deliberately separate — leads and customers, jobs and visits, service plans and quotes. This article explains what each one is, when it gets created, and the mix-up people run into most.
Written By Support Team
Last updated 5 days ago
Rotor separates a few things that other software lumps together. That separation is what keeps the sales side and the operations side both working, but it trips people up in the first week. Here's each pair, in plain terms.
Leads vs. Customers
A lead is someone who might buy. A customer is someone who has/will use your services. They live in separate sections of the sidebar on purpose, so your sales pipeline stays clean and your operational list stays focused on people who generate revenue.
A lead is created when you knock a door, when a Meta or Google ad form comes in, when someone fills out a web form, or when you import a list. Every lead needs a lead source and sits in a lead stage.
A lead does: hold a projected value, a follow-up date, a priority, tags, notes, quotes, and a full conversation thread. It can sit in pipelines and be dialed.
A lead does NOT: have jobs. You cannot schedule work for a lead. You also can't bill one.
A customer is created when you click Convert to Customer on a lead, when a quote is approved and signed, when you add one directly, or when you import customers.
A customer does: hold service plans, jobs, invoices, payment methods, agreements, and lifetime value — plus a billing address separate from the property address, for property managers and commercial accounts.
The most common mix-up: trying to schedule a job for someone who is still a lead. If the job option isn't there, that's why — convert them first. There's also no way to demote a customer back to a lead, since customers carry entangled data like active plans and payment history, so if someone hasn't bought yet, keep them as a lead.
Full detail is in Leads and Customers.
Jobs vs. Visits
A job is a unit of work you sold and will bill for. A visit is a specific appointment on the calendar where someone shows up and does part of that work. One job can contain multiple visits.
A job is created from a service plan, or directly on a customer.
A job does: carry the line items, the discount, the price, and the eventual invoice. It has a payment status you can filter on.
A visit is created when you place a job on the schedule, and again any time you add another visit to the same job — a re-service, a second day on a multi-day project, or follow-up work.
A visit does: hold the assigned technician or crew, the time slot, the visit timer, visit notes, and any upsell line items a tech adds in the field. Technician efficiency is tracked at the visit level, not the job level.
The most common mix-up: thinking that finishing the visit closes the job. In the mobile app, tapping Finishends the visit — you then choose Mark the job as complete or Add another visit. If a quarterly pest treatment needs a return trip for the crawlspace, add a second visit instead of closing the job, so the billing stays on one job.
See Crew Scheduling, Jobs Page - Web, and Mobile: Visit and Job Page, and Upsells.
Pending Jobs vs. Scheduled Jobs
A pending job is a placeholder that says "this customer is due for service around this time" without committing a crew, a date, or a time slot. A scheduled job is on the calendar with a technician assigned.
A pending job is created by a service plan when you choose to add jobs to the pending queue as they come due, rather than scheduling everything upfront. If routes are enabled on your account, plans place jobs in the pending list instead of creating them automatically.
A pending job does: appear on the customer profile, on Service → Jobs → Pending Jobs, and in the panel on the right side of the schedule page — where you can drag it onto the calendar in day view.
A pending job does NOT: open or edit like a real job — it's purely an indicator that service is due.
The most common mix-up: assuming a pending job is booked. Nobody is coming until you schedule it. The upside is real, though — crews, vans, and routes change over a year, and pending jobs let you keep next December organized without locking in a crew today. See Pending Jobs.
Service Plans vs. Quotes
A quote is a proposal you send. A service plan is the ongoing arrangement you deliver against. They're configured almost identically — same service types, frequencies, line items, discounts, and billing modes — which is exactly why they get confused.
A quote is created from Service → Quotes, or directly from a lead or customer profile. It can go to a lead or a customer.
A quote does: get sent to the client, who can Approve, Decline, or Request Changes in their portal. It carries a salesperson for attribution, client-facing notes, and internal notes.
A quote does NOT: schedule anything or bill anyone. It's a document until it converts.
A service plan is created when you click New Plan on a customer, or automatically when a quote is approved and the agreement is signed.
A service plan does: define the frequency and duration, generate the jobs (scheduled or pending), drive billing mode, hold the signed agreement, and record who sold it.
The most common mix-up: assuming that once a quote converts, work is on the books. A plan created from a converted quote starts as Inactive — you activate it by scheduling the first service. Worth knowing too: with Auto-advance to agreement enabled, an approving client is sent straight to sign, the plan is created, and the lead becomes a customer in one motion.
See Quotes: Web and Service Plans.
Pipelines vs. Pipeline Stages vs. Lead Stages
Three related words, three different things.
A pipeline is a whole board for one process — for example Meta Ads Leads. You can have several.
A pipeline stage is a column on that board, like Text 1 or Sold. You can attach an automation to a stage so moving a card into it sends a text.
An opportunity is the card — one lead or customer inside one pipeline. The same person can be an opportunity in several pipelines at once, and can run through one more than once. A lead/customer can have multiple opportunities at once.
A lead stage is something else entirely: the single funnel position on the lead record itself, set under Settings → Customization, and what the Leads page kanban view is organized by.
The most common mix-up: changing lead stages when you meant to build a pipeline. Use lead stages for the one universal funnel every lead moves through; use pipelines for campaigns and processes only some people belong to. One trap: deleting a lead stage does not delete the leads in it, but they go invisible in the kanban view until you restore the stage. Clear a stage before deleting it.
See Pipelines.
Quick Reference
Related reading: Service Plans for how plans generate work, Crew Scheduling for how visits land on a calendar, and Pending Jobs for the queue between the two.
Have additional questions? Our team is ready to help you succeed. Contact us through the chat or drop us an email at support@getrotor.com.