Deal stages and payments
Lead, Proposal, Active, Invoiced and Paid. How Sydbar decides, how to correct it, and how "Looks paid" works.
The stages
Each client sits in one stage. Sydbar always shows the evidence it used.
| Stage | When |
|---|---|
| Lead | You're in touch, with no proposal or agreement yet. |
| Proposal | You sent a proposal or quote, or a scope of work that isn't signed yet. |
| Active | There's an agreement or a signed scope with milestones still to invoice. |
| Invoiced | An invoice is sent and not paid. Money owed always wins. |
| Paid | Everything invoiced is paid. |
Name the stages your way
Settings → Business → Deal stage names renames the five stages for that business, for example Inquiry, Quoted, In production, Billed, Settled. Names only: the order and how Sydbar decides each stage stay the same, and an empty name goes back to Sydbar's.
Change the stage
Use Change stage to set Lead, Proposal or Active yourself, or Let Sydbar decide. Invoiced and Paid come from your invoices. Your choice stands until something newer happens, like a payment or an agreement.
Open money and still to invoice
The deal panel shows:
- Open: invoices sent and not marked paid.
- To invoice: milestones of the agreement not invoiced yet, valued at the fee times each milestone's share.
"Looks paid"
When a client writes that they've paid (for example "payment sent" or "we've wired it") after an invoice was sent, in that conversation or naming its number, Sydbar shows Looks paid with the sentence it found. Sentences that ask, promise or deny ("we will pay", "has it been paid?") don't count.
Choose Mark paid {date} or Other date. Sydbar never marks an invoice paid on its own.
Mark paid by hand
Choose Mark paid on an invoice and pick the Paid on date (not in the future). Mark not paid undoes it.