# Deal stages and payments

> Lead, Proposal, Active, Invoiced and Paid. How Sydbar decides, how to correct it, and how "Looks paid" works.

Source: https://sydbar.app/docs/deal-stages

## 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.