Milestones

Milestones are the sales stages of a lead: the checkpoints between “someone mentioned a potential client” and a funded retainer. Every new lead gets the standard set automatically; you record each milestone as it happens. Recording milestones is what powers the pipeline, funnel, and flow charts in Sales reporting.

The Stages, in Order

1. Contact Info Received: they’ve reached out, but you haven’t responded. Urgent: people keep calling other firms until someone answers.
2. Contact Made: you’ve spoken about their issue, where they’re located, the other parties (for the conflict check), and enough to decide whether to proceed.
3. Appointment Made: they cleared the conflict check; the consultation is scheduled.
4. Initial Consult Held: you’ve met, discussed their situation and your terms, and given them a retainer to sign.
5. Retainer Signed: signed and returned. Not won yet.
6. Retainer Funded (Won): the retainer is paid. Outlaw treats this as the win and offers to open the case.

Below the stages, the Resolution row holds the other ways a lead can end:

• Consult Sufficient: won, because the paid consult was all the client needed. It’s available once Initial Consult Held is recorded, and not after Retainer Signed is recorded.
• Parking Lot: on hold while they decide, for example while they put together the funds or wait out a mandatory waiting period.
• Refused: you declined the lead.
• Lost: the lead went elsewhere.

How Recording Works

• Milestones are recorded in order: only the next unrecorded milestone can be clicked. Clicking it stamps it with the current date and time.
• Each recorded milestone shows its date and who recorded it. To change the date, select the edit icon beside it. You can correct dates even after the lead is resolved.
• If a date is in the future, or out of order with the milestones around it, the milestone shows a warning such as “dated in the future” or “dated before Contact Made”. The warning is advisory and doesn’t stop you from saving.
• To go back, click a completed milestone (Return Here). That milestone and every milestone after it are undone and their dates are cleared.
• Clicking Retainer Funded (Won) opens the Mark as Won: Retainer Funded panel. Choosing a resolution from the Resolution row opens a similar panel. Each panel has a Date, Reasons, and Notes; Parking Lot also has Follow Up On. Reasons are drawn from the Win/Loss Reasons list you manage in Settings. That’s what makes the win/loss reporting meaningful.
• A resolution that is set shows its date, who set it, and its notes, with an Edit button to change the reasons, notes, or date, and a Reopen button (Resume for Parking Lot). For a lead won by a funded retainer, Edit and Reopen appear on the Retainer Funded (Won) milestone instead. Reopening or resuming asks you to confirm, then clears the resolution and its reasons. The other milestones already recorded are kept.
• While a lead is won, refused, or lost, its milestones and the other resolutions are locked until you reopen it. A lead in the Parking Lot keeps its milestones live: recording one asks you to confirm, then resumes the lead. Choosing Consult Sufficient, Refused, or Lost for a parked lead replaces the Parking Lot.
• In the Parking Lot, after you set a Follow Up On date, the Parking Lot shows an Add Follow-Up Task button. It opens a new task due on that date, using the follow-up activity you configured in Lead Settings, so a parked lead resurfaces instead of being forgotten. Setting the date alone doesn’t create a task.
• Only Retainer Funded (Won) triggers the case creation flow, carrying the lead’s context over to the new case. Consult Sufficient does not create a case.

Initial Consult Date

When you enter or change a lead’s Initial Consult Date and save the lead, Outlaw records every milestone through Initial Consult Held that isn’t recorded yet. Those milestones are dated when you entered the consult date, not with the consult date itself. A lead in the Parking Lot resumes. A lead that is won, refused, or lost isn’t changed.

Why It Matters

Knowing where every lead sits lets Outlaw show you what’s coming: a pipeline heavy in early stages warns of lean months; one heavy in late stages says it’s time to market. The funnel and flow charts in Sales reporting are built directly on these stages: where leads stall, where they fall out, and how well you close.

Where You’ll See It

Milestones appears at the bottom of a lead’s main fields, once the lead is saved and has a name. It’s the firm’s own pipeline record, not something that belongs to a client’s case file.