Manual review
Hold incoming leads for approval before they reach buyers, with an optional auto-release delay.
Turn on Manual review in the pipeline's Settings (gear on the canvas). Every clean lead then arrives as held: stored and scored, but not distributed until someone approves it.
Under the toggle, Auto-release after (minutes) decides what happens if nobody gets to it:
| Value | Behavior |
|---|---|
0 | Manual approval only — the lead waits indefinitely. |
1–1440 (up to 24h) | The lead releases itself and distributes normally after the delay, unless you approve or reject it first. |
Only otherwise-clean leads are held. Spam, rejected duplicates and invalid leads keep their own status and their own review flow — the hold is a quality gate, not a catch-all.
Working the queue
Held leads are listed in Leads under the status filter Held for review (the list refreshes itself while you're on it), and the pipeline canvas shows an amber "Held for manual review before delivery" pill.
Open a lead and the Review this lead card gives you the whole decision on one screen:
- Its quality score and grade.
- If approved, routes to — the buyers it would go to and at what price, plus a "why · N skipped" list explaining every buyer that wouldn't get it.
- A warning when a selected buyer is currently outside its operating hours: approving won't force delivery, the lead is delivered at the buyer's next open window.
- A live countdown when auto-release is configured.
- Approve & release (
A) and Reject (R).
Approving starts normal distribution immediately. Rejecting is final — the lead stays as rejected and is never distributed.
Approval and forwarding
Held leads don't trigger forwarding rules while they wait. The rules are evaluated at release — manual or automatic — and the review card previews the outcome:
- A matching copy rule sends the lead to the other pipeline and distributes it here.
- A matching transfer rule makes the lead leave: it's marked transferred, and this pipeline's buyers don't receive it.
Common questions
Do held leads still get scored? Yes — that's the point. The grade is on the card before you decide.
What if I approve at the exact moment auto-release fires? Whichever lands first wins, and the lead is only distributed once.
Does manual review slow every lead down? It holds every clean lead in that pipeline. Run it on the pipelines that need it — a new supplier on trial, a buyer with strict quality terms — rather than account-wide. Set a delay so nothing sits forever if your team is offline.
Can a buyer tell a lead was held? No. Buyers receive it exactly as they would have, just later. What they do see is the age of the lead, so keep delays short for time-sensitive verticals.
What's the difference between held and deferred? Held waits for your approval before distribution. Deferred happens after: the lead is sold and waits for the buyer's opening hours. See lead statuses.