Leads, Opportunities and Accounts

Three related but distinct objects, often confused because they describe stages of the same relationship:

Lead

The raw prospect record — contact info, which Market/Vendor/Product it came from, its Status/Sub-Status, and who it's assigned to. Everything about working a lead (editing it, changing its status, logging notes, scheduling callbacks) happens inside the Leads module. A lead never becomes something else — it stays a Lead permanently, even after it's linked to an Account or has an approved Opportunity.

Opportunity

Not a separate record you can browse in a list — it's a time-boxed hold-and-approval request layered on top of a Lead. A user requests to reserve a lead (for 7 to 90 days) with a justification and an optional commission split between colleagues; the request needs approval before it takes effect. See How to Reserve an Opportunity There is no "Opportunities" object independent of the Lead it's attached to.

Account

A separate, commerce-side customer/company record — orders, quotes, spend totals, shipping addresses, documents, and members all live on the Account, not the Lead. A Lead can be linked to one Account (see How to Link a Lead to an Account) — this is a pointer, not a conversion or merge; the Lead keeps existing on its own. Multiple leads can point at the same Account over time (e.g. a repeat customer generating new leads).

Important: despite a menu item labeled "Convert" appearing on the lead detail page, there is no lead-to-account conversion feature — it's a UI stub that isn't wired up yet. Don't expect a lead to transform into an account; linking is the real mechanism.

Duplicates

Duplicate Accounts can be merged (an admin, Merge Accounts right, picks a survivor and a duplicate — the duplicate's leads, orders, documents, etc. move onto the survivor, and the duplicate is deactivated, never deleted). Duplicate Leads cannot currently be merged — that menu item is also an unwired stub.