Manual Lead Assignment in Appalix Sage CRM

Why contact ownership matters

In a growing team, unassigned leads are lost leads. When multiple reps can see the same contact with no clear owner, two things happen: either two people chase the same prospect (creating awkward double-outreach), or nobody does (because each assumes someone else has it covered). The Assigned To field on every Sage contact solves this with a single source of truth — one person owns each lead, everyone else can see it, and nothing slips through the cracks.

How the assigned_to field works

Each contact record has an Assigned To field that stores a reference to a workspace member. It defaults to unassigned when a contact is created manually. It auto-populates when round-robin distribution is enabled (covered in the next guide). You can override it at any time from the contact modal — no page reload needed.

What gets stored

The assigned_to column on sage_contacts stores the assignee's user ID (a UUID reference to auth.users).
If the assigned member leaves the workspace, the field is automatically set to null — the contact becomes unassigned rather than broken.
Every assignment change is logged to the contact's activity timeline so you always have an audit trail.

Assigning a contact — step by step

Option 1 — From the New Contact modal

In Sage → Contacts, click + New Contact.
Fill in the contact details — name, email, company, and so on.
Scroll to the Settings section at the bottom of the form.
Open the Assigned to dropdown and pick any accepted workspace member.
Click Create contact. The contact is created with that member as owner.

Option 2 — From the Edit Contact modal

Find the contact in the Contacts table and click the pencil (edit) icon in the Actions column.
In the Settings section, change the Assigned to dropdown to a new member (or clear it to unassigned).
Click Save changes. The contacts table updates immediately.

Note: Only Members, Admins, and Owners can assign or reassign contacts. Viewers see the assignment but cannot change it.

Seeing assignments in the contacts table

The Contacts table has a built-in Assigned To column. When a contact is assigned, it shows the member's name as a small badge. Unassigned contacts show a dash.

The column is included in the column picker (the grid icon above the table) so you can show or hide it depending on your workflow. By default it is visible.

Filtering by assignee

The Filter panel (funnel icon) includes an Assigned To dropdown with three options:

Anyone — show all contacts regardless of assignment (default).
Unassigned — show only contacts with no owner. Useful for finding leads that need to be picked up.
[Member name] — show only that rep's assigned contacts. Each accepted workspace member appears here.

Filters combine — you can filter by assignee and status and pipeline stage simultaneously to build precisely targeted views for each sales rep.

Who shows up in the Assigned To dropdown

The dropdown lists every accepted (joined) workspace member — regardless of their role. This means Owners, Admins, Members, and Viewers can all be assigned leads. Typically you'll assign to Members and Admins who actively work deals, but the system doesn't restrict assignment by role.

Pending invited members (who haven't accepted yet) are not shown — they must complete onboarding before they appear as available assignees.

Activity log & audit trail

Every time a contact's assignee changes, an activity entry is created on the contact record:

Assigned to Sarah Chen — Mar 10, 2026 at 14:32

This means you always know who made the assignment, when it happened, and how ownership has changed over time — useful for accountability reviews and handoff documentation.

Best practices

Assign at creation. The best time to assign a lead is the moment it enters the system. Build the habit of always selecting an owner in the New Contact modal before clicking Create.
Review the Unassigned filter weekly. Set aside five minutes each week to open Contacts → Filter → Unassigned. Any contact sitting there is a lead that hasn't been claimed — reassign or act immediately.
Let round-robin handle inbound. For leads coming in via the bot, email, or forms, enable round-robin distribution (Settings → Lead Distribution) so they're assigned automatically — no manual step required.
Use the Assigned To column on pipeline cards. Pipeline board cards surface the assignee name so reps can see at a glance which deals belong to them without opening every record.

What's coming next

Scoped views — Members optionally see only their own assigned leads, keeping the contacts table clean on large teams.
Assignment notifications — Get notified in-app or by email when a lead is assigned to you.

🎯

Start assigning leads today

Go to Sage → Contacts, open any contact, and try the Assigned To dropdown. Then head to Settings → Lead Distribution to automate the process with round-robin.

Open Contacts →Round-robin guide →