LeadTractor documentation

Welcome

Welcome to the official LeadTractor documentation. This guide walks you through everything from initial setup to using the full feature set of the plugin. Use the sidebar to navigate between sections, or scroll through at your own pace.

Installation

Installing LeadTractor takes just a few minutes. Follow these steps to get the plugin up and running on your WordPress site.

1. Download the plugin. Log in to your LeadTractor account at leadtractor.com/account and download the latest leadtractor.zip file.
2. Upload to WordPress. In your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Click Choose File, select the leadtractor.zip file you downloaded, and click Install Now.
3. Activate the plugin. Once the upload completes, click the Activate Plugin button. LeadTractor will appear in your admin sidebar immediately.
4. Automatic database setup. On activation, LeadTractor creates the necessary database tables automatically. There is no manual migration step required. The plugin creates tables for leads, contacts, activity logs, pipeline stages, and settings.

If you prefer installing via FTP, extract the leadtractor.zip archive on your computer and upload the resulting leadtractor folder to /wp-content/plugins/ on your server. Then activate the plugin from the Plugins page in WordPress.

Quick Start

After activating LeadTractor, follow these steps to start capturing and managing leads right away:

1. Open the LeadTractor menu. Click on LeadTractor in your WordPress admin sidebar. You will land on the main dashboard, which displays an overview of your CRM pipeline.
2. Create your pipeline stages. Click the + Add Stage button on the Kanban board to create your first stages. Common setups include stages like New, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, and Won. You can add as many stages as you need and rename them at any time by double-clicking the stage title.
3. Enable form integrations. Go to LeadTractor → Settings → Integrations. Toggle on whichever form plugins you have installed (WPForms, Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7, or SureForms). LeadTractor will auto-detect which form plugins are active on your site.
4. Test a submission. Submit a test entry through one of your forms. Return to the LeadTractor dashboard, and you should see a new lead card appear in your first pipeline stage.
5. Manage your leads. Click on any lead card to open the full lead detail view, where you can update status, add notes, change the pipeline stage, and view the original form submission data.

System Requirements

LeadTractor is designed to be lightweight and compatible with most WordPress hosting environments. The minimum requirements are:

• WordPress: Version 5.8 or higher
• PHP: Version 7.4 or higher (PHP 8.0+ recommended for best performance)
• MySQL: Version 5.7 or higher, or MariaDB 10.3 or higher
• Browser: Any modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) for the admin interface

LeadTractor does not require any external API services, third-party accounts, or cron job configuration to function. All data is stored locally in your WordPress database.

General Settings

Access General Settings by navigating to LeadTractor → Settings → General. This is where you configure the core behavior of the plugin.

• Company Name: Set your company or organization name. This appears in email notifications and exported reports.
• Default Lead Status: Choose the status that new leads are assigned when they are created. Options are New, In Progress, Done, Lost, and Invalid/Spam. Most users leave this set to New.
• Leads Per Page: Control how many leads appear per page in the list view. The default is 20, but you can increase or decrease this depending on your workflow.
• Kanban Card Display: Choose which fields are visible on Kanban cards. You can toggle the display of email, phone number, status badge, assigned user avatar, source tag, and creation date.
• Dashboard Layout: Select your preferred dashboard layout from three options: Default, Modern, or Compact. See the Dashboard Layouts section below for details on each.

Integrations

LeadTractor integrates with popular WordPress form plugins to automatically capture submissions as CRM leads. Navigate to LeadTractor → Settings → Integrations to manage your form integrations.

Supported Form Plugins

• WPForms — Both Lite and Pro versions are supported.
• Gravity Forms — All versions supported.
• Contact Form 7 (CF7) — The most widely used free form plugin.
• SureForms — Full support for SureForms submissions.

How It Works

LeadTractor automatically detects which form plugins are installed and active on your WordPress site. On the Integrations settings page, each detected plugin appears with a toggle switch. Simply turn on the toggle for any plugin you want to capture leads from.

Field Mapping

When a form is submitted, LeadTractor intelligently reads the form data and maps fields automatically:

• Name fields (first name, last name, full name) → Contact Name
• Email fields → Contact Email
• Phone fields → Contact Phone
• Subject fields → CRM Title (lead title)
• Message / textarea fields → CRM Description (lead body)

The mapping is intelligent — it looks at field names, labels, and types to determine the best match. In most cases, no manual mapping is required. Custom field mapping options will be available in a future release.

Notifications

LeadTractor can send email notifications when new leads are created. Navigate to LeadTractor → Settings → Notifications to configure this.

• Enable New Lead Notifications: Toggle this on to receive an email every time a new lead arrives from a form, WooCommerce, the API or a webhook. Leads you add by hand or import are skipped.
• Notification Email Address: By default, notifications are sent to the WordPress admin email. You can enter a different address, such as a shared sales inbox.
• Email Assignee: email team members when a lead is assigned to them by someone else.

Notification emails include the lead title, contact name, email address, phone number, the form source, and a direct link to the lead in your WordPress dashboard.

Dashboard Layouts

LeadTractor offers three dashboard layout options, allowing you to choose the visual style that best fits your workflow. Change layouts in LeadTractor → Settings → General → Dashboard Layout.

Default Layout

A clean, standard interface with a white background, clear card borders, and comfortable spacing. This is the recommended layout for most users. It prioritizes readability and is easy on the eyes during long sessions of lead management.

Modern Layout

A contemporary design featuring glassmorphism effects (frosted glass cards with translucent backgrounds), subtle gradient accents on headers and action buttons, and soft shadow depth. This layout gives your CRM dashboard a polished, premium look.

Compact Layout

A dense, data-focused layout that reduces card padding and spacing to display more leads on screen at once. Ideal for teams managing a high volume of leads who want to minimize scrolling and see more information at a glance.

Kanban Board

The Kanban board is the heart of LeadTractor. It provides a visual overview of your entire sales pipeline, with leads organized as cards across customizable stages.

Drag and Drop

Move leads between stages by dragging and dropping cards. When you drop a lead into a new stage, the change is saved automatically. This makes it fast to progress leads through your pipeline as deals move forward.

Unlimited Stages

There is no limit on the number of pipeline stages you can create. Click the + Add Stage button at the end of the board to add a new column. Stages can be reordered by dragging the stage header.

Quick-Add Leads

Click the + button at the top of any stage column to create a new lead directly in that stage. A quick-add form appears inline, letting you enter a title and basic contact information without leaving the board.

Rename Stages

Double-click on any stage title to rename it. Press Enter to save or Escape to cancel. Stage names can be anything that fits your workflow — there are no restrictions.

Color-Coded Status Indicators

Each lead card displays a color-coded status badge showing its current status: New (blue), In Progress (amber), Done (green), Lost (red) and Invalid/Spam (gray). This provides instant visual feedback on the state of each lead.

Lead Management

LeadTractor provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating, editing, and tracking leads through your sales process.

Creating Leads Manually

While most leads are captured automatically from form submissions, you can also create leads manually. Click the Add Lead button in the top-right corner of the dashboard to open the lead creation modal. The modal contains three sections:

• Lead Info: Enter the lead title (subject) and description (message body). Select the initial status and pipeline stage.
• Contact: Enter the contact's name, email address, and phone number. If a contact with the same email already exists, LeadTractor will link the lead to the existing contact record.
• Pipeline: Choose which pipeline stage the lead should be placed in and, optionally, assign the lead to a team member.

Editing Leads

Click on any lead card (in Kanban or List view) to open the single lead detail view. The detail view is organized into tabs:

• Details: Edit the lead title, description, status, stage, assigned user, and contact information. Each field is accompanied by an icon for easy identification.
• Submission Data: View the raw form data exactly as it was submitted. This includes all form fields, even those not mapped to CRM fields. Useful for reviewing the complete original message.
• Notes: Add internal notes to a lead for your team. Notes are timestamped and attributed to the user who created them. Use notes for follow-up reminders, call summaries, or any context you want to track.
• Activity: A chronological log of every action taken on this lead — creation, stage changes, status updates, notes added, and more. Activity entries cannot be deleted, ensuring a complete audit trail.

Lead Statuses

Every lead has one of five fixed statuses:

• New: The lead has just been created and has not been reviewed yet.
• In Progress: The lead is being actively worked on — calls made, emails sent, negotiations ongoing.
• Done: The lead has been successfully converted (deal won, inquiry resolved, etc.).
• Lost: The lead did not convert — the deal was lost, the prospect went with a competitor, or the opportunity is no longer viable.
• Invalid/Spam: The lead is not a genuine inquiry. This covers spam submissions, test entries, or irrelevant messages.

Contacts

LeadTractor automatically creates contact records from form submissions, building a database of everyone who has reached out through your website.

Automatic Contact Creation

When a new lead is captured, LeadTractor checks whether a contact with the same email address already exists. If not, a new contact record is created automatically. If a matching contact is found, the new lead is linked to the existing contact, keeping all interactions grouped together.

Contact Profiles

Each contact record stores the following information:

• Full Name (first and last name)
• Email Address
• Phone Number
• City
• Gender
• Company

Gravatar Integration

Contact avatars are pulled automatically from Gravatar using the contact's email address. If the contact has a Gravatar profile, their photo will appear throughout the CRM — on contact cards, lead detail views, and Kanban cards.

Associated Leads

On each contact's profile page, you can see a list of all leads associated with that contact. This gives you a complete interaction history: every form submission, every inquiry, every deal — all tied to one person.

Export and Import Contacts

You can export your entire contact list as a CSV file for use in other tools, email marketing platforms, or spreadsheets. You can also import contacts from a CSV file to bulk-populate your contact database. See the Import & Export section for details.

Activity Logs

LeadTractor tracks every action taken within the CRM, giving you a complete audit trail for compliance, team oversight, and historical reference.

What Gets Tracked

The following actions are recorded automatically:

• Form submissions (new lead created from a form)
• Stage changes (lead moved from one pipeline stage to another)
• Status changes (e.g., "New" to "In Progress")
• Notes added to leads
• Lead assignments (assigned or reassigned to a team member)
• Lead imports and exports
• Contact creation and updates
• Manual lead creation

Global Activity Log

Navigate to LeadTractor → Activity Logs to view all activity across the CRM. The global log supports filtering by:

• Action Type: Filter by specific actions (e.g., only stage changes, only notes).
• Object Type: Filter by leads, contacts, or settings.
• Search: Free-text search across activity descriptions.

Per-Lead Activity

Each lead's detail view includes an Activity tab showing only the actions related to that specific lead. This tab provides a focused timeline of everything that has happened with a lead from the moment it was created.

Analytics

The Analytics dashboard gives you a data-driven overview of your CRM performance. Navigate to LeadTractor → Analytics to access it.

Overview Cards

At the top of the Analytics page, summary cards display key metrics at a glance:

• Total Leads: The total number of leads in your CRM.
• New: Leads with "New" status.
• In Progress: Leads currently being worked on.
• Won: Leads marked as "Done" (successfully converted).
• Lost: Leads that did not convert.
• Invalid: Leads marked as Invalid/Spam.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of total leads that were marked as Done (won).
• Today: Leads created today.
• This Week: Leads created in the current week.

Charts and Visualizations

Below the overview cards, interactive charts provide deeper insights into your lead data. All charts are powered by Chart.js.

• Lead Trends (30 days): A line chart showing the number of new leads created each day over the past 30 days. Useful for spotting trends and seasonal patterns.
• By Stage: A bar chart showing how many leads are in each pipeline stage. Helps identify bottlenecks in your pipeline.
• By Status: A doughnut chart breaking down leads by their current status.
• By Source: A chart showing which form plugins are generating the most leads (WPForms, Gravity Forms, CF7, SureForms).
• By Country: A chart displaying leads grouped by country, based on available location data.
• Referrers: Shows which websites or pages are sending traffic that converts into leads.
• UTM Tracking: Breaks down leads by UTM campaign, source, and medium parameters captured from the form submission URL.

Team Assignments

LeadTractor supports assigning leads to team members, so everyone knows who is responsible for following up on each lead.

Assigning Leads

You can assign a lead to any WordPress user with an Administrator, Editor, or Author role. To assign a lead, open the lead detail view and select a user from the Assigned To dropdown. You can also assign leads during manual creation or via the quick-edit option on the Kanban board.

Default Assignment

In LeadTractor → Settings → General, you can set a default assignee. When a new lead is created (either from a form submission or manually), it will be automatically assigned to this user. Leave this blank to have leads start unassigned.

Auto-Assignment Rules

For more advanced workflows, navigate to LeadTractor → Settings → Lead Assignments. Here you can create auto-assignment rules per pipeline stage. For example, you might want all leads that enter the "Qualified" stage to be automatically assigned to your sales manager, while leads in the "Support" stage go to your support team lead.

Visual Indicators

On the Kanban board, assigned leads display the user's avatar in the bottom corner of the card. In list view, the assigned user's name appears in a dedicated column. This makes it easy to see at a glance who is handling each lead.

Import & Export

LeadTractor supports importing and exporting data as CSV files, making it easy to migrate data, create backups, or share information with other tools.

Exporting Leads

Go to LeadTractor → Tools → Export and select Leads. The exported CSV file includes the following columns:

• Lead Title
• Contact Email
• Contact Phone
• Status (New, In Progress, Done, Lost, Invalid/Spam)
• Pipeline Stage
• Tags
• UTM Source, UTM Medium, UTM Campaign
• Created Date

You can use filters before exporting to only include leads matching specific criteria (e.g., only "Done" leads, or only leads from a certain date range).

Importing Leads

Go to LeadTractor → Tools → Import and select Leads. The import process works as follows:

1. Upload your CSV file. Drag and drop the file onto the upload area, or click to browse. LeadTractor accepts standard CSV files with headers in the first row.
2. Map columns. LeadTractor uses smart column mapping to automatically match your CSV columns to CRM fields. Review the suggested mapping and adjust if needed. For example, if your CSV has a column named "Full Name," LeadTractor will map it to the Contact Name field.
3. Review and import. Preview the first few rows to verify the mapping looks correct, then click Import. LeadTractor will create new lead and contact records for each row.

Exporting and Importing Contacts

Contacts can be exported and imported separately from leads. Go to LeadTractor → Tools → Export or Import and select Contacts. The contact CSV includes name, email, phone, city, gender, and company fields.

WhatsApp Integration Coming Soon

We are building a WhatsApp integration that will allow you to communicate with leads directly from within LeadTractor. This feature will connect to the WhatsApp Business API to enable two-way messaging without leaving your CRM.

Planned capabilities include:

• Send and receive WhatsApp messages from the lead detail view.
• Message templates: Create reusable message templates for common follow-ups, greetings, and responses. Templates will support dynamic placeholders like {{contact_name}} and {{lead_title}}.
• Conversation history: Every WhatsApp message sent or received will be logged in the lead's activity timeline, providing a complete conversation record.
• Quick replies: One-click replies from the Kanban board without opening the full lead detail view.

Custom Form Builder Coming Soon

While LeadTractor currently relies on third-party form plugins (WPForms, Gravity Forms, CF7, SureForms), we are developing a built-in form builder so you will not need any additional plugins to capture leads.

Planned capabilities include:

• Drag-and-drop form creation: Build forms visually with a drag-and-drop interface. Add text fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, file uploads, and more.
• Direct CRM field mapping: Map form fields directly to LeadTractor CRM fields during form creation. No post-submission mapping needed.
• Embeddable anywhere: Place forms on any page or post using a shortcode or Gutenberg block.
• Conditional logic: Show or hide fields based on user input.
• Styling controls: Customize form appearance to match your theme without writing CSS.

Mail Communication Coming Soon

A built-in email communication system is on the roadmap, enabling you to send emails to leads directly from the CRM interface.

Planned capabilities include:

• Send emails from the lead view: Compose and send emails without switching to your email client. Emails are sent from your configured WordPress email or a custom SMTP connection.
• Email templates: Create reusable email templates with rich text formatting and dynamic merge fields like {{contact_name}}, {{company}}, and {{lead_title}}.
• Open and click tracking: Track when recipients open your emails and which links they click. Tracking data will appear in the lead's activity timeline.
• Conversation thread: All emails sent to and received from a lead will be displayed as a threaded conversation within the lead detail view, similar to a traditional email client.

Deals & Follow-ups

Every lead can carry an expected value, a priority (0–3 stars) and a next follow-up date. Set them in the Deal box on the lead screen, or click the stars directly on a Kanban card.

• Stage totals: each Kanban column shows the open deal value it holds (Lost and Invalid leads are excluded).
• Overdue follow-ups: open leads whose follow-up date has passed are highlighted in red on the board and in the list. Use the Overdue follow-ups filter in the list view to work through them.
• Currency: set it under Settings → General → Currency. If left empty, LeadTractor uses your WooCommerce currency, or USD.
• Closed date: moving a lead to Done, Lost or Invalid records the date it was closed.

WooCommerce Pro

Enable WooCommerce under Settings → E-commerce. From then on every order creates a deal (value = order total) linked to the customer’s contact, and the contact profile shows their order history.

• Pipeline stage & tag: choose where order deals appear and which tag they get.
• Status sync: Pending → New, Processing/On hold → In Progress, Completed → Done, Cancelled/Refunded/Failed → Lost. Refunds reduce the deal value.
• Link customer accounts: contacts are linked to the customer’s WordPress account, and new customer registrations create contacts.
• Import past orders: click Import orders to process existing orders in batches. Orders that already have a deal are updated, not duplicated.

See the WooCommerce CRM overview for more.

REST API & Webhooks Pro

All connection settings live under Settings → Connect Other Platforms.

• Inbound webhook: enable it to get a secret URL that accepts leads from Zapier, Make, n8n or any HTTP POST (JSON or form data).
• REST API: /wp-json/leadtractor/v1/leads, /contacts and /stages. Authenticate with a WordPress Application Password for a user with CRM access.
• Outgoing webhooks: add URLs (one per line), choose events, and use Send test event to check them. Requests are signed with an X-LeadTractor-Signature HMAC-SHA256 header.

The full endpoint list, payload format and code samples are on the Integrations page.

Privacy & Data

• Where data lives: leads, contacts, notes and logs are stored in your WordPress database (tables prefixed leadtractor_). Nothing is sent to LeadTractor.
• IP geolocation is off by default. When enabled, a submitting visitor’s IP address is sent to ipapi.co to look up their country and city — mention this in your privacy policy.
• Spam clean-up: optionally delete leads marked Invalid/Spam after a number of days (runs once a day).
• Uninstall: your data is kept when you delete the plugin unless you enable Delete All Data on Uninstall. It is never deleted while the other edition (free or Pro) is still installed.

Upgrading to Pro

• From free to Pro: install and activate LeadTractor Pro. The free plugin steps aside automatically; you can then deactivate and delete it. Both editions share the same data.