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Paint Pals guide

Leads by email

Your lead emails turn into new leads in your sales pipeline. No typing, no copying phone numbers out of an email.

The short version

Paint Pals gives your company its own email address.

When someone wants a painting quote, you usually get an email about it. It might come from your website or from a lead service like Angi or Thumbtack. You send a copy of that email to your Paint Pals address.

Paint Pals reads the email for you. It finds the person's name, phone number, email and address. Then it puts them on your sales list as a new lead. You don't have to type a thing.

  1. 1A lead emails youfrom your website or a lead service
  2. 2A copy goes to Paint Palsto your company's own lead address
  3. 3A new lead shows upin your sales pipeline, ready to call

Not sure? Paint Pals doesn't guess. It holds the email and asks you to take a look.

Not a lead? Paint Pals skips it, like a newsletter. You can still see it in your email history.

Set it up

An admin on your Paint Pals account does this once. It takes about ten minutes.

Rather watch? See the setup video (8 minutes)

  1. Turn on the Sales pipeline

    Go to Settings › General and find the CRM card. Press Turn on the CRM, or turn on just the Sales pipeline switch. Leads by email puts leads in your Sales pipeline, so it needs that half of the CRM.

  2. Get your lead address

    Go to Settings › Integrations › Leads by email and press Get my lead address. You get one address that belongs only to your company, something like leads-a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8@in.paintpals.app. Press the copy button next to it.

  3. Send your lead emails to it

    There are three ways. Start with the first one that fits.

    Easiest: give the address to your lead service

    Angi, Thumbtack, Google Local Services and Yelp let you add a second email address for new lead alerts. Paste your Paint Pals address there and you're done. Only real lead emails ever reach Paint Pals this way.

    Your website form

    Your website form emails each new request to the address in the form's settings. If it lets you add a second address, add your Paint Pals address. If it only allows one address, you can either:

    • put your Paint Pals address there and turn on Also email me every new lead on the Leads by email card, so you still get a copy, or
    • keep your own address there and forward the form's emails with a mail filter (the next option).

    A filter in your own mailbox

    Set your email to forward only your lead emails. Use a filter, not "forward all my mail." Forwarding everything sends every personal and vendor email to Paint Pals too.

    Filter on the sender AND the subject. Lead services send reminders and offers from the same address as their leads. Only the subject tells them apart. Open your first lead email from each service and copy the words at the start of its subject.
    Gmail and Google Workspace
    1. In Gmail, open Settings › See all settings › Forwarding and POP/IMAP and press Add a forwarding address. Paste your Paint Pals address and follow Google's steps.
    2. Google sends a confirmation to that address. Within a minute, a yellow box appears at the top of the Leads by email card in Paint Pals. Open the confirmation link in it and confirm.
    3. Go back to Gmail and refresh. Open Filters and Blocked Addresses › Create a new filter. Make one filter for each lead service, for example:
      • Angi: From angi.com, Subject New Lead OR New Customer Match
      • Thumbtack: From thumbtack.com, Subject New direct lead
      Press Create filter, tick Forward it to, pick your Paint Pals address and save.

    If the yellow box doesn't show up after a few minutes, remove the forwarding address in Gmail and add it again so Google sends a fresh confirmation. Forwarding Google's email to the address yourself doesn't work. On a company Google Workspace account, an admin can turn forwarding off for everyone. If the address won't save, that's usually why.

    Watch these Gmail steps in the video
    Outlook.com (personal)

    Settings › Mail › Forwarding › Enable forwarding, paste your Paint Pals address and save. There is no confirmation step. Better yet, make a rule that forwards only the senders your leads come from.

    Microsoft 365 (business email on your own domain)

    Microsoft blocks forwarding to outside addresses for the whole company by default. A forwarded email quietly bounces with error 5.7.520, and nothing warns you.

    Whoever runs your Microsoft account (often you) turns it on at security.microsoft.com › Email & collaboration › Policies & rules › Threat policies › Anti-spam policies › Anti-spam outbound policy (Default) › Edit protection settings › Automatic forwarding rules › On - Forwarding is enabled, then saves. After that, set up forwarding in Outlook as usual.

    Yahoo and AOL

    Free Yahoo and AOL accounts can't forward automatically anymore. Use your lead service's own alert setting instead, or forward each lead by hand from your phone.

    Facebook and Instagram lead ads

    Facebook has no setting that emails each lead to an address you type in, so there's nowhere to paste your Paint Pals address. Use the Paint Pals Zapier app instead: a Zap that starts with Facebook Lead Ads › New Lead and runs Paint Pals › Create Lead. The lead lands in the same place as an emailed lead.

  4. Send a test

    Forward one real lead email to your Paint Pals address. Within a minute it shows up under Email history on the Leads by email card. The card says Waiting for the first email until the first one arrives, then Receiving with the time of the last email.

    Testing with a made-up lead? Use made-up customer details, not your own company's phone or email. A lead whose contact looks like someone on your own team is held for a look instead of created.

What happens to each email

Every email that reaches your address is listed in Email history, with a colored dot that tells you what became of it. Tap the dot to see the reason.

  • Green: a lead was created. It's in your pipeline.
  • Amber: waiting for you to take a look.
  • Gray: skipped, because it isn't a new lead.
  • Blue: still being read. Usually under a minute.

  • A lead with a name, plus a phone number or an email

    In your Sales pipeline?

    YesA new lead on the first stage of your pipeline

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Lead createdwith an Open lead button

  • A lead from Angi, Thumbtack, Yelp, Google Local Services or Facebook that hides the customer's phone and email

    In your Sales pipeline?

    YesWith the name only. Its notes say to answer the customer in that service's app.

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Lead created

  • A lead with no name, with no phone and no email (like a website form left half blank), with details that were hard to read, or whose contact looks like someone on your own team

    In your Sales pipeline?

    Not yetIt goes in when you press Create lead

    On the "needs a look" list?

    Yes

    Label in Email history

    Needs a lookwith a Review button

  • An Angi "New Opportunity" email (an offer you haven't bought yet)

    In your Sales pipeline?

    NoIf you buy it, Angi sends the real lead in its own email

    On the "needs a look" list?

    Yeswith a note saying it's an offer

    Label in Email history

    Needs a look

  • An email Paint Pals couldn't read at all

    In your Sales pipeline?

    No

    On the "needs a look" list?

    Yes

    Label in Email history

    Didn't go throughwith a Try again button

  • An email that isn't a lead: a newsletter, an automatic reply, a bounced email, a notice from a lead service with no lead in it, or Gmail's forwarding confirmation

    In your Sales pipeline?

    No

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Ignoredtap the dot to see why

  • A reminder about a lead you already have, like "Dana is waiting for your reply"

    In your Sales pipeline?

    No

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Ignored"a reminder about a lead you already have"

  • The exact same email arriving twice

    In your Sales pipeline?

    NoThe first copy already made the lead

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Ignored

  • A second email about a lead you already have, carrying the same lead number (Angi prints one like #330271880)

    In your Sales pipeline?

    NoYou already have this lead

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Ignoredwith an Open lead button

  • An email you dismissed yourself

    In your Sales pipeline?

    No

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Dismissed

  • Any lead email while your Sales pipeline is turned off

    In your Sales pipeline?

    NoThe person is saved as a contact instead, with their request in a note

    On the "needs a look" list?

    No

    Label in Email history

    Saved as a contactwith an Open contact button

Where to find things

New leads

Pipelines › Sales, on the first stage of your pipeline (called New unless you renamed it). They also show on your Projects list. A new emailed lead has no estimator yet. The first person on your team to open it becomes its estimator.

Emails that need a look

An amber line at the top of Pipelines › Sales, like "2 emailed leads need a look." Press it to open the list. The same count shows on your Dashboard's Issues card, and you get an email about it too.

Every email, with what happened to it

Settings › Integrations › Leads by email › Email history shows the five newest. See all emails opens every email, with buttons to show only one outcome, like Needs a look. Admins can review or retry any email from there.

The customer's original email

Open the lead and go to its Sales tab. The Lead card says Came in by email and has a View original button, so months later you can still read exactly what the customer wrote.

Your controls

  • Review, then Create lead

    Where it is

    The "needs a look" list on Pipelines › Sales, or Email history

    What it does

    Shows the email next to the details Paint Pals found. Fix anything that's wrong, pick the lead source, and press Create lead.

  • Dismiss

    Where it is

    Inside Review, or the … menu on an email's row in the "needs a look" list

    What it does

    Drops an email that was never a lead. It stays in Email history marked Dismissed, with who dismissed it.

  • Try again

    Where it is

    An email marked Didn't go through

    What it does

    Has Paint Pals read the email again.

  • Always use a source for this sender

    Where it is

    The … menu on an email's row, in the "needs a look" list or Email history

    What it does

    Pick a lead source, and every email from that sender gets that source from now on. Tick Use for everything from @theirdomain.com to cover the whole domain. Great for a website form whose address you didn't know until the first lead came in. The email you made the rule from gets the source too, if its lead had none. Older emails don't change.

  • Sender rules

    Where it is

    The Leads by email card in Settings › Integrations

    What it does

    Lists every sender rule you've made, each with a Remove button. A created lead's dot also says when a rule set its source, like "Source: Website (your sender rule)."

  • Also email me every new lead

    Where it is

    The Leads by email card

    What it does

    Off to start with: you're only emailed about leads that need a look or didn't go through. Turn it on to get an email for every lead too.

  • Who gets the "needs a look" emails

    Where it is

    The Estimate set by card in Settings › Sales

    What it does

    The person picked there gets an email when something is waiting (the owner, if nobody is picked). The link in it opens that exact email.

  • Stop emails you don't want

    Where it is

    The forwarding filter in your own mailbox

    What it does

    Your mailbox filter decides which emails get forwarded. Change it and those emails stop arriving. Every waiting email has a Don't want this in your list? help icon with the steps.

  • Regenerate

    Where it is

    The Leads by email card

    What it does

    Gives you a new address. Mail sent to the old one stops arriving, so update your forwarding and lead services right after.

  • Turn off

    Where it is

    The Leads by email card

    What it does

    Stops the address completely. Emails already recorded stay.

Limits on sender rules

So a rule can't sweep up the wrong emails, Paint Pals won't make one for:

  • your own team's email addresses,
  • your own company's whole domain (one exact address, like your website form's, is fine),
  • a whole free email service like @gmail.com (one exact Gmail address is fine).

If you archive the lead source a rule uses, the rule is skipped until you unarchive the source or remove the rule.

Can I tell Paint Pals to always ignore a sender?
No, and that's on purpose. A rule made by mistake would hide real leads, with nothing on your screen to show it happened. So Paint Pals never hides an email on its own. Your mailbox filter is the one place that decides what gets forwarded, and every email that does arrive shows up in Email history where you can see it.

Good to know

What if the same person emails twice?
Two emails from the same person make two projects on that one contact, because that's usually two jobs. Reminders about a lead you already have are skipped, and so is the exact same email arriving twice.
Will it make duplicate contacts?
No. If the email address or phone number already belongs to someone in your Contacts, the lead goes on that contact and any blank details get filled in. Nothing you already had is overwritten.
How is the lead source picked?
Your sender rules come first. Next, Paint Pals knows the big lead services by their email addresses (an angi.com or homeadvisor.com address is Angi, thumbtack.com is Thumbtack, and so on) and matches them to the names in your own source list. Otherwise it picks the best match from your list. If nothing fits, it leaves the source blank for you to pick, never "Other," so your Dashboard can point it out.
Who reads my customers' emails?
An AI model reads each forwarded email to pull out the details, the same way the Paint Pals help chat reads your questions. Nothing written in an email can make Paint Pals do anything. The worst a strange email can do is put its own words in a notes field.
Why did a lead show up with only a name?
Angi, HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack hide the customer's phone and email until you answer them inside their own app. Paint Pals still creates the lead so it's on your board and in your reports, and its notes start with where to reply, like "Thumbtack hides this customer's phone and email until you reply. Answer them in Thumbtack, then add their details here." Answer them there, then add their details to the lead.
What if I turn the Sales pipeline off?
Your address keeps working, but there's nowhere to put a lead, so each lead email is saved as a contact with their request in a note. The owner gets at most one email a day saying leads are arriving while the pipeline is off. Turn the pipeline back on under Settings › General to get leads again.
Can I stop checking my inbox now?
Please don't. Keep checking your inbox and your lead service apps too. Paint Pals emails you when it can't read a lead, but it can't know about an email that never got forwarded.

Already using Paint Pals? Open the Leads by email card