Who owns and who can see a lead
Lead owners, how leads are assigned automatically, how to hand leads over, who can see and change a lead, and the emails owners receive.
Updated 9 October 2026 · 5 min read
Every lead has an owner. The owner is the one person who looks after the lead and follows it up. Having one owner means a lead is never called twice by two people, or forgotten by everyone.
The owner, together with your company's sharing settings, also decides who can see the lead and who can change it.
Who owns a new lead
It depends on how the lead was added.
| How the lead was added | Who owns it |
|---|---|
| Created by hand | The person picked as Owner on the form |
| Cloned | The same person who owns the original |
| Imported | The person who ran the import |
| Browser extension | The person who added it |
| Web form | Nobody at first. Your auto-assign rules pick an owner. See Assign leads automatically |
To give one lead a new owner, edit the lead and pick someone else as Owner.
Who can see a lead
Your admin decides who can see leads, in Settings > Data Share Policies. They pick one of these:
| Setting | Who sees a lead |
|---|---|
| Company Wide | Everyone in the company |
| Team Based | Everyone in the team picked on the lead |
| Owner Only | Only the lead's owner |
| Owner and Team | The owner, and everyone in the team picked on the lead |
The team is the Team field on the lead. It is one of the owner's teams. If the owner is in more than one team, only the team picked on the lead can see it, not all of the owner's teams. With Team Based, a lead with no team can only be seen by the person who created it.
Whatever the setting:
- The person who created a lead can always see it.
- If your role allows it, you can turn on View all records above the leads list to see every lead.
- If you can't see a lead, it doesn't show in lists or search. If you open a link to it, you see "Lead not found".
Who can change a lead
To change a lead, you need both of these:
- The right permission in your role. See the table below.
- To be the lead's owner, or the person who created it.
This is true for editing a lead, changing its status or stage, locking it, converting it, deleting it and adding tags.
Being able to see a lead doesn't mean you can change it. For example, with Company Wide everyone sees every lead, but only the owner and the creator can change it.
| Permission | What it lets you do |
|---|---|
| View Leads | See leads, their score and their products |
| Create Leads | Create, clone and capture leads, and add interested products |
| Edit Leads | Edit leads, change their status or stage, lock, convert, restore and tag them, and change whether they get your emails |
| Delete Leads | Delete leads, empty them from the recycle bin, restore other people's leads and remove interested products |
Admins set these in Settings > Manage Roles.
Assign leads automatically
Some leads arrive without an owner, such as leads from web forms. Auto-assign rules give them one. You set the rules up in Settings > Automation > Lead Automation > Auto Assign Leads. Automation needs a paid plan.
Each rule decides who gets a lead in one of three ways:
- Specific Owner always gives the lead to the same person.
- Round Robin takes turns across a team. The first lead goes to the first person, the next lead to the next person, and so on.
- Load Balanced gives the lead to the team member who has the fewest leads that haven't been converted yet.
A rule also has:
- Criteria, which say which leads the rule is for. For example, only leads from your website.
- Order, which sets which rule is tried first. The rule with the lowest number goes first.
- If No Matching Rule Found, which says what to do when no rule fits: Assign to Default Owner, Skip Assignment, or Notify Admin. Notify Admin sends your admins an email called "Leads Are Waiting to Be Assigned".
- Notify Assigned User by Email, which emails the new owner to tell them about the lead.
- Status. Only Active rules run.
Leads are never given to people whose account is turned off. See Auto-assign leads.
Hand over all of a person's leads
Is someone leaving, or moving to a new role? You can move all their leads to someone else at once.
- Go to Leads. Open the ⋮ menu at the top right, next to Create Lead, and click Change Owner.
- Pick the person in From Owner (Current), and the new owner in To Owner (New).
- Choose which kinds of records to move, and confirm.
Every lead the person owns moves, including converted and locked ones. Deleted leads stay where they are. You need the Change Ownership edit permission and Edit Leads.
Emails owners get
Salesfresh emails owners when something happens to their leads.
| Who gets it | When | |
|---|---|---|
| New Lead Assigned | The new owner | Someone else creates a lead for them or gives them one, or a rule gives them one with Notify Assigned User by Email on |
| Lead Reassigned to Another Owner | The old owner | Someone else gives their lead to another person |
| Lead Status Change | The owner | Someone else changes the lead's status |
| Lead Stage Change | The owner | Someone else changes the lead's stage |
| Lead Converted | The owner | Someone else converts the lead |
| Leads Are Waiting to Be Assigned | Admins | No rule could give a lead an owner, and the rule is set to Notify Admin |
You don't get emails about changes you make yourself. Don't want some of these emails? Turn them off in Notification settings.
Related
Still stuck?
Tell us what you were trying to do and we will help.