Contacts and the pipeline are not the same list
Open
Chumley keeps two lists. The pipeline is the deals you are working right now. Contacts is everybody else. Understanding why is the difference between a board you look at every morning and one you start avoiding.
Why they are split
A pipeline with four hundred names on it is not a pipeline, it is a phone book with columns. You cannot look at it and know what to do, so after a fortnight you stop looking at it, and then you are back to working from memory.
So the board is deliberately the handful of things actually in play. Everyone else waits in Contacts until they are worth working. That is the entire idea, and every other decision here follows from it.
What is in Contacts
Everybody. People you met once, old customers, the enquiry from March that went cold, everyone you imported. Nothing is lost, it is just not cluttering the board.
You can search it by name, company or phone number, and sort it. It is also what the search box at the top of the app looks through, so if somebody rings and you do not recognise the number, paste it in and you will know who it is before you answer.
On screen: contacts.png. Hold it while you read the lines above.
Moving somebody onto the board
Open them and press Add to board. They land in your first column as a live deal and you work them like anything else.
This is the move to make when an old contact goes warm again. They ring you, or you see their name and think, actually, I should chase that. One button and they are back in play with all their old history attached.
Taking somebody off it
Open the deal and press Remove from board. They go back to Contacts, keeping every note, call and email you ever logged against them.
Use this more than you think. A deal that is genuinely not happening this quarter should not sit on your board making the numbers look better than they are. Take it off, and when it comes back, put it back. The board should be true, not flattering.
Two buttons that sound similar and are not
At the bottom of an open lead there is Remove from board, and there is Delete. They are not variations on the same thing.
Remove from board is reversible and loses nothing. The person stays in Contacts with their entire history and you can put them back in one click.
Delete destroys the record. The person, their notes, every call you logged, the lot. Chumley asks you to confirm and tells you it cannot be undone, and it means it.
So unless somebody is a genuine mistake, a duplicate or a bot submission, the button you want is almost always Remove from board. Deleting a real person to tidy up your board is the one action in Chumley you can actually regret.
Close
The board is what you are working. Contacts is everyone else. Move people between the two freely, keep the board honest rather than impressive, and reach for Remove from board rather than Delete.