Routing rules: who gets each lead
Send each lead to a person, a team in turn, the company's owner or the review queue, with rules checked from the top and an Otherwise for the rest.
By Operelio team · Updated October 20, 2026
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Where the rules are
Open the trail's canvas, click the push tile, and open the Who gets each lead tab. Rules are checked from the top, and the first one that matches picks the owner. Otherwise, at the bottom, catches every lead no rule matched, so no lead is left without an owner.
You change the rules on the Sandbox tab, and they reach live leads when you put the sandbox live. The Live tab shows the rules that run now. Only an admin can change them.
The rules decide the owner for single leads from a webhook or email, and for the rows of every file the trail pushes.
Before a trail has rules, the tab shows the push's owner setting (one person, shared out between people, a column in the file, or nobody). Saving the first rule turns that setting into Otherwise.
Add a rule
Click Add a rule. Under When, pick a column by its name, or Score, CRM check or Source. Under Goes to, pick who gets the lead. Click Save rule. Each rule tests one thing, and a trail can have up to 50 rules.
| When | Tests |
|---|---|
| A column, by its name | is, is one of, contains, is at least or is at most a value. Case and outer spaces are ignored, and a blank cell never matches. At least and at most compare numbers: type the value without commas, like 1200. A cell like 1,200 counts. |
| Score | is, is at least or is at most a score from 1 to 5. It needs a Scorecard on the trail; without one, the rule never matches. |
| CRM check | Already in HubSpot (or Salesforce), New person at an existing company, or New. On HubSpot and Salesforce, for single leads and for files of people matched by email. A row the check didn't reach matches no CRM check rule. |
| Source | How the lead arrived. Type Webhook, Email, Upload or API, with commas between them. Other words never match. |
For is one of, separate the values with commas, like France, Spain. A rule takes up to 200 values.
Where a lead can go
People come from your CRM's users, so connect the CRM before you pick a person or a team.
| Goes to | What happens |
|---|---|
| A person | Every lead the rule matches goes to one CRM user. |
| A team, in turn | Leads are dealt round the people you pick, in the order you pick them. The team's place carries over from one lead and one run to the next. |
| Company owner | The owner of the lead's company in your CRM. Operelio finds it with the CRM check, on HubSpot and Salesforce. If the company has no owner, its owner isn't active, or the CRM check didn't reach the row, the next rule decides. |
| Owner in a column | The CRM user named in a column of the lead, by email address or name. A blank cell goes on to the next rule, or gets no owner when this is Otherwise. |
| Review queue | The lead waits on the Leads tab for a yes or no. |
| No owner | Sent with no owner. HubSpot leaves it unassigned. Salesforce's lead assignment rule picks one, or the connected user owns it. Pipedrive gives it the connection's default owner. |
| Drop | Not sent to your CRM. |
How Operelio finds the company owner
Operelio looks the lead up in your CRM. If the person is there, the company owner is the owner of the company they belong to. If not, it looks for the company by the lead's website, then by their email domain (unless it's a free one like Gmail), then by company name. A match on name alone counts only when the CRM record has no website of its own or shares the lead's.
Otherwise can't be Company owner, because some leads have no company in your CRM.
When a rep isn't active any more
In a team, someone who isn't active in your CRM is skipped, and the lead goes to the next person. The people who hear about the trail get a note: the trail is skipping that person in turn. Take them off the rule, or turn their CRM user back on.
A rule that names one person who isn't active holds the lead, and so does a column that names someone your CRM doesn't have. The lead waits in Held on the Leads tab. Pick an owner, Send with no owner, or fix the rule and press Retry.
Change the order
Rules run from the top, so order matters: put the narrow rules first. To move a rule, drag it by its grip, or focus the grip and use the up and down arrow keys. Home and End move it to the top or bottom. Otherwise always stays last.
Seeing which rule picked the owner
Every lead shows the rule that picked its owner, like Rule 1: Country is United Kingdom or Ireland, or Otherwise. You see it beside Owner on the lead's page, and on the Routed step of its timeline. Each rule shows how many leads it matched in the last 7 days.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Can a rule test two things at once?
No. Each rule tests one thing. Put the narrowest rule first, so a lead that matches it never reaches the broader ones.
Is a team in turn the same as round robin?
Yes. Leads are dealt round the team in order, one each, and someone who isn't active in your CRM is skipped.
Can single leads go to Pipedrive?
Not yet. Leads that arrive one at a time wait in Operelio. Lists still go to Pipedrive, and their rows follow the rules.
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