> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.pipelime.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Automation toggle, closing and reopening leads

> Pause the AI on one lead or a whole company, close a lead by hand, and understand why a lead closed on its own.

export const UiPath = ({children}) => {
  const parts = String(children).split(/\s*(?:→|>)\s*/).filter(Boolean);
  return <span className="pl-path">
      {parts.map((part, index) => <span key={`${index}-${part}`}>
          {index > 0 && <span className="pl-path__sep">→</span>}
          {part}
        </span>)}
    </span>;
};

export const Screenshot = ({id, alt, caption, frame = 'browser', url, marks = [], lang = 'en', workspace = 'northwind-outbound'}) => {
  const src = `/images/screenshots/${lang}/${id}.png`;
  const chrome = url ? `app.pipelime.ai/${workspace}${url}` : 'app.pipelime.ai';
  return <figure className={`pl-shot pl-shot--${frame} not-prose`}>
      <div className="pl-shot__frame">
        {frame !== 'bare' && <div className="pl-shot__bar">
            <span className="pl-shot__dots">
              <span className="pl-shot__dot" />
              <span className="pl-shot__dot" />
              <span className="pl-shot__dot" />
            </span>
            <span className="pl-shot__url">{chrome}</span>
          </div>}
        <div className="pl-shot__media">
          <img src={src} alt={alt} loading="lazy" />
          {marks.map(mark => <span key={mark.n} className="pl-shot__mark" style={{
    left: `${mark.x}%`,
    top: `${mark.y}%`
  }} aria-hidden="true">
              {mark.n}
            </span>)}
        </div>
      </div>
      {caption && <figcaption className="pl-shot__caption">{caption}</figcaption>}
    </figure>;
};

By the end of this page you can pause automation on a lead or on every lead at a company, close and reopen a lead by hand, and name the five things that close a lead with nobody in your workspace touching it.

<div className="pl-availability">
  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">Where</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value"><span className="pl-path">Leads<span className="pl-path__sep">→</span>Prospects</span></div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">Your role needs</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value">Read access to Prospects <code>read-leads</code>. Admin, Member and Viewer have it by default.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">To create or change</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value"><code>create-leads</code> to add one, <code>update-leads</code> to change one, on top of the permission above.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__note">If you cannot find this in your sidebar, your workspace may have a custom menu configuration. Contact support and we will check it for you.</div>
</div>

## Before you begin

* Leads belong to the workspace you're viewing. Switch workspace first if the lead you want is somewhere else.
* Pausing or resuming automation, and closing or reopening a lead, both need the `update-leads` permission. Without it, these controls disappear from the header instead of greying out, so a restricted role sees neither icon at all.

## Steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the lead">
    Go to <UiPath>Leads → Prospects</UiPath> and open the lead you want to change. The close and reopen
    control exists only in the header of a lead's own page. The automation icon is on that header and on
    every row of the Prospects list, so you can pause a lead without opening it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pause or resume automation for this lead">
    Click the lightning-bolt or stop icon in the header. Its tooltip reads **Enable automation** when
    automation is off, **Disable automation** when it's running. The click doesn't toggle anything by
    itself: it opens a small menu, and **Enable automation for this lead** (or **Disable automation for
    this lead**) is the first item in it.

    <Screenshot id="leads/automation-close-and-reopen--toggle" url="/leads/prospects/80" alt="A lead's header with the automation icon menu open, showing an option for this lead alone and two more scoped to the whole company" caption="The icon opens a menu rather than acting on click. Only the top item touches this one lead." />
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pause or resume automation for every lead at the company">
    When the lead is attached to a company, the same menu carries two more items below a divider: one
    enables automation for every employee of that company, the other disables it. Pick one and a
    confirmation dialog names the company and how many employees it covers; the button that carries it
    out reads **Enable** or **Disable**. Every lead at that company that is not already in that state is
    then switched at once, whatever stage each one sits at. Both company-wide items are always there,
    whatever state this lead is in, so the menu will still offer to disable a company whose automation is
    already off.

    The same two company-wide actions also sit behind an **Automation** button on the company's own page
    under <UiPath>Leads → Companies</UiPath>. That one is gated on `update-lead-companies` rather than
    `update-leads`, so a role can have one route to it and not the other.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Close a lead by hand">
    A second icon next to the automation toggle closes or reopens the lead directly, with no menu and no
    confirmation. On an open lead its tooltip reads **Close this lead**. Click it and the lead's stage
    becomes Closed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Reopen a closed lead">
    On a closed lead the same icon turns into a play arrow, tooltipped **Reopen this lead**. Reopening
    sends the lead back to Contacted if there is at least one email in its history, and to Untouched if
    there is none. Only email counts for that choice: a lead you reached on LinkedIn or WhatsApp and
    never emailed reopens at Untouched.

    <Screenshot id="leads/automation-close-and-reopen--closed-lead" url="/leads/prospects/120" alt="A closed lead's header, its close icon replaced by a play arrow tooltipped Reopen this lead" caption="Only the company-wide menu items ask you to confirm. Closing and reopening act on the click." />
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What happens next

<Check>
  Closing and reopening act on the click: the icon spins while it saves, then comes back in the other
  state, tooltip and all. Automation takes one click more, because its icon only opens the menu. Picking
  the per-lead item spins the automation icon; picking a company-wide item opens the confirmation dialog
  first, so the spinner lands on that dialog's button instead. None of these controls has a separate save
  step.
</Check>

Pausing automation and closing a lead both take the lead out of the pool the product picks from on its
next pass: no new email, no LinkedIn message, no WhatsApp message, and no automatic reply to something the
lead just sent. Resuming automation or reopening the lead puts it back in that pool. The waiting period
before a follow-up is counted from the lead's last message, not from the moment you resume, so a follow-up
whose wait ran out during the pause can go out on the first pass afterwards.

One thing a pause does not stop: a LinkedIn connection request that was sent and never accepted is still
withdrawn once it expires, because that cleanup runs whatever the automation switch says. Closing the lead
does stop it.

<Note>
  Closing is not only a mute. It is a stage change, so the things that watch stages see it: a lead source
  set to **Progressive Employee Search** can move on to the next decision maker at that company once this
  one closes, and an integration set to push automatically can fire on the stage change. Pausing
  automation does none of that. It leaves the stage exactly where it was.
</Note>

<Note>
  Automation and stage are two separate switches, not one. Reopening a closed lead only changes its stage:
  if you had also paused automation on it before closing it, reopening does not turn that back on, and
  automation will not pick the lead up until you enable it there too.
</Note>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The company-wide toggle says nothing changed">
    The bulk items apply to every lead at that company. If every one of them was already in the state you
    picked, the product reports that as a plain notice instead of a success message, because nothing
    changed. Open the per-lead menu on an individual lead if you want to check or change just that one.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A lead closed on its own">
    Several things close a lead with nobody touching it: an opt-out, a bounce, a pre-send check that
    finds the mailbox has since died, a reply the AI reads as a hard no, and a lead that has run out of
    follow-ups on every channel it was being contacted on. Nothing on the lead's page names the cause
    outright. A bounce and a failed pre-send check both write the same line onto the record, "Email
    address is invalid or no longer exists", and that line is not shown on screen. The one clue the page
    does carry is the Response Analysis card, which appears once a reply has been scored and prints the
    AI's own reading of that reply. An opt-out closes the lead
    and every channel with it, not just email: see [How unsubscribe
    works](/en/security/unsubscribe-and-list-unsubscribe). [Email address is invalid or no longer
    exists](/en/troubleshooting/lead-closed-by-itself) and [leads
    troubleshooting](/en/leads/troubleshooting) cover the rest.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The automation icon or close icon is missing">
    Both live behind the `update-leads` permission and disappear entirely without it, rather than showing
    greyed out. Ask a workspace admin for the permission, or ask them to make the change for you.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Leads troubleshooting" icon="wrench" href="/en/leads/troubleshooting">
    Symptom-first answers for missing scores, self-closing leads, stalled imports and lists that won't update.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Email address is invalid or no longer exists" icon="mail-x" href="/en/troubleshooting/lead-closed-by-itself">
    Every way a lead closes on its own: a bounce, a pre-send check, the follow-up ceiling, or an opt-out.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How unsubscribe works" icon="list-checks" href="/en/security/unsubscribe-and-list-unsubscribe">
    What an opt-out actually does to a lead, and where the one-click header comes from.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The lead details page" icon="id-card" href="/en/leads/lead-details-page">
    Every other card and header action on a lead's own page.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>