Who this is for: self-serve plans (Free, Starter, Pro, Enterprise). If you bought a Cleanlist AppSumo lifetime deal, Sequences, Inbox and Tasks are not part of your deal. See the AppSumo documentation. Support agent: confirm whether the user is self-serve or AppSumo before giving plan-specific advice.
TL;DR: Inbox holds email replies from leads in your sequences (email only, not LinkedIn); answer with Send reply or click Unsubscribe. Tasks holds the call, manual and reply tasks your sequences create; work them with Start tasks. A call logged as Meeting booked or Not interested ends the lead's run. Admins set call outcomes in Settings → Sequencing → Call statuses. Both pages appear once your plan includes Sequences.
Inbox and Tasks
A running sequence produces two kinds of work for people: replies to answer and tasks to do. Inbox and Tasks are where that work lands. Both are sidebar tiles, shown once your plan includes Sequences (Starter and above).
Inbox
What lands in the Inbox
When a lead in one of your sequences replies by email, Cleanlist opens a conversation in the Inbox. Later emails from that person keep landing in the same conversation, even after their run has ended.
- Only sequence replies. Mail from anyone else in your connected mailbox is ignored and never appears in Cleanlist.
- Email only. LinkedIn messages never appear here, and LinkedIn replies are not detected.
- Any email from the lead counts, including an automatic out-of-office reply. A reply from a different address (for example, a colleague) isn't matched to the lead.
- Everyone sees everything. Every member of the workspace can read every conversation.
Views and filters
- Needs reply and All at the top.
- Filters: Sequence (All sequences), Sender (All senders), Since (Any time, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days), and Clear.
- Search: "Find a conversation...".
- Keyboard: j and k move between conversations, Esc closes the open one.
When there's nothing left to answer you see "You are caught up" with View all conversations. With no conversations at all you see "No conversations yet" with Manage sender connections.
Reply to a lead
Open a conversation. The header shows the subject, Open lead, the sequence name, Needs reply or Answered, and whether the lead's run is Sequence stopped or Sequence continues.
Type in Write your reply and click Send reply (or press Cmd+Enter / Ctrl+Enter). Your draft saves automatically.
- The reply goes out in the same thread, from the address the lead wrote to.
- Your signature is added automatically to Inbox replies (unlike sequence emails, where you insert it yourself).
- Who can send: the member who owns that address, anyone if the address is shared with the team, and admins. Others see "Only the owner of (address) can reply from it."
- If the address is disconnected or turned off, the reply is refused until you fix it in Settings → Sequencing → Senders.
- Replying costs no credits.
Unsubscribe a lead
In a conversation, click Unsubscribe, then confirm "Unsubscribe (name)?". Cleanlist:
- adds the address to your workspace's sequence unsubscribe list (this is permanent)
- stops every running sequence for that address (Stopped: unsubscribed)
- refuses to add the address to any email sequence again (Unsubscribed)
- with Write unsubscribes to CRM turned on in your CRM's settings, also sets the email opt-out in HubSpot or Salesforce
The same happens when a lead uses the {{unsubscribe_link}} in one of your emails. That link opens a page titled "Unsubscribe from these emails?"; opening the page alone changes nothing, and clicking its Unsubscribe button confirms.
What a reply does to the sequence
Each sequence decides this in Sequence settings → Replies:
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| End the sequence for that lead (default) | The lead's run ends, status Replied, Step column Stopped after reply. |
| Keep sending the remaining steps | The lead keeps going, Step column Replied, sequence continues. |
| Create a task to reply (switch, off by default) | Each replying lead gets one high-priority task, "Reply to (lead name)", type Reply, due today, for the sequence owner: "This lead replied. Answer them from the Inbox." |
Tasks
Where tasks come from
| Type | Created by | Shown as |
|---|---|---|
| Call | A Call task step, when the lead reaches it | Call |
| Manual | A Manual task step, when the lead reaches it | Task |
| Reply | A reply, when Create a task to reply is on | Reply |
| Any | New task, or Add a follow-up on another task | Your choice |
Step tasks are assigned to the sequence's owner and are due the day the lead reaches the step, in the sequence's time zone. The lead waits on a call or manual task step until the task is marked done, so open tasks hold leads in place.
Only the person a task is assigned to can work it (log an outcome, add notes, change the due date, complete it). The assignee or an admin can reassign it, and anyone can pick up an unassigned task ("Only the task owner or an admin can reassign it.").
Views and filters
- Views: My tasks, Calls, Replies, Team, Completed.
- Filters: Due, Completed, Sequence, Type, Status (Ready or Blocked), Call status, Priority (High, Medium, Low), Owner, and Clear.
- Search: "Find a task or lead...".
A step task is Blocked while its sequence is paused or archived, or once the lead's run has ended (for example, they replied). Blocked tasks can't be completed. Reply tasks and follow-ups you added yourself stay workable in all of those cases.
Work through your tasks
Click Start tasks and choose All matching or a number. Cleanlist opens a session that walks you through the tasks one at a time, with Next task. Leave and come back with Resume session.
On each task you can:
- Mark as done to complete it. The lead moves on to the next step.
- Snooze until a later date, then Snooze.
- Add a follow-up to schedule your own next task for the lead (a callback, a check-in).
Log a call
For a call task, pick how the call went before completing it; otherwise you see "Choose how the call went before completing this task." The default outcomes (Cleanlist statuses):
| Outcome | Ends the lead's sequence |
|---|---|
| Connected | No |
| Meeting booked | Yes |
| Left voicemail | No |
| No answer | No |
| Busy | No |
| Gatekeeper | No |
| Wrong number | No |
| Not interested | Yes |
Dial with on the task picks how Call opens the number: Phone app, Zoom Phone, RingCentral or Dialpad. These open your own phone app or softphone; Cleanlist has no built-in dialer and doesn't record calls.
Agents on a task
The Agents panel on a task shows results from agents that already ran on that lead, such as research someone already paid for. You can Run an agent, Run again, or Run another agent; each run costs that agent's price per lead, shown next to its name. On a call task, the call script has Generate (or Rewrite).
Agents run inside a lead list, so the lead must be in one of your lead lists. Otherwise the panel shows "This lead is not in a lead list".
When a Call task or Manual task step has its Agent switch on, the agent runs automatically when the lead reaches the step, so the task opens with the results already there. If the lead already has a finished result from that agent, Cleanlist shows it instead of running and charging again (Call script always writes a fresh script). If the run can't start, the reason is recorded on the task and you can start it by hand. See Skills for prices.
Create a task by hand
Click New task ("Create a task for a lead in a sequence."), find the lead by name, email or company, set the type, due date, priority (Medium by default) and a note, then Create task. Tasks can only be created for leads who are in one of your sequences.
Call statuses settings (admins)
Settings → Sequencing → Call statuses sets the outcomes reps pick when they log a call.
- Source: Cleanlist statuses uses the eight default outcomes above. Meeting booked and Not interested end the sequence, and this can't be changed.
- Source: CRM field uses the values of a field in your CRM. Pick the CRM (HubSpot or Salesforce) and the Field, refresh the values from the CRM if needed, then turn on Ends sequence for each value that should end a lead's run. Click Save.
CRM field needs a connected HubSpot or Salesforce account; without one you see "No CRM connected." with a link to connect one. Members can see the settings, but only admins can change them.
Log sequence activity to your CRM
On Pro and above, an admin can mirror sequence activity to HubSpot or Salesforce from the CRM's settings, Activities tab: log emails, replies, calls, LinkedIn actions and manual tasks, mirror open tasks, create missing people, write sequence fields on the contact, honor CRM opt-outs (skip or stop leads who opted out), and write unsubscribes back to the CRM. See CRM integration.
Related
- Sequences: stop rules, lead statuses, credits
- Build and launch a sequence: Replies and task step settings
- LinkedIn steps: why LinkedIn replies don't show here
- Skills: prices for agents on tasks
- CRM integration: the Activities tab
- Settings