How do I auto-import leads from email?

If you get an automatic email every time a new lead is assigned to you, you can forward those emails to Lineage. Lineage parses each email, extracts the lead's fields, and creates the lead in your account. No need for manual data entry!

When you'd do this

If your lead source (a lead vendor, an internal lead-distribution system, etc.) sends you an email notification for every new lead, this is the fastest way to get those leads into Lineage. You can do it once per email by hand, or set up an automatic forwarding rule so every new lead email flows sends to Lineage without you touching it.

How it works

Forward your new lead emails to leads@lineagecrm.com. Lineage receives the email, grabs the lead's name, phone number, address, and any other fields the email contains, and creates the lead on your Leads page.

You can forward two ways:

• Manually: when a new-lead email arrives, hit Forward in your email client and send it to leads@lineagecrm.com. This is good if you get occasional leads, or for testing the workflow before you automate it (highly recommended!).
• Automatically: set up a forwarding rule in your email service so every matching email is forwarded the moment it arrives. This is good for ongoing lead flow.

Automatic forwarding is a one-time setup. After that, every new lead email triggers the import automatically.

Set up automatic forwarding in Gmail

There are two steps to set up automatic forwarding in Gmail: first you add Lineage as an approved forwarding address, then you create a filter that uses it.

Part 1 — Add leads@lineagecrm.com as a forwarding address

1. Click the Settings gear in the top right of Gmail.
2. Click See all settings.
3. Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
4. Click Add a forwarding address.
5. Enter leads@lineagecrm.com and confirm.

Once added, Gmail will show a banner at the top of your inbox for the next seven days reminding you that this forwarding address is set up. That banner is normal — it's a Gmail security feature.

Part 2 — Create a filter that forwards only your new-lead emails

You only want to forward the lead notifications, not every email. Build a filter that matches only those emails:

1. In the search bar at the top of your inbox, search for the lead emails you want to forward. Stack criteria together like:

• From address — the address your lead source uses (this is often a no-reply@ or leads@ email, but double check it)
• Subject — a phrase that appears in every notification's subject line. For example, if all new leads from a source have the subject "New Lead from [Source]: {Lead name], you would use the Subject filter "New Lead".
• • IMPORTANT NOTE: Using the quotation marks searches for this exact combination of words. Without it, any email with the words 'new' or 'lead' may be caught in the filter.
• Specific text in the email body — a phrase that appears in every notification but not in other emails, such as "new lead",

2. Refine until your search results show only new lead emails. If unwanted emails (confirmations, newsletters, etc.) are also matching, exclude them with a minus sign — for example, -"unsubscribe" or -"newsletter".
3. Click the filter icon at the right end of the search bar.
4. Click Create filter at the bottom of the filter popup.
5. Check the box for Forward it to: and choose leads@lineagecrm.com from the dropdown.
6. Pro-Tip: Also check the box to "Archive" these emails automatically so they don't clog up your inbox and/or create a label for them.
7. Click Create filter to save.

From that point on, every new email matching the filter is automatically forwarded to Lineage and imported as a lead.

Tip: before you turn on the automatic filter, forward one real new-lead email by hand and confirm it lands in your Leads page correctly. That way you catch any parsing issues on one email instead of finding them after dozens of leads have already flowed in.

Other email services

The same two-step process applies in most email services: register leads@lineagecrm.com as an approved forwarding address, then build a rule or filter that forwards only your lead notification emails. The menu locations differ from Gmail, but the concept is the same.

If you use Outlook, Yahoo, ProtonMail, or another provider, search your provider's help center for "how to automatically forward emails" and follow their instructions. Use leads@lineagecrm.com as the destination address.

Specific example: Symmetry / Quility agents

If your leads come from Quility (notifications arrive from leads@quility.com), here's the exact search string that isolates only your new-lead notifications and excludes the order-confirmation emails:

from:"leads@quility.com" "You have a new lead for order" -"We've received your lead order"

Paste that into Gmail's search bar exactly as shown. The search will return only the new lead emails; the negative term at the end strips out the order-confirmation emails that come from the same sender. From there, follow Part 2 of the Gmail instructions above to create the filter and forward the matching emails to leads@lineagecrm.com.

Common issues

"Some leads aren't showing up in Lineage after the email forwards."
Open one of the forwarded emails and check its fields. If a critical field (like the phone number) is missing or formatted differently than usual, parsing may have failed for that specific email. Forward it manually to leads@lineagecrm.com to retry, and contact support if it still doesn't import.

"My filter is catching emails that aren't actual leads."
Refine the search. Add more specific criteria, such as a unique phrase from the subject line or a specific sender, or use minus terms to exclude non-lead emails (-"newsletter", -"unsubscribe", -"survey"). Update the filter, save, and test.

"Gmail says the forwarding address isn't verified."
After you add leads@lineagecrm.com as a forwarding address, there may be a security popup asking you to 2-factor login to confirm the change.

"I'd rather forward emails manually instead of setting up a filter."
That works too! Every email you forward to leads@lineagecrm.com, whether by filter or by hand, is imported the same way. The filter just removes the manual step.

What's next

Once your forwarded leads start flowing in, head to the Leads page after a few minutes to confirm they're being imported correctly. From there you can call them, change their status, and move forward with making your first call.

Updated on: 11/09/2026