Overview

Prospects represent potential companies that have not yet become customers.
In the integration between Sage Sales Management (SSM) and Sage 50 UKI, prospects are handled through a hybrid model:

Prospects are created and managed within SSM.
Sage 50 UKI does not have a native Prospect entity; a record only appears there once it becomes a customer.
Synchronisation is governed by status logic and integration rules designed to preserve data consistency.

Synchronisation Logic

A prospect created in SSM synchronises with Sage 50 UKI.
Edits to the prospect synchronise bidirectionally, while the record remains in Prospect status.
Once converted to Customer in Sage 50 UKI:
- The record becomes read-only in SSM.
- All related entities (contacts, calendar events, documents) are preserved.
Deletion of a prospect in Sage 50 UKI results in the automatic deletion of the record in SSM.
Prospects cannot be deleted from SSM once synchronised.

Practical Example

A sales representative creates a new prospect in SSM named “ABC Ltd”.
The record is synchronised with Sage 50 UKI.
If the company is later marked as Customer in Sage 50 UKI, the SSM record becomes read-only.
If the record is deleted in Sage 50 UKI, it will also be deleted from SSM.

Field and Status Behaviour

In SSM, the Status field determines whether a record is a Prospect or a Customer.
Upon conversion to Customer:
- The record is updated, not recreated.
- A new customer code is assigned (if applicable), and all previous activity is retained.

If Sage separates prospects and customers into different entities, care must be taken when managing external IDs in SSM.

Prospect Editing and Deletion

Editable in both systems while the record is still a prospect.
Once converted to Customer:
- The record becomes read-only in SSM.
- Deletion and edits must be performed from Sage 50 UKI.
Deleting a prospect in Sage 50 UKI may also result in the deletion of related entities in SSM (e.g. contacts, calendar events), depending on integration settings.

Prospect and Customer Record Behaviour Summary

Action	Prospect in SSM	Prospect in Sage 50 UKI	Customer in SSM	Customer in Sage 50 UKI
Create record	✅ Yes	❌ Not supported	❌ No	✅ Yes
Edit record	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No (read-only)*	✅ Yes
Delete record	✅ Yes**	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes
Synchronise record	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Convert to Customer	❌ No	✅ Yes	—	—

Restrictions

Prospects cannot be deleted in SSM.
Once a prospect is converted into a customer, it cannot be edited in SSM.

The entity Prospect exists only in SSM, not in Sage 50 UKI.

⚠️ Important Notes:

Sage 50 UKI does not support a native Prospect entity. Prospects exist only in Sage Sales Management.
Once converted to Customer in Sage 50 UKI, the record becomes read-only in SSM.
Deleting a synchronised prospect in SSM is not permitted.
Sage 50 UKI performs hard deletions, whereas SSM uses soft deletions, which may lead to data mismatch if not managed properly.
Some Sage systems may restrict deletion of prospects linked to sales documents.