Choosing your intake object
Edge Webforms writes enquiries into Salesforce — but different operators model enquiry intake differently. Some create Trips straight away, some qualify enquiries as Leads first, and some run a custom enquiry object. Edge supports all three, end to end:
| Path | Capture target | Qualification | Trip created |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trip direct (default) | KaptioTravel__Trip__c | On the Trip itself (status progression) | At capture |
| Lead | Lead | The Trip conversion guide on the Lead page | At conversion |
| Custom object | Your enquiry object (e.g. Enquiry__c) | The Trip conversion guide on the record page | At conversion |
The capture target is one line of configuration — target.salesforceObject in trip-mapping.yaml — and the conversion guide is enabled per tenant with the lead_to_trip block in enquiries.yaml.
The two funnel shapes
One-stage (Trip direct) treats every submission as a Trip from the first moment: dedup rules keep the pipeline clean, scoring prioritises the queue, and sales agents work Trips only. This is the default and the right choice when your sales process starts at the Trip.
Two-stage (Lead or custom object) keeps unqualified enquiries out of your Trip pipeline. Submissions land as Leads (or your enquiry object), agents qualify them, and the conversion guide on the record page turns each one into an Account, an optional agent Contact, and a Trip — matched against your existing customers and agencies so nothing is duplicated.
Which pipeline stages apply where
| Stage | Trip direct | Lead capture | Custom object capture |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payload validation (Zod) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Field mapping + picklist resolution | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dedup rules (status-scoped) | Yes | — | — |
| Person Account matching at capture | Yes | — | — |
| Scoring and priority routing | Yes | — | — |
| Trip conversion guide | — | Yes | Yes |
| Account/agency matching at conversion | — | Yes | Yes |
Dedup, capture-time Person Account matching, and scoring are designed around Trip capture — their rules and writeback fields live on the Trip. In the two-stage shapes, the equivalent protection happens at conversion time instead: the conversion guide matches existing customers by email and agencies by name before anything is created, and converting the same record twice is idempotent.
How the two-stage paths differ from each other
Lead and custom-object capture share the same conversion guide, the same matching, and the same Trip logic. The differences are in what Salesforce itself provides:
| Lead source | Custom object source | |
|---|---|---|
| Converted state | Native (IsConverted, converted account/contact) | Your status field (e.g. Status__c = Converted) plus optional lookups |
| Conversion mechanics | Salesforce's native lead conversion | Edge marks the record converted — no Salesforce conversion involved |
| New direct customers | Created by Salesforce during conversion | Created by Edge (requires a person-account record type in the path config) |
| Record after conversion | Read-only in most orgs | Stays writable |
| Field names | Standard Lead fields by default | You configure each field you use |
Choose Lead when your org already runs a Lead process (assignment rules, lead reporting, marketing automation). Choose a custom object when you want full control of the enquiry data model or your org avoids Leads entirely.
Where to go next
- Trip conversion guide — the agent experience and its configuration
- trip-mapping.yaml reference — capture targets and field mapping
- Salesforce setup — org prerequisites for each path