Custom Webhooks in Follow Up Boss: Setup Guide

What is a webhook and why does Follow Up Boss use them?

A webhook is a lightweight event notification: when something happens inside a system, it sends a JSON payload to a URL you control. Follow Up Boss uses webhooks as the primary way external tools — AI assistants, marketing platforms, transaction coordinators — can react to CRM activity in real time without constantly asking "has anything changed?"

The practical payoff is speed. Polling the FUB API every few minutes introduces lag and burns rate-limit budget. A webhook fires within seconds of the event, so your downstream system always has current information.

Which Follow Up Boss events can trigger a webhook?

FUB supports a wide range of event types across people, activity, deals, appointments, tasks, email marketing, and IDX property events. Here is a representative breakdown:

The IDX eventsCreated event is particularly valuable: a lead viewing a property listing or saving a search is a strong buyer-intent signal. The account-config events (stage, pipeline, custom field changes) are useful for keeping external knowledge bases current without a nightly rebuild.

How do you register a webhook in Follow Up Boss?

There are two registration paths: the API and the admin UI. Both require a FUB admin account.

Option A — Register via the FUB API

1. Obtain your FUB API key from Settings › Integrations › API.
2. Make a POST request to https://api.followupboss.com/v1/webhooks with Basic auth (API key, no password).
3. Include a JSON body specifying the event name and url endpoint that should receive the POST.
4. Repeat for each event type you need — FUB supports one endpoint URL per event subscription, but you can point multiple events at the same URL.
5. Verify by manually triggering the event (e.g., create a test contact) and checking that your endpoint received the payload.

Option B — Register via FUB Settings UI

1. Log into your Follow Up Boss account as an admin.
2. Navigate to Settings › Integrations › Webhooks.
3. Click Add Webhook, choose the event, and enter your endpoint URL.
4. Save. FUB will show the webhook as active and begin delivering events immediately.

What does a Follow Up Boss webhook payload look like?

Each payload is a JSON object that includes the event type, a timestamp, and the CRM record that changed. For a peopleCreated event you would receive the contact's ID, name, email, phone, assigned agent, source, and any custom fields. For peopleStageUpdated you receive the old stage, new stage, and contact ID.

Your endpoint should return a 200 OK within a few seconds. FUB will retry delivery if it receives a non-2xx response, so idempotent handling (ignore duplicate deliveries) is important on your side.

What are the most important webhooks for an AI layer?

If you are building automation on top of Follow Up Boss — or connecting an AI tool that scores leads — the highest-signal events are:

• eventsCreated — IDX property views and saved searches are the clearest buyer-intent signal available in FUB.
• textMessagesCreated and emailsCreated — inbound replies prove active engagement.
• peopleStageUpdated — pipeline movement is both a buying signal and a trigger for action-plan changes.
• appointmentsDeleted — a cancelled appointment is a strong drop signal; follow up immediately.
• emEventsUnsubscribed — required for compliance: stop email outreach to any contact who unsubscribes.
• dealsDeleted — deal loss should trigger a re-nurture sequence, not silence.

How does Follow Up Ace use Follow Up Boss webhooks?

Follow Up Ace subscribes to every event category above automatically the moment you connect your FUB account. There is no manual webhook configuration required. The subscription is programmatic — the Ace Trove registers each event against your account and immediately begins processing payloads to update lead scores and fields in real time.

Specifically, when a webhook payload arrives:

1. The event is enqueued for processing without blocking the HTTP response to FUB (keeping delivery latency low).
2. The worker derives engagement signals from the event — inbound vs. outbound, activity recency, velocity trend.
3. The free predictive fields are updated in your FUB contact record: Ace Win Score (calibrated 0–100 win probability) and Ace Churn Risk (Low / Medium / High). Engagement, velocity, response-time, and channel signals are computed on the same events and feed the models and dashboards.
4. Account-config events (stage/pipeline/custom-field changes) trigger a knowledge-base refresh so the AI's understanding of your workflow stays current without waiting for a nightly rebuild.

This webhook-first architecture is what keeps the Ace Win Score live rather than stale. A contact who texts you back at 9 pm gets their score updated before the next morning — not after a batch run.

Common webhook mistakes to avoid

• Not returning 200 fast enough. If your endpoint does heavy processing synchronously, FUB may time out and retry. Accept the payload, queue it, and return 200 immediately.
• No deduplication. FUB can deliver the same event more than once on network errors. Store the event ID or use a processed-IDs set to discard duplicates.
• Forgetting emEventsUnsubscribed. Missing an unsubscribe event and continuing to send email can create compliance exposure. Always subscribe to this event.
• One endpoint per account for all events. This works but requires your endpoint to branch on the event field. Alternatively, point different events at different endpoints for cleaner separation of concerns.
• Ignoring account-config events. If your AI or automation relies on stage names, pipeline structures, or custom fields, subscribe to stageCreated/Updated/Deleted so you are not working with stale definitions.

Do you need to build your own webhook infrastructure?

Not if you use Follow Up Ace. The entire webhook registration, processing pipeline, and score-update flow is managed for you. You connect your FUB account once, and the Agentic AI layer starts receiving and acting on webhook events automatically.

For teams building custom integrations on top of the FUB API — transaction management systems, external analytics dashboards, custom notification tools — the FUB webhook system is the right starting point. The event coverage is comprehensive, delivery is reliable, and the payload structure is consistent enough to build on.

See the Guides section for walkthroughs on connecting Follow Up Boss to specific tools, or check the comparison pages to see how FUB's webhook coverage compares to other real estate CRMs.