Real-Time Data Updates in Follow Up Boss

Does Follow Up Boss update data in real time?

Yes — with important nuance about what "real time" means for different types of data.

Native FUB activity (calls logged, texts sent or received, emails, notes, stage moves, appointment creation) is visible immediately in the FUB interface. When an agent logs a call or a lead's stage changes, every team member with access to that contact sees the update without refreshing the page.

Inbound lead data from sources like Zillow, Realtor.com, or IDX portals also arrives in near-real time — FUB has direct integrations with major portals that push new leads as they are submitted.

Third-party enrichment and AI fields depend on the integration. Tools that poll the FUB API on a schedule (hourly, daily) will always lag by that interval. Tools that subscribe to webhooks can react within seconds.

How do webhooks enable real-time updates in Follow Up Boss?

Webhooks are the engine behind real-time integrations with FUB. When something changes in the CRM — a contact's stage updates, a text message arrives, a property view is logged from an IDX portal — FUB sends an HTTP POST notification to every registered webhook endpoint within seconds.

This is fundamentally different from polling. A polling integration asks "has anything changed?" every few minutes, which means it is always slightly behind and burns API rate-limit budget on empty queries. A webhook integration is notified instantly and only processes data when something actually happened.

The webhook event payload contains the CRM record that changed, the type of change, and a timestamp. An AI tool that receives this payload can immediately derive new signals — re-score the contact, update engagement fields, trigger a notification to the assigned agent — all without any manual step from the agent.

Which Follow Up Boss events trigger real-time updates?

FUB supports webhooks for a comprehensive set of events. The ones most relevant to real-time lead intelligence include:

• peopleCreated / peopleUpdated / peopleStageUpdated — any new lead or change to an existing contact triggers an immediate update
• textMessagesCreated / emailsCreated / callsCreated — inbound and outbound activity triggers score recalculation
• eventsCreated — IDX property views and saved searches; this is the strongest buyer-intent signal in real time because it represents unprompted contact behavior
• notesCreated / notesUpdated — agent notes (often post-meeting context) trigger re-analysis
• appointmentsCreated / appointmentsUpdated / appointmentsDeleted — appointment events, including cancellations (which are a strong drop signal)
• dealsCreated / dealsUpdated / dealsDeleted — pipeline transitions
• emEventsUnsubscribed — an email unsubscribe must be respected immediately for compliance

How does Follow Up Ace keep Ace Score updated in real time?

Follow Up Ace subscribes to the full set of FUB webhook events the moment you connect your account. The processing pipeline is designed so the webhook acknowledgment (HTTP 200 back to FUB) happens instantly — the actual scoring work is queued and processed asynchronously. This prevents any delay in FUB's delivery and ensures the processing can scale without a synchronous bottleneck.

Once a webhook event is processed:

1. The scoring engine evaluates the event type — inbound vs. outbound, activity recency, velocity trend — and computes updated scores.
2. Seven custom fields are written back to the FUB contact record via the API: Ace Score, Ace Tier, Ace Status, Ace Response Time, Ace Velocity Score, Ace Days Since Inbound, and Ace Preferred Channel.
3. Ace Status is derived event-by-event: a peopleCreated event sets status to "New"; an inbound textMessagesCreated event advances it to "Engaged"; an appointmentsCreated event can advance it to "Active Client"; a dealsDeleted event signals a drop that may return the contact to a nurture status.

The result is that a lead who sends a text reply at 9 pm has their Ace Score updated before the assigned agent arrives in the morning — not after a nightly batch run finishes at 3 am.

What is the difference between real-time updates and nightly analysis?

Real-time (webhook-driven) updates and nightly AI analysis serve different purposes and are both used in Follow Up Ace:

The distinction matters because the AI synthesis tasks (generating a Lead Summary from months of notes, or computing a Seller Score from property + behavioral data) are computationally heavier. They are best suited to a nightly batch run. The engagement scoring — who is active, what channel they prefer, how fast your team responds — is lightweight enough to run instantly on each event.

Does Follow Up Boss support real-time lead routing?

Yes. Lead routing in Follow Up Boss — including round-robin assignment, pond routing, and source-based rules — executes as soon as a new lead arrives. The lead is assigned to an agent, the action plan fires, and (if configured) the agent receives a notification all within seconds of the lead hitting the system.

The Ace Trove layer adds a real-time intelligence dimension on top of routing: as new inbound activity arrives from the assigned lead, the Ace Score updates immediately, so the agent sees current engagement status rather than a stale score from when the lead first arrived.

How do account configuration changes stay current in real time?

One often-overlooked category of FUB webhooks covers account configuration changes: stage creations, pipeline updates, and custom field definition changes. When an admin adds a new pipeline stage in FUB, Follow Up Ace receives a webhook for stageCreated and uses it to trigger a knowledge-base refresh. This means the AI's understanding of your workflow stays current without waiting for the next nightly rebuild — a change made at 2 pm is reflected by 2:01 pm, not the following morning.

What should teams do to maximize real-time data quality in FUB?

• Log all activity in FUB, not in a separate notes app. Webhook-driven intelligence only works on data that flows through FUB. Calls, texts, and meeting notes recorded outside the CRM are invisible to the scoring engine.
• Connect your IDX portal to FUB. The eventsCreated webhook (property views, saved searches) is often the highest-signal real-time event available. It requires an active FUB-IDX integration.
• Use a tool that subscribes to webhooks, not one that polls. If your AI or analytics tool refreshes on a schedule, your field values are always a polling interval behind. Check whether the tool you use registers FUB webhooks or just calls the API on a cron.
• Subscribe to emEventsUnsubscribed. Email marketing unsubscribes need to stop outreach immediately — a polling integration may miss this for hours.

For a deeper look at how Ace Score is computed from real-time signals, see the Ace Trove page. For the full list of webhook events Follow Up Ace subscribes to, see Custom Webhooks in Follow Up Boss: Setup Guide.