Lead routing · Availability

Never route a lead to someone who isn’t there.

Skip reps who are out of office, on holiday or off-shift. Respect working hours and time zones. And decide what happens to the leads that land at 2am — automatically, inside Salesforce.

4.9  AppExchange Rating

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100% Salesforce-native

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Live in minutes

A screenshot of Distribution Engine, the lead routing tool from NC Squared

Trusted for fair, fast routing by 20,000+ users since 2013.

The problem

A lead assigned to an empty desk is a lead lost.

Leads sit in an empty inbox

A rep goes on holiday for two weeks, and the rotation keeps feeding them leads the whole time — nobody notices until the pipeline review.

The 2am lead has nowhere to go

Inbound doesn’t stop when the office closes. Without a rule for after-hours leads, they land with someone who won’t see them for nine hours.

Salesforce doesn’t know who’s in

There’s no out-of-office concept in native lead assignment. The rules will happily hand a lead to someone who left the company last month.

In short

What is availability-based lead routing?

Availability-based routing only assigns leads to reps who are actually able to work them right now. It checks each rep’s working hours, time zone, shift pattern and out-of-office status before assigning, and skips anyone who’s away. Distribution Engine lets reps set their own out-of-office in Salesforce, honours team calendars and holidays, and gives you a rule for after-hours leads — so nothing lands on an empty desk.

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Beyond the basics

Routing that knows who’s actually at their desk.

Availability changes hour by hour. Your routing should keep up with it on its own.

Out-of-office, self-served

Reps flag their own holiday or absence in Salesforce. They’re skipped automatically while they’re away, and folded back in when they return.

Working hours & holidays

Set working hours per team, and load your public holidays. Nobody gets a lead on a day the office was never open.

Time-zone aware

A rep in PST isn’t “available” at 9am GMT. Distribution Engine routes against each rep’s local clock, not the org’s.

Shift patterns & follow-the-sun

Run shifts, or hand leads across regions as the day moves. Whoever is on shift takes the lead, wherever they are.

A rule for after-hours leads

Hold overnight leads in a queue for the morning, send them to an on-call rep, or pass them to the next region that’s awake.

100% Salesforce-native

Availability lives on your own user records — no external rota tool to sync, and no data ever leaving Salesforce.

Distribution Engine vs. native Salesforce

How availability-aware routing compares to native Salesforce.

Salesforce has Business Hours and Holidays objects, but native lead assignment rules don’t consult them — and there’s no out-of-office concept at all.

Capability
Native Salesforce
Distribution Engine
Even round robin rotation
Weighted distribution
Capacity caps & live workload balancing
Availability, shifts & out-of-office
Skills, territory & account matching
Limited
Auto-reassign on SLA breach
Round robin any object (not just Leads)
No-code edits by the team that owns the work
Audit trail & reporting in Salesforce
Basic
Capability
Native Salesforce
Distribution Engine
Skip out-of-office reps when assigning
Reps set their own out-of-office
Assignment respects working hours
Business Hours exist, unused by rules
Per-rep time zones
Shift patterns & follow-the-sun
Rules for after-hours leads
Skip inactive or departed users
No-code setup by the ops team
The Payoff

Leads reach someone who can act on them.

<
10
min
average response time
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across customers
97
%
routing accuracy
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across customers
40
%
higher lead conversion
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8
hrs
saved every day
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"Distribution Engine has totally transformed how we handle lead distribution. It’s fast, reliable, and keeps us ahead of the game."

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Justin Norris
Director of Marketing & BDR Operations
Get started

Send every lead to someone who’s actually there.

See availability-aware routing working in your own org. You can trial Distribution Engine for free, or get in touch if you’d prefer to chat.

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Free trial
Your questions answered.

Availability routing FAQs.

What is availability-based lead routing?

How do I stop leads going to reps who are out of office?

Does Salesforce support out-of-office for lead assignment?

What happens to leads that arrive out of hours?

Can routing respect different time zones?

Can I run shift patterns?

Does it also skip reps who are overloaded?

What if a rep leaves the company?

How is round robin in Distribution Engine different from native Salesforce assignment rules?

Can I weight round robin so some reps get more leads?

How do I keep round robin fair when reps are on holiday or out of office?

How do I route leads by territory and still keep round robin?

Can I round robin cases and other objects, not just leads?

What happens if a rep doesn't action their lead in time?

Is it really no-code?

How does Distribution Engine compare to other round robin tools?

Is Distribution Engine Salesforce-native?

Does workload routing work alongside round robin?

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