Deals and pipeline - managing sales opportunities

Written By Miro Flemke

Last updated 5 months ago

The Pipeline — Your Sales Process at a Glance

The Pipeline is the heart of your CRM. It maps your sales process as a Kanban board: Each deal appears as a card in its current stage. You can move deals between stages using drag-and-drop.

At the top of each stage, you’ll see the number of deals and the total value. This lets you immediately see where your revenue is concentrated.

Standard Stages

Every new pipeline is created with six stages:

  1. Lead (10% probability) — Initial contact

  2. Qualified (25%) — Interest confirmed

  3. Quote (50%) — Quote sent

  4. Negotiation (75%) — Under discussion

  5. Won (100%) — Successfully closed

  6. Lost (0%) — Did not materialize

You can customize, rename, or add new stages at any time. Learn more in the article Set up a pipeline.

Multiple Pipelines

You can create multiple pipelines for different sales processes — e.g., one for new customers and one for existing customers. Use the dropdown in the top-left corner to switch between pipelines.

Filter and sort

Using the filter bar, you can narrow down deals by:

  • Source — Where did the deal come from?

  • Assigned — Which team member is handling the deal?

  • Status — Open, Won, or Lost

Deals can also be sorted by various criteria.

Identifying inactive deals

Deals that have had no activity for more than three days and have no future activity planned are marked as inactive. This lets you see immediately where action is needed.

Create and edit deals

Create a new deal

  1. Click on Create Deal.

  2. Enter a name (required field).

  3. Select the pipeline and the current stage.

  4. Optional: Enter the value (in EUR, USD, or another currency) and the likelihood of closing.

  5. Optional: Assign a company, a contact, and a responsible person.

  6. Add an expected closing date, a source, and notes.

Edit Deal

In the deal details view, you can edit all fields directly—just click on the respective value. Changes are automatically saved and logged in the change history.

Win a deal

Mark a deal as won when the order is secured. This does the following:

  • The deal is moved to the "Won" stage

  • The probability is set to 100%

  • The closing date is automatically entered

Lose a deal

Mark a deal as lost and optionally provide a reason. The reasons are displayed in the dashboard as an analysis—this helps you identify patterns and improve your sales.

Reopen a deal

A deal that has already been won or lost can be reopened at any time. It will be moved back to its previous active stage.

Convert deal to project

You can convert won deals into a new project with a single click. The company is automatically linked—ensuring a seamless transition from sales to project work.

The Deal Details View

In the deal details view, you can see all the information at a glance:

  • Master data: Name, Value, Currency, Probability, Closing Date, Source

  • Stage picker: Visually view and switch the current stage

  • Links: Company, Contact, Assignee

  • Activity Timeline: All activities and changes in chronological order

  • Related projects: Projects that resulted from this deal

  • Statistics: Average time to close, most active team members

Permissions

To view deals and the pipeline, you need the View CRM permission. To create, edit, and delete deals, you need the Manage CRM permission.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I move a deal to a different pipeline?

A deal always belongs to a pipeline. To move it to a different pipeline, create a new deal in the target pipeline.

What happens to the activities when I delete a deal?

Deleted deals are moved to the trash (soft delete). The activities are retained.

Is the probability set automatically?

Yes — when you move a deal to a different stage, the probability is automatically set to the stage’s value. However, you can also override it manually.