Sales pipelines with your own stages
Build deal stages that match how you actually sell, not a fixed list, and see every open opportunity grouped by where it really stands.
Every business sells differently. An agency moves from brief to proposal to retainer. A manufacturer moves from enquiry to sample to trial order. A fixed set of deal stages forces both of them to lie to their own pipeline report. ERPClaw’s built-in Sales lets you define the stages your deals actually pass through, and the pipeline report groups by those.
Say it the way you would out loud:
“Our deals go enquiry, sample sent, trial order, contract. Set the pipeline up that way.”
Start with the default, change it when it lies
A standard sales pipeline is seeded on day one, so the report works before you have configured anything: new, contacted, qualified, proposal, negotiation, and the two endings. When those names stop matching reality, build your own:
“Add a stage called Sample Sent, after Contacted, and give it a win probability.”
Stages carry an order and a win probability, and exactly one winning and one losing end point each, which the system enforces rather than trusts. Inserting a stage mid-pipeline shifts the rest down for you.
Move deals as they move
“The Acme deal just got to Trial Order.”
A deal advances stage by stage along its own pipeline. Moving a deal to a stage from a different pipeline is refused, because a deal that is simultaneously in two selling motions is a report that means nothing. Won and lost are terminal: once a deal ends, it is frozen, and the record of how it ended stays put.
Ask where the money is
“Show me the pipeline.”
“What is sitting in Negotiation right now?”
The pipeline report groups every open deal by its stage, with expected revenue, so the answer to “what might close this quarter” is a question rather than a spreadsheet afternoon. Deals from the era before you customised anything still report correctly. The people behind those deals live in contacts and companies, and the follow-ups that move them along are sales tasks.
Common questions
Do I have to design a pipeline before using Sales? No. A sensible default pipeline is seeded at install. Customise when your process outgrows it.
Can I run more than one pipeline? Yes. A product line with a fast self-serve motion and an enterprise motion with committees can each have their own stages, and each deal belongs to one.
What stops two people creating conflicting stage orders? Stage positions are enforced. Two stages cannot occupy the same slot, and each pipeline has exactly one won and one lost ending.
What happens to old deals when I rename or add stages? Existing deals keep reporting. Legacy stage names still work, so history does not break the day you customise.
Can I reopen a lost deal? No. Won and lost are frozen endings. If the buyer comes back, that is a new deal, and your win-rate history stays honest.
Where do the probabilities show up? On the pipeline report, where stage probability against expected revenue is what turns a list of deals into a forecast.
Reference: the actions behind this page
You never have to type these. They are what ERPClaw runs when you ask, and they are here for anyone calling the API or MCP surface directly, or reading a log.
add-crm-pipeline --name "Manufacturing Sales" --set-as-default
add-crm-pipeline-stage --pipeline <id> --name "Sample Sent" --order 3 --probability 40 --shift-existing
update-crm-pipeline-stage --id <id> --name "Trial Order"
list-crm-pipelines
list-crm-pipeline-stages --pipeline <id>
set-opportunity-pipeline-stage --opportunity <id> --stage <stage-id>
pipeline-reportCross-pipeline stage moves are blocked, terminal stages are unique per pipeline, and pipeline-report groups by custom stages where they exist and by legacy stage names where they do not.