Pipelines and forecasting

Pipeline stages and probabilities, weighted value, forecast categories, and the dashboard metrics that add them up.

A pipeline is the ordered list of stages your deals move through, and each stage carries a win probability. Together with each deal’s forecast category (Pipeline, Best case or Commit), it drives the numbers sales leaders ask for: weighted pipeline value, and a forecast that separates what you’ve promised from what you hope for.

Key concepts#

Pipeline: A named, ordered set of stages, such as “Sales Pipeline”. Its name is shown under the Opportunities title.
Stage: One step in the pipeline. Each has a name, a position and a probability from 0 to 100%.
Stage type: Open (deals are still being worked), Closed won or Closed lost. Won and lost deals are shown in the closed stages’ columns.
Probability: The chance a deal in this stage will be won. A deal uses its stage’s probability unless it has its own.
Weighted value: Amount × probability. A $2,000,000 deal at 10% has a weighted value of $200,000.
Forecast category: What you’re willing to promise for an open deal: Pipeline, Best case or Commit. Closed deals are Closed.

Who can use it#

Permissions

pipeline.viewpipeline.manageopportunity.editdashboard.view

pipeline.view is needed to load the board’s stages. pipeline.manage is needed to create the pipeline. Setting a deal’s forecast category needs opportunity.edit. Forecast widgets live on dashboards.

Create the pipeline#

A new organization has no pipeline. The first time someone opens Opportunities, the page says “No sales pipeline yet” and offers Create pipeline. Selecting it creates a pipeline called Sales Pipeline with these stages:

Stage	Type	Probability
Qualification	Open	10%
Proposal	Open	40%
Negotiation	Open	70%
Closed Won	Closed won	100%
Closed Lost	Closed lost	0%

Pipelines with other stages, such as a fundraising pipeline, can be set up through an integration. The Everyrealm demo uses a pipeline called “Fund III capital raise” with the stages Qualified (10%), Intro meeting held (20%), Diligence (40%), Investment committee review (65%), Subscription documents (85%), Committed (won) and Passed (lost).

Current limitations

The web app can’t yet rename a pipeline, add, rename or reorder stages, change a stage’s probability, or switch between pipelines. The Opportunities board always shows the first pipeline that was created.

Stages, probability and weighted value#

A deal’s page shows its Weighted value with the probability used, for example “$200,000.00 (10%)”. When you drag a deal to a later stage, its probability and weighted value follow the new stage. Pipeline value and the forecast only count open deals.

How the closed columns work#

Won and lost deals appear in the closed-won and closed-lost columns because of their outcome, however they were closed: by dragging, or with Mark as won / Mark as lost on the deal page. Once there, they can’t be dragged back to an open stage.

Forecast categories#

The stage says where a deal is in your process. The forecast category says whether you’d put your name to it. Those are different questions: two deals in Negotiation can honestly be one Commit and one Best case, if one has a signature date and the other’s champion has gone quiet.

Category	Use it when
Pipeline	The deal is real but you wouldn’t promise it yet. Every new deal starts here, because it claims the least.
Best case	It looks likely and could close in the period if things go well.
Commit	You’d stand behind it closing.
Closed	Set automatically when a deal is won or lost. You can’t choose it, so a live deal can’t quietly drop out of the forecast.

Set the category under Forecast category on the deal page. Moving a deal back down a category is normal and better than a forecast nobody believes.

Reading the forecast on a dashboard#

Forecast and pipeline figures are shown with dashboard widgets. When you add a widget, choose one of these metrics:

Opportunities — forecast by category: Open deals grouped into Commit, Best case and Pipeline, each with the number of deals, the total amount and the weighted value. Every category is shown even when it’s empty. Can be filtered by pipeline, owner and expected close date range.
Opportunities — pipeline value: Total and probability-weighted value of open opportunities.
Opportunities — by stage: Open opportunity count and value per pipeline stage.
Opportunities — win rate: Won ÷ (won + lost) among closed opportunities, dated by when they closed.
Opportunities — sales cycle length: How long won deals took from creation to being won.
Opportunities — sales velocity: (Open count × win rate × average deal size) ÷ average cycle length in days.
Opportunities — rep leaderboard: Owners ranked by won value. Deals with no owner are left out.

Tip

An empty Commit row is a real answer, not a missing one: nobody has committed to a deal yet. It’s often the most useful line on the forecast.

FAQ#

Why is there no Closed option in the Forecast category picker?

A deal becomes closed by being won or lost, not by being labelled. Otherwise a live deal could be dropped from the forecast without anything having happened.

Should the forecast category just follow the stage?

No. A category copied from the stage would give you a forecast that repeats the pipeline back to you, which tells you nothing new.

What happens to a deal’s category when I win it?

It becomes Closed and leaves the forecast, so the forecast stops promising money that has already arrived.

The Opportunities page says “No sales pipeline yet” and I can’t create one.

Creating the pipeline needs pipeline.manage. Ask an administrator.

Still stuck? Search the docs with ⌘K, open Help inside UnitX, or contact support.