CRM Pipeline
Creating an opportunity
The form field by field, what to fill in honestly, and adding the people involved.
Last updated September 2, 2026
Create one from Opportunities, or straight from the company or contact it belongs to — which saves linking it up afterwards.
The fields
| Field | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| Opportunity Name | What the deal is for, in the words your team uses. "Fleet signage — 12 vans" beats "New deal". |
| Amount | What you expect it to be worth. An honest number, not a hopeful one. |
| Probability % | How likely you think it is. Some teams let the stage imply this; agree which and be consistent. |
| Expected Close Date | When it will be decided. This is what puts the deal in a month. |
| Stage | Where it has got to. |
| Type | What kind of business it is, for reporting on your mix. |
| Assigned Representative | Whose deal it is. |
| Associated Company / Contact | The account and the person. Optional on the form, worth filling in every time. |
The people on the deal
A deal can have several contacts — the person who asked, the person who signs, the person who will use it. Add them all and mark one as primary, so everyone knows who to actually call.
Recurring deals
Mark an opportunity as recurring when the value repeats rather than lands once — a contract, a subscription, a monthly retainer. It keeps repeating revenue separable from one-off wins in your reporting.
THE TWO FIELDS PEOPLE FUDGE
Amount and expected close date. Optimism in either makes the pipeline a work of fiction, and the first time a forecast is badly wrong is the last time anyone uses it.