Franchise Development Pipeline
Moving a deal between stages
How stage gates work, what happens when one is not met, and how a manager overrides with a recorded reason.
Last updated September 7, 2026
A deal moves forward when the work of its current stage is done. In Franchise Development that is not a matter of memory: each stage can carry exit gates, facts that must be true before a deal is allowed to leave it. A gate is checked against the deal's own records the moment you try to move it.
Moving forward
- Drag the card on the board, or click a later stage chip on the deal page.
- If every gate on the current stage is met, the deal moves, the stage history and timeline record it, and the days-in-stage counter restarts.
- If a gate is not met, the move stops and a dialog lists what is missing — "No territory is reserved for this deal", for example. Complete the step and try again.
Overriding a gate
A user with Manage Franchise Development sees an Override reason box in that dialog. Type why the deal should proceed anyway and click Override and move. The deal moves, and the override is written to the stage history and to the timeline as "Gates overridden" with the reason, so anyone reading the file later can see who decided what and why.
Moving backwards
Moving a deal to an earlier stage never needs a gate. If a candidate needs to redo their application, drag the card back and the history records it.
Closing as lost
Moving a deal to a lost stage always asks for a lost reason from your organisation's list, with optional notes. See Closing a deal as lost.
The default gates
| Leaving stage | Gate |
|---|---|
| Application | application complete |
| Discovery | territory reserved |
| Disclosure | disclosure receipt signed |
| Discovery Day & Validation | discovery day attended |
| Financing & Approval | approved |
| Agreement | waiting period elapsed, and agreement countersigned |
Gate names are written here as the Development Settings picker shows them. Gates are configured per stage in Development Settings. Until the records a gate reads from are in use in your organisation, moving past that stage needs a manager override.