Sales Stages
Sales Stages is the catalog that defines the stages of your sales funnel (for example: "Prospecting", "Proposal sent", "Negotiation", "Won", "Lost"). It's used to mark where each CRM Opportunity stands in the sales process, and optionally to tag your Quotes and Sales Orders, so you can track your pipeline and analyze your closing effectiveness.
What it is and what it's for
It's a simple catalog: each record has a required, unique Name, optional Notes, and two flags that describe what kind of stage it is: Closes Opportunity (marks that this stage represents the deal being closed, i.e. won) and Lost (marks that this stage represents the deal being lost).
Once created, stages appear as a selection list in the Sales Stage field of CRM Opportunities, where it's required, and optionally on your Quotes and Sales Orders. This lets you see, at any time, how many deals you have at each step of the process, spot where your pipeline gets stuck, and measure what percentage of your opportunities end up won versus lost.
How to use it
- Open the catalog. Go to the Sales Stages list, where you'll see each stage's name and whether it's flagged as "Closes Opportunity" or "Lost".
- Create a new stage. Use the add button, type a short name describing the step of your sales process (for example "Proposal sent" or "Price negotiation"), and add notes if you want to clarify when it should be used.
- Flag its behavior, if applicable. If this stage represents a deal being successfully closed, check Closes Opportunity. If it represents the deal being lost, check Lost. An intermediate pipeline stage (for example "Negotiation") normally has neither flag checked.
- Save. AdmCloud validates that the name isn't empty and that no other stage already uses the same name.
- Use it on your deals. From that point on, the new stage is available in the Sales Stage field of Opportunities, and on Quotes or Sales Orders if your company uses it there too.
- View or edit an existing record. Click the name in the list to see its detail, and use the edit button if you need to correct the name, notes or flags.
Key fields and validations when saving
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Short description of the stage. Required and must be unique: two stages can't share the same name (when editing, you can keep the current name without it being flagged as a duplicate). |
| Notes | Optional free text to expand on the stage's meaning or clarify when it should be selected. |
| Closes Opportunity | Flags that this stage represents a deal being successfully closed (won). |
| Lost | Flags that this stage represents the deal being lost. |
You can't delete a stage that's already in use. If you try to delete a Sales Stage assigned to an Opportunity, a Quote or a Sales Order, AdmCloud blocks the deletion and shows you the list of records using it, so you can reassign them to another stage first if you really want to delete it. You also can't delete a stage set as a default in Company Preferences (the default stage for new quotes, for quotes converted into an order, or for quotes already billed).
Where this information appears
- On the Opportunities form, in the Sales Stage field (required).
- Optionally on Quotes and Sales Orders, if your company uses it to tag those documents.
- In Company Preferences, where you can set a default stage for new quotes, quotes converted into orders, or quotes already billed.
- In closing-effectiveness reports and the Opportunities pipeline boards, which group and filter by stage.
Availability and permissions
- This feature requires the CRM module to be active for your company (Premium Plus CRM plan, or Enterprise with the CRM module active). If it's not available, you won't see this option in the menu.
- To view, create, edit or delete records you need the "Sales Stages" permission (CRM module) at the matching level (View, Add, Edit or Delete).
Tips and common mistakes
Design your pipeline before creating the stages. First define, on paper, the actual steps a sale goes through at your company (for example: Prospecting → Qualification → Proposal → Negotiation → Won / Lost) and create one Sales Stage per step, in that order. That way your pipeline reports reflect your real sales process.
There should only be one final stage of each kind per deal. Use Closes Opportunity only on the stage or stages that represent a won deal, and Lost only on the ones that represent a lost deal; intermediate stages in the process shouldn't carry either flag.
"Cannot delete due to dependencies". This message means the stage is assigned to an Opportunity, a Quote or a Sales Order, or it's set as a default stage in Company Preferences. Reassign those records to another stage (or change the default in Preferences) before trying to delete it again.