Opportunities and Pipeline

Opportunities represent the deals your team is actively pursuing. The pipeline gives you a visual overview of where each deal stands in your sales process. This guide covers how to create, track, and close opportunities in Ambivo.

What Is an Opportunity?

An opportunity is a potential sale or deal that you are working toward closing. Each opportunity is linked to a Contact (the person you are negotiating with) and an Account (the company). Opportunities move through stages in your sales pipeline, from initial prospecting to a final outcome — won or lost.

Tracking opportunities lets you:

• See how many deals are in progress and their total value
• Forecast revenue based on deal stages and probability
• Identify bottlenecks in your sales process
• Measure your team's performance

Getting There

• Log in to Ambivo
• Make sure you are in the CRM application
• Click Opportunities in the left sidebar
• You will see a list of all opportunities with columns showing deal name, stage, value, expected close date, and owner

Create a New Opportunity

1. 1

   Open the create form

   From the Opportunities list, click the + New button.

2. 2

   Fill in key fields

   Opportunity Name — A descriptive name for the deal (e.g., "Acme Corp — Enterprise License"); Account — The company this deal is with; Contact — The primary person you are negotiating with; Stage — The current stage in your pipeline (e.g., Prospecting, Qualification); Amount — The expected deal value; Expected Close Date — When you expect the deal to close.

3. 3

   Assign owner and save

   Assign an Owner — the salesperson responsible for this deal. Add any additional details or custom fields. Click Save.

What Happens Next

The opportunity appears in your pipeline. As you work the deal, you will update the stage to reflect progress.

Pipeline Stages

Your sales pipeline is made up of stages that represent the steps in your sales process. A typical pipeline includes:

Your administrator may customize these stages to match your specific sales process. This works two ways:

• Override a built-in stage — rename, recolor, or reposition any of the seeded stages above (e.g., rename Negotiation Review to "Negotiations" and move it later in the pipeline). Built-in automation tied to the stage (closed-won creates an order, closed-lost cleans up the contact, pipeline forecasts) continues to work because the underlying key is unchanged; only the display changes. A customization can be reset at any time to restore the original.
• Add new stages — insert tenant-specific stages like "Demo Scheduled" or "POC Approved" between the built-in ones. New stages are treated as "open" and don't fire built-in automation — to act on them (send an email, create a task), build a workflow.

Moving an Opportunity Through Stages

1. 1

   Open the opportunity

   Open the opportunity's detail page.

2. 2

   Update stage

   Find the Stage field (often displayed as a visual progress bar). Select the next stage or click the stage in the progress bar.

3. 3

   Save

   Click Save.

View and Edit an Opportunity

1. 1

   Open the opportunity

   Click on any opportunity in the list to open the detail page.

2. 2

   Review and edit

   Review all deal information including value, stage, contacts, and history. Edit any field by clicking on it or clicking the Edit button.

3. 3

   Save

   Click Save.

The opportunity detail page shows:

• Deal Information — Name, value, stage, probability, expected close date
• Linked Account and Contact — The company and person involved
• Activity Timeline — Emails, calls, meetings, and notes related to this deal
• Tasks — Action items for progressing the deal
• Quotes — Price quotes sent for this deal
• Files — Proposals, contracts, and other documents
• Notes and Comments — Team discussions

Close a Deal

Closing as Won

1. 1

   Open the opportunity

   Open the opportunity.

2. 2

   Set stage and amount

   Change the Stage to Closed Won. Confirm the final Amount.

3. 3

   Save

   Click Save.

The deal is now recorded as a win. It will appear in your performance reports and revenue totals.

Closing as Lost

1. 1

   Open the opportunity

   Open the opportunity.

2. 2

   Set stage and reason

   Change the Stage to Closed Lost. Optionally add a Reason for Loss (e.g., "Price too high", "Chose competitor", "Budget cut").

3. 3

   Save

   Click Save.

Recording reasons for lost deals helps your team identify patterns and improve your approach over time.

Forecasting and Pipeline Value

Ambivo helps you forecast revenue by multiplying each deal's value by its stage probability.

For example:

• A $10,000 deal in Developing stage (50% probability) contributes $5,000 to your forecast
• A $25,000 deal in Negotiation Review stage (75% probability) contributes $18,750 to your forecast

Viewing Your Pipeline Forecast

• Go to Opportunities in the sidebar
• Review the pipeline summary at the top of the list, which shows total value by stage
• For detailed performance analytics, go to Performance in the sidebar

Filter and Search Opportunities

Quick Filters

• My Deals — Opportunities owned by you
• Closing This Month — Deals with an expected close date in the current month
• Favorites — Deals you have starred

Search

Use the search bar to find opportunities by name, account, or contact.

Advanced Filtering

• Click the Filter icon
• Add conditions (e.g., Stage equals "Negotiation", Amount greater than 10000)
• Apply the filter

Common Questions

Tips and Best Practices

• Keep the Expected Close Date realistic and update it as the deal progresses
• Always record a Reason for Loss when closing a deal as lost — this data is invaluable for improvement
• Update the Stage as soon as the deal actually moves forward — do not let your pipeline become stale
• Use the Amount field accurately so forecasting reflects reality
• Review your pipeline weekly as a team to identify stuck deals and discuss next steps
• Link all relevant files (proposals, quotes, contracts) to the opportunity so everything is in one place

Related Guides

• CRM-001 — Leads Management
• CRM-002 — Contacts Management
• CRM-003 — Accounts Management
• CRM-008 — Orders and Invoices
• CRM-009 — Products and Commissions
• CRM-010 — E-Sign and Contracts