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Sales Pipeline

The Sales Pipeline is a lightweight CRM built into the Customers section. It tracks sales opportunities — a landscape project quote, a large contractor order, a wholesale prospect — from first contact through the close, so nothing falls through the cracks. Each opportunity is tied to a customer account, assigned to a sales rep, given an estimated dollar value, and moved through a set of stages. A companion Pipeline Reports page summarizes the pipeline by stage, rep, and lead source.

Availability

The Sales Pipeline is enabled per-client by VMX. If you don't see Sales Pipeline and Pipeline Reports tabs in your Customers section, contact help@vmxllc.com to discuss enabling it for your store.

Open the Sales Pipeline

  1. Go to the Customers section of VMX.
  2. Click the Sales Pipeline tab in the sub-navigation (next to Search and Wish List).

If the pipeline is empty, the page shows No opportunities found with an Add your first one → link.

Pipeline stages

Every opportunity in the Sales Pipeline sits in exactly one stage. The stages, in order, are:

  1. New Lead — a prospect you haven't reached out to yet
  2. Contacted — you've made first contact
  3. Quote Sent — a quote or proposal is in the customer's hands
  4. Waiting Decision — the ball is in the customer's court
  5. Ordering Product — they said yes; product is being ordered
  6. Delivered — product/work has been delivered
  7. Closed Won — the sale is complete; record the final amount in Closed Won Amount ($)
  8. Closed Lost — the opportunity didn't happen

By default the pipeline list hides Closed Won and Closed Lost opportunities so the page shows only active work. Check Show Closed to include them.

Each stage appears as a colored chip at the top of the Sales Pipeline page with a count of the opportunities currently listed in that stage. The counts follow the active filters — with closed opportunities hidden (the default), the Closed Won and Closed Lost chips read 0 until you check Show Closed. Click a chip to filter the list to that stage; click it again to remove the filter. When the listed opportunities have estimated values, a Pipeline Value total (the sum of the listed opportunities' estimated values) appears at the end of the chip row.

Add an opportunity to the Sales Pipeline

  1. On the Sales Pipeline page (Customers section → Sales Pipeline tab), click Add Opportunity.
  2. In the Customer field, type a name or customer number (at least two characters) and pick the customer from the results. A customer is required — if you skip this, saving stops with "Please select a customer."
  3. If the customer has contacts on file, a Contact dropdown appears so you can tie the opportunity to a specific person; the customer's primary contact (marked with a star) is pre-selected. Leave it on — No specific contact — if it doesn't apply.
  4. Choose the Store and the Sales Rep Owner (the employee responsible for this opportunity — used by the rep filter and the Sales Contribution by Rep report).
  5. Pick a Lead Source: Walk-In, Contractor, Website, Referral, or Existing Customer.
  6. Pick the Stage (new opportunities default to New Lead).
  7. Fill in Description / Opportunity — what the customer is interested in.
  8. Enter the Estimated Value ($) — your best guess at the deal size. This feeds the stage chips, the Pipeline Value total, and the reports.
  9. Set a Follow-Up Date and describe the Next Action (e.g. "Call to confirm plant availability").
  10. Optionally add an internal Note.
  11. Click Save.

Reading the pipeline list

The Sales Pipeline table shows one row per opportunity with these columns:

  • Customer — linked to the customer's profile page; the contact person or cell phone shows underneath when available
  • Rep Owner — the assigned sales rep
  • Lead Source — where the lead came from
  • Description — what the opportunity is
  • Est. Value — the estimated deal size
  • Stage — the current stage, shown as a colored badge
  • Next Action — the next step you've planned
  • Follow-Up — the follow-up date; shown in red when overdue and highlighted when due today
  • Last Activity — the date of the most recent save or logged activity
  • Won $ — the Closed Won Amount for won deals

By default the list is sorted by the Follow-Up column, so the opportunities due soonest — including anything overdue — are at the top and the page reads as a to-do list. Click any column header to re-sort.

Each row also has three action buttons: a pencil (edit the opportunity), a comment bubble (log activity), and an archive box (archive the opportunity).

Filter the pipeline by store, rep, or stage

At the top of the Sales Pipeline page:

  • The store dropdown (All Stores) limits the list to one store.
  • The rep dropdown (All Reps) limits the list to one sales rep owner.
  • The stage dropdown (All Stages) limits the list to one stage — clicking a stage chip does the same thing.
  • Show Closed includes Closed Won and Closed Lost opportunities, which are otherwise hidden.
  • Show Archived switches the list to archived opportunities only.

The list refreshes as soon as you change a filter. Click Clear Filters to return to the default view.

Log activity on an opportunity

Use the activity log to build a running history on each opportunity — every call, email, and quote in one place.

  1. On the Sales Pipeline page, click the comment-bubble button on the opportunity's row. The Log Activity window opens, with the opportunity's past activity listed at the bottom.
  2. Choose the Activity Type: Note, Call, Email, Quote Sent, Meeting, or Stage Change.
    • Quote Sent adds Quote # and Sent To (email) fields so the quote is traceable later.
    • Stage Change adds a New Stage dropdown. This records the change in the activity history only — to actually move the opportunity to the new stage, edit the opportunity (pencil button) and change its Stage there.
  3. Type a Note describing what happened.
  4. Click Log Activity.

Logging activity updates the opportunity's Last Activity date, so the pipeline list always shows which opportunities are being worked and which have gone quiet.

Mark an opportunity Closed Won or Closed Lost

  1. On the Sales Pipeline page, click the pencil button on the opportunity's row.
  2. Change the Stage to Closed Won or Closed Lost.
  3. For Closed Won, a Closed Won Amount ($) field appears — enter the actual final sale amount. This is the number reported in the Won $ column and in Pipeline Reports (which use it separately from the earlier estimate).
  4. Click Save.

Closed opportunities disappear from the default list; check Show Closed to see them. They still count in Pipeline Reports.

Archive an opportunity

Archiving removes an opportunity from the pipeline without deleting it — useful for dead leads or duplicates you don't want counted in reports.

  1. On the Sales Pipeline page, click the archive-box button on the opportunity's row.
  2. Confirm the prompt "Archive this opportunity?"

Archived opportunities are excluded from the pipeline list and from all Pipeline Reports. To review them, check Show Archived on the Sales Pipeline page. Archiving is recorded in the opportunity's activity history.

Pipeline Reports

The Pipeline Reports page (Customers section → Pipeline Reports tab) summarizes the Sales Pipeline. Pick a Date range at the top — This Month, Last Month, Year to Date (the default), or Custom with your own from/to dates. The date range selects opportunities by the date they were added, and applies to the by-rep and by-lead-source reports; the four summary boxes, the stage summary, and the aging report always reflect the pipeline as it stands right now.

Four summary boxes appear first:

  • Open Pipeline Value — total estimated value of all opportunities except Closed Lost
  • Closed Won Value — total of the recorded Closed Won amounts
  • Win Rate — Closed Won opportunities as a percentage of all opportunities
  • Total Opportunities — count of all (non-archived) opportunities

Below the summary boxes:

  • Pipeline by Stage — opportunity count, total estimated value, and won dollars for each stage.
  • Opportunities by Lead Source — the same figures broken out by Lead Source (Walk-In, Contractor, Website, Referral, Existing Customer), so you can see which channels produce leads — and which produce closed sales.
  • Sales Contribution by Rep — for each sales rep owner: total opportunities, open pipeline dollars, Closed Won count and value, Closed Lost count, and a per-rep Win Rate (won deals as a percentage of that rep's closed deals).
  • Open Opportunities Aging — the oldest open opportunities (up to 50), with an age badge showing days since the opportunity was added: green up to 7 days, yellow up to 21 days, red beyond that. Use this to spot deals that have stalled and need a push or a Closed Lost decision.

Click ← Back to Pipeline to return to the working pipeline list.