Many small businesses still manage their sales process with spreadsheets and messaging apps. This works when you have two or three clients, but as your customer base grows, missed follow-ups, lost quotations, and duplicated efforts become inevitable.
Odoo CRM's sales pipeline visualises your entire sales process — from first contact to closed deal — with clear tracking at every step. This guide walks you through the fundamentals of pipeline and opportunity management in Odoo CRM.
A sales pipeline turns vague "follow up soon" into a measurable, manageable process:
| Common Pain Point | How a Pipeline Solves It |
|---|---|
| Forgetting to follow up with leads | Every opportunity has activity reminders with overdue alerts |
| Not knowing which deals are close to closing | Sorted by stage and probability — high-value opportunities surface first |
| Management has no visibility into team performance | Pipeline dashboard shows opportunity count and value per stage in real time |
| Quotations scattered across email and chat threads | All communication logged in the opportunity's Chatter timeline |
A structured pipeline ensures no deal falls through the cracks, regardless of how fast your team moves.
When you open the Odoo CRM module, you see the Kanban view — a visual board where each column represents a stage in your sales process and each card represents an opportunity.
Odoo defaults to showing only opportunities assigned to you, indicated by the My Pipeline filter tag in the search bar.
To view all team opportunities:
Toggle this filter anytime to switch between your personal and team pipeline views.
Each card displays four key pieces of information:
Stages form the backbone of your sales process. Odoo includes default stages, but you should customise them to match how your team actually sells.
Hover over any stage column and click the gear icon that appears. You will see these options:
| Option | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Fold | Collapses the stage in Kanban view (data is preserved) |
| Edit | Opens stage settings for name, sequence, and configuration |
| Automations | Configure automated rules triggered when deals enter this stage |
| Delete | Removes the stage (existing opportunities must be moved first) |
Folding is useful for stages you rarely check, such as "Won" or "Lost." Folded stages retain all data — click to expand them anytime.
For a consulting or professional services firm, consider this stage structure:
Start with 4 to 6 stages. Adding too many creates friction; too few hides bottlenecks in your process.
An opportunity represents a potential deal in your pipeline. Odoo offers two ways to create one.
Use this when you already know which stage the opportunity belongs in.
This gives you access to every field from the start.
Required:
Recommended:
If you select an existing contact, Odoo auto-fills their company, phone, and address details.
Suppose a prospect named David enquires about Odoo ERP implementation through your website:
The opportunity appears in the "New Enquiry" stage, ready for the sales team to follow up.
Activities are scheduled actions tied to opportunities — calls to make, meetings to hold, documents to send. The activity system ensures every opportunity has a clear next step.
The icon on each opportunity card reflects its activity status:
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Grey clock | No activity scheduled (needs attention) |
| Phone icon | Call scheduled |
| Person icon | Meeting scheduled |
| Envelope icon | Email scheduled |
| Button | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Open Calendar | Opens the calendar to select a specific time slot |
| Schedule | Saves the activity and closes the form |
| Mark as Done | Records the activity as completed |
| Done & Schedule Next | Completes this activity and immediately creates the next one |
Best practice: After completing an activity, schedule the next one immediately. This ensures every opportunity always has a defined next action.
A coloured bar above each pipeline stage provides an at-a-glance view of activity health for opportunities in that stage.
| Colour | Meaning | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Planned activities scheduled for the future | On track — keep progressing |
| Yellow/Orange | Activities due today | Handle as soon as possible |
| Red | Overdue activities | Requires immediate attention |
| Grey | No activities scheduled | Check for missed follow-ups |
Start each workday by scanning the pipeline colours. A stage full of red means multiple opportunities are being neglected. Grey is equally concerning — an opportunity without a next step is likely going cold.
As deals progress, move opportunities to reflect their current status.
The most intuitive method: click and drag an opportunity card from one stage column to another on the Kanban board.
Both methods update the opportunity instantly.
Each stage column header displays the total expected revenue for all opportunities in that stage. For example:
These totals update automatically as opportunities are added, moved, or modified, giving management a real-time view of the sales funnel health.
Click any opportunity to open its full form — the central interface for managing all information about a single deal.
Header area:
Internal Notes tab:
Extra Info tab:
Odoo calculates a probability percentage for each opportunity based on several factors:
The probability score helps with revenue forecasting and resource allocation. For example, if you have 10 opportunities worth HK$1,000,000 in total, the weighted forecast might be HK$350,000 — a more realistic number for planning.
4 to 6 stages is the ideal starting point. You can always add more later, but starting with too many slows down daily operations.
Move opportunities as soon as their status changes. A stale pipeline leads to inaccurate forecasting and missed follow-ups.
If an opportunity has no scheduled activity, it is either won, lost, or forgotten. Ensure every active deal has a clear next step.
Spend 15 minutes each week reviewing your pipeline:
If your team communicates with clients primarily through WhatsApp or email, consider enabling Odoo's WhatsApp integration to sync conversation history directly into the opportunity's Chatter timeline. This prevents information from being scattered across different chat threads.
What is the difference between a pipeline and a funnel?
A pipeline focuses on tracking the status and progress of each individual deal. A funnel focuses on analysing conversion rates and drop-off between stages. In Odoo, the pipeline is your daily operational view, while funnel analysis is available through reporting features.
Can an opportunity be assigned to multiple salespeople?
Each Odoo CRM opportunity has one primary owner. However, you can @mention colleagues in the Chatter or add them as "followers" so they receive update notifications.
How do I handle a lost opportunity that comes back?
Mark the opportunity as "Lost" with a reason. If the customer returns later, you can "Restore" the opportunity — all historical data and notes are preserved.
Should expected revenue include tax?
It is best to use consistent, tax-exclusive amounts across your pipeline. This ensures your pipeline totals and forecasts are comparable.
The Odoo CRM pipeline provides a visual, manageable system for tracking your sales process:
Once you have mastered these fundamentals, you can explore advanced features: automation rules, quotation generation, sales reporting, and CRM-to-invoicing integration.
If you are considering implementing Odoo CRM for your business, contact the Zoo AI team for a free initial consultation to assess the best implementation approach for your needs.
Zoo AI is a certified Odoo partner in Hong Kong, delivering expert ERP implementation and AI automation for SMEs. Get in touch to learn more.