Opportunities
Go to: CRM → Opportunities
An opportunity is a deal — a specific thing you are trying to sell, to a specific party, for a specific amount, by a specific date. Where a lead tells you who is interested, an opportunity tells you what is on the table.
Opportunities are what the pipeline is made of. Their amounts, probabilities, and stages drive the Sales Pipeline report.
Who the deal is with
Every opportunity points at a party, and the party type decides what the form asks for:
| Party Type | Use it when | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | The deal came out of a qualified lead | Select an existing lead, or tick Create Lead and Link |
| Customer | You are selling again to an existing customer | Select the customer |
| Prospect | The deal sits against a target company | Select the prospect |
Create Lead and Link exists for deals that arrive without a lead — a phone call straight to a manager, for example. ERPX creates a lead (already in the Opportunity status) plus its linked contact. It is only valid for the Lead party type.
Selecting an existing lead moves that lead to the Opportunity status automatically — unless it is already in Opportunity, Follow Up, or Converted, which are left alone.
Status and sales stage
An opportunity has two related fields, and ERPX keeps them in step.
- Sales Stage — where the deal is in your process, chosen from the Sales Stage master.
- Status — the system’s summary of that stage.
| Stage key | Status becomes |
|---|---|
PROSPECTING (and any unrecognised stage) | Open |
PROPOSAL_QUOTATION | Quotation |
NEGOTIATION_REVIEW | Negotiation |
CLOSED_WON | Won |
CLOSED_LOST | Lost |
Whichever you set, the other follows. Pick a stage and the status is derived from it; use Mark as Won and both the status and the stage move to closed-won. If both are supplied, the stage wins.
Status lifecycle
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Open | Active deal, early stage |
| Quotation | A proposal is with the customer |
| Negotiation | Terms are being discussed |
| Won | The deal was won |
| Lost | The deal was lost — a reason and competitors are recorded |
| Closed | Administratively closed. Terminal |
Closed is a dead end — from Won you can only go to Closed, and from Closed nowhere at all. A Lost deal can be reopened to Open, Quotation, or Negotiation, but reopening clears the lost reason and competitors.
Creating an opportunity
Open the form
Go to CRM → Opportunities and click New — or start from a qualified lead with Convert to Opportunity.
Name the deal
Opportunity Name is required. Name it after what you are selling, not the company — you may have several deals with the same customer.
Choose the party
Set Party Type and pick the lead, customer, or prospect.
Set the stage
Choose a Sales Stage. Leaving it empty starts the deal at Prospecting and Open.
Enter the numbers
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Opportunity Amount | The deal value. Cannot be negative |
| Probability | Chance of winning, 0–100 |
| Currency | The currency the amount is in |
| Expected Closing | When you expect to close. Cannot be in the past on a new deal |
Fill in contact and territory
Contact Person, Contact Email, and Contact Phone are copied from the linked lead when left empty. Territory, Industry, and Market Segment classify the deal for reporting.
Add line items (optional)
Open the Items tab and list what is being sold.
Save
Line items
The Items tab breaks the deal into what you are quoting: Item, Quantity, UOM, Rate, and a calculated Amount.
Every row is validated against the item master, so names and rates cannot drift. If you add items and leave Opportunity Amount empty, the item total becomes the opportunity amount. An amount you type yourself is kept as-is.
Working an opportunity
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Details | Party, stage, amounts, dates, contact, territory |
| Items | The line items being quoted |
| Attachments | Files against the deal |
| Comments | Internal discussion |
| Activity | The audit trail of changes |
Actions
| Action | Available when | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Mark as Won | Open, Quotation, Negotiation | Sets status Won, moves the stage to closed-won, and stamps who won it and when |
| Mark as Lost | Open, Quotation, Negotiation | Sets status Lost and records a Lost Reason and Competitors |
| Convert to Customer | Deal is linked to a lead | Creates a customer from the underlying lead |
| Delete | — | Removes the opportunity |
Winning does not create the customer for you. Use Convert to Customer as the next step — see CRM Workflows.
Marking an opportunity lost
Mark as Lost asks for a Lost Reason, from the Lost Reasons master, and free-text Competitors. Both feed the win/loss analysis in the Sales Pipeline report.
Stage history
Every stage or status move is recorded automatically with the previous stage, the new stage, who changed it, when — and the time spent in the previous stage.
This is what makes sales velocity and average sales cycle reporting possible. There is nothing to maintain.
Views
| View | Best for |
|---|---|
| List | Filtering by status, stage, type, owner, territory, party, and date range |
| Kanban | Dragging deals between status columns — Open, Quotation, Negotiation, Won, Lost, Closed |
The Kanban board groups by status, not by sales stage. Dragging a card applies the same transition rules as the buttons — a drop the lifecycle does not allow is refused.
Bulk editing opportunities
Go to: CRM → Opportunities → Bulk Edit
Update shared fields across several deals at once — owner, sales stage, status, type, probability, amount, expected closing, next follow-up, territory, and market segment. Each deal is validated on its own and the result reports which succeeded.
A new expected closing date cannot be in the past. However, a deal whose date has already lapsed stays fully editable — the rule only applies when the date actually moves.
Everyday tips
- Keep Probability honest. It is what makes the weighted pipeline figure meaningful.
- Move the stage, not the status — the status follows, and the stage is what the pipeline report groups by.
- Add items when you know them; the amount fills itself in and the deal is ready to become a quotation.
- Use Closed sparingly — it is irreversible. Prefer Won or Lost, which stay analysable.
Related pages
- Leads — where most opportunities come from
- Prospects — grouping several opportunities under one company
- CRM Workflows — the deal-to-customer walkthrough
- Sales Quotations — the priced proposal that follows
- Reports — pipeline, forecast, and win/loss