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Opportunity stage
Solution No. 318

OVERVIEW
How to create a new opportunity stage
How to edit an existing opportunity stage

SCREEN OVERVIEW
New opportunity stage
Edit opportunity stage

Overview

An opportunity stage refers to where an opportunity is in the Pipeline (see our Overview documentation to learn more about what the Pipeline is and how it works). While the stock options offered in Method are pretty comprehensive, we've learned from long association that it's always best to give you the option of creating stages that are unique to your business, or edit our stock options to suit your purposes (after all, we aren't here to tell you how YOUR Pipeline should work!) So with that in mind, here is a breakdown of how to create your very own opportunity stage, or edit an existing stage, as well as a handy what's-what of the screen to help you on your way.

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How to create a new opportunity stage

  1. From the New opportunity screen, either click on the option in the Stage drop down list, or click on the ellipses button (...). Both of these will bring up the New/Edit opportunity stages screen.

  2. Create a name for your new opportunity stage and type it into the Name field. It may be helpful to choose a name that best describes the stage you are creating.

    TIP: The rest of the fields are optional, but very useful in making your new opportunity stage functional within Method. From this screen, you can choose a stage category that best represents your new stage (either closed lost, closed won, or open), give your new stage a numbered order (see the Screen overview for more information), and assign it a probability percentage (see our Overview section for more on how this pertains to the Pipeline).

     

  3. Clicking Save will save the fields you've filled in above. Clicking Save & New will save the fields and clear them. Clicking Save & Close will save the fields and return you to the New opportunity screen. Your new opportunity stage will now appear in the drop down menu as a clickable option. It will also appear in the Existing opportunity stage grid below (which we'll explain in the Edit an existing opportunity stage section below).

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How to edit an existing opportunity stage

  1. Repeat Step 1 from above.

  2. Scroll down to the Existing opportunity stage grid.

  3. Click Select next to the opportunity stage you'd like to edit. This will populate the fields in the New opportunity stage section with the values associated with this stage.

  4. From here, you can alter the information in any of the fields (e.g. rename the stage, change the probability percentage, etc.)

  5. Clicking Save will save the fields you've filled in above. Clicking Save & New will save the fields and clear them. Clicking Save & Close will save the fields and return you to the New opportunity screen. Your edited opportunity stage will now reflect the changes you've made. It will still appear in the drop down menu as a clickable option (under a different name if you've chosen to change it). It will also appear in the Existing opportunity stage grid below.

Screen overview

The following is a breakdown of the New/edit opportunity stage screen. We'll take a closer look at each element of the screen (drop down menus, buttons, etc.) so you know exactly what each element does. We hope this will be a useful "glossary" of sorts for new users!

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New opportunity stage screen

The New opportunity stage screen has a total of four fields, only one of which is required. Let's take a look at them now.

  • Opportunity stage: This is the only required field in this section, and will function as the name of your new opportunity stage.
  • Opportunity stage category: This drop down menu offers three options - closed lost, closed won, and open. Closed lost refers to an opportunity that has been closed because it didn't pan out. Closed won refers to an opportunity that has been closed because the customer decided to go with your product or service. Open means the opportunity is still somewhere in the pipeline and has not yet been closed. 
  • Stage order: This field is totally optional and pertains to ordering within the grid. If you want to, you can assign your opportunity stages with numerical values here that can help you filter and order your Opportunities grid (see our article on Grid functionality for more information).
  • Stage probability percent: Every stage offered out-of-the-box by Method has a probability percentage attached to it, describing the likelihood that the opportunity will be won at that stage in the pipeline. When you create a new opportunity stage, you can assign a probability percentage anywhere between 0-100%.

The five buttons at the bottom of this screen should be familiar to you from other areas of Method.

  • More actions: This button allows you to either delete the opportunity stage (which can't be undone) or to clear the fields in preparation for a new opportunity stage.
  • Save: This button will save your new opportunity stage so it will appear in the Stage drop down menu once the screen is refreshed.
  • Save & New: This button will save your new opportunity stage and then clear the fields on the screen in preparation for a new opportunity stage.
  • Save & Close: This button will save your new opportunity stage and then close the New/edit opportunity stage screen.
  • Cancel / close: This button will close the New/edit opportunity stage screen without saving.

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Edit opportunity stage screen

Directly below the screen described above is the Existing opportunity stage grid.  As usual, you can use the grid the same way as other grids in Method (see Grid functionality for more details). Clicking on "select" next to any existing opportunity stage will populate the fields above with the pertinent information for that stage.

From there, you can edit the fields as necessary, renaming the stage, changing the stage type, and providing a stage order and probability. The buttons below operate the same as with a New opportunity stage. Remember, making changes to existing opportunity stages and then saving those changes will take effect across your entire Method environment, so it's best not to change the settings on out-of-the-box stages unless you really know what you're doing - you can always create your own instead!

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