Pipelines & Deals
Gordon CRM includes a sales pipeline engine that lets teams track deals through visual stages from
initial lead to close. The module is gated behind the deals module toggle — workspaces that don't
need sales tracking can leave it disabled.
Core Concepts
Pipelines
A pipeline represents a sales process or workflow. Each workspace can create multiple pipelines for different purposes (e.g. "Sales Pipeline", "Recruiting", "Project Tracking"). Pipelines are structural data — only Admins and Owners can create, edit, or delete them.
Stages
Each pipeline contains an ordered set of stages that deals move through (e.g. Lead → Proposal →
Negotiation). Stages are ordered by an order_index and can be renamed, reordered, added, or
removed by Admins.
Deals
A deal is a revenue opportunity linked to a Contact (required) and optionally to a
Company. Deals sit on a specific stage within a pipeline and carry a monetary value and a
status (open, won, or lost).
Data Model
| Table | Purpose | Key Columns |
|---|---|---|
pipelines | Sales process definition | name, workspace_id |
pipeline_stages | Ordered steps within a pipeline | name, order_index, pipeline_id |
deals | Revenue opportunities | title, value, status, contact_id, company_id, pipeline_stage_id, assigned_user_id, closed_at |
deal_payments | Payment tracking against deals | label, expected_amount, paid_amount, status, deal_id |
Deal Status Lifecycle
open → won (sets closed_at, fires deal_status_changed automation)
open → lost (sets closed_at, fires deal_status_changed automation)
won → open (clears closed_at, reopens deal)
lost → open (clears closed_at, reopens deal)RBAC
Pipelines & Stages follow the Structural Data access model — only Admins and Owners can create, modify, or delete them.
Deals follow the Operational Data access model — all members can create and edit deals, but only Admins and Owners can delete them.
| Entity | Create | Read | Edit | Delete |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pipelines | Admin+ | All | Admin+ | Admin+ |
| Stages | Admin+ | All | Admin+ | Admin+ |
| Deals | All | All | All | Admin+ |
Automation Integration
Deal transitions fire automation triggers that connect into the unified automation engine:
| Trigger Type | Fires When | Trigger ID Format |
|---|---|---|
deal_stage_changed | A deal is moved to a new stage | Stage UUID |
deal_status_changed | A deal is marked as Won or Lost | {pipelineId}_{status} (composite) |
Since every deal requires a linked contact, the automation engine always has a contact context available when these triggers fire.
Next Steps
- Pipelines & Stages — Creating, configuring, and managing pipelines.
- Deals — Deal CRUD, entity linking, and status transitions.
- Payments & Revenue — Payment schedules, recording, progress tracking, and dashboard integration.
- Kanban Board — Visual drag-and-drop deal management.