How a pipeline works
A stage is deliberately simple: a name and a position. No colour, no probability, no type. The order you put the stages in is the pipeline, and two positions matter:
End the pipeline with outcome stages. Moving a lead to Enrolled or Lost is how you close it, and Analytics counts leads by stage.
- The first stage is the default for every new lead. Make it a true starting point, like “New enquiry”.
- The last stages are your outcomes. A lead’s stage is its only status you can see or set, so end with a won stage ( “Enrolled”, “Signed”) and a Lost stage.
- Each pipeline has its own setup. Its stages, the fields it shows (step 4) and the layout of its Leads table all belong to that one pipeline.
Behind the scenes a lead also has an open, won or lost status, but no screen in the app shows it or lets you change it. Treat the stage as the only status you have, and design your stages around that.
Open Settings → Pipelines
Click Settings at the bottom of the left sidebar. Then click Pipelines and + New pipeline.
Click Settings
Click Pipelines
A second column of Settings pages opens next to the sidebar.
Click + New pipeline
In a workspace with no pipelines yet, the page shows Create your first pipeline with a Create pipeline button instead. It opens the same form. Until then, the Leads page shows No pipelines yet and sends people here.
Name the pipeline
Type a name in Pipeline name. Name it after the journey, like “Enrolment” or “Renewals”.
The name has to be different from your other pipelines. If it is not, Create stops with “Please choose another pipeline name. This pipeline name already exists.” Nothing is saved until you click Create in step 5, so you can lay the whole pipeline out first.
Add your stages, in order
Click Add new stage and type its name. Repeat for each stage. Drag the handle on the left of a row to move it.
Every row needs a name. An empty row stops Create until you type one in or remove the row. Put the stage new leads should land in at the top, and your outcome stages (won, then lost) at the bottom.
Choose the Data Fields
Open the Data Fields tab and switch on every field this pipeline needs. At the very least, check Owner.
Control which fields are visible when viewing or editing leads in this pipeline.
A new pipeline starts with four fields on: Created, Name, Phone No. and Email. Fields are split into Lead Information (the enquiry: Owner and your lead custom fields) and Contact Person Information (the person: phone, email, social IDs, last reply times and your contact custom fields).
In practice, these switches decide which columns the pipeline’s Leads table has. That in turn decides what your team can filter on, sort by and build views on. A few columns are always there whatever you switch: Title, Created, Stage, Tags, Active Workflow and Created by.
Missed one? You can switch fields on later, here or straight from the Leads page (see Arrange columns and forms).
Create it and check the Leads page
Click Create. Then open Leads and pick the new pipeline from the dropdown next to the heading.
That is the whole setup. Next, an admin may want to add views to it (see Organise leads with views), because views belong to one pipeline.
Arrange columns and forms
Once the pipeline exists, you shape how it looks on the Leads page. Open Leads, pick the pipeline, and click Columns.
Show or hide and reorder columns
Search columns...Drag to reorder
CreatedTitleOwnerActive WorkflowStage2Created byEmailPhone No.NameTagsNot in this pipeline
Adding enables this field for everyone using this pipeline.
Lead fields
Contract end dateDate3 AddContact fields
Facebook ID AddInstagram ID AddManage pipeline fieldsNot in this pipeline and its Manage pipeline fields link only appear for people who can open Settings → Pipelines. The link takes you straight to this pipeline’s Data Fields tab.
Two more layouts, set elsewhere
- The Create lead form. Each pipeline has its own. An admin changes it with Customise at the top of the Create lead window. See Customise the Create Contact & Create Lead forms.
- The Lead Info panel beside a chat in the Inbox. It has its own layout, which Data Fields does not change. See Customise the Lead Info panel.
Rename, reorder or add stages
Pipelines change as your process does, and most changes are safe. Open the pipeline by clicking its name in Settings → Pipelines.
Renames, new stages and a new order only take effect when you click Save. A renamed stage keeps its leads, so renaming is always safe. New leads keep landing in whichever stage is now at the top.
Delete a stage that has leads
When the stage still holds leads, Exabloom stops and asks what should happen to them. You must answer and type a word before anything is deleted.
You are about to delete stage “Trial booked” which contains 12 leads.
Specify what you like to do with these leads
To confirm this action, type “CONFIRM”
4CONFIRM- Move to another stage moves every lead in it to the stage you pick. Almost always what you want.
- Delete leads in this stage permanently deletes those leads. The contacts stay, but the opportunities are gone.
Run more than one pipeline
Build a second pipeline when the steps are genuinely different, like new enrolments versus renewals. Each pipeline has its own stages, fields, columns and views. The Leads page shows one at a time, picked from the dropdown next to the heading, and remembers the last one you picked in that browser.
If it is the same process seen differently (one branch, one subject), keep one pipeline and use views instead. They are cheaper to maintain and do not split your reports.
Copy or delete a whole pipeline
The ⋮ at the end of each pipeline’s row in Settings → Pipelines has two actions: Copy to Org and Delete.
Copy to Org
Copies the pipeline into a workspace you pick. It is handy when a second branch sells the same way.
- Only the name and stages go across. The copy starts with no Data Fields switched on, not even the usual four, and with the default table layout. Open it in the target workspace and set up step 4 again.
- No leads are copied. The copy is an empty pipeline.
- Your current workspace is in the list too. Picking it makes a second pipeline here with the same name. Rename it straight away so your team can tell them apart.
Delete a pipeline
Irreversible Action
All leads in the pipeline “Renewals” will be permanently deleted.
To confirm deletion, type “DELETE” below:
3DELETEEvery lead in the pipeline is deleted with it. The contacts stay. You cannot delete the last pipeline in a workspace: Exabloom says “There must be at least 1 pipeline in the workspace”.
Setups to copy
Each one starts with a clean first stage and ends with explicit outcomes.
The default for most teams: a short, honest path from enquiry to close.
A trial in the middle, with enrolment and lost as the two ways it ends.
A second pipeline for existing customers, next to new business. Create a “Contract end date” lead custom field, then switch it on in this pipeline’s Data Fields.
Once a sale is won, track delivery on its own pipeline, so sales and onboarding do not get mixed up in one table.
Good to know & pitfalls
- New pipelines start empty. No stages are filled in for you. Add at least one before your team creates leads in it.
- The first stage is the landing spot. New leads start there unless someone picks another stage.
- Outcomes are stages. There is no won or lost button. End the pipeline with the stages you want to report on.
- Owner is off by default. Switch it on in Data Fields, or the Leads table has no Owner column for that pipeline.
- Title and Created always show. Their switches in Data Fields do not hide them from the Leads table.
- The table layout is shared. Hiding, moving or resizing a column changes it for everyone using that pipeline.
- Stage deletes skip Save. Deleting a saved stage happens at once, and throws away your other unsaved edits in the window. Delete first, then edit, then Save.
- Copy to Org copies only the name and stages. The copy has no Data Fields switched on and no views. Set those up again.
- Deleting a pipeline deletes its leads. All of them, at once. You cannot delete the last pipeline in a workspace.
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