Enquiry to signed engagement letter on one board, with exit criteria a partner can defend and a weekly review that takes twenty minutes. From ₹899/user/month.
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Most firms track opportunities in three places at once: a partner's inbox, a spreadsheet updated the night before the partners' meeting, and the memory of whoever went to the last client lunch. Each is accurate alone; none agrees.
The cost lands twice. In capacity, when nobody can say what is likely to start next quarter. And in aged proposals: scoped, priced work sitting untouched because chasing it was nobody's named job.
These deals are not bought in one motion. A scoping conversation, a written proposal, a commercial review and an engagement letter are four separate decisions, often by different people. Six stages carry that: enquiry, qualified need, scoping held, proposal issued, commercial review, engagement signed.
Add the field a generic pipeline lacks: expected start month. A firm sells capacity, so a deal closing in September but starting in January changes every resourcing decision after it.
A stage moves only when something checkable has happened on the client side. Qualified need means a named budget holder and a stated fee range, not a warm meeting. Commercial review means the client has named the approvals still required and roughly when they sit.
The practical test is agreement. If two partners looking at one deal would place it in different stages, the criteria are still opinions. Three or four checkable facts per stage is enough, and they belong on the card, not in a policy document.
The times below are illustrative, not benchmarks. Measure your own within a quarter and replace them: audit work and transformation work do not share a rhythm.
| Stage | What it means | Exit criteria (evidence) | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | Inbound or referral, not yet assessed | Contact reached, service need described | 2 to 5 days |
| Qualified need | Real problem, real budget holder | Budget holder named, fee range stated | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Scoping held | Working session on scope and outcomes | Scope note sent and acknowledged | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Proposal issued | Priced document with the client | Receipt confirmed, review date agreed | 2 to 6 weeks |
| Commercial review | Fees, terms and approvals in progress | Approval path and dates named | 2 to 8 weeks |
| Engagement signed | Letter signed, work can be resourced | Signature received, start month fixed | Closed |
Twenty minutes, one screen, three passes. First, everything whose next action date has passed. Second, anything sitting in a stage beyond its normal time. Third, deals with a start month inside the next quarter, because those drive resourcing.
Every deal discussed leaves with one of three outcomes: advanced with the evidence named, given a dated next action and an owner, or closed lost with a reason. A review where nothing closes has quietly become a status update.
Pipeline by expected start month against capacity, so hiring is a decision rather than a reaction. Win rate by service line and partner, which usually exposes a pricing problem before a selling one. And the aged proposal list, normally the fastest revenue in the building.
A pipeline does not fix a discipline problem. If partners will not record what a client said, the board becomes neater guesswork. Software surfaces an untouched proposal; it cannot make the call. Appoint one person to own the definitions for a quarter.
It is also not practice management, time recording or billing. It handles the commitments made before work is resourced, alongside whatever runs delivery afterwards.
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Opportunities live in partners' inboxes and heads, so nobody can say what work is likely to start in October until somebody rings around and asks.
Every live opportunity sits on one board with a stage, an owner and an expected start month, so the capacity conversation runs on a screen rather than on recollection.One board with expected start months
Deals sit in proposal issued for a month because that stage means nothing more than a document was emailed at some point.
Proposal issued carries exit criteria and a mandatory next action date, and anything past that date appears on an aged proposal list every Monday.Aged proposal alerts
Forecasts are built from optimism, so the firm hires against work that never arrives or turns down work it could have taken.
Stage weighting is tied to evidence such as a named budget holder and an agreed scope, so a weighted number can be defended line by line.Evidence-based stage weighting
When a partner takes leave, the relationships they were working go quiet, and the firm finds out only when the client calls someone else.
Conversation history, scoping notes and next actions live on the deal record, so reassigning an opportunity takes minutes and the client notices nothing.Portable deal history
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Free Forever • No Credit Card Required
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