To set up a pipeline in Orbit, create a pipeline, add stages that match how a deal actually moves, and drag contacts in as deals. For most solo businesses, five stages is the sweet spot: Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won. Fewer, clearer stages close more deals than long, fuzzy ones.
Open the Deals area and follow these steps. Five minutes to a working pipeline.
A clean, honest set of stages you can use as-is. Each one is a real decision point, not a vague mood.
Every extra stage is another place a deal can sit and rot. Long pipelines feel thorough but they hide stalls: a deal parked in "Sent follow-up #2" for a month looks busy when it is actually dead. Five stages force a clear answer at each step, which is the whole point of pipeline management.
If you are coming from a spreadsheet, the discipline of stages is the upgrade. A board makes a stuck deal visible in a way a row of cells never does. For the full reasoning, see how to track deals without spreadsheets.
A stage should describe a decision the buyer made, not an action you took. "Qualified" is a buyer state. "Sent email" is just activity. Name stages after the buyer and your board tells the truth.
For a solo business, five stages works best: Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won. Fewer, clearer stages force a real decision at each step and make stalls visible. Long pipelines feel thorough but tend to hide dead deals.
Drag a contact onto the pipeline board to create a deal, or open a contact record and add a deal there. Set a value and an expected close date. The deal gets its own timeline with emails, meetings, notes, and tasks.
The free plan includes one pipeline, which is enough for most solo operators. Unlimited pipelines come with any paid plan ($8/mo and up), and Team adds shared pipelines. One clean pipeline almost always beats several half-maintained ones for a one-person business.
Hiro, Orbit's AI assistant, can create and update deals, move them between stages, and draft follow-ups for stalled ones. Each action or draft arrives as a card you approve, so nothing moves in your pipeline without your say-so.
Lead, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won covers most service businesses cleanly. Qualified means you confirmed the problem, budget, and timeline. Proposal means a number is out. Keeping it to five stages stops deals from hiding in vague middle steps.
Five clean stages, deals you can drag, and Hiro to tend them for you. Free plan, no credit card.
Free forever plan. No credit card. No spam.