Track deals without a spreadsheet by using a simple pipeline: five or fewer stages named after buyer actions, one card per deal with its value and close date, a required next task on every card, and a 10-minute weekly review. A pipeline shows what a spreadsheet hides: what needs action today.
A spreadsheet remembers states, not stories. The cell says "proposal sent", but not when, not what was discussed, not that the client asked for a phasing change on a call you forgot. And rows never nag: a deal can sit untouched for six weeks without the sheet ever raising its hand.
The deeper problem is that updating a sheet is manual homework. Homework gets skipped in busy weeks, busy weeks are when deals move, and within a month the sheet is fiction that you still feel obligated to maintain.
Both can hold deal data. Only one of them works for you between edits.
| Orbit | Spreadsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Reminds you to follow up | A dated next task on every deal | |
| History per deal | Full timeline: emails, notes, invoices | Whatever the cell says today |
| Updating a deal | Drag the card to the next stage | Find the row, edit cells by hand |
| Stale-deal alerts | Ask Hiro to flag deals that stop moving | |
| Weekly numbers | A Monday summary from Hiro, from real activity | Build and babysit formulas yourself |
| Price to start | Free plan, 1 pipeline, no credit card | Free |
One sitting, and the sheet retires the same day.
A spreadsheet records your pipeline. A pipeline runs your week.
Orbit's pipeline comes with one AI assistant, Hiro. Ask it to flag stale deals, flag deals where no proposal was ever sent and nudge the unsigned ones on day 3 and day 7, and open your Monday with real workspace numbers: meetings booked and money collected. No formulas, no babysitting, and every suggested fix arrives as a card you approve.
Spreadsheets hold data but take no action: they never remind you to follow up, they keep no history of calls and emails behind each row, and they depend on manual updates that stop the first busy week. The result is a sheet that looks organized and quietly goes stale.
Five or fewer for most small businesses, each named after something the buyer did: replied, meeting held, proposal sent, verbal yes, won. More stages feel rigorous but mostly create filing debates. Fewer, action-named stages make it obvious where every deal stands.
Three things: the deal's value, the expected close date, and a next task with a date on it. The next task is the one that matters most, because it converts a static record into a queue of actions, which is the entire point of leaving spreadsheets.
Export the sheet to CSV, import contacts and deals, then prune before you celebrate: close anything untouched for 30+ days with a reason, or give it one final revival touch. Migrating the zombies just rebuilds the old sheet's problems in a nicer interface.
Usually, yes. Solo deal tracking needs one pipeline, contact history, and tasks, which is exactly what free tiers cover. Orbit's free plan includes one pipeline, up to 250 contacts, tasks, calendar, and a built-in email inbox. AI comes standard on every plan, with monthly credits included. Pro at $14/mo mostly lifts limits later.
Orbit gives you a pipeline and a next task on every deal, with an optional AI Monday report on top. Free CRM plan, no credit card.
Free forever plan. No credit card. No spam.