---
title: Opportunities | Lightfield
description: Create opportunities for your deals, move them through stages, and link contacts with roles such as champion or contract signer.
---

An opportunity is a deal with a company, such as “Acme: annual plan”. It belongs to one [account](/help/accounts/index.md), can involve many [contacts](/help/contacts/index.md), and holds what you’re selling, what it’s worth, and what needs to happen to close it.

## Who can use it

Opportunities are on every plan. Owners, admins and members can create and edit them. Viewers can see them but can’t change them.

Earlier plans can differ. [Check your workspace’s available features](/help/missing-feature/index.md).

## Where opportunities come from

Lightfield doesn’t create opportunities on its own from your email or meetings, because every team thinks about deals differently. An opportunity is created by you, by the agent when you ask, by an [automation](/help/automations/#who-can-use-it/index.md) an admin sets up on a plan that includes automations, by [import](/help/settings/import-history/index.md), or through the [Lightfield API](/using-the-api/object-types/index.md). That’s why a new workspace has accounts and contacts but an empty **Opportunities** board.

## Create an opportunity

1. Open **Opportunities** in the sidebar and select **Create opportunity**.
2. In **Account**, pick the company the deal is with.
3. In **Opportunity**, enter a name. We recommend combining the account and what’s being sold, such as “Acme: annual plan” or “Acme: renewal”. A consistent format makes your pipeline easier to scan.
4. Choose a **Pipeline** and **Stage** if your workspace has them, and add people under **Contacts (optional)**.
5. Select **Create**.

Lightfield shows **Opportunity created successfully** and the opportunity appears on the board in its stage.

If the company isn’t in Lightfield yet, you don’t need to leave the dialog. Select **Create new account** at the bottom of the **Account** picker, search by name or domain, and pick the company, or choose **Create ‘\[name]’ manually** to add it by name only.

Or ask the agent: “Create an opportunity for Acme for the annual plan, stage Demo.” It can create the account and contacts in the same request. Depending on **Record creation and updates** in [Settings → Agent](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/agent/), you approve the new records in chat first or they’re saved straight away. See [Agent settings](/help/settings/agent/index.md).

## Move an opportunity through stages

The **Opportunities** board groups opportunities by stage. Drag a card to another column to change its stage, or let Lightfield track stage changes for you. See [Pipelines](/help/settings/pipelines/index.md).

You can’t reorder the columns from the board, because the board always follows the pipeline’s stage order. To change it, open [Settings → Pipelines](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/pipelines/), open the pipeline, and drag the stages into the order you want. The board updates automatically.

## Opportunity roles

Roles show who does what on each deal: who’s the champion, who signs the contract, who handles procurement. One contact can hold several roles on the same opportunity.

Every workspace starts with these roles: **Evaluators**, **Champions**, **Budget holders**, **Contract signers**, **Final decision makers**, **IT**, **Legal**, **Procurement** and **Implementation partners**. They can’t be renamed or archived.

### Add a contact with a role

1. Open the opportunity.
2. In the details panel on the right, hover over **Opportunity Roles** to show **+**.
3. Select **+**, choose the role, such as **Champions**, and pick the contact.

The contact appears under **Opportunity Roles** with their roles beside their name. The **Contacts** tab on the opportunity lists the same people as a table.

Or ask the agent: “Add Sarah Chen as the champion and Raj Patel as the contract signer on the Acme renewal.”

### Add your own roles

Admins can add roles that fit your sales process, such as “Executive sponsor”.

1. Go to [Settings → Data model](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/data-model/) and open **Opportunities**.
2. Open the **Relationships** tab.
3. Select **Add relationship** in the **Opportunity Roles** group.

See [Data model](/help/settings/data-model/index.md) for fields and relationships.

## Delete an opportunity

Deleting an opportunity also deletes its files. Open the opportunity’s menu to delete it. Deleted opportunities wait in Deleted Items, where you can restore them. See [Deleted items](/help/deleted-items/index.md).

## Check why a field changed

Open the opportunity’s chat and ask, for example: “Has Amount changed since this deal was created? Show the recorded values and dates.” The agent can inspect value history for tracked fields and use record activity to investigate changes.

Not every field has value history. If history is unavailable, that does not prove the value never changed. Ask what evidence the agent can inspect before accepting a cause or earlier value. The same approach works for tracked account, contact and custom-object fields.

## Related documentation

Need more room for record fields? [Resize the details panel](/help/getting-started/tables-views-and-exports/#resize-a-records-details-panel/index.md).

For an integration, follow [Fields and relationships](/using-the-api/fields-and-relationships/#pipelines-and-stages/index.md) to send pipeline and stage values. See the [opportunity reference](/api/resources/opportunity/index.md) for endpoint schemas.

For an API integration, see [record creation, updates and recovery](/using-the-api/manage-records/index.md).

## Common questions

**Why is my Opportunities board empty when I have accounts and contacts?** Lightfield doesn’t create opportunities from your email or meetings. Create one for each active deal, import them, or ask an admin to build an automation that creates them.

**Do I need to create the account before the opportunity?** No. Select **Create new account** in the **Account** picker to add the company without leaving the dialog, or ask the agent to create both.

**Can Lightfield create opportunities automatically?** Not on its own. An admin can build an automation that creates opportunities from criteria you describe, such as “When a new meeting is booked with an account that has no open opportunity, create one.” Automations are on Pro, Growth and Enterprise.

**How do I mark a contact as the champion on a deal?** Open the opportunity, select **+** next to **Opportunity Roles**, choose **Champions** and pick the contact. Or ask the agent to do it.