---
title: Pipelines | Lightfield
description: Create pipelines and stages in Settings → Pipelines, forecast by stage, and choose whether Lightfield moves records between stages.
---

A pipeline is a series of stages that records move through, such as your sales process from first meeting to closed won. Your workspace starts with a pipeline for opportunities, and you can add more: separate pipelines for new business and renewals, an onboarding pipeline on accounts, or a pipeline on a custom object.

## Who can use it

Pipelines are on every plan, including more than one pipeline per object. Only owners and admins see the **Pipelines** tab and can create or change pipelines, in the app or by asking the agent. Everyone except Viewers can move a record between stages.

## How pipelines work

- Each pipeline belongs to one object (opportunities, accounts, contacts or a custom object) and has its own stages.
- A record is in at most one pipeline at a time, decided by its stage. Moving it to a stage in another pipeline moves it to that pipeline, and a record with no stage isn’t in any pipeline.
- Different pipelines can use the same stage names. “Closed won” in new business and “Closed won” in renewals are different stages.

## Create a pipeline

You can’t change a pipeline’s object type after you create it, so pick the object whose records move through it.

1. Go to [Settings → Pipelines](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/pipelines/) and click **Create new**.
2. Enter a **Pipeline name** and, optionally, a **Description**.
3. Choose the **Object type** the pipeline tracks.
4. Click **Create**, then open the pipeline to add its stages.

The pipeline appears in the list on Settings → Pipelines.

You can also ask the agent, for example “Create a renewals pipeline on opportunities with stages Upcoming, In negotiation, Renewed and Churned.” It shows the pipeline in a card, and nothing changes until you click **Create pipeline** (or **Update pipeline** for a change).

## Set up stages

A pipeline’s stages are grouped in two sections:

- **In progress**: records still being worked. Lightfield tracks activity on these to keep their status current.
- **Done**: records that are complete, such as won, lost or churned deals. Activity tracking ends here.

To manage stages, open the pipeline:

- **Add a stage.** Click **Add stage to In progress** or **Add stage to Done**, enter a **Stage name**, choose an icon and color, and add a **Description**.
- **Edit a stage.** Open the stage’s menu and choose **Edit** to change its name, description, icon or forecast %.
- **Reorder stages.** Drag a stage by its handle. Board views follow this order.
- **Remove a stage.** Open its menu and choose **Remove**. Lightfield first tells you how many records are in the stage. Their stage is cleared; they aren’t deleted or moved to another stage.

Lightfield uses each stage’s description to decide when a record has moved, so describe what has to be true for a record to be in the stage. For a Trial stage: “The customer has agreed to a trial and has access to a trial workspace.” Keep the list short: five or six stages that each mean something specific work better than ten that people guess between.

## Choose how records move between stages

**Stage updates**, under **General** on the pipeline’s page, decides what Lightfield does when a customer signals movement, such as “we’re ready for a trial”:

| Stage updates | Menu description                           | What happens                                                 |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Off**       | Only updated manually                      | Stages change only when someone updates them.                |
| **Suggest**   | Suggests updates based on new activity     | Lightfield suggests the change for you to accept or dismiss. |
| **Auto**      | Automatically update based on new activity | Lightfield changes the stage itself.                         |

Stage updates belongs to the object’s stage field, so every pipeline on the same object shares one setting: changing it on one opportunity pipeline changes it for all of them. In [Data model](/help/settings/data-model/index.md), the stage field shows the same setting as its AI fill.

Start on **Suggest**, then switch opportunity stages to **Auto** once the suggestions look right, often within the first week. Stage movement shows up clearly in what customers say, everyone who opens the deal sees the stage, and a wrong change takes one click to fix.

## Forecast by stage

Turn on **Stage forecasting** in a pipeline to give each stage a **Forecast %** between 0 and 100: the likelihood that a record in that stage closes. Forecast percentages weight your pipeline value by stage. Turning forecasting off clears all of the pipeline’s forecast percentages.

## Rename or delete a pipeline

Deleting a pipeline can’t be undone. It removes the pipeline’s stages and clears the stage on every record in it; the records themselves stay. The default opportunity pipeline can’t be deleted.

1. Open the pipeline’s menu on [Settings → Pipelines](https://crm.lightfield.app/crm/settings/pipelines/).
2. Choose **Edit** to rename it or change its description, or **Delete** to remove it. Before deleting, Lightfield shows how many records are in the pipeline.

To read or write stages through the Lightfield API, see [Pipelines and stages](/using-the-api/fields-and-relationships/#pipelines-and-stages/index.md) in the API guide.

## Troubleshooting

### I can’t change a deal’s stage

Check the message shown when you try to edit. **Your role can’t edit records** points to your workspace role; see [Viewer seats](/help/settings/members/viewer-seats/index.md). **You don’t have permission to edit this record** points to the object’s or record’s permissions; see [Groups and permissions](/help/settings/members/roles-and-permissions/index.md).

### Changing Stage updates changed my other pipelines

Pipelines on the same object share one **Stage updates** setting. To review changes separately, keep the setting on **Suggest** and accept the changes you want. Changing one pipeline’s setting also changes the others on that object.

## Common questions

**Can I have separate pipelines for new business and renewals?** Yes. Create a second opportunity pipeline with its own stages. Each opportunity is in one pipeline at a time, based on its stage.

**What happens to records when I remove a stage?** Their stage is cleared, which also takes them out of the pipeline. They aren’t deleted or moved to a different stage.

**Who can change pipelines and stages?** Owners and admins. Members can still change a record’s stage.

**How do I see one pipeline’s deals?** In a table or board view, click **Filter** → **Pipeline** and pick the pipeline. See [Opportunities](/help/opportunities/index.md).