How to Use the Pipeline (Kanban) View for Deals in Vedain

A Kanban board is a visual management tool that shows work items as cards arranged in columns. In a CRM context, each column is a deal stage (for example, Qualified, Proposal Sent, Negotiation, Closed Won) and each card is an individual deal. The board reads left to right, mirroring the journey a deal takes from first contact to close.

Vedain's pipeline Kanban view pulls every open deal into this layout automatically. You don't need to create the board — it builds itself from your pipeline stages and the deals you've already entered. If you have multiple pipelines (for example, one for new business and one for renewals), you can switch between them using the pipeline selector at the top of the Deals page.

The advantage over a table view is immediate pattern recognition. A healthy pipeline has cards spread across all stages; if 80% of your deals are stuck in 'Proposal Sent', you know your bottleneck before running a single report.

Navigate to Deals in the left sidebar. By default, Vedain opens the pipeline (Kanban) view. If you're currently in the table view, click the Kanban toggle icon in the top-right toolbar to switch.

The Kanban view loads all open deals for the selected pipeline. Closed-won and closed-lost deals are hidden by default — you can reveal them using the filter bar at the top. Each column header shows the stage name and the total value of deals in that stage, giving you an instant snapshot of your pipeline health.

If you manage more than one pipeline, use the Pipeline dropdown above the board to switch. Vedain remembers your last-used pipeline, so returning to the Deals page will reopen the same view.

Each deal card on the Kanban board displays key information at a glance:

• Deal name — the title you gave the deal when creating it.
• Deal value — the expected revenue, shown in your default currency.
• Contact or account — the primary person or company associated with the deal.
• Owner — the team member responsible for progressing the deal.
• Expected close date — highlighted in red if the date has passed.
• Activity indicator — shows whether the deal has had recent activity (email, call, note) or has gone cold.

Click any card to open the Deal Detail panel, where you can edit fields, add notes, log calls, schedule tasks, and view the full timeline of interactions. You can also hover over a card to see a quick preview tooltip without leaving the board.

Color-coded indicators help you scan the board faster. Overdue deals show a red badge on the expected close date. Deals with recent activity (within the last 48 hours) have a green dot, while deals that have gone cold (no activity for 14+ days) display an amber warning icon. These visual cues let you prioritise your follow-ups without opening each deal individually.

If your team uses custom fields on deals — for example, product line, contract type, or lead source — the most important ones can be configured to appear directly on the card. Go to Settings → Deal Card Layout to choose which fields show on the Kanban card. Keeping cards informative but uncluttered is the goal: show the three or four data points your team needs most, and let the detail panel handle everything else.

The primary action on the Kanban board is drag and drop. Click and hold a deal card, then drag it to the target column. When you release, Vedain updates the deal's stage immediately — no save button needed. A timeline event is logged automatically so you can see when the stage changed and who changed it.

You can also change a deal's stage from inside the deal detail panel by clicking the current stage badge and selecting a new one from the dropdown. Both methods produce the same result; drag-and-drop is simply faster when you're working through the board.

Tip: If you accidentally move a deal to the wrong stage, just drag it back. Vedain logs every stage change, so your audit trail remains complete even if you correct a mistake.

When a deal reaches the final stage (for example, 'Closed Won' or 'Closed Lost'), it moves off the active board unless you have the closed-deal filter enabled. This keeps your board focused on deals that still need action.

The filter bar at the top of the Kanban view lets you narrow down which deals appear on the board. Common filters include:

• Owner — show only deals assigned to a specific team member.
• Value range — for example, show only deals above ₹5,00,000.
• Expected close date — show deals closing this month, this quarter, or overdue deals.
• Tags or custom fields — filter by product line, region, lead source, or any custom field you've added to deals.

Filters are combinable: you can show 'Priya's deals closing this month above ₹2,00,000' in a single view. The board updates instantly as you add or remove filters.

Sorting within each column defaults to the deal with the nearest expected close date at the top. You can change the sort order to value (highest first), creation date, or last activity date using the sort dropdown. This helps you prioritise which deals to work on next within each stage.

Every organisation's sales process is different. Vedain lets you create, rename, reorder, and delete pipeline stages to match yours. To customise stages:

1. Go to Settings → Deal Stages.
2. You'll see the list of stages for each pipeline. Drag to reorder them.
3. Click + Add Stage to insert a new column.
4. Click the edit icon next to any stage to rename it or change its colour.
5. Click the delete icon to remove a stage (you'll be asked to reassign any existing deals first).

Changes take effect immediately on the Kanban board. If you add a new stage between 'Qualified' and 'Proposal Sent', existing deals stay in their current stages — only new deals (or deals you manually move) will land in the new column.

Best practice: Keep your pipeline between 5 and 8 stages. Fewer stages lose granularity; more stages create friction. A good pipeline mirrors your actual buyer journey, not your internal process.

At the top of the Kanban board, Vedain shows the total pipeline value — the sum of all visible deal values. This number updates live as you drag deals, add new ones, or change values.

Each stage also displays its own subtotal. This breakdown lets you see at a glance how much revenue sits at each point in your sales process. If your 'Negotiation' stage holds 60% of total value while 'Closed Won' holds 5%, you know conversion is the bottleneck, not lead generation.

For more advanced forecasting, Vedain supports weighted pipeline value. Each stage has a default win probability (for example, Qualified = 20%, Proposal Sent = 50%, Negotiation = 75%). The weighted value multiplies each deal's amount by the stage probability, giving you a more realistic revenue forecast. You can customise these probabilities in Settings → Deal Stages.

To see the weighted pipeline value, toggle the "Show weighted" option in the pipeline toolbar. The board header will switch from raw totals to probability-adjusted figures. This is particularly useful during monthly or quarterly reviews when leadership needs a realistic revenue forecast rather than an optimistic total.

You can also export the weighted pipeline summary as a CSV or share it via the built-in report scheduler. Combine it with the Pipeline Forecast dashboard widget for a visual trend line showing how your weighted pipeline has changed week over week — a leading indicator of whether your team is building enough qualified opportunities to hit target.

The Kanban board is your first line of defence against pipeline rot. Here are the warning signs to watch for:

• Stage bloat — one column has significantly more cards than others. This means deals are entering the stage faster than they're progressing. Investigate why: is the team waiting on proposals? Are approvals slow?
• Stale deals — cards that haven't moved stages in 30+ days. Vedain highlights deals with no recent activity using a visual indicator. Click the deal to review and either re-engage or disqualify.
• Overdue close dates — deals past their expected close date appear with a red date badge. Either update the close date to a realistic target or move the deal to lost.
• Value concentration — if one or two large deals account for most of your pipeline value, your forecast is fragile. Diversify by building more mid-sized opportunities.

Reviewing the Kanban board for 10 minutes at the start of each week prevents surprises at month-end. It's the fastest pipeline health check available.

Vedain supports multiple pipelines for different sales processes. Common examples include:

• A New Business pipeline for first-time customers.
• A Renewals pipeline for existing accounts coming up for contract renewal.
• A Partner pipeline for channel-sourced deals with different stages.

Each pipeline has its own set of stages, win probabilities, and deal cards. Use the pipeline dropdown on the Deals page to switch between them. Reports and dashboards can aggregate across all pipelines or filter to a specific one.

To create a new pipeline, go to Settings → Deal Stages and click + New Pipeline. Give it a name, add your stages, and it's ready to use. Deals are always created inside a specific pipeline — you choose which one when creating the deal.

When reviewing performance across all pipelines, the Pipeline Comparison report in the Reports module lets you see conversion rates, average deal size, and velocity side by side. This helps you identify which pipeline is performing well and which needs attention — for example, if your Renewals pipeline has a 90% win rate but your New Business pipeline sits at 15%, you know where to focus coaching efforts.

Speed up your Kanban workflow with these shortcuts and tips:

• Quick-add a deal — click the + icon at the bottom of any stage column to create a deal directly in that stage.
• Bulk select — hold Shift and click multiple deal cards, then drag them all to a new stage at once.
• Search within the board — use the search bar to find a specific deal by name, contact, or value. The board dims non-matching cards so you can spot your target instantly.
• Collapse empty stages — right-click a column header to collapse it, reducing visual noise when a stage has no active deals.
• Export pipeline — click the export icon to download the current board view as a CSV, ready for reporting or sharing with stakeholders.