What is a pipeline? Stages, Kanban vs List view explained

A pipeline is the visual board at the heart of Teamopipe. It organises your deals into columns called stages — Lead, Contacted, Proposal, Closed — so you always know where every opportunity sits. You can have as many pipelines as you need, each with its own stages and custom fields, all living inside Gmail.

What is a pipeline?

Think of a pipeline as a whiteboard with columns — except it lives inside your Gmail and every card on it is a deal you're working. As a deal progresses, you drag it from left to right through the stages until it reaches the end of your process.

You can run multiple pipelines in parallel. A consultant might have a Sales pipeline for new client work and a separate Onboarding pipeline to track new clients getting started. Both live in the same Teamopipe panel, and each can have completely different stages and fields.

What are stages?

Stages are the columns in a pipeline. They represent the steps in your process — every deal belongs to exactly one stage at a time. A typical sales pipeline might look like:

• Lead — someone you've identified as a potential client
• Contacted — you've reached out and they've responded
• Proposal — you've sent or are preparing a proposal
• Negotiating — they're interested, working through terms
• Closed — won or lost

These are just examples — your stages should reflect your actual process. You can rename, add, remove, and reorder stages any time from Settings → Pipelines.

Tip: Assign a colour to each stage. It makes the board easier to scan at a glance and also colours the deal labels that appear in your Gmail email list — so you can see deal status without even opening Teamopipe.

How to create a pipeline

Teamopipe creates a default pipeline when you sign up. To create additional pipelines:

1. Open Settings from the left sidebar inside the Teamopipe panel in Gmail
2. Click Pipelines
3. Click + New Pipeline in the top right
4. Choose from Template (a starting point with pre-built stages) or Create Blank Pipeline (start from scratch with no stages)
5. Name your pipeline and customise the stages

There is no limit to the number of pipelines you can create, on both Free and Pro plans.

How to configure stages

To edit the stages in any pipeline:

1. Go to Settings → Pipelines
2. Click the pipeline you want to edit
3. From there you can rename stages, add new ones, reorder them by dragging, delete stages, and assign a colour to each

You can also access pipeline configuration directly from any pipeline page: click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top right and choose Configure pipeline.

Note: Deleting a stage does not delete the deals in it — they remain in your pipeline and you can move them to another stage. That said, it's good practice to move deals out of a stage before deleting it.

Kanban view (board)

When you open a pipeline, you land on the Kanban board by default. Each stage is a column, and each deal is a card showing the deal name, assignee, linked contact, deal value, due date, and any tags.

Kanban is best for:

• Getting a visual overview of your entire pipeline at a glance
• Moving individual deals between stages by dragging
• Seeing how many deals are in each stage (the count appears in each column header)
• Daily pipeline review — scan, drag, move on

Click any deal card to open the full deal detail view — activity log, comments, tasks, custom fields, and linked emails.

List view (spreadsheet)

List view shows the same pipeline as a spreadsheet. Every deal is a row, and every field is a column. Fields are editable inline — click a cell and type. To switch to List view, click the table icon in the top-right corner of any open pipeline.

List view is best for:

• Bulk-editing multiple deals quickly — update stage, assignee, or value without opening each card
• Creating tasks across multiple deals at once
• Moving deals between pipelines
• Reviewing pipeline data in a compact, dense format
• Viewing the linked email thread for any deal via the arrow icon at the start of its row

Kanban vs List — which to use when

Both views show the same data — switching between them never changes your deals. Use Kanban for your daily review (drag a few cards, see the board clearly). Switch to List when you need to update many records at once or manage deals across pipelines.

Most users settle into a rhythm: Kanban as the default view for normal pipeline work, List view for end-of-week cleanup and bulk updates.

Filtering your pipeline

In both views, click Filters at the top of the pipeline to narrow deals by any field — assignee, tag, custom field value, stage, and more. Filters apply immediately and work across all visible deals. You can combine multiple filters at once.

Note: Saved filters are coming soon — currently filters reset when you navigate away from the pipeline.

Exporting pipeline data

To export all deals in a pipeline to CSV, open the pipeline and click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top right → Export to CSV. This works on both Free and Pro plans. The export includes all deal fields, custom fields, and stage data.

If you run into issues, email support@teamopipe.com — we typically respond within 4 hours on business days.