Opportunities and Problems in the CRM have particular Statuses which can be selected to help track their progress. The Statuses can be amended to best fit your business processes.
If the status drop-down in an Opportunity pipeline is empty, it likely means no statuses have been assigned. Assigning statuses to pipelines ensures they appear in the drop-down menu for tracking progress effectively.
Prerequisites
You'll need CRM Admin rights in order to follow the steps in this article
Step 1: Open an Opportunity or Problem
To change a Status, open an Opportunity or Problem, click on the Status drop-down menu, and select as appropriate. When the required status doesn't exist, select Configure from the Status menu to create it.
Step 2: Create a New Status
After selecting Configure, you will be taken to the COnfigure Opportunity Status page, which lists all the current Statuses. To create a new Status, select the plus icon in the top right-hand corner.
In the New Opportunity Status window, provide the following details:
Description: This will be the text that appears within the Status drop-down menu.
Task required: Use the drop down to select whether you want to force CRM users to set a Task on this record for themselves or another user when the chosen Status is selected.
Once you are happy with the setup, click 'Create' to proceed.
Step 3: Additional Options
Once the Status has been created, configure the remaining additional options by clicking on the Edit (pencil) icon. The additional options available are:
Task Required: Determine if the CRM user has to set a task for themselves, a colleague, or leave it as Optional.
Closed State: Set the State to Closed to signify the end of a process flow for this status, or leave it Open.
Dead Flag: This should be used if the chosen Status is going to be the final Status of the process flow. This will then prompt the CRM user that a Task isn't required and advise them to clear it. This avoids records building up on a user's Task List when no further action is required from them.
Edited Allowed: This should be used if you want CRM users to be able to alter the record and move it into another Status.
Obsolete: If a Status is marked as 'Obsolete', it will no longer appear in the drop-down menu as it's no longer in use.
There's also the option to add a more detailed description to a Status, under Status Details. This can be useful for Statuses such as 'Won' or 'Lost' where you may want to know why that was the outcome e.g. 'Lost to competitor' or 'Lost on price' etc.
🤓 Tip: You can also set a Status Outcome for reporting purposes, which helps in analyzing the reasons behind specific statuses like 'Won' or 'Lost'.
Step 4: Assign the Status to a Pipeline
To assign the newly created status to a pipeline:
Go to Settings → Service → Problem Pipelines → Click here to Configure.
Edit the relevant pipeline by clicking the pencil icon.
Select the + button next to Closing Status.
Tick the checkbox for the new status and click Update.
The new status will now appear in the drop-down menu for the selected pipeline.