VipeCloud gives you two ways to run your sales process: contacts paired with opportunities in a pipeline, or contacts alone using a Board View. Which one fits depends on what a "deal" looks like for your business.
If you're in the franchise industry, contacts and Board Views are usually the right starting point. Most franchise sales processes track a single candidate through a single path, which is exactly what Board View is built for.
When to Use Contacts and Opportunities Together
Opportunities make sense when the deal is its own intangible, separate from any one person. That's typically the case in traditional B2B sales, where you might have:
Repeat business or renewals with the same contact over time
Multiple points of contact tied to a single deal
Deal-specific details like amount, quantities, or product details that don't belong on the person's record
Opportunities also give you a deliberate checkpoint. Because a contact doesn't automatically become an opportunity, you can hold leads back until they've met a real threshold, then track them closely once they do.
If any of these apply, keeping opportunities separate from contacts keeps that information organized instead of overwriting itself every time the relationship changes.
When Contacts Alone With a Board View Is Enough
Use a Board View when the deal effectively is the person. This is the case when each contact represents one path through your process, from start to finish, with no need to track a second deal or a second contact against the same record. It's a lighter setup: one record holds the full picture, and moving a card between columns is the entire workflow.
Where to Go Next
To set up opportunities and pipelines, see Opportunities & Pipelines Page Walkthrough.
To set up contacts with a Board View, see How to Create and Use Board Views.