A contact or account board can work like a sales pipeline. Each column is marked Open, Won, or Lost, cards change color when a record has been in an open stage too long, and each stage can ask for a reason or block a move until a field is filled in. This helps when the contact is the deal and you want to track it without creating opportunities.
Only Admins can change pipeline settings, loss reasons, and stage gates. Other users see the card colors and prompts but not the settings. To set up the board itself, see How to Create and Use Board Views.
How to Turn a Board View Into a Pipeline
You can turn on pipeline settings from the board view or from the dropdown field the board is grouped by. Both turn on the same setting.
From the Board View
Go to Settings and click Customize.
Click Contact to expand it, then click Board Views.
Create a new board view or edit an existing one.
After choosing a field under Group into Columns By, check Use as pipeline.
Enter a number in Warming after (days) and Rotting after (days). Leave either one blank if you don't want it.
Click Save.
From the Field
Go to Settings and click Customize.
Click Contact to expand it, then click Fields.
Click the dropdown field your board is grouped by.
Check Use as pipeline? and enter your warming and rotting days.
Click Save.
Rotting days must be equal to or greater than warming days.
How to Mark Columns as Open, Won, or Lost
Every column starts as Open. To change one:
On the board, click the ⋮ menu in the column header.
Choose Open, Won, or Lost.
Click Save.
Won and Lost columns show a green Won or red Lost badge in the header. The Not Selected column can't be changed.
How to Give One Column Its Own Thresholds
Click the ⋮ menu in the column header.
Enter a number in Warming after (days) or Rotting after (days).
Click Save.
Leave a box blank to use the board's default, shown as Field default in the box.
What the Card Colors Mean
Yellow border - the record has been in this stage for at least the warming days.
Red border - the record has been in this stage for at least the rotting days.
No color - the record is under both thresholds, or it's in a Won or Lost column.
Hover over a colored card to see how long it has been in the stage, for example "Rotting: in this value for 12 days."
Opportunity rotting counts days without activity. Contact and account board rotting counts days in the current stage, so a contact can get emails and calls and still turn red if it hasn't moved to a new stage.
How to Capture Loss Reasons on a Board View
Any stage on your board can ask why a contact was moved there. This is most useful on a stage like Closed Lost, where you want to know whether a deal fell through on price, timing, or a competitor, but it works on any stage. For opportunities, loss reasons are set on the pipeline stage instead. See Loss Reasons & the Loss by Stage Report.
Reasons are set one stage at a time, on the dropdown field that powers your board.
Go to Settings and click Customize.
Click Contact to expand it, then click Fields.
Click the field your board is grouped by, for example Sales Status.
In the Options list, click the arrow next to the lightning bolt on the stage you want, for example Closed Lost.
Under Reason, choose Optional or Required.
Click Add reason and type a reason. Repeat for each reason you want to offer.
Click Save.
The Reason setting has three options:
Off - no prompt appears when a contact moves into this stage.
Optional - the prompt appears, but users can skip it.
Required - users must pick a reason before the move saves.
You need at least one reason in the list before a stage set to Optional or Required will save. Once it's on, the stage row shows a Reason: Optional or Reason: Required badge. Removing a reason stops it from being offered going forward. Contacts that already have that reason keep it.
What Users See When They Move a Contact
When someone moves a contact into a stage that asks for a reason, a prompt appears titled with the stage name, for example Why "Closed Lost"?, with a Select a reason dropdown.
If the stage is set to Optional, users can pick a reason and click Save, or click Skip.
If the stage is set to Required, Skip is hidden and a reason must be picked.
Clicking Cancel or closing the prompt cancels the move, and the contact stays in its current stage.
The prompt appears whenever the stage is changed by hand. That includes dragging a card on the board, changing the stage ribbon on the contact record, editing the field, and bulk changing contacts from the Contacts table. A bulk change asks once and applies the reason to every selected contact. Stage changes made by automations, imports, or the API never ask for a reason.
If the stage also has an automation set to ask before running, that confirmation appears after the reason prompt.
How to Block a Stage Change Until a Field Is Filled In
A stage gate stops a contact from leaving or entering a stage until another field meets a condition. For example, a contact can't move to Application until Application Received Date is filled in. Stage gates are set per stage on the dropdown field your board is grouped by, and only appear when Use as pipeline? is on.
Go to Settings and click Customize.
Click Contact to expand it, then click Fields.
Click the field your board is grouped by.
In the Options list, click the arrow next to the lightning bolt on the stage you want.
Under Rules, click Add rule.
Under Block, choose Leaving this value or Entering this value.
Under Until this field, choose the field the rule checks.
Under Condition, choose Is filled in or Its date has been reached.
To tell users what to do, enter it in Message shown when blocked (optional).
Click Save.
Rule settings:
Block - Leaving this value stops a contact from moving out of this stage. Entering this value stops a contact from moving into it.
Condition - Is filled in passes once the field has any value. Its date has been reached passes once the date in the field is today or earlier, and needs a Date field.
Active - Uncheck it to pause a rule without removing it.
A stage can have more than one rule, and the stage row shows a Rules: N badge with the number of rules.
What Users See When a Stage Gate Blocks a Move
Stage gates are checked whenever the stage is changed in the app: dragging a card on the board, editing the stage on the record, editing the field, and bulk changing records. A blocked change doesn't save, and the user sees your message, or a default one if you left it blank. A bulk change skips the blocked records, updates the rest, and tells you some records were skipped.
Stage changes made by the API, imports, and automations are never blocked.
Key Notes
Board views for accounts work the same way. Expand Account instead of Contact in Customize.
Pipeline settings, loss reasons, and stage gates all live on the dropdown field the board is grouped by, so every board grouped by that field shares them.
Only Admins can change these settings. All users see the prompts and blocks.
Automations, imports, and the API never ask for a reason and are never blocked by a stage gate.