Deals are how you track every sales opportunity in your pipeline — from a first conversation through to a signed contract — with a dollar value attached so you can forecast revenue.
This article is for Recruiters, Account Managers, and Agency Owners using Recruiterflow as a CRM alongside the ATS.
What a deal is
A deal represents a single opportunity to close business with a client. It has a name, a dollar amount, an expected close date, a stage, and an owner. You can link each deal to a Company and/or Contact so the activity history stays connected to the right account.
Deals move through stages until they're marked Closed won or Closed lost. The full set of stages, in order, forms your sales pipeline.
Default deal stages
Out of the box, every workspace gets these stages:
Appointment scheduled — the buyer has agreed to a first conversation.
Qualified to buy — they've shown enough interest to be a real lead.
Client pitch — you've done the research and pitched your offering.
Decision maker bought-in — the person who can sign is on board.
Contract sent — the contract is in their hands.
Closed won — signed and engaged.
Closed lost — the deal ended without a sale.
Each stage has a win probability that drives your forecast. Both the stage names and the probabilities can be changed in Settings → Deal Settings by an Admin. See the related articles below for the customization flow.
How to create a deal
Go to the Deals page and click + New Deal.
Fill in the Deal name. Keep it specific enough to recognize at a glance — e.g., "Acme Corp — Senior Backend search."
Pick the Deal stage. New deals default to Appointment scheduled; change it if you're entering an opportunity that's already further along.
Add the Amount (the estimated value if you win the deal) and an estimated Close date so the deal shows up in the right forecast bucket.
Set the Deal owner — the teammate who'll drive this deal forward.
Use Associate deal with to link it to a Company and/or Contact. This keeps emails, notes, and calls tied to the right account.
Click Create. The deal lands on your pipeline at the stage you picked.
Practical example
You finish a discovery call with a Director of Talent at a new prospect. They're interested but want a formal proposal next week. You create a deal called "Northwind — VP of Engineering search," set the stage to Qualified to buy, add a $30,000 amount, set a close date 30 days out, and link it to the Northwind company record and the Director's contact. Every email and note you log on either record now shows up on the deal too, and the $30,000 flows into your monthly forecast at the stage's win probability.
Things to know
A deal can be linked to one Company, multiple Contacts, both, or neither — but linking it makes your activity timeline far more useful.
The default stage for new deals is always the first stage in your pipeline. If your pipeline has been customized, that may not be "Appointment scheduled" anymore.
Win probability is set per stage, not per deal, so all deals in the same stage forecast at the same rate.
Closed won and Closed lost are terminal — deals in those stages stop counting toward your open pipeline.
Related articles