Sales teams have a lot coming at them—leads, deals, follow-ups, and more. If you’re here, you’re probably trying to keep all those sales opportunities straight (and maybe keep your sanity). You might have chosen Insightly because it promises to blend CRM with project management. But as you’ve probably noticed, all the features in the world won’t magically fix messy processes. This article is for folks who want to actually track sales opportunities without making things harder than they need to be.
Let’s cut through the clutter. Here’s what actually works—step by step.
1. Get Your Sales Process Down Before You Touch Insightly
First things first: don’t let software steer your process. If your sales stages are fuzzy, Insightly won’t help.
What to do: - Map out your sales stages on paper or a whiteboard. Keep it simple—maybe “New Lead,” “Qualified,” “Proposal Sent,” “Negotiation,” “Closed Won/Lost.” - Decide who’s responsible for each step. - Figure out what “done” looks like for each stage (e.g., “Qualified = We’ve had a call and confirmed budget/timeline”).
Pro tip: If you’re not clear on your actual workflow, you’ll just end up with a clunky digital mess. Take a week to get this right.
2. Set Up Opportunity Tracking in Insightly
Insightly’s core is built around Opportunities. If you skip this and just use Projects or Contacts, you’ll miss a lot of its value.
Set Up Opportunity Stages
- Go to System Settings > Opportunity Stages.
- Match the stages here to the ones you mapped out earlier.
- Don’t go wild—4 to 6 stages is usually plenty. More than that, and everyone gets confused.
Use Pipelines (But Don’t Overcomplicate Them)
- Pipelines in Insightly let you visualize your sales process.
- Set up a pipeline for each major sales process you have (if you really have more than one).
- Each pipeline maps to stages. Don’t create separate pipelines for every product or minor variation—just filter your view instead.
Create Opportunity Fields You’ll Actually Use
- Custom fields are great, but resist the urge to add everything you can think of.
- Stick to fields your team will fill out every time: deal size, close date, key contact, source.
- Hide or delete unused fields—clutter just leads to skipped data.
What doesn’t work: Making every possible field “required.” People will just put junk in them to get to the next screen.
3. Keep Your Data Clean (or It’s All Useless)
This is where most teams go off the rails. If the data’s bad, your pipeline is fiction.
Set Some Simple Rules
- Every opportunity must have an owner.
- No duplicate opportunities—search first before creating a new one.
- Keep notes brief and relevant (“Met with Jane, interested in X, wants a proposal by Friday”).
- Update the stage as soon as something changes—don’t wait until month-end.
Pro tip: Assign someone (maybe it’s you) to do a weekly review of all open opportunities. Archive or close out the dead ones.
Use Activity Sets for Repeatable Tasks
- Insightly lets you create “activity sets”—checklists of tasks for each stage.
- Build a basic activity set for each major stage (e.g., “Send intro email,” “Book demo,” “Confirm budget”).
- Don’t over-engineer it. Start with 3-4 tasks, add more if you consistently need them.
4. Connect Opportunities to Projects (But Only When It Makes Sense)
Insightly lets you convert Opportunities to Projects. This is useful if your sales process turns into a delivery process (think onboarding, implementation, or custom work).
How to use this without creating chaos: - Only convert an Opportunity to a Project once the deal is actually “Closed Won.” - Don’t create Projects for every lead or early-stage deal—it just adds noise. - Use Project templates if your delivery process is repeatable, so you’re not reinventing the wheel every time.
What to ignore: Linking every Opportunity to a Project “just in case.” You’ll end up with dozens of empty or abandoned Projects.
5. Use Reports and Dashboards, but Don’t Drown in Data
Insightly’s reporting is…fine. It’s not a business intelligence tool, but it’ll show you what’s moving (and what’s stuck).
Build a Simple Pipeline Report
- Use the built-in Opportunity Pipeline report to see what stage deals are in.
- Filter by owner, deal size, or close date if you want more detail.
- Don’t bother with a dozen custom charts unless you actually use them in meetings.
Set Up a “Stuck Deals” View
- Create a saved filter for opportunities that haven’t moved stages in, say, 14 days.
- Review this weekly—these are the deals that need nudging or closing out.
Share the Dashboard (But Not with Everyone)
- Give the sales team access to the main pipeline view.
- Managers probably need more detail; everyone else just needs to see their own deals.
- Don’t email weekly PDF reports—nobody reads them.
What doesn’t work: Tracking “vanity metrics” like number of calls or emails unless they actually tie to results.
6. Automate the Boring Stuff, but Don’t Get Cute
Insightly offers workflow automation—sending emails, updating fields, creating tasks. Sounds great, but it’s easy to go overboard.
Where automation helps: - Assigning tasks when an opportunity moves to a certain stage. - Sending a templated follow-up when you mark an opportunity as “Proposal Sent.” - Notifying the team when a deal is won (or lost).
What to skip: - Overly complex workflows that try to anticipate every possible scenario. They break, confuse people, and are a pain to fix. - Automated “personalized” emails—these often sound robotic and get ignored.
Start small, automate something you do weekly, and see if it actually saves time.
7. Keep the Team in the Loop (But Don’t Micromanage)
Insightly’s collaboration tools (comments, assignments, notifications) are helpful—if you use them right.
What works: - @mention a teammate in the notes when you need their input. - Assign opportunities or tasks directly—don’t rely on someone seeing it by accident. - Use the calendar integration to make sure meetings and follow-ups are tracked.
What to avoid: - CC’ing everyone on every update. It’s noise. - Expecting Insightly notifications to replace real conversations. Sometimes you just need to call or Slack someone.
8. Regularly Prune and Review Your Pipeline
Once a quarter (or monthly, if things move fast), do a pipeline review.
- Close or archive old opportunities that are clearly dead.
- Check for duplicate or stale records.
- Ask: Are the stages and fields you set up still working, or are people bypassing them?
- Update your process in Insightly if your real-world process changes.
Pro tip: If your pipeline is stuffed with deals that haven’t budged in months, you’re just lying to yourself (and your boss).
Summary: Keep It Simple and Iterate
Insightly’s tools are only as good as the process and habits behind them. Don’t fall for the trap of building a “perfect” system on day one. Start with the basics: clear stages, a short list of must-have fields, and a focus on keeping your pipeline real—not wishful thinking.
You’ll get more value by reviewing and tweaking your setup every few months than by chasing every new feature. Keep it simple, listen to your team, and don’t let the software run the show.
Now, go clean up your pipeline. Your future self will thank you.