If you’re tasked with forecasting revenue or just need to know where your deals stand, you know the pain of half-baked pipeline reports. Most CRMs bury you in charts that look good but tell you nothing useful. This guide is for people who want clear, actionable pipeline reports from Nlpearl—not just pretty graphs for the next all-hands.
Below, I’ll break down how to actually generate detailed pipeline reports in Nlpearl, what settings matter, and how to avoid the common traps. Whether you’re a sales ops lead, a manager, or just the unlucky soul who got told, “Can you pull that report by Friday?”—this is for you.
Step 1: Get Your Data House in Order
Before you even open Nlpearl, do a quick gut check: is your pipeline data trustworthy? Even the best reporting tool won’t save you from garbage in, garbage out.
What to check first:
- Stage definitions: Make sure everyone’s using the stages the same way. “Proposal sent” shouldn’t mean “I emailed a brochure” for one rep and “signed contract” for another.
- Close dates: Are these up to date? If all your deals are closing at the end of the month, someone’s massaging the numbers.
- Deal values: Watch for round numbers or zeros. These are usually guesses or placeholders.
Pro tip:
Run a quick export of your deals and spot-check 10 random records. If you don’t trust what you see, fix that before you bother with reporting.
Step 2: Know What You Need (Don’t Let the Tool Decide)
Nlpearl can slice and dice data a hundred different ways, but most people only need a handful of things:
- What’s in the pipeline, by stage and owner
- How much is truly forecastable (not just “open”)
- What’s changed since last week/month
Before you click anything, write down what you need to see. Otherwise, you’ll spend an hour playing with filters and end up with six dashboards and no answers.
Ignore This:
Default “Pipeline Overview” reports. They’re usually just pie charts and vanity metrics. Build from scratch or tweak heavily.
Step 3: Build a Custom Pipeline Report
Once you’ve got your data and your end-goal, it’s time to actually build the thing. Here’s how to do it in Nlpearl:
3.1: Go to the Reporting Section
- Log into Nlpearl.
- Find the main navigation and click on Reports (sometimes called “Analytics”—depends on your setup).
- Hit Create New Report.
3.2: Choose Your Base
Pick “Deals” (sometimes labeled as “Opportunities”) as your base data. Don’t start with pre-built templates unless you’re in a rush; they’re generic.
3.3: Add the Columns That Matter
For a real pipeline report, you probably want:
- Deal Name
- Owner
- Stage
- Amount
- Expected Close Date
- Probability (if you trust it)
- Last Activity Date
Skip “Created By,” “Last Modified,” and other fields unless your team genuinely tracks those.
3.4: Filter Ruthlessly
- Stage: Show only deals in active pipeline stages (not “Closed Won” or “Closed Lost”).
- Date Range: Most teams pick this or next quarter; don’t go too wide or you’ll include zombie deals.
- Deal Owner/Team: Filter down if you need individual or team-specific reports.
Pro tip:
Save your filters as a custom view. You do not want to redo this every week.
3.5: Group and Sort
- Group by Stage: This is usually most useful, so you can see what’s bottlenecked where.
- Sort by Close Date: Helps spot deals that are about to slip.
3.6: Add Calculated Fields (Optional)
Nlpearl supports custom fields and calculations. Two genuinely useful ones:
- Weighted Pipeline: Amount x Probability. (But again, only if your team sets probability honestly. If not, skip it.)
- Days in Stage: Useful for spotting stuck deals.
Step 4: Visualize (But Don’t Get Distracted by Pretty)
Nlpearl loves a colorful funnel chart. But most people don’t need that. Stick to tables or a simple bar chart unless your audience demands more.
What works:
- Tables: For detail-oriented folks who want to see every deal.
- Bar charts: Good for a high-level view by stage or owner.
- Line chart: Use this if you’re tracking pipeline changes over time.
What to ignore:
- Funnel graphics (they look cool, but rarely help you forecast)
- Pie charts (unless you’re counting deals by type, which is rare)
- Any “AI-generated insights” that don’t show their work—treat these as conversation starters, not gospel.
Step 5: Schedule & Share Reports (Don’t Rely on Memory)
You built a report you like. Great. Now set it up to run automatically.
- Schedule weekly or monthly sends: Nlpearl lets you email reports to yourself, your team, or the execs.
- Export to CSV: Still the gold standard if you want to slice the data in Excel or Google Sheets.
- Set permissions: Make sure only the right people see sensitive deal info.
Warning:
Don’t just send reports to everyone “for visibility.” People will ignore them, or worse, misunderstand them. Share with intent.
Step 6: Review and Refine (Because Nothing’s Perfect)
The first report you build probably won’t be exactly what you need. That’s normal.
- Ask for feedback: Show your report to a couple of people who’ll actually use it. What’s missing? What’s confusing?
- Watch for report rot: Over time, filters and fields drift out of sync with reality. Set a reminder to review your main reports every quarter.
- Kill unused reports: If nobody’s opened it in a month, delete it. More reports mean more confusion.
Pro tip:
Keep a “report graveyard” folder instead of deleting right away. That way you can always roll back if you kill something useful by accident.
What Actually Helps Forecasting (And What Doesn’t)
Let’s be honest: the best pipeline report in Nlpearl can’t predict the future. Here’s what actually helps:
- Accurate, current data: If reps aren’t updating deals, everything else is noise.
- Sane stage definitions: If your stages are vague (“In Progress”), your forecast will be too.
- Regular review: Reports that are used, not just sent, help you spot problems early.
What doesn’t help:
- Overly complex dashboards—nobody has time to click through ten tabs.
- Automated “forecast” numbers based on wishful thinking. If you don’t believe the probabilities, don’t use them.
- Reporting for reporting’s sake. If a report isn’t driving a decision or a conversation, skip it.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Don’t get seduced by every shiny feature or dashboard widget in Nlpearl. Start with reports that answer one or two key questions. See how they’re used. Iterate from there. The goal isn’t to impress people with charts—it’s to make decisions faster and avoid nasty surprises at the end of the quarter.
Real forecasting comes from honest data and regular review, not from more software bells and whistles. So keep it simple, keep it clear, and don’t be afraid to tweak as you go. That’s how you actually get value from your pipeline reports—Nlpearl or any tool.