If you set up a ConnectWise sales board but don't see any stages available when creating columns, it could be that ConnectWise sales stages are not set up properly in your ConnectWise database.
The lifecycle for ConnectWise opportunities is managed by changes to the opportunity stage field. This is different from the lifecycle of tickets, which are managed by their status field. As if this wasn't confusing enough, opportunities also have a status field, but it tracks a different concept than the status field of tickets. The opportunity status field tracks the final result of the opportunity- such as inactive, won, or lost.
ConnectWise documentation for sales stages is here: https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Documentation/090/020/120/130
Their examples of stages are: qualified lead, solution identified, proposal presented, etc. These naturally map to columns on a Kanban board.
Documentation for sales statuses is here: https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Documentation/090/020/120/050
The default statuses in ConnectWise are Default, Inactive, Closed, Won, Lost. These do not naturally map to columns in a kanban board.
If you have been managing opportunity lifecycles with the status field and not the stage field, don't fret- you're not the first company to do this. To use opportunities in ConnectWise you'll need to change your practices. We recommend:
- Review the CW documentation about opportunity stages
- Review the opportunity stage setup tables. Add, update, and remove stages so the stages match your processes. For example, you might have one stage for each Kanban board column you want to use. Or you might make a stage for every status you've been using.
- Depending on how many opportunities you have, go through your existing opportunities and set their stage field appropriately. Or if there are too many opportunities, then ignore the existing ones and just start setting the stage field on new opportunities.
- Let your team members know that opportunity stages are the field to use.