Start here
Set up the first real workflow before importing a full book of business. Decide what a company, contact, opportunity and next step mean for your team.
Configure the essentials
- Open Settings → Branding to review the workspace identity. Save and reload before checking the result; organization branding and a person’s saved light/dark preference are different settings.
- Use Settings → Pipelines to review stages, their order and probabilities. Keep stage definitions clear enough that two people would classify the same deal consistently.
- Add needed information through Custom fields. Use Custom objects for a separate kind of record rather than forcing it into a deal. Schema and layout changes require the appropriate administrative permissions.
- Create a small example company, contact and deal using your normal screens. Link the records and add a task with an owner and due date.
If records or totals look wrong
Check the active organization, saved view, search, owner and stage filters. A saved view can legitimately exclude records that still exist. Also check whether the record was archived or whether your role limits visibility.
On Forecast, open opportunities use expected close dates; won and lost deals use their actual close dates when recorded. Try the All time view to separate a date-range issue from a missing-record issue.
Committed, probability-weighted and recurring values are different measurements. Inspect the deals behind a total before treating a difference as a calculation bug.
When to contact the team
Include the affected record link, selected filters and date range, the result you expected, and the result shown. Do not create duplicate records to work around a visibility problem.
Related: Import your records.