Understanding how long it takes Opportunities to move through your Pipeline stages can help you manage your sales cycle, team performance and revenue forecasting. In Copper, we call these "days in stage" reports, and they can help you answer questions like:

In this article, we’ll discuss how to build Reports that can help you answer those questions.

The easiest way to start is with our Dashboard Templates. These are pre-built Dashboards that help you quickly set up a Report to use or further customize. We have two templates that include days in stage charts: the Sales Pipeline template and the Sales Forecasting template.

Those templates include the Average Opp Days in Pipeline Chart and the Average Opp Days in Stage Chart.

To use a template, go to the Reports section of Copper. Near the top left, you’ll see an option for “Add Dashboard +.” Click it to reveal the option for “Start with a Template.”

This will open up a selection of templates. Choose either the Sales Pipeline template or the Sales Forecasting template.

Once you’ve created your Dashboard, you can apply a temporary filter using the filter bar at the top. In this example, we’re adjusting our filter to look only at the Sales Pipeline.

We have more information on using Dashboard Templates in this article.

We also offer pre-built Insights for you to add to a Dashboard. To use them, open up a Dashboard and click “Edit” in the top right corner to enter editing mode. On the left side, under the “Saved Insights” section, you can find Insights that are pre-built in our system. Select one and drag and drop it into the main area of your Dashboard.

If you want to look at specific Opportunities, try the Opp Days in Stage Table.

And if you’d prefer to look at averages, try one of these Insights:

Remember to click “Save” after making changes to your Dashboard. We have more information on creating and editing Dashboards in this article.

You can also access these pre-built Insights through the Insights Builder. This allows you to add further customizations to the Insight before adding it to a Dashboard.

While we do recommend trying a Dashboard Template or pre-built Insight first, you can build an Insight from scratch in the Insights Builder.

When you open the Insights Builder, you’ll see a group of data items under Opportunities Days in Stage.

You add those data items, along with the ones for Opportunities, to the Metrics, Rows and Columns section to create tables and charts.

In this example, we’ve created a table of all the stages in each of our Pipelines, along with the average amount of time an Opportunity spent in each stage.

If you have questions about building a report, feel free to reach out to our chat support or to post in our community forum.

How can I use the information from these Reports?

Exactly how you look at your sales cycle and days in stage depends on your organization’s priorities. Here are the most common uses for these types of Reports:

As a whole, we recommend using these numbers for general comparisons between different pipeline stages and Opportunities rather than as precise metrics.

Why do I see dashes instead of numbers in parts of my table?

If you’re looking at a table with individual Opportunities, that dash means that that particular Opportunity never entered that particular Stage. This may be the case if that Opportunity skipped forward in your Pipeline or if you imported Opportunities directly into a later Pipeline stage.

If you're looking at a table of averages, a dash means that no Opportunities have entered that stage.

There are dashes or blanks in my days in the table, will that affect the averages?

Blank values are not included in those calculations.

What if my Opportunity spends less than a day in a stage?

The days in stage counter has a minimum of 1 day. This means that if an Opportunity enters a stage, that will automatically count as 1 day in that stage, even if you immediately move it to another stage.

Can I add or filter by data from People and Companies to the days in stage tables and graphs?

At this time, we do not recommend cross-referencing People and Company fields with days in stage insights.

What happens if I rearrange the stages of my Pipeline?

The values for days in stage will follow each stage regardless of what order they are in in your Pipeline.

What happens if I delete a Pipeline stage?

In that case, the data for the number of days each Opportunity spent in that stage will also be deleted.

What happens if I move an Opportunity backwards a stage?

Let’s say you moved an Opportunity from Stage 2 to Stage 1. In that case, the counter will stop for Stage 2, and the counter for Stage 1 will continue from where it left off.

Will imported Opportunities contain days in stage data?

For imported Opportunities, the reporting system won’t have days in stage data from before the import. However, it will begin collecting that data as soon as the Opportunity is created in Copper through that import.