The 15-minute weekly pipeline hygiene checklist

A pipeline only helps you when it tells the truth. Most teams do not lose deals to competitors first. They lose them to stale records that nobody questioned.

Why hygiene matters

When a deal sits in Proposal for six weeks with no logged activity, it is not a proposal anymore. It is a hope. Hopes inflate your forecast and hide the deals that actually need attention.

The Friday routine

Block 15 minutes at the end of the week and work through this list:

• Close date check. Any deal with a close date in the past gets a new date or moves to Lost.
• Last touch check. Any open deal with no activity in 14 days gets a next step logged today.
• Stage check. Ask one question per deal: did the buyer do something that earns this stage?
• Value check. Update amounts after every pricing conversation, not at quarter end.

Make it a team habit

Hygiene works best when everyone does it at the same time. Share your screen on the Pipeline board, walk each column left to right, and fix records together. Ten people spending 15 minutes beats one manager spending a whole afternoon.

What good looks like

After a month of this routine, most teams see fewer surprise losses and a forecast that moves in smaller, calmer steps. That is the goal: fewer surprises, better conversations.