Pipeline value adds up the estimated contract value of every pursuit still open, from first qualification to final negotiation. Won work moves to backlog; lost work drops out.
Why it matters
Pipeline is the leading indicator for backlog. If backlog covers twelve months but the pipeline is thin, next year’s revenue is at risk long before it shows in the WIP. Seen by stage, it shows where pursuits stall: lots of estimating and few proposals means the estimating team is the bottleneck.
Worked example
Illustrative: seven open pursuits totaling $77.5M, of which $51.0M sits in proposal or negotiation. That late-stage share is the part leadership watches most closely.
Common mistakes
- Leaving dead pursuits open, which inflates the number for months.
- Mixing pipeline (estimates) with backlog (signed contracts).
- Ignoring stage. $50M in qualification and $50M in negotiation are not the same pipeline.
How os.construction handles it
Pipeline value is a metric in Analytics: the estimated amount of open CRM opportunities, split by stage, source, owner or month. CRM Home shows the company intake total as Open pipeline. These are advisory estimates in USD, not budgets or booked revenue.