How to Run a Weekly Pipeline Review in Google Sheets

How do you run a weekly pipeline review in Google Sheets?

Export your open deals into one tab each week, add a few calculated columns for age and days since last activity, then build a summary tab that counts deals and value by stage. Use a short agenda: stuck deals first, then deals closing this month, then new deals. Thirty minutes a week is enough for a small team.

This tutorial is for one situation: a founder or small sales team with up to a few dozen open deals, a CRM that can export to CSV, and no BI tool. You do not need dashboards or paid add-ons. You need a consistent weekly habit and a sheet that makes problems obvious.

I build reporting and CRM systems for B2B teams, and I like to start teams here before any dashboard. A simple sheet teaches the team what they actually want to see, which makes any later dashboard far better.

Why use a spreadsheet instead of CRM reports?

A spreadsheet is flexible, familiar, and easy to change while you figure out what matters. CRM reports are great once you know exactly what you need, but small teams rarely do at the start. A sheet lets you add a column, try a new view, or annotate a deal in seconds, without waiting on admin access.

It also keeps a weekly snapshot. When you paste each week's export into a new tab or append it with a date, you build a history. That history shows how deals moved, which ones stalled, and how the pipeline changed over a quarter. Many basic CRM reports only show the present.

The trade-off is manual effort. Exporting once a week takes a few minutes. That is a fair price for clarity, and you can automate it later once the format is settled.

Step 1: Which fields should your export include?

Export deal name, company, owner, stage, amount, created date, expected close date, last activity date, and next step. These nine fields cover almost everything a weekly review needs. If your CRM lacks a next step field, add one. A deal without a written next step is the first sign it is drifting.

Keep the export identical every week. Same fields, same order. Save it as a view or report in your CRM so one click produces it. Consistency is what makes week-over-week comparison possible.

Clean data in the CRM makes this far easier. If stages are vague or close dates are never updated, the sheet will show that clearly, which is useful in itself. My tutorial on required properties per deal stage helps fix that at the source.

Step 2: How should you lay out the sheet?

Use four tabs. The first holds this week's raw export. The second holds a running history with a snapshot date column. The third is a summary by stage and owner. The fourth is a review list showing only the deals that need discussion. Separating raw data from views keeps formulas stable when you paste new data.

Paste the weekly export into the raw tab, replacing last week's data. Then copy the same rows into the history tab with today's date in a new column. The summary and review tabs read from the raw tab, so they update automatically.

Freeze the header row and use filters on every tab. Small touches like these make the sheet pleasant to use in a live meeting, where nobody wants to wait while someone scrolls.

Step 3: Which calculated columns matter most?

Add three columns to the raw tab: deal age in days since creation, days since last activity, and days until expected close. Use simple date math, subtracting dates from today. These three numbers reveal most pipeline problems: deals that are old, deals that have gone quiet, and deals with close dates already in the past.

Then add a flag column. A deal gets flagged if it has had no activity for longer than your threshold, say fourteen days, or if its close date has passed. Use a simple IF formula to write "Review" in that column. The flag turns a wall of numbers into a short to-do list.

Pick thresholds that match your sales cycle. A team with a two-week cycle might flag after seven quiet days. A team with a long enterprise cycle might wait longer. Adjust after a few weeks once you see what is normal.

Step 4: How do you build the summary tab?

Use COUNTIFS to count open deals by stage and owner, and SUMIFS to total deal value by stage. Lay stages down the rows and owners across the columns. Add a row showing how many deals are flagged in each stage. This one table shows where the pipeline is thick, where it is thin, and where it is stuck.

Add a weighted value column if you use stage probabilities. Multiply each deal's amount by its stage probability and total by stage. Treat weighted value as a rough guide, not a forecast, especially with few deals.

For small pipelines, counts can mislead. Two big deals can swing everything. I wrote about handling small numbers honestly in how to measure win rate with few deals.

Step 5: What should the review tab show?

Show only flagged deals and deals expected to close this month, sorted by amount. Use the FILTER function to pull those rows from the raw tab automatically. This becomes the meeting agenda. Everything else can wait, because healthy deals with recent activity and future close dates do not need group discussion.

Include the next step column prominently. For each deal on the review tab, the owner should answer one question: what happens next, and when? If nobody can answer, that is the real finding.

Keep the list short. If the review tab regularly has more than ten or fifteen deals, tighten your flag rules or split the meeting by owner. A review that runs long gets skipped.

Step 6: How should the weekly meeting run?

Keep it to thirty minutes with a fixed order. Spend the first part on stuck deals, deciding to revive, push, or close each one. Then cover deals closing this month and what each needs. End with new deals added since last week. Update close dates and next steps in the CRM during the meeting, not after.

Updating the CRM live matters. If changes wait until after the meeting, they often never happen, and next week's export repeats the same problems. A shared screen with the CRM open beside the sheet works well.

Closing dead deals is part of the job. A pipeline full of deals nobody believes in makes coverage look healthy when it is not. My notes on pipeline coverage math explain why honest pipelines matter for planning.

What should you do next?

Create the saved export in your CRM today and build the four-tab sheet. Add the three date columns, the flag rule, the summary table, and the filtered review list. Run your first thirty-minute review this week. After a month, look at the history tab to see how deals moved and adjust your thresholds.

Once the format feels settled, consider automating the weekly export with a simple scheduled sync. Until then, the manual paste keeps you close to the data and helps you learn what you actually need.

If you want help setting up a pipeline review that fits your sales process, or turning a working sheet into an automated report, reach out. I build these reporting systems for small B2B teams. Let's chat.