Working with the pipeline
Every project sits in exactly one pipeline stage, from first call to final payment — on the project itself, on the board, and in every list. The stages are yours to shape; XBuild advances projects automatically on two events and never overrides a stage you set yourself. This feature is available on select XBuild plans. If you don’t see it in your account, contact support@x.build.1. The default stages
New accounts start with Lead → Inspection → Estimating → Proposal Sent → Won → In Production → Complete, plus Lost for jobs that don’t land. Each stage carries optional sub-statuses:
A sub-status clears whenever the project changes stage.
2. Customize your pipeline
You must be an XBuild Administrator to change these settings. Open Settings → Pipeline:
Archived stages keep history. Projects already in an archived stage keep it — shown with “(archived)” and still reachable from the project list — but no project can be moved into it and the board shows no column for it. Archiving can’t be undone, so rename a stage you want to repurpose instead.
Guardrails: the pipeline always keeps at least one regular stage and one end stage (like Complete or Lost), and holds up to 20 stages with up to 30 sub-statuses per stage — archived ones count.
3. Use the board
The Projects page has a list/board toggle. The board shows one column per active stage, in pipeline order and stage color, with a card per project — name, client, owner, value, and open-task count. Drag a card to another column to move the project to that stage — the same move as the stage control on the project’s page, which also sets the sub-status. Card order within a column isn’t saved.4. What XBuild advances automatically
The rules the automation lives by:
- It never overrides you. Once you’ve set a project’s stage by hand, automation leaves it alone unless the move is clearly forward from where you put it.
- It only moves forward. A project already at or past the target stage stays put. It never moves backward, and never out of Complete or Lost.
- It respects your customizations. Rename or recolor Proposal Sent and Won freely — automation follows the stage, not the name. Archiving either stage permanently turns that automation off (the archive dialog warns you).
5. Troubleshooting common issues
- I published a proposal but the project didn’t move to Proposal Sent. The project was already at or past that stage, you had set its stage manually, or Proposal Sent was archived — any of those stops the automatic move. Move it by hand.
- A project shows a stage marked “(archived)”. The stage was archived after the project entered it. Move it to an active stage from its page or leave it as a record.
- I can’t drag a stage where I want it in Settings. Complete, Lost, and any other end stage must stay after the regular stages — a drag that breaks that snaps back.
- I want to delete a stage entirely. Stages archive rather than delete, so past projects keep their history. For a stage created by mistake and never used, archiving has the same practical effect.
- Two people edited the pipeline at once and one edit didn’t stick. Concurrent edits are detected — the later save is asked to reload and retry rather than overwriting the first. Reload and make the change again.