Turning Won and Lost Deals into Data in Odoo CRM
How to mark opportunities won or lost in Odoo CRM, build custom lost reasons, restore deals that come back, and use win/loss data to sharpen your sales process.
The Half of Your Pipeline Most Teams Throw Away
Sales teams instinctively track their active deals and celebrate the ones they close. The deals they lose, though, tend to vanish without a second look — and that is one of the most expensive habits we see at APAA.
Every lost deal is carrying information. Did the customer pick a competitor, and why? Was the price the sticking point? Did your product miss a feature that mattered? If nobody captures the answer, that lesson evaporates and the same loss repeats across the team next quarter.
Odoo CRM gives you a complete won/lost tracking system so this stops happening. Used properly, it lets you:
- Accurately record the final outcome of every opportunity.
- Log specific lost reasons, building a dataset you can actually analyse.
- Restore lost opportunities when the situation changes.
- Use reports to find the weak points in your sales process.
What Won and Lost Deals Look Like in Odoo
Every opportunity in Odoo CRM eventually settles into one of two states: Won or Lost.
Signals of a won deal
When you mark an opportunity as won, the system shows:
| Indicator | Description |
|---|---|
| Probability: 100% | The deal is confirmed closed |
| Progress bar | Marks the "Won" stage as complete |
| Green banner | "WON" displayed prominently at the top |
| Expected revenue confirmed | The amount counts toward confirmed revenue |
A won opportunity represents secured revenue. It drops out of the active pipeline view, but every piece of its data stays in the system for reporting.
Signals of a lost deal
When you mark an opportunity as lost, the system shows:
| Indicator | Description |
|---|---|
| Probability: 0% | No remaining chance of closing |
| Stage unchanged | It stays in the stage where it was lost |
| Red banner | "LOST" displayed at the top |
| Lost reason | The specific reason the deal did not close |
| Closing notes | Optional extra context |
That a lost opportunity stays in its original stage is a deliberate design choice — it lets you see exactly which stages bleed the most deals.
Marking an Opportunity as Won
When a deal is confirmed:
- Open the opportunity — click it in your pipeline.
- Click "Won" — use the Won button at the top of the form, or drag the opportunity into the "Won" stage.
- Let the system finish — probability is set to 100% and the green "WON" banner appears.
After marking it won, the opportunity leaves the Kanban view, but you can still reach it through filters or the list view.
Tip: make sure expected revenue is filled in before you mark a deal won. It feeds directly into the accuracy of your sales reports.
Marking an Opportunity as Lost
When a deal cannot be closed, record it properly rather than letting it linger.
Step 1: Open the opportunity
Click into the deal you want to mark as lost.
Step 2: Click "Mark as Lost"
Use the Mark as Lost button on the form. A dialog box appears.
Step 3: Choose a lost reason
Pick from the dropdown. Odoo ships with three defaults:
- Too expensive
- Not enough stock
- We don't have people/skills
If none fit, type a new reason and the system will prompt you to create and save it.
Step 4: Add closing notes (recommended)
This field is optional, but the context is gold. For example:
- "Customer chose SAP because their parent company already runs SAP."
- "Budget was frozen in Q3. Customer said they'll re-evaluate in Q1 next year."
Step 5: Confirm
Click to confirm. The opportunity is immediately marked lost and hidden from the main pipeline view.
Why Odoo Hides Lost Deals by Default
Open your CRM pipeline and you will not see a "Lost" stage anywhere. That is intentional.
If lost deals were always on screen, they would pull your reps' attention away from the active deals that need it. So Odoo hides them and lets you reveal them on demand.
To see lost opportunities:
- Open the CRM pipeline.
- Click the filter icon in the search bar.
- Turn on the Lost filter.
Every lost opportunity reappears in its respective stage, showing you exactly where each deal slipped away.
Building Custom Lost Reasons
The three default reasons are rarely enough for real business situations. Custom reasons are what make your loss analysis actually meaningful.
Two ways to create them
During the loss process
- While marking a deal lost, type a new reason in the lost reason field.
- The system offers "Create and edit" or "Create."
- Click create — the reason is now available for every opportunity.
Centrally from settings
- Go to CRM → Configuration → Lost Reasons.
- Click "New" to add a reason.
- Edit, archive, or delete existing reasons as needed.
A starting set of reason categories
| Category | Suggested reasons | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Over budget, Found cheaper option, Cannot offer discount | Whether your pricing strategy needs a rethink |
| Product fit | Missing required feature, Wrong product for their needs | Where to point product development |
| Competition | Chose competitor, Already using another solution | The competitive landscape |
| Timing | Project delayed, No current budget, Bad timing | When to schedule follow-up outreach |
| Internal | Contact left company, Company changed direction | Which deals might be recoverable |
| No response | Went silent, Cannot reach decision maker | Where your follow-up process is leaking |
Tip: keep the list to 8–12 reasons. Too many options push reps into picking at random, which corrodes the quality of your data.
Restoring Lost Opportunities
Customers change their minds. Today's lost deal can be next month's signed order.
When to restore
Consider restoring a lost opportunity when:
- The customer comes back to you — restore the original so the full communication history stays intact.
- The blocker is gone — for example, their budget gets re-approved.
- It is time for a fresh approach — enough time has passed to re-engage strategically.
- A new product or feature launches — the thing they were missing now exists.
How to restore
- Turn on the Lost filter in your pipeline.
- Find and open the target lost opportunity.
- Click Restore.
The opportunity returns to its original stage with its previous probability restored, rejoining your active pipeline immediately.
Worth remembering:
- Restoring does not erase the lost reason or closing notes — the full history is preserved.
- After restoring, drop a note in the Chatter explaining why you are revisiting the deal.
- Always restore rather than create a brand-new opportunity, so your data history stays continuous.
Turning Won/Lost Data into Insight
The real payoff of won/lost tracking is the analysis it unlocks. Odoo CRM offers several reporting angles.
Win rate reports
Go to CRM → Reporting → Pipeline Analysis to see:
- Overall win rate — won opportunities ÷ total opportunities.
- By salesperson — who is performing and who needs coaching.
- By source — which acquisition channels convert best.
- By time trend — whether your win rate is climbing or sliding.
Lost reason analysis
In Pipeline Analysis, group by lost reason to:
- Find the most common reasons you lose deals.
- Track how each reason trends month to month.
- Add up the total expected revenue lost to each reason.
If "pricing" keeps topping the list, that is a clear signal to re-examine your pricing strategy — or how well you are communicating value.
Stage conversion analysis
Combine won and lost data to study conversion at each stage:
- Which stage has the highest drop-off rate.
- The average time deals spend in each stage.
- Whether a bottleneck sits between two specific stages (Proposal to Negotiation, say).
These findings point straight at the parts of your sales process that need work.
Practical Habits We Recommend
Review lost deals monthly. Set a fixed time each month to go through the lost list, looking for recurring reasons, any stage with an abnormally high loss rate, and any deals worth restoring.
Discuss lost reasons as a team. Fold the analysis into your weekly or monthly sales meeting. When "too expensive" keeps surfacing, debate whether it is really a pricing problem or a value-communication one.
Always mark lost, never delete. Deleting a deal destroys the data forever. Marking it lost keeps everything for analysis while keeping the pipeline clean.
Restore instead of recreating. When a previously lost customer reappears, search for the existing lost deal before creating a new one — restoration preserves the full interaction history.
Set clear team rules. Define internal guidelines: how many days without an update before a deal is marked lost, that every loss must carry a reason and a note, and a regular cleanup of stale "zombie" opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I edit a won or lost opportunity?
Yes. You can still edit the field content of won or lost opportunities. To change the status, though, you click "Restore" first.
Do lost deals affect sales forecasts?
No. Lost opportunities sit at 0% probability and are excluded from expected revenue forecasts. They still appear in Pipeline Analysis reports.
Can I mark several opportunities lost at once?
Yes. In list view, tick the checkboxes for multiple opportunities, then use the Action menu's "Mark as Lost" to process them in a batch.
Does a restored opportunity get counted twice?
No. A restored opportunity keeps tracking on its original record, so when it is closed as won it counts only once.
How do I see all the lost deals for one customer?
Open the customer form and check the Opportunities tab. It lists every related opportunity — active, won, and lost.
Conclusion
Tracking won and lost deals is at the core of getting real value from a CRM. Do it well and you can:
- Quantify sales performance through win rate reports.
- Spot where to improve through lost reason analysis.
- Catch every potential deal through the restore mechanism.
- Optimise your sales process through stage conversion data.
Build the team habit of recording a reason for every single loss, and your CRM data shifts from a passive record-keeping tool into an active engine for improving how you sell.
If you would like help configuring won/lost tracking and reporting around your own sales process, get in touch with APAA and we will set it up with you.