Enter your numbers below. The calculator removes stale pipeline, compares what is left with the coverage your win rate actually requires, and tells you how far short or ahead you are. The example values are filled in so you can see how it works.
New-business target for the quarter or period.
Qualified, new-business deals with a close date in the period.
Optional. No buyer activity for more than 30 days, or close date already passed. Leave blank for 0.
Dollars won ÷ dollars closed (won + lost), not the deal-count rate.
How to use it
- Target for the period. Your new-business target for the quarter (or whatever period you are checking). The "needed" figure (target × 1 ÷ win rate) applies at the start of the period, so enter the full target then. Late in the quarter, comparing open pipeline with the remaining target is a separate measure, and it shouldn't be read against the coverage this calculator says you need.
- Open pipeline closing in the period. The total value of open, qualified, new-business opportunities with a close date inside the period. Leave out renewals and expansion if the target is new business only.
- Stale or past-due pipeline. The part of that pipeline that should not count: deals with no buyer-facing activity for more than 30 days, and deals whose close date has already passed. Field edits in the CRM are not activity. Leave it blank if you have already cleaned the pipeline.
- Win rate by value. Dollars won divided by dollars closed (won plus lost) over a recent period, ideally the last four quarters. Use the value rate, not the count rate, because the pipeline here is in dollars.
How the calculation works
The calculator works out four things:
- Reported coverage = open pipeline ÷ target. This is the number most CRM dashboards show.
- Clean coverage = (open pipeline − stale pipeline) ÷ target. This is the number that matters.
- Required coverage ≈ 1 ÷ win rate by value. If you win 25% of pipeline dollars, you need about four dollars of pipeline for every dollar of target.
- Gap or surplus = clean pipeline − (target × required coverage).
Worked example
A team has a $1,000,000 new-business target for the quarter and $3,600,000 of open pipeline with a close date in the quarter. $600,000 of it has had no buyer activity for more than 30 days. The team wins 25% of its pipeline dollars.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Reported coverage | $3,600,000 ÷ $1,000,000 | 3.6× |
| Clean pipeline | $3,600,000 − $600,000 | $3,000,000 |
| Clean coverage | $3,000,000 ÷ $1,000,000 | 3.0× |
| Required coverage | 1 ÷ 0.25 | 4× |
| Pipeline needed | $1,000,000 × 4 | $4,000,000 |
| Gap | $3,000,000 − $4,000,000 | $1,000,000 short |
At 3.6× reported, the team looks comfortable against the usual 3× rule of thumb. On clean pipeline and its real win rate, it is $1,000,000 short.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the clean-up. Stale and past-due deals inflate coverage without any real chance of closing. Remove them before you divide.
- Using the win rate by count. Large deals are often lost more often than small ones, so the count rate is usually higher than the value rate. Pairing a dollar pipeline with the count rate makes coverage look healthier than it is.
- Treating 3× as the answer. 3× only works for a team that wins about a third of its pipeline dollars. Work out your own number from your win rate.
- Mixing in renewals or expansion. If the target is new business, the pipeline must be new business only.
- Running it once a quarter. Check coverage for the next quarter too. Pipeline for next quarter is built this quarter, and a gap found on day one of the quarter is hard to close.