Use the contract in a working meeting
Bring the revenue owner, marketing and RevOps together. Open the blank contract, agree the definitions and name the owner of each decision. Then trace a few real records through the CRM. A definition that sounds right but cannot be applied to a record is not ready to drive budget.
Download the editable workbook
The workbook has a filled illustrative contract, a blank contract and a small reconciliation example. The sample data is invented to explain the method, clearly labeled, and contains no client records. There is no signup to download it. CSV version of the blank contract.
Settle the decisions the report depends on
| Decision | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified opportunity | The evidence needed and who accepts it | A created CRM deal is not necessarily qualified pipeline |
| Date basis | Lead creation, opportunity creation or close date | Mixing cohorts changes the meaning of a trend |
| Value | Amount basis, currency and conversion rule | A mixed-currency total cannot support a budget decision |
| Exclusions | Tests, duplicates, reopened deals and out-of-scope accounts | Prevents inflated counts and amounts |
| Source | First touch, sourced channel and influence kept distinct | One deal cannot become multiple sourced deals |
| Identity | Stable contact, account and opportunity IDs | Names alone cannot reliably join the records |
| Ownership | Definition, data mapping and report owner | Disagreement needs a person who can resolve it |
| Freshness | Extract time and acceptable lag | A live ad report and last week’s CRM extract will disagree |
Keep source and influence separate
Give an opportunity one sourced-channel assignment under a written rule. Keep influence as a separate set of touches. A Hub resource used in a proposal can influence a deal without being the channel that sourced it.
For the Hub, retain the resource attached to a call request and ask what the buyer read. Do not infer pipeline influence from a page visit alone. Attach evidence to the CRM opportunity when the team confirms it mattered.
Reconcile before interpreting
The example reconciliation counts each opportunity once, under its stage and inclusion rule. It shows accepted pipeline alongside excluded records and a separate source control total. A gap is a prompt to investigate missing IDs, currency, dates, duplicated opportunities or inconsistent qualification.
A zero pipeline result is different from missing data. Keep blanks visible as missing inputs. Write zero only when the complete eligible set genuinely produced none.
Maintain a single definition
Keep the signed-off contract in the company’s GTM brain and link it from the report. When the definition changes, record the effective date, reason and effect on comparisons. Do not silently rewrite history to make the new number resemble the old one.
Review unresolved exceptions weekly. Change definitions when the business needs it, with the revenue owner involved. The purpose is a number the team can act on, not a report with every possible metric.
Publication and source record
Published on GTMhub: . Last reviewed: .