Fixed stages, deliberately
Every organisation starts with one default pipeline and fixed stages. That is a choice, not a limitation: an endlessly configurable pipeline produces numbers that cannot be compared across teams or across months, because "stage 3" means something different every time.
Each deal carries its value, its probability and its expected close date. The forecast comes from those.
A kanban, with order inside the column
Deals move between stages on a board, with their own order within a column — because priority inside a stage matters as much as the stage itself.
A forecast you can check
The difference from a standalone CRM is that a won deal becomes an invoice in the same system. Last month's forecast can be compared against what was actually billed, without anyone exporting two reports and matching them by hand.
Worth knowing
A pipeline you cannot reconcile against revenue is a list of hopes. Its value comes from a close producing a real document rather than a tick.