Keep your sales pipeline clean, accurate, and up to date — automatically
Pipeline Assistant monitors your Cinode projects and lets each salesperson know — privately, in Microsoft Teams — whenever a deal is missing required information or needs attention. No more manual pipeline reviews, no more chasing. Each user gets their own private Teams channel, and the integration keeps it up to date for them.
💡 Looking for shared team notifications about contacts, roles, or bench? That's a separate integration called Microsoft Teams Notifications. See that article.
Overview
This integration is an add-on. Please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Cinode Support to activate it.
🔒 To set up the integration, you need one of the following Cinode permission levels: Partner Manager, Manager, Recruiter, or Admin.
💡 All validation rules are configurable. If you need a validation that is not listed below, let us know.
Prerequisites
To use Pipeline Assistant, you need:
A Cinode account with API access
A Microsoft Teams connection authorised for your organisation
Access to Cinode's Integration Portal (sent to you after sign-up)
Activation by your Customer Success Manager
What Pipeline Assistant does
Pipeline Assistant gives your sales team automated support for pipeline hygiene — without relying on manual follow-up. You define the rules for what "complete" looks like at each pipeline stage, and the integration watches the pipeline for you.
Real-time project validation
Whenever a project is updated in Cinode, Pipeline Assistant checks whether the new pipeline stage has any required field rules configured. If one or more required fields are missing or invalid, an Adaptive Card is sent to the private Teams channel of the user who made the update.
These notifications go to a personal private channel created specifically for that user — never to a shared channel.
Weekly pipeline summaries
On a configurable schedule, each salesperson can receive a weekly summary of their projects with outstanding validation issues. This makes sure incomplete opportunities are reviewed regularly and don't get overlooked.
Upcoming close date alerts
A separate scheduled flow can send each user a weekly list of their projects whose estimated close date falls within the next 7 days — a clear view of the deals that need immediate attention.
Automated stage progression
Projects that stay in the same stage too long can be moved automatically to another stage after a configurable number of days. This reduces manual housekeeping and keeps the pipeline current.
Key benefits
✅ Keeps pipeline data clean and up to date without manual chasing
🔔 Sends actionable, personalised alerts directly in Teams
🔁 Runs automated weekly health checks per salesperson
⚙️ Automatically manages a private Teams channel for each user
💬 Delivers rich Adaptive Card summaries with direct links back to Cinode
Who receives notifications
Recipient: the user who updated the project (the InvokedBy user in Cinode), or — for scheduled flows — the project/sales owner.
Where: a private Teams channel created automatically for that user inside the configured team, named using the Channel Name Prefix (for example
cinode-pipeline-alex).Format: an Adaptive Card listing the missing or invalid fields, with a direct link to the project in Cinode.
The integration matches Cinode users to Microsoft Teams users by email address. If the email in Cinode doesn't match any member of the configured Teams team, no notification is sent.
Example notification
⚠️ Missing or Out-of-Date Fields We've identified the following fields for Project Orion that require your attention:
Estimated Close Date
Role Rate
Update Data in Cinode
This message appears in the private Teams channel named according to your Channel Name Prefix (for example, cinode-pipeline-alex).
(Keep the existing screenshot of the Adaptive Card notification here.)
Available validation rules
Rule | What it checks |
Deal Value | The project has an estimated value greater than zero |
Close Date | The project has a future estimated close date |
Probability | The project has a numeric probability |
Role Created | At least one role exists on the project |
Role Assigned | At least one role exists and has an assigned person |
Role Preliminary Booked | At least one role exists and is preliminarily booked |
Role Rate | A role has a rate set (price/hour or price/day) |
Owner Team | The project has an owner team assigned |
Customer Corporate Identity | The customer has a registered corporate identity / organisation number |
Set Project Status To Won | Marks the project as Won when it reaches the selected stage (automation rule) |
When a project is saved and enters a stage with configured rules, all failing fields are collected and included in a single Teams notification — so users see everything they need to fix in one place.
How rules are configured
Rules are defined by a Cinode admin in the Integration Portal. The Rules setting controls both validation and automation, and is divided into two sections.
Pipeline Stage to Pipeline Rules Mapping
Defines which fields are required at each pipeline stage. Each row links one stage to one validation rule.
To require several fields at the same stage, add multiple rows for that stage. For example, requiring both Deal Value and Close Date at the "Proposal" stage means two rows, both pointing to "Proposal".
Move to Stage After N Days
Defines automatic stage transitions. Each row contains:
From Stage — the stage the project is currently in
To Stage — the stage the project should move to
Number of Days — how long the project can remain in the source stage before it is moved
The automation runs on the schedule set in Automations. If a project has stayed in the source stage for at least the configured number of days, it is moved automatically.
How private Teams channels work
The first time Pipeline Assistant needs to notify a user, it creates a private Microsoft Teams channel for that user inside the configured team. The channel name is built from the Channel Name Prefix plus a normalised version of the user's name — for example cin-john-smith.
The user is automatically added as a member. If the channel already exists, Pipeline Assistant reuses it instead of creating a new one.
🟦 Note: Changing the Channel Name Prefix only affects channels created after the change. Existing channels keep their current names.
Setting up Pipeline Assistant
Pipeline Assistant has three configuration pages. All settings are configured at instance level by a Cinode admin.
Step 1 — Open the Integration Portal
Log in to flows.cinode.com. You'll get access by reaching out to your CSM.
Go to Marketplace and find the Pipeline Assistant integration.
Click Configure.
Step 2 — Configuration page
Link your connections:
Cinode Connection — add a Static Token from Cinode. See Cinode REST API for how to create one.
(The Microsoft Teams Connection is configured here too if not already shared across integrations.)
Step 3 — Teams Settings
Select the Teams team where private notification channels will be created for each user.
Step 4 — Cinode page
Configure the integration behaviour:
Setting | Description |
Rules | Pipeline stage validation rules and auto-move rules. See "How rules are configured" above. |
Weekly Projects Check | Cron schedule for the weekly pipeline summary. Set to Never to disable. |
Weekly Upcoming Period Notification | Cron schedule for close date alerts for projects closing within the next 7 days. Set to Never to disable. |
Channel Name Prefix | Prefix used when naming private Teams channels, for example |
Automations | Schedule for automatic stage movement rules. |
Step 5 — Verify and test
Save and publish the configuration.
Update a project in Cinode so it enters a stage with configured rules, while leaving a required field empty.
Confirm the Adaptive Card arrives in your private Pipeline Assistant channel in Teams.
Flows overview
For admins who want to understand what happens behind the scenes:
Flow | Trigger | What it does |
ProjectUpdated | Cinode webhook when a project is saved | Validates the project against stage rules, finds or creates the user's private channel, and sends a notification if any rule fails |
Find Or Create Channel | Internal | Checks whether a private channel already exists, creates one if needed, returns the channel ID |
ScheduledSummary | Configurable schedule | Loops through team members and triggers the weekly summary flow for each user |
ScheduledSummaryBySalesResp | Internal | Fetches one user's projects, filters for validation issues, sends a weekly summary card |
ScheduledNextWeekReport | Configurable schedule | Loops through team members and triggers the upcoming close date flow |
ScheduledNextWeekReportBySalesResp | Internal | Fetches one user's projects closing within 7 days and sends an Adaptive Card |
InvokeAutomations | Configurable schedule | Applies auto-move rules and moves projects that have exceeded the configured number of days in a stage |
Troubleshooting
Issue | Possible cause | Solution |
No notifications in Teams | User's Cinode email doesn't match their Microsoft 365 email | Align email addresses in Cinode and Microsoft 365 |
No notifications for a specific user | User isn't a member of the configured Teams team | Add the user to the Teams team |
Wrong Teams user matched | Email mismatch between Cinode and Microsoft 365 | Correct the email in Cinode |
Duplicate channels created | Channel Name Prefix not unique across runs | Adjust the Channel Name Prefix |
Notifications not triggering after a stage move | The target stage has no rules configured | Add validation rules to that stage under Rules |
Auto-move runs but no notification follows | Auto-move itself doesn't notify — only rule violations do | Expected behaviour. If the target stage has rules, the next update will trigger a notification. |
Wrong timezone for scheduled runs | No timezone set in configuration | Set the |
Frequently asked questions
Can I require multiple fields at the same pipeline stage? Yes. Add one row per required field in the Rules configuration. All rules for that stage are checked together, and all failing fields appear in the same notification.
What happens if the Teams user cannot be found? If the email on the Cinode user doesn't match any member of the selected Teams team, the notification is skipped. No error is shown to the user.
Will existing private channels be deleted if I change the prefix? No. Changing the Channel Name Prefix only affects channels created after the change. Existing channels remain untouched.
Can I disable the scheduled flows? Yes. Set Weekly Projects Check, Weekly Upcoming Period Notification, or Automations to Never to disable those flows individually.
Does the auto-move feature notify anyone? Not directly. The auto-move itself happens silently. However, if the target stage has validation rules, the project update that follows can trigger a notification.
Need help?
Contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@cinode.com.