Open-Deal Next-Step Enforcer

The problem this kills

You tell your team the same thing in every pipeline review: "Every deal needs a next step." And every week, deals still go dark. A rep forgets to set one. A next step quietly slips into the past and nobody notices. A six-figure deal sits in negotiation with no planned action and no due date, and you only find out when it's already cold.

You can't enforce a rule by repeating it. You need something that actually checks every open deal, catches the ones with no future-dated next step, and chases the owner before the deal stalls. Most teams can't get that built - it's "too small" for IT and too fiddly for a spreadsheet. So the rule stays a slogan.

What you'll build

A small internal web app - just for your team - that does the nagging for you:

• Imports your open deals from a CSV or Google Sheet (owner, stage, amount, next-step action, due date).
• Detects the gaps: deals with no next step, deals where the next step has no due date, and deals where the due date is already in the past (a past-due next step counts as missing).
• Nudges the owners by email - only during business hours - with a direct link to fix it.
• Lets reps set or update the next step right in the app, or explicitly log "no next step needed" as a deliberate, recorded choice.
• Routes the stragglers to you. Deals still missing a next step after the nudge land in a manager review queue, where you approve any escalation or status change before it's committed.
• Exports clean CSVs - the updated next steps in the exact columns your CRM expects, plus an exception report of what's still open.

What's inside the Implementation Plan

The plan is a single file you paste into an AI coding agent. It walks the agent through the whole build, step by step, and it opens by interviewing you about your business - your stages, your owners, the real names of your fields, how far out a next step is allowed to be, and your messy exceptions. That interview is the point: the tool gets tailored to how your pipeline actually works, instead of being a generic template you have to bend yourself around. The agent reads back a short spec, you give it a thumbs-up, and only then does it start building.

Inside you'll find:

• A required discovery interview that shapes the data model and rules to your pipeline.
• The full build in copy-paste prompts - database, import, the gap-detection rules, the rep screens, the manager review queue, and the email nudges.
• A business-hours-aware nudge engine so reps don't get pinged at 11pm.
• A duplicate guard keyed on deal ID, with one open next-step record per deal.
• The CSV-export fallback so the tool is fully usable today, even with no live CRM integration.
• A verification checklist so you know it actually works before you trust it.

The governance it includes (this is the point)

This isn't a script that quietly rewrites your pipeline. It's built so you stay in control:

• Login - only your team can open the tool.
• Row-level security - people only ever see their own organization's deals.
• A complete audit trail - who set which next step, who skipped one, who escalated, and exactly when.
• A hard human-in-the-loop gate - the tool drafts and flags, reps set next steps, and a manager reviews every remaining exception before any escalation or status change is committed. Nothing touches your system of record automatically.
• Duplicate guards - the same deal can't be processed twice; one open next-step record per deal.

Who it's for

Front-line sales managers who keep saying "every deal needs a next step" and have no way to enforce it. If you run pipeline reviews, own a number, and are tired of watching deals stall because nobody planned the next move, this is for you. You don't need to write code - you need an afternoon and the willingness to paste a few prompts.

You've got this - paste the first prompt and let the agent interview you.