A job application tracker and a sales pipeline solve the same problem: a set of conversations sitting at different stages, most of them waiting on someone else, quietly falling apart the moment you lose track of who owes whom a reply. This guide builds both as kanban boards, using one idea to keep either from turning into a graveyard of stale rows.
Spreadsheets handle this badly. A spreadsheet shows you rows; it does not show you shape. You cannot glance at it and see that eleven things are stalled and nothing is close to closing.
This guide gives you two pipeline templates built on one principle: separate what you are waiting on from what needs action from you. That single distinction removes most of the anxiety. You can build either on a kanban board without registration in about five minutes.
The principle: waiting is not a stage
Most pipeline tracking fails at the same point. Someone creates a stage called "In Progress" or "Pending," and within two weeks it holds two-thirds of the cards. It tells you nothing, so you stop looking, and things go silent.
The fix is to make "I am blocked on them" and "I owe them something" different places on the board. Then your daily question stops being "what is the status of everything?" (an unanswerable question) and becomes "what is in my action column?"
Everything below is an application of that idea.
Template 1: Sales pipeline
For freelancers, consultants and small studios. Six columns:
Leads → Contacted → Qualified → Proposal Sent → Won → Lost / Not Now
- Leads: unqualified, no contact yet
- Contacted: you reached out, waiting on them
- Qualified: they replied and there is a concrete next step
- Proposal Sent: offer is out, waiting on a decision
- Won: signed
- Lost / Not Now: closed, with a note on which of the two it was
The Qualified column is where the value is. It means a next step exists and it is scheduled. That is a fundamentally different state from "they responded once."
Card titles that scan:
Company or name · what it is · value (optional)
Nora Studio · Landing page · €1.2k
Acme Tools · Retainer · €800/mo
Ben (referral) · App UX audit
A soft limit worth keeping: if Qualified holds more than about 15 cards, you are overcommitting. It is not a feature you toggle, just a number you notice.
Lost is not the same as Not Now
Keep them on the same column but tag the difference in the card, because they need opposite treatment. "Lost" means they chose someone else. Close it and learn from it. "Not Now" means the timing was wrong, which is the single most under-worked source of business most freelancers have.
Add a line to every Not Now card: Revisit: October 2026. Then scan that column once a month. A pipeline that recycles is worth far more than one that only moves forward.
Template 2: Job application tracker
The same structure, tuned for hiring. Seven columns:
To Apply → Applied → Recruiter Screen → Interview Loop
→ Follow-Up Needed → Offer / Negotiation → Closed
Each column is a real-world milestone, so moving a card always means something actually changed. Vague stages are why most job trackers get abandoned in week three.
What belongs on a card:
Title: Acme · Frontend Developer
Notes: Job link
Salary range mentioned: €65–75k
Recruiter: Sam Chen
Next step: follow up Friday if no reply
That last line is the one that matters. Every card should end with a next step or an explicit "waiting on them until [date]."
Follow-Up Needed is the whole system
This is the column that earns its place, and it is the direct application of the principle above.
The rule: if you are waiting on a response and the promised timeline has passed, the card moves to Follow-Up Needed.
Tuesday: Recruiter says "we'll get back to you early next week."
Next Thu: Nothing. Card moves to Follow-Up Needed.
Note added: "Email Sam, ask for update,
mention availability for next steps."
Now Follow-Up Needed is your shortlist for today. Not the whole board, only that one column. Silent stalls are among the most common reasons a job search drags on for months, and they are almost always a tracking failure rather than a rejection. It is common enough that an entire subreddit thread exists just to compare notes on how people keep from losing track.
Keep interview prep on the card
Research scatters immediately. You read about the company on Sunday and cannot find the notes on Thursday.
Put it in the card body: company notes, the two questions you want to ask, the story you plan to tell for the "tell me about a time" question. When the interview is scheduled, everything is already in one place, attached to the opportunity rather than in a notes app you will not think to open.
Running either board
The mechanics are the same regardless of which pipeline you are working.
A ten-minute weekly review, same time each week:
- Read the waiting columns top to bottom. Anything past its promised date moves to the action column.
- Read the action column. If it has more than about eight cards, you are not following up, you are collecting. Do three now.
- Close things. A card that has been silent for six weeks after two follow-ups is closed. Move it, note why, and stop carrying it.
- Check the top of the funnel. Both pipelines die the same way: you get busy with active conversations, stop adding new ones, and three weeks later the pipeline is empty.
Step four is the one people skip during the busy stretch, and it is exactly why pipelines arrive in feast-or-famine cycles.
Boards and plans. One board per pipeline is enough. The free plan gives you three boards with unlimited cards, so a sales pipeline plus a job search plus one more fits comfortably. If you run separate pipelines per client or per service line, Pro (€6/month or €60/year) removes the board limit.
Sharing. If you are working with a co-founder or a career coach, share the board with a password-protected link and choose read-only or editor access. Free boards support up to 3 members each.
Why not a spreadsheet, or a dedicated tracker app
A spreadsheet is better at arithmetic and worse at everything else that matters here.
- Shape at a glance. Eleven cards in Contacted and none in Proposal Sent is visible in one second on a board and requires reading on a sheet.
- Moving is the update. Dragging a card is the status change. In a sheet, updating status is a separate chore, so it does not happen.
- Fewer columns to maintain. Spreadsheets accumulate columns nobody fills in. Boards resist this because a column has to earn its width.
If you need revenue forecasting or weighted pipeline value, keep the sheet for that and run the board for the daily work. They are not competing for the same job.
There is also a whole category of dedicated job tracker apps that auto-import listings and log applications for you. They solve a real problem, but they ask for a signup and an inbox connection before you have decided the tool is worth keeping. A kanban board asks for none of that: open it, add the six or seven columns above, and you are tracking your first application before the auto-import tool would have finished asking for permissions.
Key takeaways
- Separate waiting from action. It is the one distinction that makes a pipeline usable.
- Follow-Up Needed is a shortlist, not a status. Look at it daily, ignore the rest.
- Every card ends with a next step or an explicit waiting-until date.
- Distinguish Lost from Not Now, and put a revisit date on Not Now.
- Refill the top of the funnel during the busy weeks, not after them.
- Close things deliberately. A silent card after two follow-ups is a closed card.
Frequently asked questions
Can I try this without creating an account?
Yes. Start a kanban board with no signup and build the pipeline immediately. It stays in your browser; sign in with GitHub or Google when you want it synced to your phone.
How many boards do I get for free?
Three boards, each with unlimited cards. That is enough room for a sales pipeline, a job search and one more project running at the same time, with no card limit to bump into while you are actively applying. Pro (€6/month or €60/year) removes the board limit entirely, along with the three-member cap on each board.
Is this a real CRM, or a replacement for a tracker app like Teal?
No, and that is deliberate. There is no email sync, no auto-import from job boards, no reporting dashboard. For a solo freelancer, a two-person studio, or someone applying to a handful of roles a week, that machinery is usually the reason the CRM or the tracker app goes unused after the first week. If you need forecasting, automation or auto-imported listings, you need one of those instead.
Can I share the board with a client or a coach?
Yes. Generate a password-protected share link and choose read-only access for a client who only needs visibility, or editor access for a coach who wants to leave notes directly on cards. Free boards support up to three members each; Pro removes that limit if you are running several coaching relationships at once.
Can I export the pipeline?
Export to CSV or PDF is a Pro feature, useful for a snapshot to hand a mentor or the raw numbers for tracking your interview rate over time. On the free plan the board itself is fully usable for daily tracking, just without that one-click export button.