FORECASTS: ASSESSING YOUR POSITION
Summary
A forecast is your best
estimate of the revenue you
can generate in a fiscal
quarter. With Salesforce,
forecasting is intuitive and
accurate.
This tip sheet applies to Forecasts (Classic) only.
Forecasting Categories and Relationships
Each opportunity is forecast with one of the following Forecast Categories:
How are
Opportunities
Counted in a
Forecast?
•
Each opportunity has a
Forecast Category that
determines its
contribution to the
forecast.
•
An opportunity’s Close
Date determines its
forecast month.
•
The opportunity
Amount is added to a
forecast (not the
Expected Amount).
•
Updating the opportunity
Stage updates the
Forecast Category.
•
Administrators correlate
the opportunity Stage
picklist with default
Forecast Categories.
Last updated: June 2, 2017
Forecasts: Assessing Your Position
Creating a Forecast
Creating a Forecast
What Gets
Recalculated?
When you click Recalculate,
your forecast numbers are
recalculated based on:
•
The Amount value of
the opportunities in each
Forecast Category,
•
Any Forecast Category
changes you have made
to your opportunities,
and
•
If you are a manager,
any changes your team
has made to their
forecasts.
Tracking Forecast
Changes
•
Forecast changes are
tracked in the Forecast
History related list of a
Forecast detail page.
•
Entries show date, time,
what changed, and user
name.
•
The Forecast History
report displays the state
of a forecast after each
change.
When you create a forecast, your opportunities automatically roll into that forecast.
1. Select Forecast from the Create New drop-down list in the sidebar.
2. Choose the year and quarter for the forecast, and then click Next. The fiscal year is based on your
organization’s Fiscal Year setting.
3. Enter your quota for each of the months in the quarter.
4. Verify, and adjust if necessary, the Forecast Category for the opportunities within the forecast. If you
change any of the Forecast Category values, be sure to Recalculate before you continue.
5. If necessary, adjust the estimates for the Commit Amount and Best Case Amount for each
month in the quarter. Managers’ estimates include the amount of revenue they and their entire team
can generate.
6. Click Save.
Note: Creating a quota via personal settings also generates that quarter’s forecast.
Editing a Forecast
To change your quota, recalculate the forecast numbers, or change the Forecast Category for an opportunity,
click Edit from the Forecast detail page.
1. For each opportunity, adjust the Forecast Category value, if necessary.
2. To see the resulting changes to the forecast numbers, click Recalculate.
3. If necessary, adjust Quota, Commit Amount, and Best Case Amount.
4. Click Save. This saves the recalculated totals and any changes you have made to quotas, the Commit
Amount and Best Case Amount columns, or to the Forecast Category for specific opportunities.
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