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Creating a Personal Forecast Series Without Details

The personal forecast without details allows sales representatives and managers to participate in the forecasting process. The personal forecast without details is an example of a rollup forecast.

The personal forecast without details offers a compromise between the global forecast and the personal forecast with details. It is faster than the personal forecast with details, while allowing less intervention and adjustment.

The personal forecast without details:

• Rolls up from the bottom to the top of an organization, one level at a time
• Automatically creates missing subordinate forecasts when the manager forecasts
• Summarizes subordinates' forecast information for the manager
• Allows a manager to prorate an end user's contribution to the manager's forecast totals
• Provides the manager with forecast details for subordinates only when they drill down into the subordinate's forecast record

The sales managers may not be especially concerned about the details; they are primarily interested in the revenue potential of each subordinate.

Like the personal forecast with details, the personal forecast without details has many participants, each of whom must create a forecast or have one created for them. In large organizations, this approach to forecasting can take a long time, as each level of the reporting structure needs some time to create, review, and adjust their forecasts.

NOTE:  Personal forecasts tend to have fairly high maintenance requirements. Although the participant lists are position-based, they still require updating as positions are added or removed from the Siebel application.

Use the personal forecast without details if:

• Managers will only adjust the total revenues, and not the sales representative's forecast details
• There are many opportunities, with fairly low revenue amounts
• Managers want the forecast summaries rolled up on a monthly basis

Do not use the personal forecast without details if:

• Managers need to be more involved with opportunities
• Managers need to adjust the details without the end user's knowledge

Because the managers do not have access to the details, they cannot change the details. Managers can only add a subordinate's contribution to their forecast. Forecast details are revenue line items, and there is a forecast summary that is rolled up monthly.

Example: Company XYZ closes a large number of opportunities each quarter. Each opportunity has a small dollar value. The managers are rarely involved in these opportunities, and would prefer summary level information to seeing every detail. The manager and the sales representative review the Revenues list view on a regular basis and make their changes directly in that view. The managers want to see, for each of their subordinates, a monthly commit number which is somewhat arbitrary and not always based on the end user's forecastable revenues for that forecast period.

To create a personal forecast series without details

1. Navigate to the Administration - Forecast screen > Forecast Administration view.
2. Create a forecast series.

   For information, see Creating a Forecast Series.

3. In the new forecast series, from the Detail Depth drop-down list, select Summary Only.

   This causes the end user's forecast detail records to be summarized in the manager's forecast.

4. From the Visibility drop-down list, select My Revenues.

   This restricts the end user's forecast to his or her own revenue records.

5. Click the Forecast Series Dates view tab and add forecast dates.

   For information about adding dates, see Defining Forecast Series Dates.

6. Click the Forecast Series Participants view tab and add the appropriate end users.

   For information about adding participants, see Adding Forecast Series Participants.