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Sales > Opportunities > About Opportunities and Forecasts
About Opportunities and Forecasts
An opportunity is a potential revenue-generating transaction that can be included in your sales forecast when it reaches a specific point in your sales process. For an opportunity or product revenue record to be considered for inclusion in a forecast, the record must have a close date within the forecast period and be owned by a forecast participant. The forecast periods and participants are determined as part of the forecast definition. For more information about forecasts, see Forecasts.
NOTE: Your company can set up different sales processes for different roles and different opportunity types. The sales process based on the opportunity type overrides the default sales process based on your user role. When you create an opportunity, the default sales process for your user role is assigned to the opportunity. If you select an opportunity type that has an assigned sales process, then the sales process for the opportunity is determined by the opportunity type you selected.
Tips for Managing Your Opportunity Records
Updating your opportunity information as you work to close a deal facilitates clear team communication and ensures accurate forecasts and reports. It is particularly important to keep certain fields on the Opportunity Detail page up to date:
- The Revenue, Close Date, and Sales Stage fields are critical for tracking pipeline history and are used for trend analyses and forecasting.
- If your company bases its forecasts on opportunities, select the Forecast check box on an opportunity record to add the opportunity to your forecasted revenue at the appropriate time in the sales process. If your company bases its forecasts on products, select the Forecast check box on your linked products instead.
Sales Stages
Every sales process is defined by specific stages. Each sales stage has certain activities and deliverables, or tasks that must be completed before the opportunity is advanced to the next sales stage. As you work on an opportunity, you evaluate it against clearly defined criteria for each stage in your company's sales cycle.
- As criteria are met, update the Sales Stage field in your opportunity record.
- The Probability percentage field on the opportunity record displays a value related to the selected sales stage for the opportunity by default. You can change this value, if needed, to better reflect your particular opportunity while it is in that sales stage. However, when the sales stage changes, the value in the Probability percentage field is automatically updated to the default probability value for the new sales stage, unless the Mass Update feature is used to change the sales stage. If you use the Mass Update feature to change the value in the Sales Stage field on one or more records, then the value in the Probability percentage field on the records is not updated to the default probability percentage for the new sales stage.
- The Expected Revenue field displays a currency value that is calculated based on the Revenue field multiplied by the value in the Probability percentage field. This figure is used for forecasting.
- Update the Next Step field to reflect the criteria for the next stage in the sales cycle.
About Sales Stages in Searches and List Filters
The sales stages that you can select in search criteria and list filters are determined as follows:
- In a targeted search of the Opportunity record type in the Action bar, if the Sales Stage field is available as a search field, then you can select only the sales stages that are associated with the sales process that is specified for your user role, or the sales stages for the default sales process, if no sales process is specified for your role. The available sales stages are not limited by the opportunity type, even if the Opportunity Type field is available as a search field in the Action bar, and you select an opportunity type for the search.
- In an advanced search of the Opportunity record type, you can select any of the sales stages that exist in Oracle CRM On Demand as filter values for the Sales Stage field. The available filter values are not limited to the sales stages for a specific sales process, even if a default sales process is specified for your role, or you select an opportunity type as a filter for the search.
- When setting up a list filter for the Opportunity record type, you can select any of the sales stages that exist in Oracle CRM On Demand as filter values for the Sales Stage field. The available filter values are not limited to the sales stages for a specific sales process, even if a default sales process is specified for your role, or you select an opportunity type as a filter for the list.
Forecasting
When Oracle CRM On Demand generates forecasts, it determines which records, fields, and data to include according to your forecasting method. If certain conditions are met, it includes those records in the forecasts:
- Close Date. Oracle CRM On Demand verifies that the close date for the opportunity or product revenue record falls within the forecast period:
- If your company's forecasts are based on opportunity revenue, the opportunity record (either alone or linked to products) must show a close date that falls within the forecast period.
- If your company's forecasts are based on product revenue, the product revenue record must show a close date that falls within the forecast period.
- Expected Revenue. Oracle CRM On Demand calculates the expected revenue forecast data, as follows:
Calculates the total for the Expected Revenue fields in either the opportunity or product revenue records and displays the sum in the Expected Revenue field in the Forecast record.
NOTE: For the opportunity expected revenue to accurately reflect expected revenue based on opportunity products, the Product Probability Averaging Enabled option must be selected on the company profile. Enabling the averaging functionality for the product probability ensures that the probability percentage (as recorded in the Probability % field) for each product revenue record is included as part of the calculation. Also, unless the Enable Automatic Update of Opportunity Totals option is selected on the company profile, you must click the Update Opportunity Totals button to update the expected revenue of the opportunity. For more information about updating opportunity totals, see Linking Products to Opportunities.
- Pipeline. Oracle CRM On Demand calculates the pipeline forecast data, as follows: it calculates the total for the Revenue fields in either the opportunity or product revenue records for all prospective deals within the forecast period, regardless of the status, and displays the sum in the Pipeline field in the forecast record.
NOTE: For recurring product revenues, only the revenue amount that pertains to the forecast period is included, not the total product revenue.
- Forecast. Oracle CRM On Demand retrieves the Revenue field data from records with the Forecast check box selected and displays the sum in the Forecast field in the forecast record:
- If your company bases its forecasts on opportunities, opportunity records with the Forecast check box selected are included.
- If your company bases its forecasts on products, product revenue records with the Forecast check box selected are included.
NOTE: The Forecast flag indicates that there is a high probability that the opportunity will close. So, when this flag is selected, the corresponding revenue is included in your forecasted revenue totals.
The Forecast flag does not determine whether an opportunity or product revenue record is part of your overall forecast record.
- Closed Revenue. Oracle CRM On Demand retrieves Revenue field data from records with a sales stage of Closed-Won and displays the total in the Closed Revenue field of the Forecast record:
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