Print      Open PDF Version of Online Help

Sales > Forecasts > Managing Forecasts > Reviewing Forecasts

Reviewing Forecasts

Forecasts are generated automatically either weekly or monthly, according to your company’s business process. Each time a new forecast is generated you receive an alert on My Homepage. After you receive the notification, review your forecast. When reviewing your forecast, the forecast summary months align with your company’s fiscal calendar definition. If you are using a fiscal calendar such as 4-4-5, 5-4-4, or custom fiscal calendars, your company’s forecast periods may not necessarily correspond to a Gregorian calendar. Therefore, if an Opportunity falls in the calendar month of June, it does not mean that it will be forecasted as part of the fiscal month of June. For more information about custom fiscal calendars, see About Fiscal Calendars.

NOTE: When using custom fiscal calendars, the forecast periods are based on the fiscal years and months defined by your company administrator.

To review forecasts

1. Click the Forecasts tab.

   The Forecast Homepage shows forecast summary information that includes Status, Pipeline, and Closed Revenue. You can sort the forecast summary by status, forecast date, or owner (managers only). Pipeline is not applicable to account or contact revenue forecasts.

2. In the Forecast Homepage section, click the Forecast Date link for the forecast you want to review.
3. On the Forecast Detail page, review the information in the following sections:
   • Forecast Summary. This section summarizes forecasts by fiscal quarter and month. The Forecast Summary list provides information on Quota, Closed Revenue, Quota %, Forecast amount, Best Case, Pipeline, and Expected Revenue. You can sort the summary list by month.

     Team’s Summary by Month. This section shows a list of forecasts for each team member. If you are a manager, you will see the forecast Month, Quota %, Forecast amount, Closed Revenue, Best Case, Pipeline and Last Updated date by Owner Alias (team member). If you drill down on a specific team member's row within the Team's Summary, the corresponding forecast detail page for the selected user appears. On this page you see the team member's individual forecast summary and forecasted revenue in the My Opportunities, My Revenues, or My Products section.

     NOTE: For Account and Contact Revenue forecast types the summary sections do not include Pipeline, Best Case, or Expected Revenue.

   • Team's Product Summary. (Opportunity Product forecast type only) This section shows a list of forecasted products for each team member. If you are a manager, you will see the Closed Quantity, Forecasted Quantity, Pipeline Quantity, Closed Revenue and Expected Revenue by Owner Alias (team member) and product. If you drill into a specific team member's row within the Team's Product Summary, the corresponding forecast detail page for the selected user appears. Here you will see their individual Forecast Summary and forecasted quantities by Product in the My Products section.

     NOTE: The Forecast Detail page shows only five of your team's records. To view the entire list of records, click Show Full List under the Team's Summary by Month section.

   • My Opportunities. If you are using the Opportunity Revenue forecast type, this section appears as part of your forecast detail. This section lists current opportunities, and indicates whether the opportunity is forecasted. It also shows the Close Date, Account Name, Revenue amount, current Sales Stage, and Next Step, if specified, for each opportunity.
   • My Revenues. If you are using the Opportunity Product, Account or Contact Revenue forecast type, this section appears as part of your forecast detail. This section lists current revenues, and indicates whether the revenue record has been forecasted by the owner (forecast flag selected). It also shows the Start and Close date, Product name, Revenue amount, and Account Name for each revenue record that you enter.

     Additional columns might be displayed in the My Revenues section, depending on the revenue type being forecasted.

     For opportunity product revenue forecasts, the following columns are displayed:

     • Opportunity Name
     • Sales Stage

       For account and contact revenue forecasts, the following columns are displayed:

     • Product Category
     • Status
     • Contact Name
   • My Products. If you are using the Opportunity Product forecast type, this section appears as part of your forecast detail. A row for each product forecasted is listed along with the corresponding product category, closed quantity, forecasted quantity, pipeline quantity, closed revenue, and expected revenue. These values are the sum of all forecasted opportunities for the selected user forecast. To see the forecasted opportunities associated with a specific product, click the product name.

     NOTE: If you are using the Opportunity Product forecast type, you can also view all forecasted opportunities within a specific product category by clicking the Product Category field.

     You can verify the forecast type that was used in a forecast and that was based on the Type field in the Forecast information section.

Viewing and Editing Forecasts Using a Different Currency

The View In currency conversion feature allows you to specify in which currency you want to display your forecast. For more information on viewing and editing forecasts in different currencies, see Viewing and Editing a Forecast Using a Different Currency.