Enable Forecasting

You must enable forecasting if you want salespeople to predict future sales. When you first implement forecasting, you have a schedule of quarterly forecasts with monthly submissions.

The forecast periods extend one year into the future. You can modify these initial settings at any time.

Here are initial settings in the Forecast Period Parameters region of the Select Forecasting Options page used to generate your forecast submission windows.

Field	Explanation	Provided Values
Forecast Period	Each forecast includes only those opportunities set to close in the forecast period.	Quarter
Adjustment Period	This read-only field displays the type of period you selected when you set up your accounting calendar. Typically and for Vision Corp. this is a month.	This field isn't editable.
Forecast Frequency	The number of submission windows you want for each forecast period.	`3`
First Forecast Due Date	The date you want the first submission window to end relative to the forecast period. The application takes the forecast snapshot at the end of the day.	For the first forecast submission window to end on the last day of the first month in each quarter, you see `31`days After the forecast period start date.
First Territory Freeze Date	The number of days before the end date when you want the submission window to start. Any sales territory changes after this freeze date are ignored and applied only to subsequent forecasting windows.	For the forecast submission windows to start at the beginning of each month, the number provided is `31`.
Number of Concurrent Forecasts	A concurrent forecast is where two or more forecast periods can both be updated at the same time.	This field is set to `1` and the scheduled forecasts are generated with no gaps in between forecasts freeze dates and due dates. The freeze date of the first forecast is set to the due date of the next scheduled forecast.
Number of Scheduled Periods	The number of forecast periods you want to view. Managers can only adjust the forecast for the current period during the submission windows you generated, but you can view the forecasts for subsequent periods.	The number of forecast periods is set to `4` for the whole year.

These additional options were also set for you.

Opportunity items that match the forecasting criteria are added to the forecast according to their scheduled close dates. the provided forecast criteria is win probability greater than or equal to 70 percent.
Selecting the Enable Forecast Criteria Override option makes it possible for salespeople or their managers to include or exclude an opportunity from a forecast regardless of its win probability. It wasn't selected for you when you enabled forecasting. Select the option if you're following the Getting Started use case. Then salespeople can make a selection from the Include in Forecast list while editing an opportunity.
The Enable overlay forecasting option is deselected.
The Enable Product Totals option was selected for you. Users can adjust forecasts by product rather than by territories. Selecting this option displays the Products tab in the Edit Forecasts window where users can make the adjustments.
The number of sales catalog levels you can edit in the Products tab is set to 2 in the Product Hierarchy Depth field.
Pipeline and Closed Revenue metrics were enabled. The Forecasts landing page displays a Forecast Overview chart that compares your forecast with won revenue and open pipeline. It also displays a second bar chart that shows your forecast by time periods.

Enable Forecasting

To enable forecasting:

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the following:
- Offering: Sales
- Functional Area: Forecasting
- Task: Select Forecasting Options
Select Enable Forecasting.
Click Submit.
Background processes run to generate your forecasts and are scheduled to run periodically to keep your forecast up to date.

You can work in your generated forecasts. You can also navigate to Select Forecasting Options and make changes to options and to forecast period dates.