Salesforce's Collaborative Forecasting feature empowers sales teams and organizations to collaborate in crafting more precise sales projections. A forecast represents the anticipated sales figures derived from aggregating a group of potential opportunities. The forecasts displayed on the forecast page represent cumulative values, including both total amounts and subtotals, of the opportunities categorized within forecast groups. Within the forecasts grid, forecasts are categorized based on rollup methods, time periods, and optionally, product families and territories. These forecasts may incorporate adjustments made by forecast managers to the forecasts of their team members and also adjustments made by individual users to their own forecast projections.
Set Up Collaborative Forecasts
Starting in Winter ‘24, Collaborative Forecasts is automatically enabled with default settings. In orgs created before Winter ‘24, you can manually enable Collaborative Forecasts. Follow the below steps to set up collaborative forecasting:
Visit the Forecasts Settings page in Salesforce Setup to update the configuration to meet your business processes.
If Collaborative Forecasts isn’t enabled, enable it.
Update default settings (if necessary) for the below criteria:
Forecast Type: Select the Object, Measure, Date, Hierarchy, Role Filters, and any custom columns to include in the forecast.
Adjustments: Enabling this feature lets forecast managers and users edit forecasts without affecting the data in the related opportunities.
Forecast Rollups: Choose between a Single forecast rollup category, which combines the opportunities within each forecast category into separate forecasts for each category, or Cumulative forecast rollups, which combine opportunities from multiple forecast categories into cumulative forecast categories.
Currency: Org currency
Date Range: Select a date range for the forecast by choosing the forecast period and the date the forecast begins.
Show Quotas: Show a quota column, attainment percentages, and progress bars on the Forecasts page.
Forecast Types
Forecast Types refer to a specific method or approach used to create and manage sales forecasts. Salesforce provides several predefined forecast types that organizations can choose from based on their business needs. Below is a summary chart detailing each forecast type and field/measure considerations:
OBJECT | MEASURE | DATE TYPE | HIERARCHY |
Opportunity |
|
|
|
Opportunity Product (Used for product family grouping and required for product date forecasts) |
|
|
|
Opportunity Split (Required for opportunity splits forecasts) |
|
|
|
Opportunity Product Split** (Required for opportunity product splits forecasts) |
|
|
|
Line Item Schedule (Used for product family grouping and required for schedule date forecasts) |
|
|
|
Forecast Rollup Methods
There are two forecast rollup methods used to calculate and consolidate sales forecasts from individual opportunities and team members into a larger, more comprehensive forecast for a higher-level organizational view.
Single Forecast Category: combines the opportunities within each forecast category into separate forecasts for each category.
Cumulative Forecast: combines opportunities from multiple forecast categories into cumulative forecast categories.
Below is a visual representation of each rollup method:
Single Category:
Column Name | Opportunities Included |
Pipeline | Pipeline |
Best Case | Best Case |
Commit | Commit |
Closed | Closed |
Cumulative:
Column Name | Opportunities Included |
Open Pipeline |
|
Best Case Forecast |
|
Commit Forecast |
|
Closed Only |
|
Forecast Adjustments and Manager Judgments
Enabling this feature grants sales teams the ability to fine-tune their predictions by enabling both managers and forecast users to adjust rollup values. Moreover, it empowers first-line forecast managers to exercise their judgment when evaluating opportunities owned by their direct reports. It's important to note that managerial input is specifically supported for forecast types based on opportunity, opportunity product, and line item schedule objects, ensuring a higher level of precision in your forecasting process.
Below are the steps for enabling adjustments:
From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Forecasts Settings, and then select Forecasts Settings.
Edit the Enable Adjustments and Judgments section.
To let forecast managers adjust the forecasts of their immediate subordinates and child territories, select Manager adjustments.
To let all forecast users adjust their own forecasts, including the territory forecasts that they own, select Owner adjustments.
Save your changes.
Ensure that each user who adjusts forecasts has the Override Forecasts user permission in their profile.
Below are the steps for enabling manager judgements:
From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Forecasts Settings, and then select Forecasts Settings.
Edit the Enable Adjustments and Judgments section and select Manager Judgments.
To change the picklist values that are available in the Manager Judgment field in the forecasts opportunity list, edit the values in the provided table.
Save your changes.
For each forecast type that you want to allow manager judgments in, edit the forecast type’s opportunity list to include the Manager Judgment column.
Ensure that each forecast manager has the Override Forecasts user permission in their profile.
Manage Opportunity-Stage-to-Forecast-Category Mappings
To update the forecast category for each stage in Salesforce, you'll need to modify your Opportunity Stage settings. Here are the steps:
Navigate to Setup
In the Quick Find box on the left-hand side, type "Opportunity Stages" and select it from the search results.
Click the "Edit" link next to the stage you want to update.
Locate the "Forecast Category" field. Click the dropdown menu next to "Forecast Category" to select the desired category from the available options.
Click the "Save" button to save your changes.