Salesforce Forecast Categories are utilized to anticipate the probability of winning an Opportunity, with each sales stage mapped to a forecast category.
Figure classifications can be redone for a business to suit its necessities. You can see an Opportunity’s gauge classification in the Forecast Category field.
Logging Opportunities in Salesforce is a great way to build a picture of the overall pipeline, how many open Opportunities do we have, what is their value, and when will they close, the next step is to begin forecasting.
Forecasting work out the fact that they are so liable to close, in view of their stage and regardless of whether we can anticipate the income this quarter, next quarter, this year, etc.
Most organizations will have yearly or quarterly targets, and anticipating can empower them to perceive that they are so near those objectives.
What is a Forecast Category in Salesforce?
We should work a little more on the Salesforce Forecast Categories. There is another business opportunity in the absolute first phase, Prospecting.
In any case, at this early stage of the business cycle, it is difficult to accurately anticipate the chance that the Opportunity will be won. It is preferable not to depend too much on the sum of the Opportunity and in case it is lost later in the sales cycle.
Consequently, we will remember the Opportunity in the Best Case forecast category. One can even change our forecast category and exclude this Opportunity altogether.
All things considered, there is one more deal and one more open door in Negotiation/Review.
This is the sales phase before closing the Opportunity and has been working through all the previous phases of the Opportunity.
It is truly plausible that this agreement will be won to have gotten this far.
You will assign this phase of Opportunity and Opportunity to the forecast category of Commitment.
Before you go any further, on the off chance that you’re new to Opportunity Stages or Salesforce Deals Processes, check out the following guides:
- Building a Better Salesforce Sales Process
- Complete Guide & Tutorial to Salesforce Opportunity Stages
Salesforce Forecast Categories
Here is a rundown of the Forecast Categories in Salesforce:
- Pipeline
- Best Case
- Most Likely (New in Winter ‘22)
- Commit
- Closed
- Omitted
The way each forecast category is defined may be different, based on your business process and sales cycle. It is always a good idea to define the meaning of each forecast category and share it with your sales team.
How to Adjust Forecast Categories
Change the forecast category of an Opportunity stage by editing the Opportunity stage Picklist value.
Although Forecast Categories are linked to phases, it is important to note that users can change the mapped category on an Opportunity without changing the phase, as well as edit the Forecast Category field.
To use the default mapped forecast categories and prevent users from changing them, you can remove the field from the Opportunity page layout!
Viewing Forecast Categories
From the Forecast tab, the Opportunity owner can view their forecast. When a Forecast hierarchy is set up, managers can also view their teams’ forecasts. Users with the View All Forecasts permission can view all users’ forecasts.
Each forecast category will show the total Opportunity amount associated with it for the period selected, for example, the current quarter.
The Opportunity Amount will show by month. In the image below, we can see the total Opportunity amount for each category over six months, or per month.
Forecast Category Rollups
Forecasts can be either single or cumulative. Single forecasts will display the value from a single forecast category. Cumulative forecasts can be enabled and will display the value from multiple categories:
- Closed – Closed only
- Commit – Commit + Closed
- Best Case – Best Case + Commit + Closed
- Open Pipeline – Pipeline + Best Case + Commit
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