Opportunity forecasting

Opportunity forecasting adds a Forecast tab inside Opportunities for estimating revenue from your open deals. It is currently available through Labs, so its controls and labels may change.

Instead of counting every open quote as a sure thing, the forecast weights each opportunity by its probability, using the stage probability or a manual override. For a roofing company or HVAC contractor with many open estimates, this gives a more realistic view of how much revenue is likely and when it might come in.

What the Forecast tab includes

• Summary view: metrics such as maximum potential revenue, expected revenue and won revenue. Click a metric to see the opportunities behind it.
• Timeline view: forecasted revenue by week, month or quarter, based on each opportunity's expected close date.
• Risk levels: high, medium and low labels that flag deals whose timing is slipping or overdue.
• Filters and grouping by pipeline, owner and other criteria.
• Data hygiene insights that point out missing values, missing dates and stale opportunities.

Getting accurate forecasts

Keep expected close dates current as timing changes, because a missing or outdated date can put revenue in the wrong period. Fill in opportunity values and probabilities so the weighting reflects reality, and review high-risk deals first.

Your dashboards can also include a funnel widget, which shows how opportunities move through pipeline stages along with conversion rates. A stages distribution widget shows where open opportunities sit right now, with won and lost shown separately. Sales velocity divides total won value by the average sales cycle to show how quickly deals turn into revenue.