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Setting Up Forecast Generation

Sales employees and their managers need to regularly measure how they are progressing against quarterly sales goals. Forecasts in Siebel CRM On Demand automate the generation of sales forecasts; when a forecast is generated, the system alerts employees that the forecast has been created and is ready for review.

Every forecast is a snapshot of information about revenue and potential revenue for the quarter. Forecasts enable sales professionals and managers to track their quarterly sales performance against planned quotas, actual closed revenue, and expected revenue, given the current status of their sales opportunities.

Your company can base its forecasts on either opportunities or products, but not both. There are four types of forecasts: Opportunity Revenue, Product Revenue, Account Revenue, and Contact Revenue. When you select the forecast settings for your company, you determine which of these four types your entire company will use.

  • Opportunity revenue forecast

    This type of forecast reports on the revenue listed in the opportunity records. The forecast numbers are calculated from the Revenue and Expected Revenue fields on all opportunity records that have the Forecast check box selected, and have a close date within the current quarter.

    Set up this type of forecast if you want to forecast total opportunity revenue, regardless of how much revenue comes from individual products.

  • Product, account, and contact revenue forecasts

    These types of forecasts report on the revenue listed on products linked to opportunity, account, or contact records. The forecast numbers are calculated from the Revenue and Expected Revenue fields on all products that have the Forecast check box selected, and have revenue that is scheduled to be recognized in the current quarter. The revenue for a product can be reported at one time, or it can be set up to recur over time.

    Set up a product, account, or contact revenue forecast if your company wants to forecast one-time or recurring product revenue.

Each forecast type requires sales employees to take different actions. Make sure to tell your sales employees which type of forecast you set up before they begin creating opportunity, account, and contact records.

  • Opportunity revenue forecasts require sales representatives to fill in opportunity revenue fields and indicate which opportunities they want to include in their forecasts; any linked products are ignored.
  • Product revenue forecasts require sales representatives to link products to their opportunity records. Account revenue and Contact revenue forecasts require them to link products to their account or contact records. In all three cases, sales representatives must fill in the product revenue fields, and indicate which products they want to add to their forecasts.

According to the settings you define, forecasts are generated automatically on either a weekly or monthly basis. Each generated forecast is saved to the archive, providing a historical record for reference and analysis.

After the system generates a forecast, an alert appears on the My Homepage for each participant for two days. To extend the period the alert appears, update the Expiration Date field for that alert. For instructions, see Publishing Company-Wide Alerts.

To be included in the forecast, an opportunity must:

  • Have a close date in this quarter
  • Be owned by a forecast participant

    Participants in forecast generation are chosen by role. Your company's reporting structure, and the roles you choose for the forecast participants, must be set up so that the forecasts of the participants roll up to one top-level user. Typically this top-level user is a company vice-president or CEO.

  • Have the Forecast check box on the opportunity record selected

To be included in the forecast, a product must have the Forecast check box on the product record selected

Some additional conditions must be met for a record's values to contribute to your company's forecast revenue. For detailed information, see About Opportunities and Forecasts.

You can configure forecasts to display revenue projections for up to four quarters. With the extended forecast capability, you can view a forecast for the current quarter, and for the following one, two, or three quarters.

By default, all the existing forecast definitions are set to one quarter (only the current quarter is included in the forecast). When you change the duration setting to include multiple quarters, the forecast includes the current quarter as well as future quarters. For example, if you select a two-quarter forecast duration, the forecast includes the current quarter and the next quarter.

Before you begin:

  • The users that you intend to include in your company's forecasts must be set up correctly. Their user records must have:
    • A valid value in the Role field
    • A valid value in the Reports To field
    • The Status set to Active

      If any of the users included in the forecast is not set up correctly, the entire forecast fails.

  • The method you choose for forecasting must be publicized so that your employees fill in the needed information on the correct pages. You can also customize your fields to ensure your employees enter the information by making some fields read-only or required. For example, if your company calculates its forecasts on products instead of opportunities, make the Forecast check box on the Opportunity Edit page uneditable. This indicates to the users that they need to indicate which records are included in forecast on the Product Revenue page.

To set up or update forecast generation

  1. In the upper right corner of any page, click the Admin global link.
  2. In the Business Process Management section, click the Data Rules & Assignment link.
  3. Click the Forecast Definition link.
  4. On the Forecast Definition page, click Update.
  5. In Step 1:
    1. Select the Forecast Type.

      Your company can forecast revenue based on opportunity, account, contact, or product revenue.

    2. Specify when to Create the Forecast Snapshot.

      Set the forecast frequency to create weekly or monthly forecasts.

    3. Set the Forecast Duration.
  6. In Step 2, select the Forecast Snapshot Day.

    The forecast is generated at the start of the selected day (that is, at one minute past midnight) in the time zone of the hosting facility. Forecasts cannot be generated on the 29th, 30th, or the 31st of the month.

  7. In Step 3, add the roles for those who are to participate in the forecast to the Forecasting Roles area.

    Using the directional arrows, move Company Roles to the Forecast Roles list.

  8. Click Finish.
  9. (Optional) Review the list of participants in the forecast on the Forecast Definition page.

    If the forecast fails to generate because of a problem with the reporting structure, the Primary Contact administrator (indicated on the Company Profile) receives an email notification. After the reporting structure has been corrected and the forecast has been updated, the forecast is automatically generated that night, even though it is not the usual forecast night.

    NOTE: After you have initially set up your forecast generation, two actions will always require you to update your forecast settings: adding or removing employees from the roles included in the forecast, and changing the name in the Reports To field on a participant's User Details page to someone not included in your forecast.

    When you add or remove employees from roles, click the Update button on the Forecast Definition page, and then click through the three-step setup wizard to update the forecast. This refreshes your list of forecast participants.

    When you change the name in a participant's Reports To field, make sure that the role that includes the new manager is selected for the forecast. The forecast participant hierarchy must include managers for everyone except the person at the top level. If the role assigned to the new manager is not one that you included when setting up the forecast, simply add it in Step 3 of the setup wizard.

    Click Finish to complete the update. You will then see a page that lists the forecast participants, which will include the updates that you made.

Examples of Reporting Structures and Roles for Forecasting

The correct setup of your company's reporting structure is critical for forecast generation. All forecast participants, except for one top-level user, must report to another forecast participant, so that all individual forecasts roll up to one company-wide forecast.

Also, if any user with participants beneath him on the hierarchy has a status of Inactive, the forecast fails.

The following table shows reporting structure and participant role combinations that work and don't work for forecast generation.

For This Reporting Structure

Forecasting Works/Fails

Because

OnDemand Linked Graphics Template

Works with this role combination:

  • Executive
  • Sales Manager
  • Field Sales Rep

Participants roll up to one top-level participant.

Fails with this role combination:

  • Sales Manager
  • Field Sales Rep

Participants do not roll up to one participant. They roll up to two sales managers.

Fails with this role combination:

  • Executive
  • Field Sales Rep

The field sales reps roll up to a sales manager who is not a participant.

OnDemand Linked Graphics Template

Works with this role combination:

  • Executive
  • Sales Manager
  • Field Sales Rep

Participants roll up to one participant.

OnDemand Linked Graphics Template

Fails with this role combination:

  • Executive
  • Sales Manager
  • Field Sales Rep

Two participants report to no one. Only one participant in the forecast (at the top of the structure) can report to no one.


Published May 2008