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Feature Availability

Introduction

The Forecasts and Quotas feature lets you set goals for a sales team and for each member of the sales team. They can be set for a given financial period, say a month, quarter, or year. You can view Forecast and Quota by going to Main Menu > Sales > Forecast and Quota.
You need to enable the Forecast and Quota in Settings > Module Management > Module to view the feature under the Sales app.
Note: You can use Vtiger CRM’s Sales Insights to view the sales team’s performance and productivity. To learn more about Sales Insights, click here.

Benefits

The benefits of using the Forecasts and Quotas feature are:

• Forecasting facilitates managerial decisions, helps identify peak and lean periods, and facilitates better management of sales pipelines.
• Forecasting helps in setting expectations for internal and external stakeholders and facilitates proactive planning by considering the peak and lean periods.
• Quotas can be used to measure the performance of sales team members, for instance, by the number of deals they close or the amount of revenue they generate.

Navigating to Forecast and Quota Settings

Follow these steps to navigate to Forecast and Quota Settings:

1. Log in to the CRM. 
2. Click the User Menu on the top right corner of the screen.
3. Click Settings.
4. Look for the Marketing & Sales section.
5. Select Forecast and Quota Settings.

The setting is accessible only to Admin users. You can also access Forecast and Quota Settings by clicking the Settings option displayed on the Forecast page.
Note: Forecast Hierarchy is not the same as role-based hierarchy in Vtiger CRM. 

Forecast and Quota Hierarchy

Forecast and Quota Hierarchy is the tree structure of your team. You need to build your team hierarchy before you start setting up forecasts and quotas.

Adding users to Forecast and quota hierarchy

Follow these steps to add users to your team hierarchy:

1. Log in to the CRM. 
2. Click the main Menu.
3. Go to Sales.
4. Select Forecast and Quota.
5. Click the Settings icon on the top right of the page.
6. Click the Forecast and Quota Hierarchy tab.
7. Drag and drop users from the right column on the hierarchy to add them.

To delete a user from the hierarchy, hover on the user’s name and click the Delete icon.
Note: Settings are not accessible by Standard users.

Configuring Forecast and Quota Settings

Before setting up forecasts and quotas, you must set up your team hierarchy, the forecast period, and the forecast category. 

Forecast and quota period

You have the option of configuring the Fiscal first period based on the financial year and not the calendar year. You can configure the financial year in Settings > Company Details using the Financial Year Starts in Month field. 
Here are a few points to note:

• The difference between Calendar Quarters and Fiscal Quarters.
  • Calendar quarters correspond to the standard calendar year. This means that the first quarter always begins with January 1st and the fourth quarter ends with December 31st.  
  • Fiscal quarters coincide with a company's fiscal year – and they don't always align with a calendar year. 
• Non-standard Fiscal Quarters
  • If a company’s fiscal quarters don’t align with regular fiscal calendar years (shown above), it has non-standard fiscal quarters. Non-standard fiscal quarters are common for companies with highly seasonal revenue streams. 
  • Consider the following examples:
    • A children’s toy company may generate over half of its net revenue during Q4.
    • Apple’s fiscal quarters cover the following months:  
      • Q1: October, November, December
      • Q2: January, February, March
      • Q3: April, May, June
      • Q4: July, August, September

You can configure the following fields related to the forecast and quota period.
 

Forecast Adjustments

As a sales manager, you can make adjustments to forecasts and set up or revise quotas on the following:

• Direct Report’s Deals: Can make adjustments to the deal amounts of direct reportees.
• Direct reports and their subordinates’ Deals: Can make adjustments to the deal amounts of direct reportees and subordinates or the reportees.

For example, you can make adjustments in deal amounts that were won or lost by a team member.

Enabling adjustments

Before you try to make adjustments to forecasts, you must enable adjustments.
Follow these steps to enable adjustments:

1. Log in to the CRM. 
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Sales.
4. Select Forecast and Quota.
5. Click the Settings icon on the top right of the page.
6. Click the Configuration tab.
7. Enable the checkbox for forecast categories under the Adjustable column under the Forecast Category block.

Setting up Adjustments

Note: As a sales manager or admin user, you cannot make adjustments to deal amounts assigned to you.
Follow these steps to make adjustments to deal amounts:

1. Log in to the CRM. 
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Sales.
4. Select Forecast and Quota.
5. Click on a deal amount displayed in a forecast category column in the Forecast Summary table.
6. Hover on a row and click the Edit icon under the Adjusted Amount column. 
7. Enter the adjusted (new) amount. 
8. Click the checkmark.

Forecast Category 

In Vtiger CRM, forecast scenarios are referred to as Forecast Categories.  
Forecast categories are derived from sales pipelines and sales stages. You can group your deals into different forecast categories based on the sales stages they are in. There are four default forecast categories in Vtiger CRM – Pipeline, Best Case, Commit, and Closed Won. You can group multiple sales stages in your sales pipeline into a forecast category. Below are the default forecast categories and the sales stage mapping in Vtiger CRM.
  
Note: The forecast category Closed Won cannot be deleted.

Other actions you can perform on forecast categories

• Mapping forecast categories: You can add more forecast categories by clicking Map Forecast Category.  
• Deleting forecast categories: Click the Delete icon under the Adjustable column to delete a forecast category.
• Viewing unmapped sales stages: Sales stages in the pipeline that have not been mapped to any forecast category are displayed in the block beside the forecast category block. 
• Adding new picklist values to a Sales Stage.
  • Click inside a block in the Sales Stage column. You will see all the unused sales stages. 
  • Select a sales stage to add in a forecast category. 
  • Click Save.

Setting up Quotas

As a sales manager or an Admin user, you can set up or revise forecasts and quotas for your sales team after you have configured it. A user can set or revise quotas only if they have users reporting to them. Forecasts and quotas are set up for the forecast period. To learn how to configure forecast hierarchy and categories, click here.

Follow these steps to set up forecasts and quotas:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Sales.
4. Select Forecast and Quota. 
5. Click +Set or Revise Team’s Quota. 
6. Click the drop-down shown on the top-left to select a team.
7. Enter the individual and team quotas under the Set Quota column.
8. Click Save. 

 Important Notes:

• In the drop-down on the left, you can click on a user or team to view their respective quotas.
• The manager’s quota is the revenue that the manager and team are expected to generate together.
• A user (Standard or Admin) can see the +Set or Revise Quota button only if they have other users reporting to them. Otherwise, the button is hidden.
• Enabling the Notify team via Email toggle button on the top-right sends an email notification to users when their quotas are revised. When team quotas are revised, a notification is sent to all the team members.
• Target Mismatch - When the team quota and the sum of quotas of all the team members mentioned in the Quota column do not match, there will be a target mismatch. Target Mismatch is negative if the team quota is higher than the sum of the team members’ quotas; otherwise, it is positive. 
• Admins can:
  • Set Targets to Quotas for all users in the team.
  • View the target vs. achieved.
  • Revise set targets.

Viewing Forecasts and Quotas

Key metrics

You can find the following key metrics above the Forecast Summary table:

• Quota - This metric shows the total quota defined for individuals or teams. The amount displayed here depends on the filters you have applied.
• Closed Won - Closed Won is the total deal amount that was won. The amount displayed here depends on the filters you have applied.
• Gap - When values in Quota and Closed Won do not match, the difference between them is called Gap. This applies to individuals and teams. Gap values are not shown for future months.
  • The Gap is negative if the Quota is less than the Closed Won; it is positive when the Quota is greater than the Closed Won. It tells you how much more or less than the defined quota a salesperson has generated. 
  • The Gap amount displayed in the key metrics is the difference between the team quota and the sum of the team’s closed amounts.
• Pipeline - It is the sum of the amounts of deals that are in these forecast categories: Pipeline, Best Case, and Commit.

To learn about setting up forecast categories, click here.

Forecast summary table

The Forecast Summary table is the table you see when you land on the Forecast and Quota page. It shows forecast periods, quotas, forecast categories, gaps, and funnel total. 
You can make adjustments to amounts by clicking on a Closed Won or Closed Lost amount. To learn about forecast adjustments, click here.

Settings

Access the forecast and quota settings by clicking the Settings icon located on the top-right of the Forecast and Quota page. 
To learn about configuring forecasts and quotes, click here.

Filters

You can filter forecasts and quotas based on the financial period, forecast type, and other information using the Filters option on the top-right.
Here is what each filter means:

 

Exporting Forecast Data

You can export deals and forecasts by clicking the Export drop-down located on the top-right side of the Forecast and Quota page. 

Exporting deals and forecasts

You can export forecasts and details of their related deals as a CSV file by selecting the Export Deals option from the Export drop-down. The exported file does not contain team forecast amounts.
For example, you can export forecast information for a specific deal in the following way:

1. Click a deal amount from a forecast category column in the Forecast Summary table.
2. Click Export. 

Exporting forecasts

Export the Forecast Summary as a CSV file by selecting the Export Forecasts option from the Export drop-down. The exported file contains details such as forecast periods, forecast categories, and forecast amounts for individuals and teams. It is similar to the Forecast Summary table in the CRM.
Note: You cannot import forecasts or quotas into Vtiger CRM.
To learn more about exporting records, click here.

Reference

Deal Management Overview
Deal Module in Vtiger CRM

The Deal Journey View Finding Duplicate Records Using the Employee Portal Settings - Set up your Support Team Settings - Configure Module Settings