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Setting up the Forecast module

Philippa Grover

Hi everyone!

I have a customer who wants to use Sugar's Forecasting module, something which is not used by any of my other clients. I am learning the module at the moment, but I'm finding the Knowledge Base articles a bit confusing. My client is using v7.11 of the Professional edition.

I just want to check I am setting up the module in the correct order, and that I have completed all the necessary pre-requisites. So far, my understanding is I have to:

  • Set up the options via the Admin > Forecast menu.
  • Create the user heirarchy via the User record > Reports To field .
    • Can  I have more than one tier here? For example, can I specify that Bob reports to Tom, and Tom reports to Jim? How will this appear in the Forecasting reports?
  • Ensure that my client is using the out-of-the-box Sales Stage dropdown list, and ensure they are using the out-of-the-box "Closed Won" and "Closed Lost" values from this list.
  • Ensure that my client is using the out-of-the-box "Best", "Worst" and "Likely" values on Opportunities

Are these all of the necessary pre-requisites? Once I've configured all this, are users ready to go with using the module?

I'm not sure what the next step is - are users meant to go to the Forecast module and click "Commit"? This is where I am really lost! I haven't got any other customers using this module, and it seems really confusing for end-users.

Thanks in advance!

  • 0 Sugar Employee Badge

    Hi Philippa Grover,

    The list and understanding you have outlined looks correct to me. Forecasts does not behave like any other module in Sugar, so some confusion is completely understandable.

    The Reports To concept does support multiple tiers of hierarchy. In your example in which Bob reports to Tom, and Tom reports to Jim, Bob's committed forecast will show up in Tom's Forecast module, and both Bob's and Tom's will show up in Jim's forecast module. This is the section of the documentation that describes and provides screenshots for how this will look. 

    In order for a manager to see records belonging to their employee's worksheets, the reportee needs to Commit the worksheet. If the manager can see a previously committed worksheet, but the reportee's worksheet has changed since last the last commit, the two will see different content when viewing that reportee's worksheet.

    In your example in which Bob reports to Tom, and Tom reports to Jim, Tom will see changes to Bob's worksheet after Bob commits. Jim will see changes to Tom and Bob's worksheet after Tom commits.

    One part of the Forecasts module not mentioned in your original question are the Include and Exclude filters. Here is the section of documentation mentioning them. They are important to consider when becoming familiar with Forecasts because the "Include" filter will be active by default.

    I hope this is helpful.

    Below is a list of articles and documents for other community users who might benefit from these resources
  • 0 in reply to Patrick McQueen

    Thank you so much Patrick McQueen!

    The heirarchical structure of reportees and managers really confused me at first, but I think I was over-complicating things. I was also struggling with the concept of committing, but I now realise you can edit and recommit a record more than once. I also now understand that editing values in the forecast worksheet does not edit the value on the Opp/RLI record!

    This particular client of mine is the first which has wanted to explore the forecast module. All my previous clients have just used a combination of "expected close date", "value", "status", etc to do pipeline reporting and forecasting.

    My only concern with introducing this module to a client is that their sales staff may find it rather manual. Most of the teams of sales people I work with have not previously used a CRM system at all, and it can be tricky getting them to use the basics, such as leads and phone calls. I think this will be a fairly steep learning curve for them!

  • 0 in reply to Patrick McQueen

    I have one other quick question Patrick McQueen - I can see that managers can assign a target to a sales person, via the Quota function.

    But, when I try to assign a quota, the menu is greyed out. Looking at the knowledge base, I can't see any reason why this would be the case.

    Are there any more articles about quotas? Do they get assigned per person and per period (ie month or quarter, depending on your settings)? Can I create one quota and spread it evenly across all my staff?

    Thank you!

  • 0 in reply to Patrick McQueen

    Update in case anyone else is confused by this:

    Quotas must be manually entered on the individual user's row within the forecast worksheet. Once the manager has entered these values, then the "Assign quota" action is available.

    Basically, clicking "Assign quota" is like confirming that you wish to assign these values.