Configure Account Based Forecasting (Company View)

Overview

Account based forecasting in Renewal Center allows CSMs (Customer Success Managers) to forecast at the account level, instead of forecasting at the opportunity level. A new company object, GS Company Forecast in Data Management is used to forecast without opportunities.

Example Business Use Cases: Account based forecasting is for customers who want to:

• Start forecasting in the simplest way without managing opportunities. 
• View data available in the Company or any custom object at the account level, and not at the opportunity level.
• Recognize anniversaries as a Renewal Type for multi-year deals, and cannot track anniversaries by creating yearly opportunities.
• Calculate retention metrics like GRR%, and cannot use the complicated opportunity data.
• Forecast for a time frame where no opportunities exist.

Set Default Company View

The admin must toggle ON the feature from the Renewal Center configuration to make it available for the CSMs. Once configured, Company Forecast records are created containing data preloaded from the Company object. The default company forecast fields are Renewable Date, Renewable Revenue, Churn, Forecasted Revenue, GRR%, Renewal Type, Outcome, NRR%, and Upsell.

If admins want to load different data from the Company object or another custom object, then they must delete existing records in Data Operations. After that they can use the Load to GS Company Forecast rule action to load the data.

To configure the company view:

1. Navigate to Administration > Revenue Optimization > Renewal Center. The Renewal Center configuration page appears.
2. From the Forecast Section dropdown list, select Company View. The Company View screen appears.
3. Toggle on the Show Company View button. The company view is available to the CSMs.

The account based forecasting is preconfigured for the admins, and ready to use for the CSMs in their default company views.

Admins can also customize the forecasting configuration to suit their business requirements. They can select other fields from the GS Company Forecast object, select fields to show or hide in the summary ribbon, select the aggregation option for summary ribbon metrics, create custom fields, and edit and delete custom fields.

Notes: 

• The data in the fields namely, ARR, Company Name, Renewal Date, and Forecast Notes is fetched from the Company object. Admins can create and run a new Load to GS Company Forecast rule action to add custom fields from the Company object. For more information, refer to the Configure Load to GS Company Forecast Rule section in this article.
• If there is no requirement to load opportunity data from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, then admins need not configure the Analyze module and supporting features like Stages, Sync Options, Global Filters, and Opportunity View.

Limitations

Following are the limitations of account based forecasting:

• Admins cannot create custom formula KPIs.
• Admins cannot change the GRR% and NRR% formulas. It is calculated by the system, where the formulas are:
  • GRR% = sum[Forecasted Revenue] / sum[Renewable Revenue] * 100
  • NRR% = sum[Forecasted Revenue + Upsell] / sum[Renewable Revenue] * 100

Configure Company View Fields

Admins can select fields to be displayed for selection by CSMs while the latter is creating a company view. To configure these fields:

1. Navigate to Administration > Revenue Optimization > Renewal Center. The Renewal Center configuration page appears.
2. From the Forecast Section dropdown list, select Company View. The Company View screen appears.
3. Click Select Fields. The Add Fields slide out panel appears.
4. Select the fields.
5. Click Add. The selected fields are saved successfully.
6. Click Save. The configuration is saved successfully.

Create Custom Fields

Admins can create new fields in addition to the fields available in the GS Company Forecast object. To create a custom field, navigate to Administration > Customer Data > Data Management > GS Company Forecast object.

Configure Field Settings

The admins can configure the settings of each field. The field settings include options like whether it should be editable, whether it should be displayed in the summer ribbon, and select the summary ribbon aggregation option. 

To configure field settings:

1. Navigate to Administration > Revenue Optimization > Renewal Center. The Renewal Center configuration page appears.
2. From the Forecast Section drop down list, select Company View. The Company View screen appears.
3. Hover on the field. The gear and delete icons appear.
4. Click on the gear icon. The field settings list appears with following options:
   1. Custom Label: Provide a different name to the field.
   2. Editable: Select to make the field editable in the company view.
   3. Include in Summary Ribbon: Select to make this field available as a metric in the Configure Summary Ribbon feature of the company view.
      1. Aggregation Options: Select the aggregation function on which the metric should be calculated from the available options: Sum, Min, Max, and Average. 
5. Click OK. The field settings are saved successfully.
6. (Optional) Click on the delete icon to delete the field.

Configure Change Tracking

Admins can set up change tracking on one or more fields of the GS Opportunity and GS Company Forecast objects fields. The following two types of change tracking features are available:

• Field Tracking
• Update Needed Indicators

Note: The following table lists field data types that are supported and not supported by change tracking.

Delete Company Forecast Records

Admins can delete single or multiple records from the GS Company Forecast object using Data Operations in Renewal Center. They can also view log entries of deleted records, show or hide columns in the record table, and apply filters on records.

To delete records:

1. Navigate to Administration > Revenue Optimization > Renewal Center. The Renewal Center configuration page appears.
2. From the Data dropdown list, select Data Operations. The Data Operations screen appears.
3. Click the GS Company Forecast tab. The company records table appears.
4. Select the checkbox of the record you want to delete. The Delete button appears.
5. Click the Delete button. A delete confirmation dialog box appears.
6. Click Delete to delete the record. The record is deleted successfully.

Configure Load to GS Company Forecast Rule

Admins can create rules to update data or to add new fields in the GS Company Forecast object using the Load to GS Company Forecast action type in Rules Engine.

To create a new rule:

1. Navigate to Administration > Revenue Optimization > Renewal Center. The Renewal Center configuration page appears.
2. From the Data dropdown list, select Sync Options. The Data Operation screen appears.
3. From the Rules Engine section, click the Company Forecast tab.
4. Click the Create Rule button. The Rules List / New Rule screen appears.

For more information on how to configure the Load to GS Company Forecast rule, refer to the Load to GS Company Action Type article from Additional Resources.

Additional Resources

• Account Based Forecasting (Company View) for CSMs
• Load to GS Company Forecast Action Type