Using Sales Forecasting
Summarize
Summary of Sales Forecasting
Sales Forecasting in ServiceNow uses current opportunities within the Opportunity Management application to predict future sales amounts. Opportunities progress through various sales cycle stages, with theForecast Categoryfield starting as "Pipeline" by default and updated by sales agents as the sales process advances. The Sales Forecast dashboard dynamically reflects these updates, providing timely and accurate sales predictions.
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Using the Sales Forecast Dashboard
The Sales Forecast dashboard allows users to monitor current sales status and target achievements at different organizational levels:
- Access: Available via the CSM/FSM Configurable Workspace under the Sales Forecast view.
- Refresh and Update: Use the refresh icon to load the latest data and the "Update Forecast" button to generate the most recent forecast information.
- Filters: Customize views by Group, Manager, and Period (quarter) to focus on specific teams or timeframes.
Access permissions vary by role: Forecast Admins, Forecast Analysts, and top-level group owners can view all group data, while other users see data only for their hierarchies or below.
Key Features and Insights
- Quota Tracking: Displays assigned quotas versus won sales, highlighting any gaps to meet targets.
- Sales Stages: Opportunities are categorized into Commit, Strong Upside, Upside, and Pipeline, reflecting varying levels of sales certainty and assisting in forecasting accuracy.
- Detailed Drill-Down: Managers can expand views to see aggregated opportunity amounts for their teams and individual agents. Clicking the "i" icon provides detailed opportunity information per agent.
- Sales Representative View: Individual sales reps can track the status of their owned opportunities, update forecast categories as sales progress, and monitor their quota achievement in real time.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
This feature enables sales teams and management to:
- Continuously update and view real-time sales forecasts based on live opportunity data.
- Identify performance gaps against quotas and adjust strategies accordingly.
- Gain clear visibility into sales pipeline stages to prioritize efforts effectively.
- Empower sales reps to manage and report their opportunities with accurate, up-to-date forecasting information.
Sales Forecasting uses the current opportunities in the system to predict future opportunity amounts. The Opportunity Management application contains the list of opportunities created for the customers and each of these opportunities are in different stages of the sales cycles.
Once an opportunity is created, the Forecast Category field displays Pipeline by default. The sales agent working on that opportunity updates this field once the sales process starts. When the agents update the forecast category, the dashboard keeps displaying the latest data. The forecast scheduler keeps updating the data on the Sales Forecast dashboard. After the users, groups and opportunity data are added, along with selection of category, select Update Forecast on Sales Forecast dashboard to view the latest forecast information.
Viewing the Sales Forecast dashboard
You can view the Sales Forecast dashboard to see the current sales status and targets achieved for your teams. Only Forecast Admin, Forecast Analyst, and the owner of the highest group can see the data and sales forecast for all the groups and the team. Other personas can only view the sales forecast and related information for their own hierarchy or for the hierarchies below them.
Using the Sales Forecast dashboard
To access the Sales Forecast dashboard, navigate to CSM/FSM Configurable Workspace and select the Sales
Forecast view. Select the refresh icon 
to see the latest sales forecast data. Select Update Forecast on the dashboard to fetch the data to generate the latest forecast information.
- Group: Select the group for which you want to view the forecast, the manager of the group is automatically updated in the third filter.
- Manager: Select the manager to see the field.
- Period: Select the period (quarter) for which you want to view the forecast.
For the above screenshot, the forecast data is being shown for the Global region. The owner of the forecast is Jennifer Harris. The forecast period selected is FY 2025 Q1. Global has a total quota of $7,000 assigned to it. Gap is the difference between the Quota and Won sales. For Global, the gap is $5,100, meaning they need to achieve an additional $5,100 to meet the quota. As the owner of this group, Jennifer Harris can track the quota achieved for each team and specific agent if required.
Commit, Strong Upside, Upside, and Pipeline represent different stages of certainty in the sales pipeline, helping to estimate the likelihood of achieving the overall target. As a manager, you can expand and see the total amount of opportunity in each stage for your team and agents. you can see the roll up amount for all the agents under that manager. The Canada group with the owner as Mathew Moore in FY 2025 Q1 displays that team’s quota has been set at $1,500. The agent working under the owner is Charlotte Turner who has already closed (Won column) $1,900 in sales. You can click the “i” icon for an agent and view all the opportunities for that agent and the total value in each forecast category.
As a sales representative, you can view the status of each opportunity that you own. As the sale progresses, you can update the Forecast Category field of the opportunity, and the new data will be updated on the dashboard. You can view the total amount in each sales stage and track the status of the quota target assigned to you.