Right90 Blog

Sales forecasting relies upon accurate and trustworthy data in order to be as objective as possible. Often when you make a change, you need to add context around it to let others know what and why you made the change. This week’s spotlight of the week shows you just how you can do that.

Here are a few ways that adding context to your forecast updates using Right90 can make a difference and add valuable qualitative commentary to your quantitative data.

1. Documenting reasons for quantity or price changes in the forecast creates a clear trail of why something was changed. It’s especially helpful for updates where someone may wonder if you really meant to increase the quantity by 15%, or if you made a mistake and intended to only increase it 5%. So you can use comments as a way to confirm what may look like incorrect updates to your forecast.
2. Managers can see all the comments online reducing the need for extra phone calls and emails to try to understand the reason behind updates to the forecast.
3. Comments about your changes also improve the efficiency of forecast review meetings. With the context for the change right on the screen in front of you, you can spend less time recalling the details and more time focusing on next steps needed to still make your number for the quarter.
4. Most important, comments help improve communication and drive faster response to changing market conditions. If management sees multiple comments that the quantity was lowered due to competitive price pressure then it can react right away to this forming trend and keep the business.

So where can you see forecast comments in Right90? On the Right90 Sales Forecasting™ screen where you’re entering data, on the Right90 Change Analytics™ screen if you’re looking to see how the forecast has evolved over time and on the Right90 Analysis screen if you’re trying to view overall trends and measure attainment.

1. If you’re on the Right90 Sales Forecasting screen, right click on any individual line item quantity or price and select the History tab. You can view the most recent changes or all of the historical changes for that line—with or without comments.



2. If you’re looking at Right90 Change Analytics, select the “Click for more detail” at the bottom center of the screen and the corresponding details will appear.



3. If you’re on the Right90 Analysis screen, click on the blue triangle change history indicator. When the screen appears, you can look at all the changes that line up with your customized forecasting process in Right90 (for example, all the changes grouped within each week of the month).
   

So now that you know why to enter comments and where to see them in Right90, how do you enter comments when you make changes to the forecast?

Two simple options are on the Right90 Forecast screen for adding comments: (a) You can right click on a quantity or price that you’re changing and use the Smart Forecasting popup window which has an entry box for comments, or (b) you can just enter the new amount and comment in the box at the bottom of the screen. Both these options work if you’re forecasting offline in Excel as well.

So what are you waiting for? Start entering and reviewing comments so you can make your forecast work and speak for you!

~ Elaine Cleary