Reports & Forecasting
Turn live CRM records into defensible operating metrics and revenue forecasts.
Open interactive lesson and quizWhat you will learn
- Define metrics with consistent filters
- Read pipeline and service trends
- Export and communicate decision-ready analysis
Leadership wants one weekly view of pipeline, service performance and campaign ROI, but each team currently calculates metrics differently.
Lesson 1
Start with the decision
A useful report answers a recurring decision: where to focus, what is at risk, or whether an investment worked. Define the audience, time period and action before choosing a chart.
A report should support an action. A weekly sales review may ask which open opportunities need follow-up, whereas a campaign review asks which investment generated attributable outcomes. Define the population, time period and unit of measurement before choosing a chart. A count of contacts and a count of enquiries are not interchangeable metrics.
Write a short metric definition that another colleague can reproduce. Include whether the report uses creation date, expected close date or outcome date. In your Trial org, choose one decision, identify the necessary fields and verify a few underlying rows before presenting the total.
Lesson 2
Make filters explicit
Stage, owner, close date and status define the population behind a metric. Save consistent filters so the same label does not mean different things across meetings.
Filters change the meaning of a result. Open pipeline excludes closed deals; an owner filter changes a team total into a personal total. A zero result might mean there are no matching records, but it can also reflect a date range, status choice or permission boundary. Always check the active filters before changing source data.
When exporting, retain the reporting period and filter definition with the file. Compare a few exported rows with the on-screen population. Two users with different object permissions may legitimately see different totals; reconcile access and scope before treating the difference as a calculation defect.
Lesson 3
Forecast with evidence
Weighted pipeline multiplies value by probability, but stage exit criteria and recent activity determine whether the probability is credible. Inspect both totals and underlying deals.
Weighted pipeline is an estimate formed by multiplying each open deal amount by its probability and adding the results. Two deals of 10,000 at 50% and 20,000 at 25% contribute a combined estimate of 10,000. This figure describes uncertainty across opportunities; it is not cash received or guaranteed future sales.
Review the largest contributors and deals near the expected closing date. Look for overdue actions, stalled stages or amounts unsupported by a proposal. Present the unweighted amount and the assumptions alongside the weighted figure when making staffing or spending decisions.
Lesson 4
Connect revenue and customer outcomes
Combine campaign attribution, won revenue, retention signals and service load. Cross-functional context prevents a local metric from hiding a broader customer problem.
In Campaigns, Log outcome records a Revenue, Pipeline or Lead result against the selected campaign. The Outcome ledger shows those entries and their source, date and notes. Website purchases and new-contact events can also create attributed outcomes when the sender supplies the campaign identifier. Avoid logging the same purchase manually after it has already been received automatically.
UTM source describes the origin, medium describes the channel and campaign identifies the initiative. A plain UTM URL does not send events into a BU. Share a generated SupaChrome tracking link to record redirect clicks. To attribute a later purchase, the destination website must retain sc_campaign_id and send the completed event from its server. Clicks can include repeat requests and link scanners.
Practice · Build a weekly operating review
- Filter open deals by close period and owner
- Compare weighted pipeline with target
- Review service backlog and campaign attributed revenue, then export the report