Sales Forecasting terminology

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Sales Forecasting terminology

    This content provides essential terminology and concepts for understanding and configuring Sales Forecasting in the Zurich release. It focuses on the framework and components used to predict future sales performance based on current opportunities and historical data within ServiceNow.

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    Key Features

    • Forecast Model: The Opportunity Amount Forecast is the sole available forecast model, enabling users to predict sales for current opportunities. Forecast submissions can be scheduled weekly, monthly, or customized, with the default hierarchy based on Sales Teams. Users can switch the hierarchy to Territories for regional forecasting.
    • Forecast Category: Opportunities are classified into six categories reflecting their closure certainty: Won, Commit, Strong Upside, Upside, Pipeline, and Omitted. These categories help in organizing and assessing sales prospects within the forecast.
    • Forecast Rollup Method: This determines how opportunities across categories are aggregated in the forecast.
      • Single rollup: Each forecast category is shown separately with only its opportunities.
      • Cumulative rollup: Each category includes opportunities from itself and all higher certainty categories, aggregating progressively.
    • Forecast Schedule: Automates fetching opportunities to generate updated forecast data.
    • Sales Quota Management: Allows assignment of sales targets to representatives and managers based on their role, hierarchy, and forecast period, enabling goal tracking aligned with forecasts.

    Key Outcomes

    By understanding and configuring these terms and components, ServiceNow customers can effectively set up sales forecasts that reflect their sales pipeline and team structure. This enables accurate prediction of sales performance, better quota management, and informed decision-making based on categorized opportunity data and configurable rollup methods.

    Use the following list of terms to gain an understanding of Sales Forecasting concepts, components, and configuration.

    Forecast Model

    The Forecast Model is a framework or method used to predict future sales based on historical data, current sales activities, and other relevant factors. It helps businesses estimate the expected sales figures over a specific period, such as a quarter or year. Only one forecast model, Opportunity Amount Forecast is available to the users. You can forecast the sales for the current opportunities in the system. The Submission Required option is enabled by default. From the Submission Frequency list, select weekly, monthly, or configure a customized time period to submit your final forecasts. For more info, see . By default, Sales Team is selected in the Forecast Hierarchy Type list and the Sales Forecasting dashboard displays the forecasts based on sales teams. To view forecasts by regions or territories, select Territory from the Forecast Hierarchy Type list. To configure a territory see, Configuring the Territory. For more info, see Sales Territory Management​.

    Forecast Category

    The classification of opportunities is based on the level of certainty regarding their closure. The longer a sales prospect progresses along the sales pipeline, the better their chances of converting.  The forecast admin can configure these categories. By default, these six categories are available:
    • Won:  Opportunities that have already been closed and won.​
    • Commit: Opportunities that sales reps are confident will close within the forecast period.​
    • Strong upside:  Opportunities with greatest potential to close but have some minor uncertainty.
    • Upside: Opportunities with potential to close but with lower level of certainty.
    • Pipeline: Opportunities in the early stages of the sales process with uncertainty if they will be closed deals.
    • Omitted:  Opportunities that are excluded from forecast​ due to lack of data.

    Forecast rollup method

    The forecast model defines how opportunities in different categories are aggregated into a forecast. ​There are two primary types of rollups: single and cumulative.

    When you select Single, this rollup method ensures that each forecast category is represented in its own column, with only the opportunities in that category being included.
    Table 1. Single rollup method
    Column Name on Forecast page Opportunities that roll up to it from a forecast category
    Pipeline Pipeline
    Upside Upside
    Strong Upside Strong Upside
    Commit Commit
    Won Won
    When you select Cumulative, this rollup method aggregates forecast categories in a cumulative manner, where each subsequent category includes the opportunities from the previous categories. Each cumulative rollup method aggregates opportunities from higher order forecast categories.
    Table 2. Cumulative rollup method
    Column Name on Forecast page Opportunities that roll up to it from a forecast category
    Open pipeline Pipeline + Upside + Strong Upside + Commit + Won
    Cumulative Upside Upside + Strong Upside + Commit + Won
    Cumulative Strong Upside Strong Upside + Commit + Won
    Cumulative Commit Commit + Won
    Won Won

    Forecast schedule

    The forecast schedule fetches all the opportunities in the system and generates the latest forecast data.

    Sales Quota Management

    You can assign sales quota targets to sales representatives and managers based on their hierarchy, role, and forecast period.