Forecasting by Backstory enables sales teams and leadership to view, update, and analyze revenue projections at every level of the organization, from individual deals all the way up to executive rollups.

You can access a forecast in the Unified Backstory App or Salesforce.

Prerequisites: Before you can access a Forecast, your Backstory administrator must configure the following:

Your Forecast experience varies depending on your role within the organization and is based on how your Backstory administrator configures your Forecast Type.

Sales reps typically work within a Forecast drill-in sheet that lists all of their deals. Their primary responsibility is maintaining accurate Salesforce data by updating key fields such as deal amounts and close dates

Managers view a rollup table with a row for each direct report or territory. They review these aggregated numbers, apply judgment-based adjustments (overrides) as needed before submitting.

Managers can also track their team’s Forecast submissions with color-coded indicators. A red indicator means no forecast submission has occurred during the current cadence, while a yellow indicator means a submission was made but not within the current cadence.

Executives typically use Forecasting for high-level oversight and trend analysis across the organization.

Backstory provides several tools to help you understand performance and identify risks.

The Progress Indicator compares your forecast against your target and can be displayed in two modes, progress mode and gap mode.

Gap Mode (Default): Gap mode displays the numeric difference between your Forecast and target. A red number indicates you are below target, and a green number with a plus sign indicates you have exceeded your target.

Progress Mode: Progress mode displays a blue bar that fills as you approach your target. If you exceed 100%, a green extension shows how far you’ve surpassed it.

The Diff column shows how your Forecast has changed since the previous reporting period. At the end of each reporting period, Backstory automatically captures a snapshot of all Forecast values, including any manager adjustments. The Diff value represents the change between the current Forecast and the snapshot from the prior reporting period.

Snapshots are taken automatically once per reporting period by a daily background job that runs between 10 PM UTC and midnight UTC for forecast types whose cadence ends that day.

Forecast Headlines highlight the most significant risks in your Forecast, helping you quickly pinpoint what needs attention. Read more >

Forecast Waterfall Charts help you visualize how your forecast has changed over time and why. Read more >

Click the Backstory icon on individual deals to access detailed deal insights, including potential risks, engagement metrics, meeting summaries, and key topics. Read more >

Use the AI-powered Backstory Assistant to ask natural-language questions about anything related to the deals or accounts in your Forecast.

If your organization requires periodic Forecast submissions, use the following process:

The rollup view for managers shows color-coded submission indicators to indicate which reps have submitted their Forecasts for the upcoming period.

Forecast submissions can be made for the current quarter, next quarter, or up to two quarters in the future.

What types of forecasts does Backstory support?

Backstory supports bookings-based forecasts, where revenue is recognized when a deal reaches Closed/Won, and quantity-based forecasts. It works best for companies where a deal closing in Salesforce directly equals booked revenue. It is not designed for revenue models based on hardware shipments, consumption, or usage (such as token-based billing).

Can multiple people share credit on a single deal?

Not currently. The system supports only cases where one person owns 100% of a deal. Support for split-credit (revenue splits) across multiple reps is in development.

What time periods does Forecasting support?

The product is built around a quarterly forecast period with a weekly submission cadence. You can view the current quarter, up to two quarters in the past, and up to four quarters in the future. Monthly or bi-weekly cadences are not officially supported, and some features (such as the Waterfall chart and week-over-week diffs) will not work as expected outside of a weekly cadence.

Do I have to submit a Forecast?

It depends on your organization’s policy and workflow. Some organizations require reps to submit their committed number each week or every two weeks, while others do not require reps to submit at all.

Do I get notified when it's time to submit my forecast?

No, Backstory does not currently have a notification system to remind users about Forecast submissions or updates.

Can a manager change a rep's submitted number?

Yes. Managers are not locked into the rollup value (the sum of their reps' commitments). They can apply an upward or downward adjustment on top of the rollup when submitting their own forecast.

Does Forecasting work with CRM systems other than Salesforce?

Currently, Backstory Forecasting works only with Salesforce. The integration is real-time, so updates made in Salesforce are reflected in Backstory without delay.

Contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@backstory.ai.