Set up analytics for a forecast board

Who can use this: Business admin

Available on: Gong Forecast

Ideal for: RevOps

Required permissions: Forecast page access, Manage Forecast board; assign targets.

Turn on analytics for a forecast board to see its pipeline trends, changes, forecast accuracy, and pacing. Analytics is one of the deal-related settings in the board builder, so you can set it up when you create a forecast board or when you edit an existing board.

Important:

Analytics isn't supported for boards that use multiple fields, opportunity teams, opportunity splits, or multi-currency.

Step 1: Turn on analytics

Turn analytics on for a board that tracks open versus closed-won pipeline based on consistent user, date, and amount CRM fields. The other five steps in the Analytics panel stay unavailable until analytics is on.

To turn on analytics:

1. From the left sidebar, click Revenue, and select Forecast.

2. Open the board builder:

   • Existing board: Click the More actions icon, and select Edit board.

   • New board: Click the More actions icon, select New forecast board, and click Add board under Configurable forecast board.

3. Click Analytics in the left panel.

4. Click the Turn on analytics toggle to enable it.

Step 2: Set deal attributes

Choose the CRM fields that describe the deals included in the analytics reports. Projection later in this setup is based on these attributes.

To set deal attributes:

1. In the Analytics panel, click Set deal attributes.

2. Select the CRM field for each deal attribute:

   • User field (ex: Owner)? If nothing is saved, this defaults to the CRM field Owner.

   • Date field (ex: Close date)? Click the Date field (ex: Close date)? dropdown to choose a field. If nothing is saved, this defaults to the CRM field Close Date.

   • Amount field (ex: Exit ARR)? Click the Amount field (ex: Exit ARR)? dropdown to choose a field. This one has no default.

3. If the amount field isn't a currency, enter a short label of up to three letters in the Display name field that appears.

Step 3: Define deal status indicators

Tell Gong which deals count as open and which count as closed-won. Projection is also based on these indicators.

To define deal status indicators:

1. Click Define deal status indicators.

2. In the Open deals row, add conditions on CRM fields to define which deals are open.

3. In the Closed-won deals row, add conditions on CRM fields to define which deals are closed-won.

Step 4: Set target

Set the target that bookings are measured against, so trends and pacing reports can show performance and attainment. This step is optional. Learn more about creating a target in Data studio.

To set a target:

1. Click Set target.

2. Click the Select target dropdown, and select the target to measure your bookings against. To remove a target you already chose, clear the selection.

3. (Optional) Click Manage targets to create or edit targets.

Step 5: Define forecast categories

Define the conditions that place a deal in each forecast category. You can define up to 20 categories.

To define forecast categories:

1. Click Define forecast categories. The list starts with the categories Commit, Best Case, and Pipeline.

2. For each category, edit the name if needed, and use the filter to add the conditions that place a deal in that category.

3. To add another category, click Add category. You can delete a new category before you save.

4. (Optional) Click the More options menu on a category, and select one of the following:

   • Hide or Unhide: Hide the category or show it again. You can't hide the last enabled category.

   • Autofill (block editing) (shown as Turn off autofill once it is on)

   • Customize amount field (shown as Remove amount field once it is set)

Step 6: Show projection in board columns

Choose which board columns display projection, so team members can see where they are likely to land by the end of the period. This step is optional and off by default. Projection is based on deals that were expected to close in the reference period and whether they were won or lost by the end of it, using the deal attributes from step 2 and the status indicators from step 3. Learn more about forecast projection.

To show projection in board columns:

1. Click the Show projection in board columns toggle to enable it. The controls below are unavailable while the toggle is off.

2. Click Select columns..., and choose the columns to display projection in. If you leave this empty, the error "Select at least one column" appears.

3. Click Set reference period, and select how far back Gong looks:

   • Quarterly boards: Last quarter (the default), Last 2 quarters, Last 3 quarters, or Last 4 quarters.

   • Monthly boards: Last Month (the default), Last quarter, Last 2 quarters, Last 3 quarters, or Last 4 quarters.

4. Click Save.

Note:

If a CRM field used in one of these steps no longer exists, Gong can't save the board and shows the message "This step uses a CRM field that no longer exists. Select a different field to save." Select a different field in that step, and save the board again. An incomplete step shows "Missing required information."

Note:

To align your reports with changes made to your data, reach out to your Revenue Architect after you set up the board.