How to forecast

Who can use this: Any team member

Available on: Gong Forecast

Ideal for: Sales rep, Sales manager, Manager of managers

Configurable forecast boards give the flexibility of spreadsheets connected to the real-time data of Gong and your CRM data. Once your business admin has completed building forecast boards for you and your team, you can start using them to submit your forecast numbers or your team’s forecast numbers, based on the information the boards display.

Get to know the board

Each forecast board displays a selection of columns set by your admin. Under each column, you see different types of data:

• Some columns display the current status of a certain business metric, such as the number of bookings, a target you or your team should hit, or a combination of both. To inspect the number displayed in a cell and drill into the deals assembling it, click the cell, and in the panel that opens on the right, click to view the deals. The list of deals opens below.

  

• Some columns are set to retrieve submissions - either manually or automatically. Submission cells appear with a square around the submission number, like so:

  

Column information

Click in a forecast board column header to see a visual explanation of the data shown in each cell. This includes the type of data displayed—such as a metric, submission, or progress toward target.

Hidden team members

Team members may be hidden from a forecast board for one of two reasons: they’re Inactive or they’ve been Excluded.

You can view both inactive and excluded users by clicking on the forecast board.

Inactive team members

Inactive team members are hidden by default and only appear on the board if they have relevant data for the selected forecast period (such as a target, submission, or deal inventory). No action is required. When shown, inactive users appear with an Inactive badge.

Example: Brian left the company in Q3 FY26

• Historical view (Q2 FY26): If Brian contributed to the forecast during this period, he appears on the board with an Inactive badge, preserving visibility into historical submissions and attainment.

• Current view (Q3 FY26): If Brian has no relevant data for this period, he’s hidden from the board.

Excluded team members

Excluding or including team members requires the Manage Forecast board permissions (under Pages). When a team member is excluded, their revenue data (including closed-won deals and submissions) is removed from: Forecast rollups, Forecast analytics, and Projection calculations.

A team member may be excluded for example, if they don’t carry a quota or aren’t expected to forecast for that specific revenue stream.

Once excluded, the team member remains hidden for all board viewers until included again.

When to forecast

When it’s time for you to submit your forecast, by the cadence set by your business admin, you get a reminder in the Gong app and in Slack (if your company has a Slack integration).

The reminder disappears after submitting the forecast.

How to forecast

To submit a forecast number:

1. Select what you’re forecasting for, your team, and the period you’re forecasting for:

   

2. Click a submission cell (for example: Commit). A panel opens on the right.

3. Enter your forecast number. If your admin has set this column to auto-submit, numbers are submitted automatically on your behalf. You see the last submitted number and when it was submitted.

4. Below your submission number, you can:

   1. See your team rollup number.

   2. Write a note for your manager.

   3. Click Submission changes to see how your submissions are trending and what has changed over time:

      

   4. See how you progress toward your target if set by your admin.

   5. Drill into the deals in the cell (if set by your admin). They open on a deal board view, where deals are sorted by amount, highest first. From here, you can move into each deal’s panel for specific details.

      

   6. See your forecast numbers broken into months if you’re forecasting for the quarter.

5. Click Next submission to move to the next submission cell or click Save.