Forecast performance analysis

Forecast performance analysis

Last modified on 15/05/2023: Performance analysis in forecasts is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all DCs. Note that it was an early access feature available only upon request. As of May 10, 2023, it is rolled out for all Zoho CRM accounts. Find out more about forecasts in our help doc.

Hello everyone! 

We are thrilled to announce an exciting update on comprehensive performance analysis for CRM forecasts, including trends, gap reasons, improvement suggestions, and more.

Forecasts help organizations estimate how sales will progress in the approaching months, quarters, or fiscal years, as well as monitor current sales growth and find ways to accelerate it. They yield important insights into the company's performance and enable businesses to plan upcoming activities accordingly.

In the revamped forecast, until now, we provided the Target Achievement Report page, which showed the targets set for different roles within the organization, their achievements, and the number of open deals they had in a hierarchy. We're introducing a few enhancements to forecasts to provide even more details about performance, as well as an overview—which can be found in the User and Roles Performance pages and Forecast Overview section of the Target Achievement Report page.

We've introduced the following:
  • Performance Trend
  • Achievement Comparison
  • Comparison Across Forecast
  • Current Deals by Stages
  • Reasons for Gaps
  • Improvements


Let's have a look at these charts and at the overall enhancement in detail.

Forecast Overview

We've introduced a section at the top of the Target Achievement Report page called Forecast Overview. The analytics in this section help users track their performance and plan according to their targets and requirements.

  • Performance Trend: Users can analyze their performance with the help of the performance trend chart, which compares actual achievements across time with target achievements. The trend line predicts whether the achievement can be met within the forecast period based on the current performance, and shows the predicted achievement on particular dates. Users, therefore, have a visually clear representation of what's necessary to improve performance to reach targets.

  • Achievement Comparison: Users can compare their performance at different intervals to analyze how their performance has changed over time. They can set the chart to compare performance on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

  • Comparison Across Forecasts: This chart helps users compare their targets, open deals, and achievements across different forecast periods. The bars signify the total deal value assigned to a particular user and contrast it with the deal value closed at the end of the period. Combined with the line plot representing targets in the selected time frame, this enables users to determine whether the target is achievable, and how much more effort is required.

User Performance page
We've introduced the User Performance page for users and admins to track individual performance in a particular period. Apart from providing insights into users' performance, on this page, there are additional details including charts and other widgets. Users can see suggestions for improving their performance or the reasons for which they're not able to meet their targets, and can therefore act accordingly.


The following details are available on the User Performance page:
  • Open deals
  • Deals in the best case, pipelines, and omitted deals.
  • Predictions
  • Targets
  • Achievements
The User Performance page also has charted—Performance Trends and Achievement Comparison—with similar functionality as those in the Forecast Overview section.


The Achievement Comparison chart compares total achievement over time with the number of available deals that can be completed, with a plot for overall targets provided for context.


Apart from these two charts, the User Performance page features the additional Current Deals by Stages chart. The main purpose of this chart is to show deal amounts in different stages. All deals in the current period are plotted as bar graphs according to the deal stage. Each bar breaks down the sum of the deal amounts into three forecast categories: pipeline, best case, and committed. If a pipeline is added, you can also view the current deals by stage based on that pipeline.


We didn't stop just at providing insight into user performance; we've also introduced two additional sections: reasons for gap, which highlights the gap between the target and the achievement and provides reasons that could have led to the gap, and the improvements section, which lists out the various improvements the user can make in order to reduce the gap.

Here are some examples:

Reasons for gaps
  • High number of untouched deals: Any untouched deals will be mentioned here, along with the actual count of untouched deals. Clicking the deal count makes a list of those specific deals pop up.
  • Failed to approach at the right time: Deals that were not approached at the right time are referenced here. Clicking on the link reveals a list of deals that weren't approached at the right time.
  • Doesn't fall in this forecast period: Deals that are outside of the forecast period are referenced for this reason.
  • Deal value insufficient to close target: Deals in the pipeline whose values are too low to reach the target are referenced here.

Improvements
  • Focus on recommended deals: Deals that are likely to be won are referenced here, along with the total deal value upon closing. The deal count is hyperlinked to summon the deal list.
  • Focus on high-value deals: This improvement recommendation suggests which deals to focus on, including high-value deals or low-value deals, based on the win rate for each type of deal. It also mentions the number of such deals available in the pipeline and lists them via a link.
  • Improve closing rate: This improvement is suggested if the user needs to improve their closing rate, along with the percentage by which it needs to increase.
  • Kick out the stalled deals: If a high number of deals in the pipeline have a low chance of being won, they will be mentioned here. Users can click on the deal count to see a list of such deals.

Role Performance page
Users can access the role performance report via the Roles Performance page by clicking on a particular role in the hierarchical view of the Target Achievement Report page.

The Roles Performance page also features sections that show reasons for achievement gaps and improvements (different than those suggested in the User Performance page). Admins can thereby analyze the performance of particular roles and their direct subordinates.

Here are examples of reasons for achievement gaps and improvement suggestions:

Reasons for achievement gaps
  • Users recently switched roles: Users who have switched roles are cited here as a potential reason for a performance gap, along with the count of such users and the percentage of the target deal value that they owned. Clicking on the count of users summons a list of users who have switched roles.
  • Mismatch found in the split and target: In case there is a delay in the allocation of values in the target, it will be mentioned as the percentage of the value in the target that is mismatched.
  • Low user performance: The number of users who closed less than 20% of their targets is cited here. The list of users is linked with the provided count.
  • Overrated targets: If users' targets are overrated, this reason will appear, along with the percentage of how overly rated the targets are.

Improvements
  • Identify users who have a low follow-up rate: Users who have contributed to a decline in customer happiness are referenced here, along with a list linked to the user count.
  • Right deals to the right person: If a certain user has a high win rate of 76% on high-value deals and 60% on low-value deals, the system will suggest assigning high-value deals to that user to get better results.
  • Reassignment yields better results: If two users have some stagnant and untouched deals, the system will suggest that those deals be reassigned to help closure.
  • Target correction: If five users have overrated targets and three users have low-rated targets compared to the individual's average performance, the system will suggest reassigning targets based on performance.

Notes:
  • The charts on the User and Role Performance pages are available only for completed and current forecasts only.
  • The Current Deals by Stages chart is available only for the Current forecast.
  • The Achievement Comparison chart is only available if there is data from previous forecast periods.
  • Improvements and reasons for performance gaps are updated once per week


      • Recent Topics

      • Dark Mode - Font Colors Don't Work

        When editing a document in Dark Mode and selecting font colors, they don't show up on screen.  Viewing/editing the same document in Light Mode shows them just fine.

      • New 2026 Application Themes

        Love the new themes - shame you can't get a little more granular with the colours, ie 3 different colours so one for the dropdown menu background. Also, I did have our logo above the application name but it appears you can't change logo placement position

      • Including attachments with estimates

        How can attachments be included when an estimate is sent/emailed and when downloaded as a .pdf? Generally speaking, attachments should be included as part of an estimate package. Ultimately, this is also true for work orders and invoices.

      • Trying to access records in a custom module in Zoho Desk and not having luck

        I've built a custom module in Zoho Desk and am using a custom function to query the records in the module and I'm not having any luck. The only way I have found to retreive a record is by getting it by its recordID (the long zoho assigned one). The function

      • Detailed list of scoring rules in Zoho CRM

        Good morning Zoho community, warm greetings The reason for my message today is that I have a problem with my CRM, which I will explain below: Our organization has scoring rules designed to rate our potential customers or leads in the application based

      • System Components menu not available for Tablet to select language

        I have attached a screenshot of my desktop, mobile, and tablet menu builder options. I am using 2 languages in my application. Language Selection is an option under the System Components part of the menu, but only for my desktop and phone(mobile). My

      • Placeholder format in Number field does not reflect Max Digits configuration

        When the Max Digits (Maximum digits of number) property is set to a smaller value (for example, 2 digits), the placeholder in the input field still displays a 7-digit format (#######). The same behavior can also be observed in Decimal and Currency field

      • Approvals in Zoho Creator

        Hi, This is Surya, in one of  my creator application I have a form called job posting, and I created an approval process for that form. When a user submits that form the record directly adding to that form's report, even it is in the review for approval.

      • How Zoho Desk contributes to the art of savings

        Remember the first time your grandmother gave you cash for a birthday or New Year's gift, Christmas gift, or any special day? You probably tucked that money safely into a piggy bank, waiting for the day you could buy something precious or something you

      • Estimate PDF Templates - logo too large

        Hello, I cloned a standard estimate template, but my logo is showing up much larger than intended. This doesn’t happen with the standard invoice template, where the logo displays correctly. How can I adjust the logo size in the estimate template? Thank

      • Select CRM Custom Module in Zoho Creator

        I have a custom module added in Zoho CRM that I would like to link in Zoho creator.  When I add the Zoho CRM field it does not show the new module.  Is this possible?  Do i need to change something in CRM to make it accesible in Creator?

      • Invoice emails not sending but reminders are

        I am a new user. I have been creating some dummy invoices before I go live and have struck a block. Emails for the invoice are not being recieved by the recipient, however, when I send a reminder for the same invoice the email is sent. NOTE: I have checked

      • How to close an estimate ?

        Hello, I have created estimates, and converted them to invoices to get 50% payment. Now I have 2 cases where the estimate stills shows status partially invoiced, however: 1. for one of them, project stopped half way, so the remaining part will never be

      • Deleted account recovery

        I ended up accidentally deleting our Zoho invoice account while trying to work something out. Emailed support for recovery and restoration of the deleted account, if possible, but they responded by saying they can't find an account associated with that

      • Organization wide Account and Contacts Visibility/Sharing Capabilities?

        Has anyone figured out a way to make visibility or sharing of Accounts and Contacts to be available across the entire organization without having to have every individual user edit their Sharing permissions? For our sales folks they need to be able to

      • CRM Cadences - working timesThe Friday afternoon? The next Monday morning? Not at all?

        I think I’m writing saying that cadence emails are only sent during the organisations set working hours in CRM. So if a particular email is set to send for example in three days and that lands on a Sunday (when working hours are not operational) when

      • CRM Cadences - working times

        I think I’m right in saying that cadence emails are only sent during the organisations set working hours in CRM. So if a particular email is set to send for example in three days and that lands on a Sunday (when working hours are not operational) when

      • Cannot find zpuid for Zoho Projects user

        I'm using the Zoho Projects v3 API to create a task. The task is created successfully, but in order to assign the task owner, the "Create a Task" API also requires the zpuid of the task owner. Unfortunately I cannot find any user-related API calls that

      • Devis et factures multipage coupées

        Bonjour, je suis sur Zoho invoice et je rencontre un problème sur mes devis et factures lorsqu'ils dépassent 1 page. je me retrouve souvent avec des lignes coupées ou le sous total page 1 et le total page 2. j'aimerai savoir s'il existe une possibilité

      • Zoho Desk View Open Tickets and Open Shared Tickets

        Hi, I would like to create a custom view so that an agent can view all the open tickets he has access to, including the shared tickets created by a different department. Currently my team has to swich between two views (Open Tickets and Shared Open Tickets).

      • Custom Related List Inside Zoho Books

        Hello, We can create the Related list inside the zoho books by the deluge code, I am sharing the reference code Please have a look may be it will help you. //..........Get Org Details organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); Recordid = cm_g_a_data.get("module_record_id");

      • Add the same FROM email to multiple department

        Hi, We have several agents who work with multiple departments and we'd like to be able to select their names on the FROM field (sender), but apparently it's not possible to add a FROM address to multiple departments. Is there any way around this? Thanks.

      • How does SKU work when selling products in parts in Zoho Inventory

        Hello everyone, Zoho Inventory does not understand the physical cutting of the piece.. It only tracks quantities of the unit (like feet ). So when you sell part of an item, the system simply reduces quantity for that SKU. Assume that i have a 50 ft long

      • Zoho Meeting - Feature Request - Introduce an option to use local date and time formating

        Hi Zoho Meeting Team, My feature request is to add an option for dates to be displayed in the users local format. This is common practice across Zoho applications and particularly relevant to an application like Zoho Meeting which revolves around date

      • Incorrect Functioning of Time Logs API (Version 3)

        We need to fetch the list of time logs for each task for our company internal usage. We are trying to achieve it by using the next endpoint: https://projects.zoho.com/api-docs#bulk-time-logs#get-all-project-time-logs Firstly, in the documentation the

      • Cannot give public access to Html Snippet in Zoho Creator Page

        Hi, I created a form in Zoho Creator and published it. The permalink works but I want to override the css of the form. (style based URL parameters is not good enough) So I created a page and added an Html snippet. I can now override the css, which is

      • How can Outlook 365 link back into Zoho Projects so meetings and events in Outlook calendar show in Zoho?

        We use Outlook 365 for our emails and diaries and have integrated Zoho Projects with Office 365. One challenge we face is getting Zoho Projects to recognise when we have meetings and events in Outlook and not allow project managers to assign tasks over that period. Is there a way to resolve this? Thanks

      • IMPORTANT: It doens´t show full article name on search - Should add line break

        When we search for articles, it doesn´t show the full name. There should be a line break so the user can see the full article name, otherwise the user can´t know if that´s the article he/she is looking for. This is very important, otherwise the user has

      • IMPORTANT: It doesn´t search for letters with portuguese characters.

        Some of my articles have for example the word "vídeo". But if I search for "vídeo" it doesn´t find them. If I search for "video" it does find them. Idealy, it should find the articles either way. But if I have to choose, it would be better to find the

      • On Edit Validation Blueprint

        Hello, I have a notes field and a signature field. When the Approve button is clicked, the Signature field will appear and must be filled in. When the Reject button is clicked, the Notes field will appear and must be filled in. Question: Blueprint will

      • Zoho Invoice en Navarra (Spain)

        Hola, ¿Alguien usa Zoho Invoice en la Comunidad Foral de Navarra? En Navarra tenemos un sistema tributario diferente y no aplica Verifactu (la Hacienda Foral de Navarra ha anunciado su alternativa, NaTicket, pero no ha informado cuándo entrará en vigor).

      • Conect chat of salesiq with zoho cliq

        Is there any way to answer from zoho cliq the chat of salesiq initiated by customers?

      • Emails from Zoho are getting blocked due to Zoho IP address being blacklisted

        This is the info I got from my hosting provider – please address this issue immediately. I don’t expect this from such a big household name. Every single invoice I have sernt it not being received by my clients, all being blocked. All of a sudden. As

      • agentid : Where to find?

        I've been looking around for this agenId to check for the total ticket assigned on a specific agent url :"https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/ticketsCountByFieldValues?departmentId=351081000000155331&agentId=35108xxxxxx132009&field=statusType,status" type :GET

      • Zoho DataPrep integration with OpenAI (beta)

        We are thrilled to announce Zoho DataPrep's integration with OpenAI. The public beta roll-out opens up three features. Users who configure their OpenAI Organizational ID and ChatGPT API key (Find out how) will be able access the features. The features

      • Ability to Attach Record-Specific Files Automatically in Workflow Email Templates

        Currently in Zoho CRM, email templates allow attachments to be added, but these attachments are static and remain the same for every recipient. There is no straightforward option to automatically attach a file that is stored within the specific CRM record

      • Restrict employees to take only one day holiday from a multi-day festival holiday

        Hi everyone, I have a requirement related to Optional/Festival Holidays in Zoho People. For example, in the month of May there are three optional holiday dates: May 11, May 12, and May 13. Employees can choose one of these days as their optional holiday.

      • AI Bot and Advanced Automation for WhatsApp

        Most small businesses "live" on WhatsApp, and while Bigin’s current integration is helpful, users need more automation to keep up with volume. We are requesting features based on our customer Feedbacks AI Bot: For auto-replying to FAQs. Keyword Triggers:

      • Related lists New option in missing

        hi I have created quite a few modules and added as related lists to my main module. Some have new, some dont I can not see why?

      • Setting total budget hours for a specific project

        Hi there, I work on a lot of projects that have fixed budget hours. Is there a way to enter the total budgeted hours so i can track progress and identify when hours have been exceeded. I see in the projects dashboard there is a greyed out text saying

      • Next Page