Pipeline and Forecast Review Template

Stage exit criteria and probabilities, forecast categories, roll-up by seller, coverage, deal inspection, decisions, forecast accuracy

VentasEstándarpipeline forecast reviewActualizada 29 oct 2026

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Cómo usar: Use it for the weekly or monthly forecast call of a sales team. Agree the stage exit criteria and forecast categories once for the whole organisation before filling the roll-up. The main pitfall is advancing stages on time spent instead of verifiable buyer actions.

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Pipeline and Forecast Review: [Team] [Quarter]

The working document for a sales team's weekly or monthly forecast call: shared stage definitions with exit criteria, forecast categories (closed, commit, best case, pipeline, omitted), the roll-up by seller, coverage, deal inspection and a record of forecast accuracy over time. Based on common sales operations practice. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Field	Value
Review ID	[FCR-YYYY-QN-WNN]
Team	[Team name]
Quarter	[Q4 2026] (Example)
Review date	2026-11-13 (Example, week 7 of 13)
CRM cut-off	[YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]
Owner	[@sales-manager]
Attendees	[@sellers], [@sales-operations]
Currency and measure	[New ARR, EUR]

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
1.0 (Example)	2026-11-13	Sales manager	Week 7 review

1. Stage definitions and exit criteria

Stage	Name	Exit criteria (buyer-verified)	Evidence in CRM	Probability (Example)
S1	Qualify	Buyer confirms a problem, a sponsor and a timeframe	Qualification record (`business/opportunity-qualification`)	10%
S2	Discover	Buyer shares requirements, decision process and budget range	Discovery notes, named decision makers	20%
S3	Solution	Buyer agrees the solution fits, after demo or pilot	Demo or pilot outcome, success criteria	40%
S4	Proposal	Buyer has the proposal and agrees a mutual action plan to decision	Proposal sent, `sales/mutual-action-plan` shared	60%
S5	Negotiate	Buyer's procurement and legal are working on contract terms	Redlines, approval path confirmed	80%
Won	Closed won	Contract signed by both parties and booked	Signed order	100%
Lost	Closed lost	Buyer chose another option or no decision	Loss reason coded (`sales/win-loss-analysis`)	0%

2. Forecast categories

Category	Meaning	Test
Closed	Booked this period	Signed and approved
Commit	Seller expects it to close this period and will be held to it	Would you bet your own money on it? Signature date inside the period agreed with the buyer, path to signature written down
Best case	Could close this period if open items go well	Named items that must happen, each with a date
Pipeline	Open, expected to close in a later period or not yet qualified for this one	Real opportunity, but not this period
Omitted	Excluded from the forecast	Stalled, duplicate or kept for reference only

Forecast call = Closed + Commit. Upside = Closed + Commit + Best case.

3. Forecast roll-up

Seller	Quota	Closed	Commit	Best case	Pipeline	Call (Closed + Commit)	Call vs quota
Seller 1 (Example)	300,000	120,000	100,000	80,000	160,000	220,000	73.3%
Seller 2 (Example)	300,000	90,000	120,000	40,000	200,000	210,000	70.0%
Seller 3 (Example)	300,000	140,000	60,000	90,000	120,000	200,000	66.7%
Seller 4 (Example)	300,000	70,000	100,000	50,000	160,000	170,000	56.7%
Team (Example)	1,200,000	420,000	380,000	260,000	640,000	800,000	66.7%

Example: the team call is 800,000 (66.7% of quota) and the upside is 1,060,000 (88.3%). The manager's call to leadership may differ from the sum of seller calls; record it and the reason in section 6.

4. Coverage

Measure	Value (Example)
Quota still to close (1,200,000 minus 420,000)	780,000
Open this-period pipeline (commit + best case + pipeline)	1,280,000
Coverage	1.64 times
Coverage needed from history	[Value from your win rates]

5. Deal inspection

Deal	Seller	Value	Stage	Category	Exit evidence	Next buyer action and date	Risk
DEAL-101 (Example)	Seller 2	120,000	S5	Commit	Redlines received	Legal sign-off, 2026-11-27	Low
DEAL-102 (Example)	Seller 1	80,000	S3	Best case	Pilot passed	Proposal review with CFO, 2026-11-20	Budget not confirmed
DEAL-103 (Example)	Seller 4	100,000	S4	Commit	Mutual action plan agreed	Budget approval, 2026-12-04	Signature 2026-12-18, close to period end
[ID]	[Seller]	[Value]	[Stage]	[Category]	[Evidence]	[Action, date]	[Risk]

Inspection checklist for each commit deal:

Signature date agreed with the buyer, not assumed.
Economic buyer named and engaged.
Paper process known: procurement, legal, security reviews and their dates.
Price and terms inside discount authority, or approval obtained.
Stage and category consistent, or the difference explained.

6. Decisions and actions

Item	Record
Call submitted to leadership	[800,000] (Example)
Change since last review	[Movements in and out of commit, with reasons]
Deals moved to omitted	[IDs and reasons]

ID	Action	Owner	Due
ACT-01 (Example)	Confirm CFO meeting for DEAL-102	Seller 1	2026-11-16
ACT-[NN]	[Action]	[Owner]	YYYY-MM-DD

7. Forecast accuracy

Quarter	Quota	Week 7 call	Actual	Error vs call	Attainment
Q1 2026 (Example)	1,000,000	820,000	870,000	+6.1%	87.0%
Q2 2026 (Example)	1,050,000	900,000	840,000	-6.7%	80.0%
Q3 2026 (Example)	1,100,000	960,000	1,010,000	+5.2%	91.8%

Error vs call = (actual minus call) divided by call. Related templates: Rolling Forecast (finance/rolling-forecast), Strategic Account Plan (sales/account-plan), Sales Compensation Plan (sales/sales-compensation-plan) for the booking definition.

Standard and licence note

Based on common sales operations practice for pipeline stages and forecast categories. No standard governs this document; the stage names, probabilities and figures are illustrative. All text and examples are original. Template licence: MIT.

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