Changing a Forecast, Stage, Amount, or Date Field
There are multiple reasons why you might make changes to your Forecast, Stage, Amount, or Date Fields. In this article, we'll walk through how to approach making these changes and the different implications across the Clari platform. Here are the scenarios we'll cover:
- Adding a Brand New Forecast Category Value or Stage Value
- Replacing a Forecast Category Value or Stage Value
- Renaming an Existing Forecast Category Value or Stage Value
- Adding a Brand New Forecast Category Field or Stage Field
- Transitioning to an New Amount Field
- Transitioning to a New Date Field
Adding a Brand New Forecast or Stage Value
In this scenario, you're adding a brand new Forecast Category or Stage value that is not replacing an old one. So you're still using the same field (i.e. "Forecast Category") but you're adding another option to the values of that field (i.e. Pipeline, Commit, Upside, etc.).
Action Item: Saved Views
If you introduce an Upside value between Commit and Best Case, for example, then there are probably some Saved Views where you had a filter for the Commit and Best Case Forecast Categories. You'll most likely need to edit these Saved Views to include the new Upside value too.
You may have trouble identifying all of the Saved Views that you need to update. Don't hesitate to submit a ticket for assistance if this is the case.
Action Item: Forecast
If introduce a new Upside value between Commit and Best Case, for example, then you may need to adjust the filters that Clari uses to find related opportunities in Forecast. If the Total opportunities related to your "Most Likely" or "Maximum" call included your Closed Won + Open Commit + Open Best Case deals before, then they might need to include your Closed Won + Open Commit + Open Upside + Open Best Case deals now. Or perhaps they should only include your Closed Won + Open Commit + Open Upside. Submit a support ticket and we can adjust these filters for you.
Consideration: Analyze
Keep in mind that you will not have historical conversion rates for the new value (i.e. Upside) until you have been using the new value for a minimum of at least 1 entire quarter.
Replacing a Forecast or Stage Value
In this scenario, you're replacing and old Forecast Category or Stage value with a new value. So you're using the same field (i.e. Forecast Category), but you're retiring/inactivating one of the values (i.e. Best Case) and you're going to use a new value instead (i.e. Upside).
Action Item: Historical Value Mapping
If you're retiring and old Forecast Category value (i.e. Best Case) and replacing it with a new one (i.e. Upside), then the Analyze Modules in Clari (Pulse, Trend, and Flow) need to know which new/active Forecast Category(i.e. Upside) your old/inactive Forecast Category (i.e. Best Case) should map to.
Historical Value Mapping allows you to specify which inactive values map to which active values.
Action Item: Saved Views
If you're replacing the old Best Case Forecast Category with the a new Upside Forecast Category, then there are probably some Saved Views where you had a filter for the Best Case Forecast Category. You'll need to edit these Saved Views to include the new Upside value.
You may have trouble identifying all of the Saved Views that you need to update. Submit a support ticket for assistance if this is the case!
Action Item: Forecast
If you're replacing the old Best Case Forecast Category with a new Upside Forecast Category, then you need to adjust the filters that Clari uses to find related opportunities in Forecast. If the Total opportunities related to your "Most Likely" or "Maximum" call included your Closed Won + Open Commit + Open Best Case deals before, then they need to include your Closed Won + Open Commit + Open Upside deals now. Submit a support ticket and we can adjust these filters for you.
Consideration: Analyze
Typically, there’s no impact to your Analyze Modules in this scenario—as long as you update Historical Value Mapping. There may be a significant impact to Analyze if you’re transitioning from 5 Forecast Category Values to 3 Forecast Category values or visa versa.
Renaming an Existing Forecast or Stage Value
In this scenario, you are renaming an existing Forecast Category or Stage value. So you're using the same field (i.e. Forecast Category), but you're changing the name of one of the existing values — you might be re-labeling Best Case as Upside, for example.
Action Item: Saved Views
If you're renaming an existing Forecast Category value from Best Case to Upside, then there are probably some Saved Views where you had a filter for the old Forecast Category value (Best Case). You'll need to edit these Saved Views to filter for the new name for the Forecast Category value (Upside).
You may have trouble identifying all of the Saved Views that you need to update. Submit a support ticket for assistance if this is the case!
Action Item: Forecast
If you're renaming an existing Forecast Category value from Best Case to Upside, then you need to adjust the filters that Clari uses to find related opportunities in Forecast. If the Total opportunities related to your "Most Likely" or "Maximum" call include your Closed Won + Open Commit + Open Best Case deals, then you'll need to update the filter to look for the Upside value instead of the Best Case value in those filters now. Submit a support ticket and we can adjust these filters for you.
Action Item: Historical Value Mapping
If you're renaming an old Forecast Category value (i.e. Best Case) and replacing it with a new one (i.e. Upside), then the Analyze Modules in Clari (Pulse, Trend, and Flow) need to know which new/active value (i.e. Upside) your old value (i.e. Best Case) should map to.
Historical Value Mapping allows you to specify which inactive values map to which active values.
Adding a Brand New Forecast or Stage Field
In this scenario, you're not just adding or changing the values associated with your Forecast or Stage field; you're actually adding a new field (which will also have new values) to Clari. You can add a new Forecast field or Stage Field in Field Config.
Action Item: Backfill values for old deals before you start history tracking
Important! Do not add the new field to Clari or start history tracking before you backfill the values in your new field for old deals.
If you start history tracking before you backfill the values in your new field for old deals, then the first value that Clari collects initially will be blank, and we’ll capture all of the updates to this field for the old deals. Clari will identify this as positive behavior, which will impact calculations such as the CRM Score.
If you start history tracking before you backfill, and also wait a period time before backfilling the field on old opportunities, then the Analyze Modules (Pulse, Trend) will be affected. When you do eventually backfill the values in your new field for old deals, Clari will pick up on all of the updates to the old opportunities and they will impact calculations such as the CRM Score.
Action Item: Saved Views
If you're adding a new Forecast or Stage Field, then there are probably some Saved Views where you had a filter for the old fields. You'll need to edit these Saved Views to so that the filter uses the new field instead of an old one.
Note: If you are using the field in the filters in your Forecast Module, then submit a support ticket to get assistance with updating the filters in the Forecast Module.
Considerations: Analyze
Let's walk through this example assuming that you're adding a brand new Forecast Field. Initially, both your old Forecast Field and your new Forecast Field will be available as breakdown options in the Analyze Modules. Our best practice recommendation is to keep the old Forecast Field as your default breakdown field at first.
After your organization has a minimum of 1 entire quarter of history with the new Forecast Field, we can adjust the AI Projection to stop looking at the old Forecast Field, and look at the history that you have for the new Forecast Field. However, our best practice recommendation is to wait at least a few quarters before cutting off the history of your old Forecast Field.
Transitioning to a New Amount Field
In this scenario, you're changing the Amount Field that you're using in Clari. There are several updates that must be made to your organization's configuration in order to accommodate the new field.
Configuration
You can add the new Amount Field to Clari in Field Config. If you're changing the Amount Field that you use in Clari, you can update your configuration to add the new Amount Field to your Opportunity Grid, Opportunity Filters, and Analyze Rollup layouts. In this scenario, you probably also want to update the Default Amount Field for your Mode to the new field.
Note for Formula-Based Amount Fields & Analyze
You may have existing amount fields that are formula fields. Our Analyze will not show proper conversion rates if this is the case. It will take one full quarter for data to allow for a more accurate projection after history tracking is turned on. To address this issue, customers will need to:
- Create a new Currency field
- Create a workflow to populate the historical values
- Enable history tracking once the numbers are populated to start tracking data accurately.
Note: If a field is created without the workflow to populate the historical values before history-tracking is enabled, Clari will intake the opportunity amount as “0” which will negatively impact the conversion rates in our Analyze modules. We also will not be able to use the field if the field history is deleted in the same regard as well.
Action Item: Backfill values for old deals before you start history tracking
Important! Do not add the new field to Clari or start history tracking before you backfill the values in your new field for old deals.
If you start history tracking before you backfill, then the first value that Clari collects initially from the new Amount Field will be $0, and Clari will capture all of the updates to this field for all of your old deals. Clari will identify this as positive behavior, which will impact calculations such as the CRM Score.
If you start history tracking before you backfill, and also wait a period time before backfilling the field on old opportunities, then the Analyze Modules (Pulse, Trend) will be affected. When you do eventually backfill the values in your new field for old deals, Clari will pick up on all of the updates to the old opportunities and they will impact calculations such as the CRM Score.
Action Item: Make sure history tracking is enabled on the Amount Field
You will want to ensure that history tracking is enabled on your new amount field after you backfill the value for old deals.
Action Item: Add New Amount Field to Field Config
After you have backfilled values for the new field on old deals, and enabled history tracking, you can update your configuration to add the new Amount Field to your Opportunity Grid, Opportunity Filters, and Analyze Rollup layouts. In this scenario, you probably also want to update the Default Amount Field for your Mode to the new field.
Action Item: Saved Views
If you're using a new Amount Field, all of your Saved Views will need to be updated. We can update your Saved Views to use the new Amount Field as the rollup field. We can also update your Saved Views to use the new Amount Field and values in their filters.
Action Item: Forecast
If you're using a new Amount Field, then you will need to change the Amount Field that Forecast is using to rollup. If you're transitioning from using the Deal Size Amount Field to using an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Amount Field, for example, then you'll want Forecast to use the new Amount Field to rollup the total amount associated with related opportunities. Submit a support ticket and we'll update your Forecast configuration.
Action Item: Charts
If you're grouping any Charts by Amount, we can also update those Charts to use the new Amount Field and values.
Consideration: Analyze
It is possible to begin using your new Amount Field in the Analyze Modules immediately — especially if your team does not tend to tweak the value in the Amount Field (i.e. the deal size) very often throughout the quarter. However, if your team does tend to change the deal size on opportunities frequently, then we recommend working through a minimum of at least 1 entire quarter using the new Amount Field before you begin to rely too heavily on the conversion rates that you see in the Analyze Modules.
Transitioning to a New Date Field
In this scenario, you're changing the Date Field that you're using in Clari. You can add the new Date field to the Opportunity Grid, Opportunity Filter, and Analyze Date layouts in Field Config.
Configuration
If you're changing the Date Field that you use in Clari, we will update your configuration so that Clari uses the new Date Field in areas of the platform such as the Analyze Modules, for example.
Action Item: Add the new Date Field to Field Config
You can add the Date Field to your configuration in the Field Config Modul e in Clari Studios. You probably want to add the new field to your Opportunity Grid, Opportunity Filter, and Analyze Date layouts in this scenario.
Action Item: Saved Views
If you're using a new Date Field, then your Saved Views will need to be updated. We can update your Saved Views to use the new Date Field values in their filters.
You can update your Saved Views yourself, but it can be difficult to systematically update all of the Saved Views that you need to update—and you might need to update all of your Saved Views after all! Submit a support ticket for assistance if this is the case.
Action Item: Charts
If you're grouping any Charts by the Date Field (i.e. Close Date), then your Charts will need to be updated to use the new Date Field.
You can update your Charts yourself, but it can be difficult to systematically update all of the Charts that you need to update.Submit a support ticket for assistance if this is the case.
Consideration: Forecast
If you're transitioning to a new Date Field, then you'll need to update Forecast to use the new Date Field. If you're transitioning from using the Close Date to using a Ship Date to run your business, for example, then you'll want Forecast to use the new Ship Date to query for the opportunities related to your forecast call(s) this quarter vs. next quarter, etc.
Consideration: Analyze
When you transition to using a new Date Field, at first it's going to look like you always choose the perfect Close Date without ever pulling in a deal or allowing a deal to slip (if only!). Don't worry, this will resolve itself over time as you work through a minimum of at least 1 entire quarter using the new Date Field.
