Forecast Caching

Overview

Forecast Caching can balance the need for fresh data and optimal performance in Forecasting. In this article, you'll learn about:
 

• Types of Organizations that Can Benefit from Forecasting Caching
• How Forecast Caching Works
• What Data is Cached
• Choosing Your Forecast Caching Settings

Types of Organizations that Can Benefit from Forecasting Caching

You'll need to chat with your Clari CSM or our Support team to determine if forecast caching is right for you, but generally forecast caching can be beneficial for organizations who meet some combination of the criteria below:
 

• Very large revenue teams that have a large number of users accessing Forecasting
• Organizations using very complex queries in Forecasting
• Organizations with many different tabs in Forecasting
• Organizations with a limited API call count to Salesforce

How Forecast Caching Works

Forecast Caching ensures an efficient experience by storing computed values derived from Salesforce queries within Clari for quick access.

Forecast Caching has two configurations that help manage the balance between minimizing Salesforce API queries and ensuring up-to-date information is available: Refresh Interval and Refresh on Access.
 

1. Refresh Intervals

A refresh interval improves performance by configuring Forecasting to refresh/make API calls to Salesforce at a regular interval (i.e. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour). For some organizations, this significantly reduces the total number of API calls made to Salesforce.

If you only set a maximum refresh interval, then Forecasting will only refresh at whatever interval you set. For example, if your set interval is every 15 minutes, then the absolute "oldest" data for any user in Forecasting would be 14 minutes and 59 seconds. 

This setting is helpful in terms of reducing load times during peak Forecasting usage (i.e. weekly Forecast calls). However, setting refresh intervals does not ensure up-to-the-second Forecasting data at critical time periods in your revenue operating cadence (i.e. end of quarter) when enabled on its own.
 

2. Refresh On User Access

Refresh on access improves performance by configuring the Forecasting Module to refresh/make API calls when any user actually accesses Forecasting. This also reduces the number of API calls made to Salesforce at certain times of day by eliminating unnecessary API calls that would otherwise occur during "off hours" or downtime (i.e. overnight) when nobody is accessing the Forecasting Module anyway.

If you configure Forecasting to only refresh on access, then Forecasting will only update when a user actually accesses Forecasting. Refreshing on user access doesn't change much on its own if you have a high volume of users accessing Forecasting at the same time (i.e. weekly forecast calls), or if you're the very first user who accesses Forecasting after a long period of time without activity (i.e. first thing in the morning).

For most organizations, this setting is most helpful when combined with longer refresh intervals (i.e. 30 minutes, 1 hour) in order to balance the need to reduce API calls/speed up performance and ensure data "freshness" in Forecasting during peak usage. 
 

Bonus: Combining Maximum Refresh Intervals and Refresh on User Access

If you have a refresh interval and also configure Forecasting to refresh on access, then Forecasting will refresh/make API calls to Salesforce at the refresh interval and when any user accesses Forecasting.

This way, if any users happen to access Forecasting between refresh intervals, then the data in Forecasting will be as old as your maximum refresh interval at most. Additionally, if a user happens to be the very first one to access Forecasting after a long period of inactivity, they would also not experience unnecessarily long load times.

If you're going to combine refresh intervals and refresh on user access, then you can extend your refresh interval to a longer period of time (i.e. 30 minutes, 1 hour).
 

What Data is Cached?

All CRM aggregations/totals—such as the Total, Closed, and Open amounts under Related Opportunities or the Closed-Won amount in the grid—are cached data points when you have forecast caching enabled. All of these data points will be subject to the caching intervals/rules that you set.

The quota, forecast calls, rollups, and related opportunities always pull live opportunity data in real time.

Note: When forecast caching is enabled in your Clari instance, there may be a discrepancy between the Total, Closed, and Open amounts in the panel on the right-hand side of Forecasting, and the total amount that's rolled up in the Opportunity Grid after you click on View Deals from the related opportunities in Forecasting.

This is due to the fact that the Total, Closed, and Open amounts in the right-hand panel in Forecasting are cached, but the opportunities in the Opportunity Grid are not.
 

Choosing Your Forecast Caching Settings

For some organizations, when opportunities are updated, it is mission-critical that users see these changes reflected in Forecasting within seconds. Other organizations can operate just fine when data is being updated within a reasonable time frame (i.e. 15 minutes, 30 minutes) if it means that their Forecasting Module load times are faster. You can discuss which settings would most benefit your organization with your revenue teams and your Clari CSM.