Forecast Period Row Generation in Salesforce Forecasting

Review how forecast period rows are generated based on fiscal year, default settings, and forecastable items per user.

Required Editions

Available in: All editions with Sales

When forecasting is enabled, for each fiscal year that includes forecastable items, 17 period rows are generated, with 1 row for:

  • Each month of the year (12 rows total)
  • Each quarter of the year (4 rows total)
  • For the entire year (1 row total)

The default date range and forecastable items for a user determine which fiscal years forecast periods are generated for.

Default Date Range

The date range that’s set in the Choose a Default Date Range section of the Forecast Settings page specifies which forecast periods are shown by default on the forecasts page. To make sure that all forecast periods within the specified range are available, forecast periods are generated for each fiscal year in the maximum range.

Each Forecast User

Period rows are generated between the earliest fiscal year that a user has a forecastable item and the latest fiscal year, up to 10 years in the future from the current period.

In some cases forecast period rows are generated for only the year that a forecastable item is created in.

  • A forecastable item is created beyond the current range of forecast periods available. For example, if your current periods go out to 2028, and you create a forecastable item in 2030, period rows are created for 2030, but not for 2029. If the dimensions for your forecast change, such as a user changes roles in the hierarchy or your fiscal year changes, periods for the user are recalculated and the periods for year 2029 are generated at the time.
  • A forecastable item is created in the past. For example, if you have preexisting periods from 2020 to 2025, and you create a forecastable item in 2017, forecast periods for the fiscal year 2017 are created, but not for 2018 and 2019. A change in forecasting dimensions doesn’t create periods for 2018 and 2019 in this case.