How to set up the Revenue Forecast chart

VOGSY offers a "Revenue Forecast" chart that helps businesses visualize potential and actual revenue based on their sales pipeline and active projects. Here's how to set it up and ensure its accuracy and credibility:

The Revenue Forecast chart in VOGSY displays a combination of "Actual," "Planned order book," "Unplanned order book," and "Pipeline" revenue, allowing you to compare it against a "Target" and "Last year's actual."

While VOGSY doesn't require a complex "setup" process for this chart beyond what's inherent in using the system, ensuring its accuracy involves consistent data input and management.

Key components of the chart:

• Actual: Total revenue already invoiced.

• Planned order book: Value of planned hours for the month, including time entries not yet submitted.

• Unplanned order book: Based on the order value of deliverables without planned hours.

• Pipeline: Anticipated total revenue from pending opportunities, which can be weighted by sales probability.

• Gap: The difference between Target and Forecast plus Actual.

• Target: Your expected revenue for the month.

• Last year's actual: Revenue from the same month in the previous year.

The credibility of your VOGSY revenue forecast relies heavily on the quality and timeliness of the data you input and manage within the system. Here are the crucial measures:

1. Consistent and Accurate Opportunity Management:

   • Keep sales stages updated: As opportunities progress through your sales funnel, consistently update their sales stages in VOGSY. This directly impacts the "Pipeline" component of your forecast.

   • Accurate Revenue for Opportunities: Ensure the "Revenue" (order value) and "Sales probability %" for each opportunity are accurate and regularly reviewed. The "Weighted revenue" calculation depends on this.

   • Win Status Updates: As soon as an opportunity is won, change its status to "WIN." This ensures the revenue reflects in the correct month's "Actual" or "Planned order book."

   • Track lead sources and market segments: This can help you understand the health of your pipeline and identify trends.

2. Diligent Project and Resource Management:

   • Accurate Project Revenue: Keep project revenue values accurate and up to date.

   • Resource Planning and Time Tracking:

     • Keep projects and opportunities resourced: Ensure resources are properly allocated to projects and opportunities.

     • Track time consistently: Encourage employees to submit their timesheets regularly and accurately. VOGSY can auto-populate timesheets from project information, making this easier. Accurate time tracking directly impacts the "Planned order book" and ultimately, the "Actual" revenue.

     • Monitor billability: VOGSY provides insights into employee and department billability, which is crucial for maximizing revenue.

   • Manage deliverable order values: The "Unplanned order book" is based on the order value of deliverables that don't yet have hours planned. Keep these values current.

   • Budget vs. Actual: Regularly compare project budgets against actual costs and time spent. This helps you understand project profitability and can inform future revenue estimations.

• Utilize Revenue Types: If your business has different service offerings, setting up and assigning "Revenue Types" to deliverables allows for granular reporting and analysis of revenue streams. This helps you understand which services are contributing most to your forecast.

• Analyze Performance Monitoring Charts: VOGSY offers various charts beyond just the Revenue Forecast, such as "Sales funnel," "Sales pipeline progression," "Order intake," "Billability per month," and "Project margins." Regularly reviewing these can provide a holistic view and help identify potential issues affecting your revenue forecast.

• Forecast details window: Click on a specific month in the Revenue Forecast chart to view its "Forecast details window," which can display a list of orders for that month, including "Pipeline," "Unplanned order book," and "Planned order book."

By diligently implementing these measures, you can ensure your VOGSY Revenue Forecast chart is not just a visual representation but a highly accurate and credible tool for strategic decision-making and business growth.