How do I run a revenue-forecasting routine?
A guide to the recurring discipline behind Operating's revenue forecast — keeping upcoming work and existing plans current so the combined actuals-plus-plan forecast stays meaningful.
Written By Lauri Eurén
Last updated 1 day ago
A forecast is only as good as the plan behind it. Operating's forecast combines actuals for the past with your plan for the future, so the routine has two halves: keep upcoming (tentative) work flowing into Operating, and keep existing projects current — then read the forecast and act on the gaps. The mechanics of how the forecast is built live in the linked concept article; this guide is the recurring discipline around it.
When to run it
Monthly, or aligned to your planning cycle — often right after month-end close, when the previous month's actuals are final.
Who's involved
This is very dependent on your company. At some of our customers’ it’s the account managers’ task to keep their account forecasts up-to-date, while some put this responsibility on the PMs.
For many, finance owns the forecast; sales and project owners keep the plans behind it current. Having the owner, and the responsible people to keep the plans up-to-date is key.
1. Keep upcoming work flowing into Operating
Pipeline work that isn't won yet is the forward, tentative half of the forecast — so it's only as good as your intake process. The aim is for upcoming deals to land in Operating as tentative Projects with a Budget already attached, so forecasting needs no manual re-keying.
With a CRM connection: let qualifying deals create tentative Projects automatically, and map the deal value to the project Budget and the deal's dates to the project's start and end dates. A fixed-price deal then arrives with its budget already in place, ready to forecast.
Without a CRM: put a lightweight process in place for adding upcoming work — create the Project in a tentative status with its Budget (and rough Positions) so it appears in the forecast as upside.
Automate from proposals (advanced): because Operating has an MCP server, you can feed budgets, rates, and staffing plans straight from a SoW or proposal. Start manually — paste a proposal into Claude and have it create the Project, Budget, and Positions — then graduate to an automation that watches your proposals folder and pushes new plans in for you.
2. Keep the plan current on existing projects
The forecast substitutes the plan for everything after the cut-off, so the plan has to be real — and what drives it depends on the billing type:
Fixed-price: the Budget drives the forecast, distributed by the recognition method. Keep budget amounts, dates, and — where the weighted method uses manual budget progress — the progress up to date; stale progress quietly distorts the forecast. Allocations shape cost here, not the revenue.
Time-and-materials: confirmed Allocations drive it — make sure they reflect committed work.
Across both, only confirmed work feeds the forecast; tentative work shows alongside as upside. See related articles in the bottom of this article.
3. Set the forecast cut-off date
In the Project Portfolio report toolbar, choose the forecasted unit and set the cut-off — the line between "what happened" and "what we expect." Today gives actuals-to-date plus plan forward; the end of last month gives period-aligned reporting.
4. Review the forecast and act
When you’ve chosen a forecasted unit — forecasted revenue, costs, gross profit, or margin — you can read the estimate at the end of the chosen time frame in the portfolio report across your Projects (or clients, if you’ve chosen to group the data by client).
For fixed-price projects the forecast lands on the Budget (you’re going to invoice the same amount regardless of when revenue was earned), so the meaningful signal there is projected cost and margin, not revenue. Hold the result against your targets: where it falls short, the lever is usually staffing or sales (convert tentative work, fill open Positions); where it runs hot, check that capacity is real and not overbooked.
End state
A forecast you can take to leadership: upcoming work captured as tentative Projects with budgets, existing plans current, the cut-off set deliberately, and gaps against target turned into staffing or sales actions.