If your sales forecast still lives in a spreadsheet, you’re missing out on one of HubSpot’s most powerful revenue tools. When set up correctly, the forecast tool turns your pipeline into a live, shared view of what’s likely to close – and how close you are to target.
What the HubSpot forecast tool actually does
Before you start: requirements and permissions
Step 1: Set your forecast deal amount
Step 2: Choose your forecast period
Step 3: Enable the forecast submission status indicator
Step 4: Map your pipelines to forecast categories
Step 5: Customise categories and forecast table columns
Step 6: Set forecastable revenue goals
Step 7: Using forecast categories day to day
Best practices to keep your forecast reliable
The HubSpot forecast tool gives sales and revenue leaders a single view of how much revenue is likely to close in a given period, based on the deals in your pipelines. Instead of manually exporting data or building static reports, you can:
Tip: Think of Forecast as your “source of truth” for where the month or quarter will land. If leaders are still using spreadsheets, your team will end up arguing about which number to trust.
Before setting anything up, check the following:
Users with Forecast permissions can view and work inside the forecast tool and submit their own forecast, but they cannot change the tool’s global settings or category configuration.
Tip: Do the initial configuration in a working session with your sales leader. You’ll avoid rework later if the settings reflect how leadership actually reads the numbers.
The first decision is how HubSpot should calculate the amount that appears in your forecasts and related reports.
Tip: If your team is still maturing its pipeline discipline, start with Total amount for simplicity. Once stage probabilities are consistently accurate, move to Weighted amount for a more realistic view.
The forecast period controls how goals and submissions are structured across all pipelines.
Important: if you change this setting later, existing forecastable revenue goals and any submissions will be reset and need to be recreated.
Tip: Match your forecast period to how leadership reviews performance. If your exec team thinks in quarters, choose quarterly even if your operational reporting is monthly.
To keep your forecast current, you need reps and managers to review and submit their latest view regularly. The submission status indicator makes it obvious who hasn’t updated their forecast recently.
Once enabled, an indicator appears in the Forecast submission column for users who haven’t updated their forecast within the timeframe you chose.
Tip: Align the days setting with your sales cadence. For weekly pipeline meetings, 7–10 days works well so you can spot stale submissions before you walk into the room.
Forecast categories group deals according to how likely they are to close. This is the foundation of your forecast view.
For each pipeline, you’ll see your deal stages and a set of forecast categories. By default, you can assign stages into categories such as:
Tick or clear the checkboxes to include specific deal stages in each category. Click Save when you’re done.
You can ask HubSpot to update the Forecast category property automatically when a deal moves stage:
You can later clone and customise that workflow if you want more granular rules.
Tip: Start with automation switched on to keep things simple. As your process matures, you can clone the default workflow and add extra logic for enterprise deals, renewals, or special segments.
If the default labels don’t match your internal language, you can rename or add categories:
HubSpot will only display the last five custom categories in your forecast mapping (plus Not forecasted and Closed won), so if you have many options, drag the ones you care about into the last five positions.
Tip: The order of categories matters for analytics. Deals are treated as “moving forward” when they move down the list. Keep your categories in a logical progression from low to high confidence.
To keep your forecast view focused, Super Admins can control which columns are shown by default.
Tip: Aim for clarity, not completeness. Too many columns turn the forecast into a wall of numbers. Start with goal, forecast, closed won, and one pipeline metric.
Once your forecast tool is configured, you need to give it something to measure against: revenue goals.
To create forecastable goals:
To view or assign a goal, users need an assigned Sales Hub (Starter, Professional, or Enterprise) or Service Hub Enterprise seat.
Tip: Make sure your goal filters (pipeline, date range, team) match the configuration used in the forecast view – otherwise numbers won’t line up and you’ll lose trust in the tool.
As reps work deals, they’ll often reassess how likely a deal is to close. Even if you use automation, they can still manually adjust the forecast category on individual deals.
To update the category on a single deal:
These changes will feed back into the forecast tool, updating your roll-up view for the team.
Tip: Coach reps on what each category really means. If “Commit” becomes a parking spot for everything they’re hopeful about, the forecast will quickly drift from reality.
Setting up the tool is only half the job. A forecast is only as accurate as the data that feeds it.
Tip: Treat your forecast as a living system. Build a recurring monthly or quarterly review where RevOps, sales, and finance look at accuracy and adjust assumptions together.
When your forecast tool is configured properly – and your team uses it consistently – HubSpot shifts from being a record of what happened to a live picture of what’s coming. That’s where better planning, better coaching, and better revenue decisions start.
Want help designing a forecasting process that suits your sales cycle? Speak to the Velocity team about rolling out HubSpot forecasting across your organisation.
Only users with Super Admin permissions can configure the forecast tool, create categories, change settings, or customise the table. Sales reps and managers can view and submit forecasts but cannot update global settings.
Yes. The forecast tool requires Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, or Service Hub Professional/Enterprise. Users also need an assigned seat to appear in forecast goals and reports.
Weighted amount multiplies deal value by the probability of closing. Total amount uses the full deal value. Weighted forecasts provide more accurate predictions once your pipeline stages reflect realistic close rates.
Yes. You can rename categories or add new ones. HubSpot will display the last five custom categories, along with Not forecasted and Closed won, in your forecast settings and mapping options.
Absolutely. When you toggle automation on, HubSpot creates a workflow that assigns forecast categories based on deal stage. You can clone and expand this workflow for more complex rules.
HubSpot structures goals and submissions around your forecast period. Switching between monthly and quarterly changes the underlying data models, so existing goals must be recreated.
Ideally every week. Use the forecast submission status indicator to track rep updates and keep your numbers fresh before pipeline meetings.
This usually happens when pipeline, close date, goal filters, or categories are misaligned. Ensure your forecast table, revenue goals, and reporting all draw from the same pipelines and time periods.
Yes. Reps can manually change the Forecast category property on a deal record if they believe the likelihood of closing has changed. This feeds directly into the forecast view.
In many portals, yes. Breeze-driven AI forecasting provides lower, most-likely, and upper revenue projections based on your historical closed-won data. Use these as guidance alongside your manual forecast.