A sales forecast template is a customizable document that helps you project future sales for your team. Online template costs typically range from free to under $100 and are usually designed for Excel or Google Sheets. To help you speed up your search, we’ve compiled this list of 17 designed for a variety of business use cases.
While spreadsheets can be great for customization and ease of use, they require continuous manual upkeep for accuracy. Customer relationship management (CRM) software such as HubSpot CRM on the other hand can automatically make projections with your sales data, helping you plan and make better decisions. Visit HubSpot to create a free account.
If you still prefer to use a spreadsheet for developing your sales forecast, these online templates are a quick to get started:
1. 3-Year Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Startups or businesses seeking funding
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Vertex42
Three-Year Sales Forecast From Vertex42
This three-year forecast template is great for forecasting sales long term. It’s an excellent choice for startups or businesses seeking funding as investors and banks will want to know what your sales plan is to bring revenue into your business long term. It’s used in Excel and can be downloaded for free. All you do is plug in your sales data and the formulas will calculate your sales forecast and create corresponding graphs.
2. Budget Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Startups and businesses wanting a view of expenses
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Template Archive (Template 12)
Budget Sales Forecast Template
This quarterly budget template is great for small businesses looking to get a view of their sales forecasts and their budget. It’s an effective template if you want to visualize from quarter to quarter how your revenue from sales will cover your expenses. This template is free and used in Excel. Simply download the template and input your sales and budget data.
3. 12-Month Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Businesses tracking month-to-month sales by product
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Smartsheet (Template 5)
12-Month Sales Forecast Template
The template above is a 12-month template and is a good choice for sales forecasting because it shows a monthly breakdown of forecasted sales. This template works for product-focused businesses as the sales are broken out by product. The template is free in Excel, and can be downloaded and edited. The only thing you need to do is add your monthly product and sales data.
4. Deal-based Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Business-to-business (B2B) businesses looking to manage sales by each opportunity
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: HubSpot
Deal-based Sales Forecast
This is a quarterly sales forecast that focuses on sales deals. Sales are divided out by company, opportunity, dollar amount, sales rep, and probability to close. It’s ideal for sales managers looking to do a sales forecast based on how deals are progressing through your sales pipeline. It can also serve as a handy coaching tool for your team.
5. Multiproduct Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Business with multiple products
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Close
Multiproduct Sales Forecast Template
This sales template is a 12-month multiproduct template and is great for businesses with several different products because it breaks down the forecast by product. For instance, if you have several different laptop models that your company sells, you can forecast each model in this template. All you need to do is input projected sales data in each product area. This template is in Excel and is free of charge.
6. B2B Lead-driven Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: B2B businesses that depend on lead generation
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Close
B2B Lead-driven Sales Forecast
This quarterly template is based on leads, their stage, and likelihood to close. It’s great if you forecast your sales by quarter and let the stage of your prospects drive your sales forecast. It’s also excellent for B2B sales. The template is in Excel and can be downloaded for free. Just fill in your lead or prospect information and the stage of the lead.
7. Cash Flow-based Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Startups or businesses with an emphasis on cash flow
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Close
Cash Flow-based Sales Forecast
Cash flow-focused sales forecast templates are useful for visualizing your sales impact from month to month. This template is ideal for businesses needing to focus on cash and wanting to assess their projected sales instantly. The template is in Excel and is free to download and customize with your sales data.
8. Retail Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Retail businesses
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Plan Projections
Retail Sales Forecast Template
This is an annual sales forecast template that uses retail-focused metrics like foot traffic in addition to daily sales. It’s perfect for brick-and-mortar retail businesses, but it can be adapted for online retailers. The template is in Excel and is free to download. To use it, enter key data like foot traffic, the percentage of customers who make purchases, and how much they spend.
9. Hotel Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Hotels or rental properties
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Plan Projections
Hotel Sales Forecast Template
The sales forecast above is specifically created for the hospitality industry. This is because its yearly sales forecast includes metrics important to hotels like occupancy rates. It’s a free template in Excel. Simply add information specific data relevant to your hotel or rental property to use it.
10. Product-based Sales Forecast Template
Format: PDF
Best for: Business with various products that want to compare past, forecasted, and actual sales
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Entrepreneurship in a Box
Product-based Sales Forecast Template
Unlike other sales forecast templates that consolidate sales over time into a single cell, this template allows you to track sales by product. It’s great for businesses selling products that want to compare last year’s sales, forecasted sales, and actual sales by product all in one spreadsheet. This template is a PDF and would be easiest to use if it was re-created in Excel or Google Sheets. It’s free to download.
11. Subscription-based Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Subscription-based businesses
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: BPlans
Subscription-based Sales Forecast Template
This subscription-based sales template captures month-to-month sales and revenue from subscriptions. It also factors in important metrics like churn rate. It’s great for software as a service (SaaS) businesses and other businesses like magazines or subscription boxes. This template is free and is in Excel.
12. 1-Year Opportunity-based Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Businesses that forecast based on pipeline deals
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Office Templates
One-year Opportunity-based Sales Forecast Template
This one-year opportunity-based template is based on sales deals and is sorted by each opportunity and sales rep. It’s a fantastic tool for professionals involved in sales management looking to project closed deals by sales rep, and can be used for coaching. Plug in your deals and details such as dollar value and probability to close. The template is in Excel and is free to download.
13. Monthly Sales Forecast Template With Graph
Format: Excel
Best for: Businesses wanting to do monthly sales forecasts
Cost to Download: Free
Download the template here: Office Templates
Monthly Sales Forecast Template With Graph
The sales forecast in this template covers one month. It’s great for small businesses wanting to stay focused on their forecast month to month without the distractions of data from other time frames. It’s in Excel and can be downloaded for free. Just add your starting time frame and monthly forecast.
14. New Product Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Business launching new products wanting to forecast sales
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Office Templates
New Product Sales Forecast Template
This is a new product sales forecast template showing yearly projected sales over a five-year period. It’s a useful template if you launch new products and want to project yearly revenue and income. Add your company-specific new product sales projections.
15. Google Sheets Sales Forecast Template for Startups
Format: Google Sheets
Best for: Startups or businesses seeking funding
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Financial Projections
Sales Forecast for Startups
This is a three-year forecast template that also shows monthly sales and cost details. It’s great for forecasting sales and costs monthly as well as over a longer period of time. It’s ideal for startups or businesses seeking funding since this information is key to getting initial funding. It’s available in Google Sheets and can be downloaded for free. Simply input your sales and cost information.
16. High-level Sales Forecast Template
Format: Google Sheets
Best for: Startups or organizations looking for funding
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Analytical Marketer Article, Analytical Marketer Template
High-level Sales Forecast Template
Sometimes, all you need are high-level sales numbers that aren’t broken out by product, opportunity, or sales rep. That’s where this template comes in handy. It takes your actual sales by month and compares them to your sales forecast. It does the same thing with conversions and shows the data on a trend line graph. It’s in Google Sheets and is free to download.
17. Food Truck Sales Forecast Template
Format: Excel
Best for: Food trucks
Cost to download: Free
Download the template here: Plan Projections
Food Truck Sales Forecast
This sales forecast template is specifically made for food truck entrepreneurs. It has food truck-specific metrics focused on meals, drinks, and foot traffic. It’s in Excel and can be downloaded for free. All you need to do is add metrics specific to your food truck business.
Why Sales Forecasting Is Important
Sales forecasting is important to the sales management process because it is a key indicator of how the business is performing. It gives you an idea of how much revenue to expect within a certain time frame. Projecting sales also lets you know whether or not you need to focus on sales acceleration or lead generation strategies. Businesses use this information to make important financial decisions, such as whether or not to expand or get a small business loan.
How to Create Your Own Sales Forecast
Ready-made templates are great, but sometimes you need to create your own. A few of the steps involved in creating your own sales forecast include determining the purpose of your sales forecast, examining your historical sales, reviewing industry data that will influence your forecast, and deciding the time frame you want to cover. Below are more details on the six steps involved in creating your own sales forecast:
- Determine the purpose of your sales forecast: The first thing you should do is determine your purpose. Once you’ve decided why you’re creating a sales forecast, it is easier to create it so that it gives you and senior managers the answers you need.
- Examine historical sales: When you have an understanding of your past sales, it’s easier to predict future sales. For instance, if you see that sales increase in the summer months, you can factor this increase into your sales forecast.
- Collect industry data: Industry data and trends often influence sales. Factoring this in makes your sales forecast more accurate. For instance, if industry sales are going down by 3% yearly, factor this into your sales forecast if you think it will impact your business.
- Identify key business activities: If your company will invest in lead generation, factor this into your sales forecast by showing an increase in sales as a result.
- Define your scope: Your sales forecast should only include the information you’re interested in. For example, if you’re interested in sales for only the next year, you won’t need to forecast sales into the next five years because that would be out of scope.
- Create your layout and calculate your forecast: Sales forecasts can take on a variety of layouts. Create one that works best for you and build formulas to calculate your forecast.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a sales forecast?
Sales forecasting is the process of projecting future sales and revenue based on a variety of internal and external factors, including past sales performance, upcoming campaigns or initiatives, market trends, and the competitive environment.
Why is a sales forecast important?
Forecasting sales is important because it communicates the overall health of the business in advance. It also informs you of actions you need to take to reach goals or targets you’ve set if there are any negative gaps between the sales forecast and the target sales goal.
What factors should I consider in a sales forecast?
There are a set of internal and external factors that should be included when doing a sales forecast. Internal sales factors include past sales, current deals, deals won, and marketing initiatives. External factors include the economic environment, the competitive environment, and seasonality.
Bottom Line: Sales Forecast Templates
Sales forecasts are a necessary tool all businesses should use, but they’re so much easier to create when you can start with a template. Review the options presented here to find the best option for your business. Before making your choice, be sure to go through the steps to creating a sales forecast to help you decide on the best choice for your business.
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