How to Enable Forecasting for Dynamics CRM Customers

Objective

The purpose of this article is to provide Outreach admins who use Dynamics CRM with information about how to build configure forecasting in Outreach.

Applies To

• Outreach admins

Procedure

The setup for Dynamics customers is similar to the setup for other customers like those who utilize Salesforce. There are a few nuances specific to CRM sync and team hierarchy design.

CRM Sync

To use forecasting, admins will need to configure the System users object, Opportunity object, and Opportunity stage object.

System users object

This object will be utilized to build the team hierarchy, which governs access to forecasting data and opportunities within the Forecast Rollup module. By syncing in the Manager (systemuser) field from your CRM, Outreach will create a rollup hierarchy that will be utilized by your sales managers and reps to forecast in Outreach.

Opportunity object

Set the Opportunity object setting to Update on the Dynamics side and Create, Update, and Delete on the Outreach side.

The following Outreach opportunity fields should be set to update in Outreach (and optionally update back to Dynamics).

• Name
• Description
• Estimated sales amount
• Estimated close date
• Probability
• Owner
• Account
• External creator
• External created date
• Primary prospect
• Custom 101 (mapped to statuscode)
• Stage
• Forecast category
• Custom 100 (mapped to transactioncurrencyid)
• Next step

These represent the baseline fields required for forecasting, but admins are encouraged to sync in additional custom fields that will aid them in forecast architecture and opportunity management.

Opportunity stage object

Set up the Opportunity stage object settings and then ensure that the record mappings match your stages in Dynamics CRM.

Enable Forecasting

Complete all setup steps required in Admin > Tools: Forecasting.

This setup page will guide you through CRM sync, setting your fiscal year start month, and importing historical opportunities.

Confirm Team Hierarchy is Accurate

The rollup hierarchy will be automatically configured based on the Manager (systemuser) field from your CRM synced in the User object. This hierarchy should contain sales reps or account executives in the leaf nodes of the hierarchy.

Create Goal Targets

To set goals, like quota, to be used in forecasting and pipeline management, follow the directions in the article Setting Your Quota in Outreach.

Create Forecasts

To create forecasts for use by your sales teams, follow the directions in the article Creating and Editing Forecasts in Outreach.

Enable Users

Your final step is to visit Profiles, find the Forecasting & pipeline management section, and grant access to users in that profile. In order for a user to see the Forecast Rollup page in the Outreach navigation, two items need to be true for the user:

• The user exists in the Team hierarchy
• The user has the profile enabled for Forecasting & pipeline management

Don't forget to inform your users about these new tools.