12 Month Sales Forecast

Sales forecasts can be incredibly frustrating financial creatures. By nature, they’re flighty, imperfect, interchangeable and hardly a direct correlation.

But while they may cause more than a few headaches among business owners, they’re an absolute necessity for a company’s financial growth. As unpredictable as a 12 month sales forecast might seem, they’re integral tools for mapping previous income and expenditures, and creating a thorough outline for next year’s financial path.

Yes, an effective sales forecast will require a bit of legwork on part of the financial assessor. But it’s hardly rocket science either, as forecasting for businesses is comprised of mostly educated guesses. All a forecast should do, is paint a financial picture for last year’s successes and failures, as well as form a new projection – given any future financial incidents that might occur – as to how the next year will pan out.

But while these kinds of forecasts don’t require extensive math or accounting degrees, they will take some crucial organizational skills on a business owner’s part. And with the 12 Month Sales Forecast from MyExcelTemplates.com, managers can effectively manage, track and predict their overall financial forecasts.

How to Implement the 12 Month Sales Forecast for Your Company’s Financial Success

1. Form a completed, overarching financial assessment from last year’s portfolio. This will allow you to form a more predictive outline for your 12 month sales forecast.
2. Divide your projected monthly sales into specific categories. This could include divisions like product lines, departments, branch locations, customer groups, geographic territories, etc.
3. Form a comprehensive comparison of last year’s figures, with this year’s projected totals. These numbers will detail your projected financial forecast. Be sure to note any seasonal fluctuations or expected incidents within the projection.

Tips for Devising the Most Predictive 12 Month Sales Forecast

• Create multiple sales forecasts. The majority of sales forecasts are, not surprisingly, a series of educated guesses. So who’s to say that one single forecast is flawless? Different departments will outline different financial projections, so having a compilation of each projection will provide the most accurate prediction.
• Develop a constant check-up process. Although you don’t need to maintain a sales forecast on a daily basis, some kind of structure for maintaining figures will need to be implemented. Set aside a bi-weekly or monthly date.
• Devise a consistent forecast. Although different departments will compile different forecasts, it’s important to streamline projections through a single document. The 12 Month Sales Forecast template from MyExcelTemplates.com can be a perfect vehicle for this.

Download: 12 Month Sales Forecast