Wouldn’t it be great to see what lies ahead for your business?
Messy data riddled with gaps and biases puts you at risk of misleading forecasts. Even with the best data and models, anticipating future conditions for your business isn’t always straightforward.
Unexpected events can throw off your best predictions, so the key is blending human judgment with algorithmic insights. Fortunately, excellent forecasting software lowers risks and makes it easy to foresee the future.
The right forecast tool guides smart decisions, efficient resource allocation, and seizing timely opportunities by helping you forecast sales, identify obstacles, and fine-tune prices in a snap!
Forecasting tools don’t promise a smooth ride, but they help you confidently steer through uncertainties.
We’ve shortlisted the best options to help you swap gut feelings for informed actions, transforming blind jumps into calculated steps.
10 Best Forecasting Tools in 2024 (Reviews & Pricing)
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Forecasting Software?
Forecasting software helps business managers or teams analyze past and present sales data to uncover hidden trends and patterns. This data helps predict closing rates, future lead volume (FLV), and overall sales revenue.
Popular examples of forecasting software include ClickUp, HubSpot, and Zendesk, among others.
A retailer looking to optimize holiday inventory levels may use a sales forecasting software like ClickUp. By crunching past sales and current market trends, this tool forecasts future sales, keeping the brand away from stocking problems during holiday sales.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Should You Look for in Forecasting Tools?
The following factors are critical if you want to choose the best tool that aligns uniquely with your business roadmap, strategy, and model:
- Ease of use: Pick a tool with a user-friendly interface to create and modify forecasts easily
- Data integration: See that it connects with multiple data sources, including accounting software, ERP systems, CRM platforms, and more. It should provide access to a broader and comprehensive overview of business performance
- Forecasting approaches: It should offer different forecasting methods, such as regression, moving average, and exponential smoothing, depending on your preferences
- Scenario analysis: Check whether it helps you create hypothetical scenarios (what-if/best-case/worst-case scenarios) based on several factors or business assumptions
- Reporting and visualization: It should allow you to create clear and concise reports and dashboards with charts, graphs, tables, and other visual elements to help share and communicate forecasts to business stakeholders
- Collaboration: See if it supports feedback by allowing you to share findings with teammates, executives, or managers to get inputs that improve your forecasts
- Real-time updates: It should be able to notify you of any changes to your sales goals and forecast
Summarize this article for me pleaseTypes of Forecasting
There are various kinds of forecasting, depending on the purpose and scope of your projects. Let’s look at some of these types of forecasting.
1. Sales forecasting:
Sales forecasting uses past sales data to predict future sales. With sales forecasting software, you can set targets, tweak production, and track long-term sales performance.
Sales forecasting helps you make smart choices about inventory, resources, sales goals, budgets, and strategic planning. Forecast sales using quantitative models, market research, trend analysis, and specialized software tools to predict future sales numbers.
2. Demand forecasting:
Demand forecasting estimates the future demand for a product or service. It involves predicting the quantity of goods or services consumers purchase within a specific period in a given market.
Demand forecasting enhances inventory levels by automating the consumer demand process. It factors in elements like consumer trends, seasonality, and buyer behavior. This forecasting method helps you plan production, handle inventory, allocate resources, set prices, and make smart decisions to meet expected consumer demand.
3. Financial forecasting:
Financial forecasting predicts how a company will perform financially. It looks at past finances, market trends, and economic factors to estimate future revenues, expenses, cash flow, and overall financial health within a set timeframe.
This helps predict and plan for financial results like revenue changes, cash flow variations, potential expenses, profitability, and general financial stability. Financial forecasting helps with budgeting, investment decisions, setting financial goals, and formulating future growth and sustainability strategies.
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe 10 Best Forecasting Tools to Use
1. ClickUp
ClickUp provides a comprehensive range of forecasting features that boost sales team communication, collaboration, sales performance, and productivity growth. Most sales professionals prefer ClickUp for its intuitive interface, capacity planning, and custom options features.
Whether you’re managing a business or sales, forecast your venture’s future with the ClickUp Sales Forecast template. This Sales Forecast Template has helped thousands of businesses with cash flow and short and long-term performance predictions.
Track your KPIs without breaking a sweat with the Demand Planning KPI Tracking Template. It helps with customer demand, inventory levels, and supply chain efficiency.
Aside from being an end-to-end solution, ClickUp continues to drive more innovation in its system with powerful updates and easy integrations that set it apart from the rest of the competition.
ClickUp best features
- Manage interactions: Manage customer interactions and relationships using the ClickUp CRM software. Integrate with other non-ClickUp tools
- Everything in one place: ClickUp provides every solution, including project management, communication needs, sales enablement, project dashboards, and accounting.
- Tons of templates: Get access to multiple sales forecasting and CRM templates that meet your business preferences.
Measure performance: Predict your sales revenue, track your sales pipeline, and measure your sales performance with ClickUp’s Sales Forecast templates. - Control accounting workflows: ClickUp Accounting manages your accounting workflows, including invoicing, billing, and reporting.
ClickUp limitations
- It has limited features in the mobile application
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7 per month per user
- Business: $12 per month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Available on all paid plans for $5/Workspace member/month
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (3500+ reviews)
2. Zendesk
Zendesk Sell is a component of the Zendesk CRM application suite. Its sales forecasting feature empowers you to access accurate sales forecast data while managing leads. Zendesk Sell has several features that help sales teams import internal sales data to check, control, and measure their sales work with accurate predictions.
The Zendesk Sell simplifies how you carry out financial planning. Customize forecasts, determine win probabilities, and predict close dates for new or existing deals.
Zendesk best features
- Custom forecasts: Create custom forecasts and predict the win percentage of deals
- Integration: Easily access data and integrate with multiple sources
- Real-time monitoring: Create and monitor your pipelines in real-time
- User-friendliness: Everything in one place–from finding, attracting, and engaging with prospects
Zendesk limitations
- Limited forecasting methods and scenarios
- Too many functions that might be irrelevant to a small business owner
- No offline mode
Zendesk pricing
- Sell Team: $25 per agent/month
- Sell Growth: $69 per agent/month
- Sell Professional: $149 per agent/month
Zendesk ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (450+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (150+ reviews)
3. Hubspot
Hubspot is a leading cloud-based marketing, sales, and customer service platform. It offers a forecasting tool to help you project future revenue and monitor pipeline leads.
Detailed performance analysis for each pipeline and forecast is easier on Hubspot. Aggregate the estimates from your various sales reps, into a unified report for management.
Hubspot is a versatile CRM tool that integrates with various marketing channels, such as email, social media, web, and more, to help you track and optimize your marketing campaigns.
Hubspot is great for managing customer relationships and forecasts in one place.
Hubspot best features
- Highly customizable forecasts: Consolidate custom forecasts from reps into a single report for management
- Progress tracking: Analyze the performance and progress of each pipeline and forecast in detail using its drill-down feature
- Mobile-friendliness: Access and update your forecasts from any device and location
Hubspot limitations
- No budgeting or financial forecasting features
- Only available in specific editions of the Hubspot Sales and Service hub solutions
Hubspot pricing
You need to subscribe to the premium plans of either the Sales Hub or the Service Hub to access the actual sales forecasting feature.
The prices for both plans start from $500 per month or $5400 per year.
Hubspot ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (10500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (3500+ reviews)
4. Aviso
Aviso is a cloud-based, AI-powered software that simplifies how you create and manage financial plans and forecasts. It integrates with various data sources, such as accounting software, ERP systems, and CRM platforms, to comprehensively view your business performance.
Aviso provides real-time data and metrics to predict financial health or strength. Use the tool to compare the best-case, worst-case, and what-if scenarios and measure the impact of various assumptions on your financial forecasts.
Aviso does not disclose its pricing plan publicly, so you need to make contact for a quote.
Aviso best features
- Automation: Use an AI-driven time series engine to forecast
- Optimized recommendations: Access suggestions to levers that could increase the chances of success on a deal
- Customizability: Develop custom forecasts with AI-powered pipeline data
- Variability: Create various scenarios based on different variables in your forecasts
Avisio limitations
- Pricing plans are unknown, which makes it a non-transparent process
- No free plan or trial
- Unavailability of mobile application yet
Avisio pricing
- Contact Avisio for pricing and demo options
Avisio ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.1/5 (30 reviews)
5. Weflow
Weflow is the forecasting software for Salesforce that monitors changes, assesses, and provides reviews on the performance of a business sales process. It synchronizes everything from emails and calls to tasks with Salesforce seamlessly.
Weflow also supports collaborative sales tools for forecasting, waterfalls, and quarterly predictions about your revenue forecasts.
Weflow best features
- Salesforce-inclined: Best suited for Salesforce users
- Notifications: Set up deal alerts and notifications on Salesforce
- Affordability: Use weflow for free with up to five users
Weflow limitations
- Built for Salesforce users only
- Impossible to integrate with other CRM tools
Weflow pricing
- Team: $39 per user/month
- Business: $59 per user/month
Weflow ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (90 reviews)
- Capterra: Not enough ratings
6. Pipedrive
Pipedrive leverages artificial intelligence, historical data, and automation to help teams build correctly defined and accurate forecasts. Pipedrive likens the functions of its forecasting tool to having a personal sales manager. Check the customizable Forecast View regularly to expedite planning and course correction.
Additionally, Pipedrive offers exciting features, including the Insights Revenue Forecast for projecting future revenue. It comes with the forecasting software’s Professional and Enterprise plans.
Access a treasure trove of integrations from ERP systems to CRM platforms, simplifying connecting to other online business tools.
Pipedrive best features
- Target tracking feature: Tracks individual and group-level targets
- Integrations: Integrates with a host of CRM tools to transfer customer data efficiently and ease the collaboration process between teams
- Reporting features: Access different sales reporting software
- Pricing: Free trial plans and a variety of pricing plans
Pipedrive limitations
- Limited functions on the Basic plan
Pipedrive pricing
- Essential: $11.90 per user/month
- Advanced: $24.90 per user/month
- Professional: $49.90 per user/month
- Power: $59.90 per user/month
- Enterprise: $74.90 per user/month
Pipedrive ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (1700+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (2900+ reviews)
7. Clari
Clari is a software that helps you build forecasts on current data and predictive insights. The forecasting software has many intriguing features, including an inventory dashboard that provides easy-to-access information about ongoing deals in a forecast.
Clari promotes single computations, thus reducing human risk. Any input you enter into the software automatically appears in your CRM application.
Clari best features
- Predictive forecasting: Visualize forecasts in real-time and derive quarterly predictions using its predictive forecasting feature
- Simplicity: Presents insights in simple and easy-to-understand formats
- Sales cycle shortening: Best suited for B2B sales leaders interested in shortening sales cycles
Clari limitations
- You can’t take advantage of its benefits unless it’s integrated with a CRM software
Clari pricing
- Custom pricing
Clari ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (1500+ reviews)
- Capterra: Not enough ratings
8. Mediafly
Mediafly employs its Intelligence360 forecasting software to assist in pipeline management and revenue forecasting. By leveraging machine learning scores, it validates human input, ensuring precise and automated sales forecasts.
Assign tighter deadlines based on end-date predictions from Mediafly to improve your deal-closing efficiency.
Mediafly best features
- Intelligence360 forecasting: Get a 360° overview of your business, including every selling and buying activity
- Ease of use: Detect pipeline opportunities and threats easily
- User-behavior detection: Identify purchase behavior and determine what works
- Integration: Integrates with Salesforce Sales CloudBullhorn ATS & CRM
Mediafly limitations
- Limited dashboard customization functions
Mediafly pricing
- Custom pricing
Mediafly ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (1300+ reviews)
- Capterra: Not enough ratings
9. BoostUp
BoostUp.ai offers predictive analysis capabilities using an AI engine for business revenue forecasts.
This forecasting software utilizes past data to analyze sales trends, make informed decisions, and spot patterns. Customize unique procedures based on your preferences.
BoostUp best features
- Automation: Leverage artificial intelligence to predict forecasting and pipeline risk assessment. Gain pipeline risk coverage automatically
- Tracking: Keep an eye on real-time trends and analyze changes instantly for forecasting purposes
- Tailored for CMOs: Ideal for sales professionals in executive roles, such as Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs)
BoostUp limitations
- No pricing information on the sales page
BoostUp pricing
- Custom pricing
BoostUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (300+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (20+ reviews)
10. Anaplan
Anaplan allows real-time tracking of sales pipelines and forecasts by connecting data from various systems. Its predictive analytics fast-tracks how you unveil growth opportunities.
Anaplan is one of the few sales forecasting tools that are not CRM tools. Instead, its focus is solely on operational planning and modeling, omitting the management of customer relationships.
Anaplan best features
- Designed for large-scale ventures: Ideal for large and fast-scaling businesses requiring finance and supply management solutions
- Extended free-trial: Up to 90 days of use on its free trial plan for all new users
- Integration: Integrates with CRM tools like Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zendesk
- Optimal prediction: Simulate possible scenarios on forecast predictions and model the outcome
Anaplan limitations
- Too expensive, as reviews suggest that low-cost plan ranges between $30000 to $50000 yearly
- Poor communication features as the software presents data in complex graphical formats
Anaplan pricing
- Custom pricing
Anaplan ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6/5 (300+ ratings)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (20+ reviews)
Summarize this article for me pleaseEmpower Your Sales Forecasting with ClickUp
The best forecasting software journeys you into the future, but mastering the tool involves managing data integrity, selecting the right models, and interpreting various scenarios.
One misstep can skew predictions and even worsen your business expectations. ClickUp continually minimizes such risks.
ClickUp holds a global reputation, empowering thousands of businesses with its simple yet powerful forecasting features. Ditch complex spreadsheets and embrace ClickUp’s intuitive interface. Explore Gantt charts and real-time project dashboards to paint a clear picture of your future workload.
ClickUp seamlessly integrates existing data, tracks dependencies, and auto-updates timelines, keeping your forecasts grounded in reality. No more juggling spreadsheets or squinting at messy dashboards.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
