Sales Pipeline & Forecast (Excel)
A pipeline answers the question every owner asks on Monday morning: how much business is likely to close, and when? List your open deals with their value, stage and expected close date. Each stage carries a win probability, so a large deal at the first meeting counts for much less than a smaller one in final negotiation. The Forecast sheet adds it all up by stage, by month for the next six months and by salesperson, with two charts.
Free · no sign-up · opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and WPS Office. Files contain no macros.
Preview
Real view of the file with its sample data (yellow cells are where you type).
| Stage | Deals | Value (₹) | Win probability | Weighted (₹) |
| Prospecting | 2 | 4,55,000 | 10% | 45,500 |
| Qualified | 2 | 7,90,000 | 25% | 1,97,500 |
| Proposal sent | 2 | 10,90,000 | 50% | 5,45,000 |
| Negotiation | 2 | 14,60,000 | 75% | 10,95,000 |
| Commit | 1 | 66,000 | 90% | 59,400 |
| Won | 2 | 5,70,000 | 100% | 5,70,000 |
| Lost | 1 | 95,000 | 0% | 0 |
| Open pipeline (every stage except Won and Lost) | 9 | 38,61,000 | 19,42,400 |
What's inside
- Setup sheet: currency symbol, forecast start month, salespeople and a stage table with editable win probabilities (Prospecting 10%, Qualified 25%, Proposal sent 50%, Negotiation 75%, Commit 90%, Won 100%, Lost 0%)
- Deals sheet with 500 rows: deal, customer, owner, value, stage, created date, expected close date, next step and next step date; probability, weighted value and warnings fill themselves
- Warnings for open deals whose close date has passed and for deals with no next step date
- Forecast sheet: deals, value and weighted value by stage; a six-month forecast with pipeline value, weighted value and won value; a table by salesperson
- Charts: pipeline value by stage and weighted forecast by month
How to use it
- On the Setup sheet type your currency symbol and the first month you want in the forecast (any date in that month).
- Check the win probability for each stage. If your team closes half the deals that reach Negotiation, type 50% there instead of 75%.
- Replace the sample salespeople with your team.
- On the Deals sheet delete the sample rows and enter your open deals: deal name, customer, owner, value, stage and the date you honestly expect it to close.
- Update the stage, close date and next step every week. Mark deals Won or Lost as soon as they are decided.
- Open the Forecast sheet for the totals and charts. Use the weighted figure for planning and the full pipeline value as the best case.
Tips
- A forecast is only as good as its close dates. When a customer delays, move the date instead of leaving it in the past; the sheet marks late dates in red to remind you.
- After a few months compare your weighted forecast with what actually closed and adjust the stage probabilities to match your team's real results.
- Keep one deal per row even for repeat customers, so each order has its own stage and date.
- Won deals stay in the sheet and show in the Won column of the monthly forecast, which gives you a simple record of what was booked each month.
Questions and answers
What is a weighted forecast?
Each deal's value multiplied by the win probability of its stage, then added up. A deal worth 100,000 at Proposal sent (50%) adds 50,000. Across many deals this gives a more realistic figure than adding up full values.
Why use stages instead of a gut-feel percentage for each deal?
Stage-based probabilities are consistent: everyone on the team means the same thing by "Negotiation". If a particular deal is unusual, you can still note it in the Next step column.
Which deals count in the forecast?
Open deals (every stage except Won and Lost) count in the pipeline and weighted columns, placed in the month of their expected close date. Won deals are shown separately. Lost deals are ignored.
Can I see a forecast for more than six months?
Change the forecast start month on the Setup sheet to move the six-month window forward or back.