In today's data-driven business environment, effective pipeline planning is crucial for forecasting revenue and managing opportunities. Cube offers a powerful solution that bridges the gap between CRMs like Salesforce and pipeline planning templates in spreadsheets, allowing teams to plan for different scenarios and make informed decisions quickly, right from within their own models.
Create the pipeline table
Cube's core strength lies in its ability to sync your source data and drivers directly into familiar spreadsheet environments for reporting and planning. Whether you're using Excel, Google Sheets, or other spreadsheet applications on Mac or PC, Cube provides seamless connectivity to your opportunity data.
The process starts with a spreadsheet template containing fields relevant to your pipeline. Use our pipeline planning template or build your own. Some sample fields are:
- Accounts/opportunities
- Potential ARR amounts
- Projected close dates
- Project start and end dates
- Opportunity sources (inbound/outbound)
- Opportunity owners
- Segments and products
- Pipeline stages
You can populate these fields in your spreadsheets by manually exporting data out of your CRM and pasting it into your pipeline planning template. Or, you can speak with your Cube Account Manager to learn more about how to automate the flow of this data directly from a CRM connection into Cube.
Whichever way you populate those fields, the next step is to create a table from the data. This article provides more details on how to build a table.
- In the Cube Spreadsheet experience, click Create Table from Range.
- Define table details:
- Name: Enter a descriptive table name, such as “Pipeline Feed”
- Select range: Highlight the columns and rows containing your pipeline data, including headers
- Save to Scenario: Select scenarios to associate with the table (e.g., Forecast and Forecast v2)
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Permissions: Choose whether this table should be private (Admin-only) or shared with all Cube users
- Click Create table to finalize.
- Click Review to confirm data types and formatting for each column of the table.
- Then click Save.
Connect the pipeline table to the planning range
When your CRM data is attached to a table in your spreadsheet, connect your spreadsheet to a Cube range to use the combined data for planning.
To see this in action, watch the video below on pipeline planning with Cube:
- Highlight the relevant pipeline planning cells in your spreadsheet, including your monthly forecast outputs.
- Under Build in the Cube spreadsheet experience, click Select and then Select Range.
- Highlight headers of any columns containing attribute-level details you wish to drill into later.
- Under Publish in the Cube spreadsheet experience, click Set attributes, then Mark for attributes.
You have now successfully created a publishable range for pipeline planning! Let's dig into how to use it.
Modeling Scenarios and Forecasts
With your CRM data connected to Cube, leverage hybrid modeling capabilities for unlimited pipeline scenarios:
- Use spreadsheet functions to project revenue based on start dates, end dates, and opportunity stages
- Apply probability weightings based on pipeline stages to create weighted forecasts
- Run "what-if" scenarios by adjusting which deals you expect to close or lose
Example: Modeling a Deal Closing One Month Later
Let’s say that you want to run a what-if scenario on a deal closing one month later than expected. Cube's flexible scenario modeling allows you to save variations when planning for easy comparison.
In this example, we’ll focus on the Clampett Oil deal in the image below.
Save the what-if scenario to Cube
- Use Cube’s Duplicate Scenarios feature to create a copy of your baseline forecast called Forecast v2.
- Save the Pipeline Planning table to both scenarios by selecting the scenario from the dropdown and then clicking Update Data.
- Now you can begin modeling the deal closing one month later. Adjust the close date and project information for the deal.
- Review your planning template to ensure that your data has shifted over a month as expected. If not, modify the formulas within your planning cells to capture the close dates and other information accurately.
- Select Forecast v2 from the Scenario dropdown and click Update Data to save the changes to the Pipeline Planning table.
- Confirm that Forecast v2 is selected on your planning template, and then click Publish Data to commit the change to Cube.
- Fetch a variance analysis report to compare Forecast and Forecast v2, and see the impact the deal closing one month later has.
Revert what-if scenario changes
If you'd like to revert these changes and continue using your Forecast V2 scenario for planning, fetch the Pipeline Planning table details back for the Forecast scenario and re-publish into the Forecast v2 scenario. See detailed instructions below:
- Switch the scenario in your pipeline planning template back to Forecast and click Fetch Table.
- Verify that the table details return to their original values, and the data in your pipeline planning template has shifted back a month as well.
- Select Forecast v2 from the Scenario dropdown and click Update Data to save the Pipeline Planning table.
- Confirm that Forecast v2 is selected on your planning template, and then click Publish Data to save to Cube.
- Fetch Forecast and Forecast v2 to ensure your variance report ties out.
The flexibility of this approach allows you to quickly model different scenarios without complex coding. You can make on-the-fly adjustments during meetings when stakeholders ask questions like "What happens if we close five more deals from our best-case scenario this month?" without needing to spend hours recalculating forecasts.
By implementing Cube for your pipeline planning needs, you can transform static CRM data into dynamic forecasts that support agile decision-making and more accurate revenue projections. The ability to quickly adjust and compare scenarios empowers teams to respond confidently to changing conditions and opportunities.