Setting Up Forecasting Custom Data

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Salesforce lets you store additional numeric data alongside your forecasts using the Forecasting Custom Data object. This is useful for tracking values like stretch goals, prior year actuals, new logo targets, or individual owner quotas — anything you want to see alongside your forecast numbers.

Setting up forecasting custom data is a two-step process: create the custom fields, then add them to your forecast types.

Create custom fields

Start by navigating to the Forecasting Custom Data object in Salesforce Setup. This is where you define the fields that will hold your custom data.

Click New to add a field. There are two data types available:

• Currency — for monetary values like stretch goals or owner quotas.
• Number — for non-monetary values like target new logos or deal counts.

From there, the field creation process works the same as any other custom field in Salesforce. Give it a name, set the field-level security, and save.

Add custom fields to forecast types

Once you have your fields created, the next step is adding them to your forecast types so they appear as columns in the forecast view.

1. Go to Forecast Settings in Salesforce Setup.
2. Open the forecast type you want to add custom data to (for example, Opportunity Revenue).
3. Click Manage Custom Columns.
4. Click Add Custom Column.
5. Select Reference Data as the column type (not Calculated).
6. Choose the custom data field you created.
7. Optionally rename the column — the display name can differ from the field name.
8. Click Save.

The custom data field now appears as a column on that forecast type.

What’s next

With your fields created and added to forecast types, you’re ready to load data into them. See Custom Data Manager to learn how to manage this data through the Akoonu interface.