Summary
As part of renewals and new business, you will want to forecast future revenue
Planhat is flexible and is compatible with different methods of forecasting
You can forecast via Line Items on "Closed Won" Deals
You can forecast via Deals (or Line Items) on "Open" Deals
There are some system (standard/default) fields you could use, or you could create custom fields for different types of forecasting
In System Reports for revenue, you can select the modes above, and you even have granular control to choose which specific fields to forecast on
Who is this article for?
All Planhat Users
This is particularly relevant to Users who work with Deals, or who are Planhat Admins (Tech/Ops) configuring their tenant for their organization
This article refers to new revenue features in Planhat, launching in early 2026, so you may not have access to them yet. Please speak with your Planhat CSM if you would like to discuss the rollout.
Introduction
Forecasting upcoming revenue is a key part of any organization.
In Planhat, following revenue enhancements released in early 2026, there are two main approaches to forecasting, listed below. They relate to the renewals methods we describe in a separate article.
If you don't create a new Deal to show potential renewal revenue (an "opportunity"), you can record your forecasted revenue on individual Line Items of existing "Closed Won" Deals, and forecast by a Line Item field in System Reports
Recommended method: create a new Deal for potential renewal revenue (an "Open" Deal - an "opportunity"), and forecast by a Deal (or Line Item) field on this renewal Deal in System Reports
📌 Definitions
"Data models" - also called simply "models" - are the Planhat equivalent of the "objects" you may be familiar with from other tools. Data is organized into these models - we go through some key examples below. Within these models, individual examples of data are called "records"
"Company" is the model for organizations that are your prospects and customers - e.g. Company records could be "Apple" and "Zoom". Company is at the top of the Planhat data model structure
"Deal" is the "parent" revenue model for both potential sales (opportunities), confirmed sales and lost opportunities. Deals can have one or more (or no) Line Items associated with them. Each Deal is associated with a specific Company - e.g. a Deal record could be "Renewal Deal for Gong"
"Line Item" is a "child" model to the Deal model. Each Line Item corresponds to a specific unit of revenue - a "Subscription" (recurring revenue) or a "Fee" (non-recurring revenue). Each Line Item corresponds to a specific Deal, so that means it's (forecasted/actual/lost) revenue for a specific Company. An example Line Item record could be "Advanced Data on Deal with Scribe"
"Product" records act as (optional) templates for Line Items, e.g. "Advanced Data". They are housed in the "Product Catalog" within the "Settings" Global Tool
Forecasting using existing "Closed Won" Deals - via the Line Item model
If you don't create a new Deal for a renewal until that renewal has actually been confirmed (the simplest renewal process, as discussed here), you can forecast upcoming renewals on individual Line Items within an existing "Closed Won" Deal.
These are the relevant settings within the System Reports for revenue:
The reason we use Line Items when forecasting via "Closed Won" Deals is that it may be that you want to renew some Line Items from the Deal but not others.
This method applies to Line Items with "Status" - a system (default/standard) field - set to "ongoing" (rather than "renewed" or "lost"). You can do your forecasting using specific system fields on the Line Item, shown in the screenshots below, or you could create one or more custom fields to use for forecasting instead.
The screenshot below shows the Line Item forecasting system fields, as shown in the "Data Model" Global Tool:
And here are the (ARR variants of) these fields when viewing an example Line Item Preview:
Numbers in these fields will be in the overall currency of the Line Item (set in another system field on the Line Item, and also shown in the screenshot above).
Forecasting using new "Open" Deals - typically via the Deal model (but can also be Line Item)
The alternative - and our recommended - forecasting method applies to the more advanced, preferred renewal process, where you create a new "Open" Deal for a renewal opportunity before you have actually confirmed the renewal, as described here. It also applies to brand new (i.e. new business) Deals.
📌 Important to note
We are considering the Deal system (default/standard) "Stage" field here, which only actually has default values of "Closed Won" and "Closed Lost". The forecasting in System Reports works by considering any Deals that are not "Closed Won" or "Closed Lost" as "Open". (You can add a custom value of "Open" to the field, if you would like to be able to select/see that status on Deals.)
In this case, all the details in the "Open" Deal (the ARR and the Close Date etc.) are forecasts, until the Deal is marked as "Closed Won" (or "Closed Lost"). Also, for renewals, this new "Open" Deal will only include the Line Items you are expecting to renew (whereas the original "Closed Won" Deal may contain additional Line Items), meaning you can forecast directly on the Deal itself (although potentially you can look at the more granular Line Item level if you prefer).
In the reporting, you can select any number field on the Deal model for forecasting from Open Deals. These are the relevant settings within the System Reports for revenue:
If desired, you can create a series of custom fields for forecasting on the Deal - example screenshots below.
In the "Data Model" Global Tool:
In a Deal Preview:
Numbers in these fields will be in the overall currency of the Deal (set in a system field on the Deal, shown in the screenshot above).