HubSpot Forecast Tool: Setup, Categories and Goals

Which HubSpot plans and seats include the forecast tool?

When we checked HubSpot's documentation in October 2026, the forecast tool needed Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional or Enterprise. Each user needs an assigned Sales or Service seat, although Super Admins can open it regardless of seat. Creating, viewing or being assigned a forecast goal also needs a Sales or Service seat.

One wrinkle: HubSpot's pages list Service Hub in the plan header, but the body says users with Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise seats appear in the tool. If your forecasters are on Service Hub seats, confirm who appears before you build reporting around it. Deactivated users who keep their Sales or Service seat keep their historical data in the forecast.

Should you forecast by deal stage or by forecast category?

By default, the forecast tool groups deals by deal stage, based on each stage's likelihood to close. Forecast categories add a second view: you map each pipeline's stages to Not forecasted, Pipeline, Best case, Commit or Closed won. Stages suit one simple pipeline; categories suit teams that need one shared way to call deals across several pipelines.

• Order, not name: HubSpot bases category definitions on their sequential order, not the label, so renaming Commit doesn't change what it means.
• Five extra categories at most appear in the mapping, in addition to Not forecasted and Closed won.
• Automate forecast categories creates a workflow named "Forecast Category Mapping for Pipeline: [pipeline name]" that sets the category from the stage.
• Check the labels in your account. One part of HubSpot's setup page also lists "Most likely" as a default category, which doesn't match the five above.

Categories only work if each stage means the same thing to every rep. Our HubSpot deal stages guide covers how to design them.

How does HubSpot calculate the weighted pipeline?

Weighted amount is the deal Amount multiplied by its Deal probability. HubSpot sets Deal probability from the win probability of the deal's stage and updates it when the deal moves. With the forecast deal amount setting on Weighted amount, the default, the forecast shows Weighted pipeline; with Total amount, it shows the full value of every forecasted deal.

• Three amount settings: Weighted amount, Total amount, and Forecast amount (legacy), which only appears in accounts created before March 20, 2024. HubSpot recommends the Weighted amount property over Forecast amount.
• Manual edits stick: if someone edits a deal's probability by hand, it stops updating automatically until the deal moves to a Closed won or Closed lost stage.
• Default probabilities: HubSpot's default Sales Pipeline runs from Appointment scheduled at 20% to Contract sent at 90%, with Closed won at 100% and Closed lost at 0%. Set your own for each stage.
• Board view shows a weighted amount per stage: the total amount in the stage multiplied by the stage probability.
• Open pipeline coverage in the forecast is the open pipeline value divided by the gap to goal.
• Deal splits (Sales Hub Enterprise) decide how a deal's revenue is shared across users in forecasts, including the weighted amount.

A weighted number is only as honest as the stages and close dates behind it. Our article on why your HubSpot pipeline doesn't reflect reality covers how to make it trustworthy.

How do you set forecast periods and goals?

Choose a monthly or quarterly forecast period in the forecast settings, then create a goal from Sales > Forecast with the Forecastable Revenue template. Only that template shows the target on the forecast dashboard; standard Revenue goals appear only in reporting. The goal's duration must match the forecast period, and the goal must be tied to one or all pipelines.

• Changing the period resets the Forecastable Revenue goals and forecast submissions for all pipelines.
• Yearly periods: HubSpot's forecasts API lists a yearly submission period, but the knowledge base settings only describe monthly and quarterly.
• Quotas: sales goals, from Sales Hub Starter, let managers set user-specific quotas at the user, team or pipeline level.
• Goals permission: access to revenue goals is now set by the Goals permission, which starts from the old Forecasting app permission.
• Currency: each user can set their own currency, and closed won deals use the exchange rate in place when the deal closed.

Who can see team forecasts and submit a number?

Super Admins set up the tool, and Forecast permissions control viewing and editing. Users with Forecast they own see only their own forecast, while Forecast their team owns adds their teammates. Reps with edit access submit a number for a pipeline and period, and managers review it in the team view against goal, closed won and gap.

• Submitting: click Submit, choose the pipeline and a forecast period that matches yours, and enter the amount in your company's primary currency. Reps can tick deals under Add to Forecast and add a note. Submission history goes back up to one year.
• Team table: click a team name to see Goal, Closed Won, Gap and Forecast Submission. If there is no team submission, HubSpot uses the sum of the users' submissions.
• Reminders: a Super Admin sets the reminder schedule, and only users with Edit permissions for forecasts are notified. The status indicator defaults to eight days and can go up to thirty-one.
• Deleting a submission is limited to Super Admins.
• Sales and Service are linked: updating forecast permissions in Sales also updates them in Service.

Two gaps to test in your own account. HubSpot's pages describe team access differently: the permissions guide says team-level access shows teammates' forecasts, while the forecast page says that with view access set to Team only you see only your own goals and forecast in the team view. And no forecast page explains how nested Enterprise teams roll up, so log in as a test manager and check before rollout. For the reports around it, see our HubSpot sales dashboard examples.

What does HubSpot's AI forecasting beta add?

When we checked in October 2026, AI forecasting was a public beta for Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional or Enterprise. It projects future sales from closed won deals in the past three months and shows a range of Most likely, Upper and Lower. HubSpot updates the projection on days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 28 of each month.

• It's an opt-in beta, so its behavior may change. HubSpot says the projections are estimates and are not guaranteed.
• Its accuracy table needs a monthly forecast period.
• Eligibility isn't documented. HubSpot only says a message explains why if your account doesn't qualify.
• Use it as a cross-check against rep submissions and your weighted pipeline, not as the number you commit to.

Outside the forecast tool, the sales analytics suite (Sales Hub Starter and up) has Forecast and revenue reports, including Forecast category, Weighted pipeline forecast, Quota attainment and Historical snapshots. You can export the underlying data from Reporting > Reports > Sales > Forecast & revenue with Export unsummarized data.

HubSpot forecast tool checklist