FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Sales Forecasting Automation
[YourCompany.com] · Sales Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for the Sales Forecasting automation. It tells you exactly what the system does on its own, what your one human step is, how to handle anything that goes wrong, and who to call when you need help. FullSpec built, tested, and launched the automation end to end. Your team's job in live operation is to review and approve the prepared forecast before it is distributed to leadership.
01Process overview
The Sales Forecasting automation runs on a fixed weekly schedule and also fires immediately whenever a deal above the configured value threshold moves pipeline stage in HubSpot. The Data Pull and Completeness Agent retrieves all open deal records from HubSpot, flags any stale or incomplete entries, and sends targeted Slack nudges to the relevant reps. Once deal data is confirmed ready, the Forecast Calculation Agent applies stage-based probability weights, builds weekly and monthly projection tables, compares results against historical conversion benchmarks, and writes everything to the Google Sheets forecast template. The Tableau dashboard refreshes automatically from the new data. The sales manager then opens the sheet, reviews the flagged anomalies, and marks the forecast as approved. On approval, the Distribution Agent sends a formatted forecast email via Gmail and posts a pipeline snapshot to Slack. The full cycle takes under 30 minutes from trigger to a forecast ready for distribution, compared to four or more hours under the manual process.
Process name
Sales Forecasting Automation
Trigger
Weekly scheduled run, or immediately when a HubSpot deal above the value threshold changes pipeline stage
Final output
Approved forecast email sent via Gmail to leadership list, pipeline snapshot posted to Slack, Tableau dashboard refreshed
Agents running
Data Pull and Completeness Agent, Forecast Calculation Agent, Distribution Agent
Tools involved
HubSpot, Google Sheets, Slack, Gmail, Tableau
Weekly volume
1 scheduled forecast run per week, plus on-demand runs when qualifying deals change stage (approx. 4 full cycles per month)
Human checkpoint
Sales manager reviews the prepared forecast in Google Sheets and marks it approved before distribution
Process owner
[Your name] — Sales Manager
Process Runbook / SOPPage 1 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: Your single action in this entire process is to open the Google Sheets forecast tab when you receive the review notification, check the flagged anomalies the system has highlighted, adjust any deal weightings you disagree with, and click Approve. Everything before and after that step is fully automated.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
The automation fires on the weekly schedule or detects that a HubSpot deal above the value threshold has moved pipeline stage. No manual action is needed to start the process.
Automation platform
Automated
2
The Data Pull and Completeness Agent connects to HubSpot via the Deals API and retrieves all open deal records, including stage, amount, close date, owner, and last-modified timestamp. No CSV export is required.
Data Pull and Completeness Agent
Automated
3
The agent scans retrieved records for missing amounts, close dates older than 30 days, or no stage update in the past 14 days. Each affected rep receives a targeted Slack nudge naming the specific deal that needs attention.
Data Pull and Completeness Agent
Automated
4
Once the data check is complete, the Forecast Calculation Agent applies stage-based probability weights to every deal amount, groups the weighted values by expected close week and month, and compares results against stored historical conversion rates. Deals tracking significantly above or below the norm are flagged for review.
Forecast Calculation Agent
Automated
5
The Forecast Calculation Agent writes the completed projection tables, weighted totals, and variance-to-historical figures to the Google Sheets forecast template, overwriting the previous cycle's data and refreshing all linked charts automatically.
Forecast Calculation Agent
Automated
6
The automation triggers a data source refresh in Tableau so that dashboard charts reflect the new forecast figures immediately, without anyone needing to publish or upload a file.
Automation platform
Automated
7
You receive a notification that the forecast is ready. You open the Google Sheets review tab, read through the flagged anomalies highlighted by the agent, and either approve the forecast as prepared or adjust specific deal weightings before approving. This step takes approximately 15 minutes.
Sales Manager (you)
Human
8
On approval, the Distribution Agent sends a formatted forecast summary email via Gmail to the full leadership list and posts a concise pipeline snapshot to the configured Slack channel. No manual copy-pasting or attachment is needed.
Distribution Agent
Automated
Process Runbook / SOPPage 2 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
A deal record has a missing amount or close date when the agent runs
The Data Pull and Completeness Agent flags the record, excludes it from the weighted calculation to avoid skewing the forecast, and sends a Slack nudge directly to the deal owner asking them to fill in the missing field. The forecast proceeds with complete records.
If the missing deal is material to the forecast and you need it included urgently, update the record in HubSpot yourself, then re-trigger the process manually using the on-demand run option. Contact support@gofullspec.com if you cannot see the manual trigger.
A duplicate deal record appears in the HubSpot data pull
The agent applies deduplication logic based on deal name and owner. If two records share identical values, the one with the most recent activity timestamp is kept and the other is excluded. A note is written to a log tab in Google Sheets.
Review the log tab after each forecast cycle. If a duplicate was excluded incorrectly, merge or delete the duplicate in HubSpot before the next run. Persistent duplicates should be cleaned up in HubSpot directly to prevent recurrence.
A pipeline stage in HubSpot has no probability value configured
The Forecast Calculation Agent cannot apply a weight to deals in that stage and will flag those deals in the Google Sheets review tab with a yellow highlight and a note reading 'Stage probability missing'.
Open HubSpot pipeline settings and assign a close probability percentage to the stage in question. Once saved, re-trigger the forecast run. If you are unsure what probability to assign, contact your sales ops contact first.
The sales manager does not approve the forecast within the expected window
The Distribution Agent holds and waits. No forecast is sent. After 24 hours without approval, the system sends a reminder notification to the process owner via Slack prompting them to complete the review step.
Open the Google Sheets review tab and either approve or adjust and approve. If you are unavailable, delegate the approval to another authorised team member by sharing the sheet link. The automation will act as soon as the approval is recorded.
Gmail or Slack is unavailable when the Distribution Agent fires
The Distribution Agent retries delivery up to three times at 10-minute intervals. If all retries fail, the automation logs the failure and sends an error alert to the process owner's registered email address.
Check the Google Sheets forecast tab to confirm the data is ready. Forward the forecast manually from the sheet if distribution is time-sensitive. Contact support@gofullspec.com to report the tool outage and confirm the automation resumes on the next run.
HubSpot API is unavailable when the trigger fires
The automation detects the failed API call and retries the data pull up to three times at five-minute intervals. If HubSpot remains unavailable after all retries, the run is aborted and an error notification is sent to the process owner.
Wait for HubSpot to recover and then trigger a manual on-demand run. If the weekly forecast deadline cannot wait, pull the pipeline export from HubSpot manually and notify your FullSpec contact at support@gofullspec.com so the failed run is logged and investigated.
04Who to contact and when
Fill in the rows below once your team is confirmed. Keep this table updated whenever roles or contact details change so there is no ambiguity during a live issue.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner (Sales Manager)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Sales Ops contact
[Your name]
[Rep email]
Backup approver (if Sales Manager unavailable)
[Your name]
[Rep email]
HubSpot administrator
[Your name]
[Rep email]
FullSpec builder
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support
FullSpec support desk
support@gofullspec.com
For any automation failure, unexpected output, or tool connectivity issue, contact support@gofullspec.com first. Include a brief description of what happened, the date and time of the affected run, and a screenshot of any error message shown in Google Sheets or Slack. The FullSpec team will investigate and respond within one business day.
Process Runbook / SOPPage 3 of 4
FS-DOC-03Operations
05Ongoing maintenance
Whenever a HubSpot pipeline stage is added, renamed, or removed
Notify the FullSpec team at support@gofullspec.com so the stage-to-probability mapping in the Forecast Calculation Agent can be updated. Failing to do this will cause deals in the new or renamed stage to be excluded from weighting and flagged in the review tab.
Process owner, then FullSpec
Whenever the Google Sheets forecast template layout changes
Do not restructure column order, rename header rows, or add new tabs without first contacting support@gofullspec.com. The write logic in the Forecast Calculation Agent is mapped to specific cell references. Layout changes will break the output write step.
Process owner, then FullSpec
Monthly spot-check (first forecast run of each month)
Compare the automated forecast output against a manual sense-check of the top 10 open deals by value. Confirm weighted totals look proportionate and that no material deals are missing from the output. Log any discrepancies in the notes column of the review tab.
Sales Manager
Monthly error-log review
Open the log tab in the Google Sheets forecast file and review any flagged records, excluded deals, retry events, or failed distribution attempts from the past month. Forward a summary to support@gofullspec.com if recurring errors are present.
Sales Ops
When a team member joins, leaves, or changes role
Update the contact table in section 04 of this runbook. Update the Slack nudge recipient list and the Gmail distribution group in the automation settings. Contact support@gofullspec.com to confirm any changes to approval permissions in Google Sheets.
Process owner, then FullSpec
Quarterly volume review
Review whether the weekly run schedule and on-demand trigger threshold still match actual business needs. If deal volume has grown significantly, the weighting model or historical benchmarks may need recalibrating. Share current pipeline figures with the FullSpec team to assess whether any adjustments are warranted.
Sales Manager and FullSpec
The most common maintenance issue for this process is an unmapped pipeline stage. When a new stage is added in HubSpot without notifying the FullSpec team, deals in that stage are silently excluded from the weighted forecast. This can cause the total projected revenue to appear lower than expected without any obvious error message. Always inform support@gofullspec.com before adding or renaming a pipeline stage in HubSpot.
Process Runbook / SOPPage 4 of 4