topic Re: Forecasting limitations and alternatives in 💬 RevOps Discussions

Forecasting limitations and alternatives

Alpine — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:43:14 GMT

Hi Hubspot Community,

We are running into a limitation of HubSpot's forecasting abilities that seems to be rooted in Hubspot's SMB roots.

We have overlay resources working on a sales engagement who need access to the deal record, account, and contacts (mostly BDRs, SEs, and Partner sales), so they need to be added to the team's structure in HubSpot. This said, these overlay Hubspot users should not be listed in the forecast hierarchy and roll up - but they show up due to the Teams architecture controlling both record accessibility and forecasting.

On custom profiles there is a toggle for Forecasting access but its "grey'd out" and I can not turn off forecasting for the users who shouldnt be in the forecast.

Who has a team selling model and has sovled this issue in Hubspot? Or who has found a alternative forecasting tool that connects to Hubspot?

Re: Forecasting limitations and alternatives

BérangèreL — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 15:39:23 GMT

Hi @Alpine and welcome, we are so glad to have you here!

Thanks for reaching out to the HubSpot Community and thanks for your valuable feedback, it means a lot to us!

I'd love to put you in touch with our Top Experts: Hi @danmoyle, @Humashankar, @Petter, @DaveParry and @Solvethru can you think of a way to achieve this specific use case for @Alpine, please?

Have a fantastic day and thanks so much in advance for your help!
Bérangère

Re: Forecasting limitations and alternatives

Humashankar — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 23:52:14 GMT

Hi @Alpine

HubSpot's forecasting feature presents a limitation in team-based selling environments, particularly when non-quota-carrying users (such as BDRs, SEs, or partner sales) are added to shared team structures.

Because HubSpot ties both CRM access and forecasting visibility to team membership, there is no native way to include users for visibility purposes while excluding them from forecast roll-ups

To learn more - HubSpot Community - Ability to hide teams/team members in the Forecast table - HubSpot Community

Hope this helps - Happy to help further!!
Thank you very much and have a great one!
Warm regards

Re: Forecasting limitations and alternatives

Alpine — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 14:59:00 GMT

@Humashankar @BérangèreL - I understand there is no native way but I would like to understand what folks here ( with a overlay model) are doing to solve for forecasting needs.

Re: Forecasting limitations and alternatives

Humashankar — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:21:13 GMT

Hi @Alpine

Organizations using an overlay sales model, where certain roles like BDRs, SEs, or partner sales need access to deal records without being included in the forecast hierarchy, face a challenge in HubSpot.

Common approaches include creating custom teams and permissions, making manual forecast adjustments, and using pipeline or deal tagging.
While these delegation's provide some solutions, they often require manual effort, don't scale well, or don't fully address the issue.

Best Regards

Re: Forecasting limitations and alternatives

danmoyle — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:52:08 GMT

Hey there @Alpine welcome to the Community. Yes, you're seeing the limitations of a platform that is growing into more complex markets. I've seen quite a few users express a similar frustration. I looked around and found some possible integrations with HubSpot if you're interested. I haven't personally used these, nor have I had clients who did, so I cannot verify these. But hopefully it's a start for you.

Tool	Key Features	Integration with HubSpot	Notes
Forecastio	AI-based forecasts, what-if modeling, real-time pipeline analysis	Yes	Simple, user-friendly, built for HubSpot
Aviso Predict	AI-driven insights, high forecast accuracy, advanced analytics	Yes	For larger orgs, more complex needs
Clari	Revenue forecasting, pipeline management, AI insights	Yes	Enterprise-focused, robust feature set
Salesforce	Advanced forecasting, customizable hierarchies, robust team selling support	Yes (via integration)	Consider if you need more flexibility

Since your business requires both granular record access and accurate forecast roll-ups that exclude overlays, I would consider piloting a third-party forecasting tool like Forecastio or Aviso. These platforms are designed to handle more complex sales org structures and can provide the flexibility that HubSpot currently lacks in this area. And it helps you keep HubSpot for the other needs you're using it for. Hope that helps!