Forecasting revenue-only streams

Chris Iacofano

November 20, 2024 20:04

The revenue-only stream is suitable for any situation, including revenue you have forecast in detail elsewhere or that doesn't fit the other revenue stream options here. For example, suppose you have already prepared a detailed revenue forecast in an Excel spreadsheet. In that case, you can enter just the revenue totals into LivePlan so that those details appear in your business plan.

Revenue-only includes scenarios where a source of revenue is based on and scaled from another source of revenue. For example, if you have a catering business, you can forecast your drink sales as a percentage of your food sales. Similarly, you can forecast downloadable content per subscription if you offer a software subscription. Using a revenue-only stream can help you model this type of revenue projection easily.

Adding a revenue-only stream to your forecast

In the Forecast Overview, select Revenue:
Click Add Revenue Stream:
Enter a name for your unit sales revenue stream, then click Add Details:
For the type, select Revenue only:
Select whether you will enter the revenue as a dollar amount or whether this revenue stream will represent a percentage of another revenue stream:
- Dollar Amount: Represent this revenue stream as a dollar amount.
- % of specific revenue stream: Calculate this revenue stream as a percentage of another existing revenue stream
Select whether the dollar amount or percentage will remain constant throughout your forecast or if it will vary:

Note: If you have numbers from a spreadsheet, select the Varying amounts over time option, and then you can easily copy and paste from your spreadsheet. Forecast entries set to Varying amounts can also be edited in-line from their respective forecast overview pages.

- - Constant amount: Indicate the amount of revenue, whether you receive it monthly or annually, and when the revenue stream will start:
  - Varying amounts over time: Plot the revenue stream dollar amount or percentage by month:
- Click Create & Exit or Save & Exit:

Revenue based upon a % of another revenue stream

Revenue-only includes scenarios when some of your revenue scales in direct proportion to another revenue stream.

In the Forecast Overview, select Revenue:
Click Add Revenue Stream:
Enter a name for this revenue stream:
For the type, select Revenue only:
Click Next:
Select % of specific revenue stream. This can either be a constant percentage each month or varying percentages over time:
Choose the revenue stream that this revenue will be directly scaled from.
Set the percentageConstant amount: Indicate the percentage of the revenue stream on which this revenue will be based from.
Varying amounts over time: Plot the percentage by month:
Click Create & Exit:

Editing or deleting a revenue stream

To edit an existing revenue stream:

Click on its name in the Revenue table:

The edit overlay will appear. Make your desired changes, and click Save & Exit. For more details, see How do I edit or delete forecast entries?

revenue only one page overview.png

To delete a revenue stream:

Forecast items can be deleted from two different places: from the forecast table or list, or from within the editor overlay when viewing a single forecast item.

In the forecast (Table view): Click on the empty white space within the name heading cell of the item you want to delete, as shown in the example below:

Clicking on the white space will bring up further editing options at the top of the forecast table. Select Delete and confirm to delete the forecast item:
In the forecast (List view): Click on the three dots to the right of the forecast item you want to delete:

Select Delete and confirm to delete the item from your forecast:
In the editor: Click the More actions dropdown near the top-right of the forecast editor:

Select Delete and confirm to delete the forecast item: