- Overview
- What is a "Close Date" in Salesforce?
- Why is the Close Date important to track?
- Which Close Date is used for Open Opportunities?
- Which Close Date is used for Closed Won Opportunities?
- Which Close Date is used for Closed Lost Opportunities?
- FAQ
Overview
For SaaS sales orgs using Salesforce, every open, closed won, and closed lost opportunity in Salesforce has a specified “Close Date” for estimating when the deal will close or memorializing the day on which the deal closed.
Depending on the opp’s open, closed won, or closed lost status, Atrium records “Close Date” differently. This article explains which approach Atrium takes to reporting a close date for an opportunity according to its status and why.
What is a “Close Date” in Salesforce?
For an open opportunity, a Close Date is the date that the opportunity’s owner estimates the opp will close in the future.
For a closed won or closed lost opp, a close date memorializes the day on which the opportunity closed in the past.
Many SaaS sales organizations use the standard “Close Date” field in Salesforce for the purposes above.
You can often find it listed on the opportunity object like it is below.
You can make adjustments to your Close Date field in Salesforce by using Object Manager, going to the Opportunity object, and searching “Close Date” in the Fields and Relationships tab.
Why is the Close Date important to track?
For open opportunities, an accurate close date is crucial for accurate forecasting.
For closed won and closed lost opportunities, an accurate close date is crucial for recording wins and losses on the day and within the months and quarters they occur for retroactive reporting.
Atrium refers to the standard Close Date field in Salesforce for many metrics, including Opps Owned, Pipeline Owned, Bookings, Win Rate, Average Selling Price, Average Sales Cycle, and more.
How does Atrium track Close Date for Which Close Date is used for Open Opportunities?
For open opportunities, Atrium refers to the date in the standard Close Date field on the Salesforce Opportunity Object.
How does Atrium track Close Date for Closed Won Opportunities?
For closed won opportunities, Atrium refers to the date in the standard Close Date field on the Salesforce opportunity object.
How does Atrium track Close Date for Closed Lost Opportunities?
For closed lost opportunities, Atrium utilizes the timestamp of when the opportunity moves to a closed lost stage in Salesforce.
FAQ:
Why do we use these (different) Close Dates for each type of Closed Opportunity?
When tracking when a Win might be recorded, reps are usually quite diligent about timing - you can imagine an end of quarter situation, where a rep closes a deal right at the wire.
We would expect that rep to accurately update the standard Close Date field on the Opportunity object with the date on which they closed the opp, so their wins are accurately tracked.
We might not expect the same attention to detail when a rep is Closing a Lost Opportunity; therefore, we take the timestamp for when the Opportunity moved into a Closed Stage in Salesforce.
What if the owner gets changed after an opp is closed?
For Closed Lost Opportunities, Atrium attributes ownership to the rep who owned the Opportunity at the time of the Close Date.
For Closed Won Opportunities, we attribute ownership to the rep who is the current owner of the Opportunity in Salesforce as the owner in Atrium.
Can I customize the Opportunity Close Date Mapping to a custom field in Atrium?
Yes, you can! In just a few steps:
- Navigate to the SFDC section in the preferences menu and select Opportunity Mapping (Link)
- Edit the page and select the drop down next to Close Date and select the correct date field
- Save the page
- It will take several hours for the mapping to update, but then, anywhere we use Close Date, we will use this field
Here is a link to a click by click video