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kcsp
kcsp
July 30, 2019
Solved

Reporting off Timeline Activities & Opportunities?

  • July 30, 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 169 views
I don't believe this is possible, but wanted to ask to confirm.

I am looking at creating a report that pulls in both Timeline Activites and Account information. This is possible by using the Company join. However, the business is wonder if it is possible to pull in Opportunity level detail. I don't believe this is possible because 1) there is no existing join from Activity Timeline to Opportunities; 2) Activity Timeline is an MDA object that cannot be edited; and 3) Data spaces cannot be created for MDA objects.

My question is: Is this an accurate statement? Or is there a way to be able to pull in both entries from Activity Timeline AND Opportunities into one report?

Best answer by dan_ahrens
Got it. Getting a better understanding of forecasts as well as getting ahead of churn risk is a key challenge. It's also one of the reasons we released our new Renewal Center module for exactly this kind of use case!

I'd definitely recommend chatting with your Gainsight Account Manager to get a demo of this feature and see how it can help your teams achieve better renewal outcomes!

5 replies

kate_green
kate_green
Helper ⭐️⭐️
July 30, 2019
It's a little complicated because there's likely a many to many relationship between Activities and Opportunities but you could start by creating an Opportunities MDA table (sync it nightly or multiple times a day with Rules Engine) and then join it to your Activity Timeline table... depends what your end goal is exactly!

kcsp
kcspAuthor
July 30, 2019
The goal is to have CSMs enter timeline activites that capture revenue forecasts, and create a report that ties the timeline activities they enter with Opportunity details like contract value, renewal date, etc. I wasn't sure if this even made sense to do, since timeline activities are only captured at the account level. While you might be able to merge those objects, I'm just not sure it makes sense to do.

dan_ahrens
dan_ahrens
Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 30, 2019
Hi Kaycee, can you expand a bit more on the use case and what you're trying to report on? As Kate mentioned, there are many activities per account and many opportunities per account, so it can be difficult to know which timeline entry is associated to which opportunity.

VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
kcsp
kcspAuthor
July 30, 2019
The business is interested in forecasting renewal churn for accounts. The intial mockup report I made joined Timeline with Account, but the business was wondering if it would be possible to join Timeline with Opportunities so they can get opportunity level granularity. For example: if a CSM has a company that has two opportunities they want to provide revenue forecasts for, they want to be able to related this back to a specific opportunity, not the overall account:

  • $20,000 August revenue forecast for Company A: Opportunity X.
  • $5,000 August revenue forecast for Company A: Opportunity Y.
Currently, the report I built will only be able to show the account level details:

  • $25,000 August revenue forecast for Company A (SUM of Opportunities X & Y)
Because Timeline activities are only captured at the Account level, I don't think opportunity level details alongside account level timeline entries is possible.

    dan_ahrens
    dan_ahrensAnswer
    Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
    July 30, 2019
    Got it. Getting a better understanding of forecasts as well as getting ahead of churn risk is a key challenge. It's also one of the reasons we released our new Renewal Center module for exactly this kind of use case!

    I'd definitely recommend chatting with your Gainsight Account Manager to get a demo of this feature and see how it can help your teams achieve better renewal outcomes!

    VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
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