Sales-plan assumptions register

A sales plan often contains several plausible numbers with no clear owner or evidence date. This assumptions register keeps each active planning input beside its range, source and approval. The live status highlights values outside their stated bounds, assumptions awaiting approval and approved inputs whose review date has passed. It documents planning assumptions without redefining the sales metrics themselves.

What to enter

Record an assumption ID, driver name, scenario label, lower/active/upper values, evidence reference and date, owner, review date and approval. Include the unit in the driver name where it is not obvious. Rates are decimals in the sample, so 0.90 is 90%. Sales FTE is a count. The descriptive scenario label says where the assumption is used; it is not an active-case switch for another model.

Use the workbook

1. Copy each material assumption from the plan into a stable ID and specify its unit and affected scenario. Keep one authoritative active value.
2. Record the evidence and plausible range, then ask the owner to approve or reject the assumption. Do not use an approval field to imply evidence was verified.
3. Set the as-of date in B4, work overdue and unresolved inputs, and save a dated version when approved assumptions change.

Keep the amber inputs separate from the pale blue calculation columns. The worksheet has 20 prefilled detail rows, from 13 through 32. If you need more records, extend every affected formula and summary range together, then check a first, middle and final row. Save a dated working copy before replacing the sample.

The synthetic example

AS-01 has a 0.90 retention assumption within 0.85–0.95, supporting evidence and a December review date, so it is Current. AS-02 is approved but its October 1 review date is past. AS-03’s 0.12 active expansion rate exceeds its 0.10 upper bound. AS-04 has no evidence. Only one of the four sample assumptions is both approved and current.

How the results update

Review status tests required input fields first, then lower/active/upper consistency, then approval and review date. A missing source stays Incomplete even if someone chooses Approved. An out-of-range value remains visible rather than being silently capped. The summary counts these states. Updating an active value, evidence field, approval or date recalculates the status in the same row.

Limits and a useful next step

The worksheet does not determine a statistically justified range or predict whether an assumption will hold. It does not connect approved values to an external planning platform. Keep actual history separate from proposed drivers, and record a new version when you change the basis. If your model requires a case selector, define and test that selector in the model rather than treating this register’s scenario labels as live model controls.

For the underlying method, read sales planning. versioned metric definitions covers the adjacent question. If you want to review the required fields and one reporting output, discuss your setup. Views depend on your records and agreed definitions.