Revenue-target bridge: retention, expansion and new business

This revenue-target bridge workbook shows how a sales plan moves from its opening customer base to the target. It separates expected losses, retained revenue, expansion and new business so a finance or sales reviewer can see the unallocated gap. The workbook is a working allocation artifact. The existing sales-forecast template remains the place for a forecast based on history and weighted opportunities.

What to enter

Enter segment, comparable opening revenue, planned lost revenue, incremental expansion, incremental new business and the target in USD. The sample uses calendar 2027 with a comparable 2026 opening base. Lost revenue is a positive input that the formula deducts. State the recognition period behind the plan; a multi-year contract value should not be mixed with one year’s recognized revenue.

Use the workbook

1. Reconcile the opening customer base to your source revenue on the agreed period and segment definition.
2. Allocate loss, expansion and new business using separately owned assumptions. Keep renewals in retained revenue and avoid adding the same expansion to both the retained base and growth.
3. Read the remaining target gap, record which choices could close it, and preserve the gap until those choices are explicit.

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

Enterprise starts with $4 million, deducts $320,000 of losses, then adds $500,000 expansion and $800,000 new business. It plans $4.98 million against a $5.2 million target. Across three segments the $8 million opening base becomes a $10.105 million plan, leaving $595,000 unallocated. The template does not turn that gap into an invented new-business forecast.

How the results update

Retained revenue is opening revenue less lost revenue. Planned revenue sums retained revenue, expansion and new business. Remaining gap is target less planned revenue, with a positive value indicating a shortfall. The rows calculate these useful intermediate steps. A blank required input or a loss larger than the opening base makes the row incomplete and the relevant company summary n.a., so missing components cannot look like a complete bridge.

Limits and a useful next step

The bridge tests whether the chosen amounts reconcile. It does not establish their likelihood, timing, cash collection or profitability. Distinguish a target from a forecast and record evidence for the assumptions outside this arithmetic. Customer additions, acquisitions, currency changes and accounting reclassifications may require separately defined components before the periods are comparable. Use this workbook to make those choices explicit, not to force the desired answer.

For the underlying method, read sales planning. sales projection 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.