Most small businesses track revenue. They log what came in, maybe sort it by month, and call it sales tracking. That is bookkeeping, not goal setting. A sales log tells you what happened. A target tracker tells you what needs to happen next.

The difference matters because the second version answers the only question that drives action: Am I on pace to hit my number?

Setting Monthly and Quarterly Sales Targets

Start with an annual revenue goal. If you did $480,000 last year and want to grow 20%, your annual target is $576,000. Divide by four and each quarter needs to produce $144,000. Divide by three and each month needs $48,000.

That math is simple on purpose. The point is not to model a perfect forecast. The point is to have a number you can measure against every week.

If your business has seasonality, adjust the quarterly split. A landscaping company doing 60% of revenue between April and September should not divide evenly. Weight Q2 and Q3 higher, Q1 and Q4 lower, and let the monthly targets reflect reality. The spreadsheet does not care how you arrive at the number. It cares that you have one.

For each target, apply the SMART goals framework: specific metric (new revenue), measurable number ($48,000), achievable based on pipeline, relevant to the annual goal, and time-bound to the month or quarter. If a target fails any of those tests, it is not ready to track.

Building Your Sales Target Tracker

You can build a sales target tracker from scratch in Google Sheets with six columns:

  • Week (date of the Monday)
  • Target Revenue (cumulative target through that week)
  • Actual Revenue (cumulative actual through that week)
  • Gap (actual minus target; negative means behind)
  • Percent Attainment (actual divided by target)
  • Required Weekly Run Rate (remaining target divided by remaining weeks)

The run rate column is the one that changes behavior. If you need $48,000 this month and you are at $18,000 with two weeks left, the run rate is $15,000 per week. That number is concrete. It tells you exactly how much pipeline you need to close this week to stay on track.

The formula: =(Monthly Target - Actual Revenue) / Remaining Weeks

If you want the pace tracking handled automatically, the goal tracker spreadsheet does this out of the box. Set the target value to your monthly or quarterly revenue goal, enter cumulative revenue in the Daily Log tab each week, and the dashboard shows your pace status (ahead, on track, or behind) with color coding. No formula setup required.

Tracking by Rep

For teams with two or more salespeople, extend the tracker so each rep has their own target and attainment line.

Two approaches work:

One tab per rep. Duplicate the tracking sheet for each person. Rep A gets a tab, Rep B gets a tab, and a summary tab pulls totals using simple SUM formulas across sheets. This keeps individual data separated and makes it easy to share a specific tab with a specific rep without exposing the whole file.

One tab with a Rep column. Add a “Rep” column to the raw data and use a pivot table or SUMIFS to break out attainment by person. This works well for managers who want everything in one view. Filter by rep name to see individual performance, or view the unfiltered table for the team total.

Either way, individual targets should ladder to the team target. If the monthly goal is $48,000 and you have three reps, each carries $16,000 (or a weighted split based on territory size, experience, or account load). The spreadsheet makes the math transparent. Nobody wonders where their number came from.

SPP has a sales tracker template for Google Sheets that handles deal-level pipeline tracking with stages, values, and rep assignments. That template covers the “what is in the pipeline” question. The goal tracker covers the “will we hit our number” question. Used together, you get a complete picture: pipeline health on one screen, target attainment on another.

Weekly Sales Review Using the Spreadsheet

Every Monday, update the tracker and look at three numbers:

Percent attainment vs. percent of period elapsed. If you are 50% through the month, you should be at or above 50% of target. If attainment is at 35%, you know immediately that the current pace will not get you there. No guesswork.

Required weekly run rate. This number increases every week you fall behind and decreases every week you pull ahead. When the run rate climbs above what your pipeline can realistically deliver, you have an early warning that the month is in trouble. That signal in week two is far more useful than the same realization on the last day of the month.

Gap by rep. If the team target is behind but one rep is ahead and two are behind, the problem is specific, not systemic. The behind reps need pipeline support, coaching, or reallocation of leads. The ahead rep might have capacity to take on more. The data points you to the action.

Keep notes on what happened each week. Lost a big deal? Note it. Closed something unexpected? Note it. These details matter at the end of the quarter when you are trying to understand what drove results and what to adjust for next quarter.

What to Do When You Are Behind Pace

Falling behind target is not a failure of discipline. It is information. The spreadsheet surfaces it early enough to do something about it.

Three responses, in order of aggressiveness:

Increase activity. More outreach, more demos, more proposals. This is the default response and it works when the pipeline is healthy but velocity is slow. Look at your close rate and work backward: if you close 25% of proposals and need $15,000 more this month, you need $60,000 in new proposals out the door.

Accelerate existing deals. Review every open opportunity in your pipeline tracker and identify which ones can close faster with a specific action: a discount for signing this week, a call to the decision-maker, removal of a friction point in the contract. Not every deal can be accelerated, but usually a few can.

Adjust the target. If market conditions changed or a major account churned, the original number may no longer be realistic. Adjust it in the Goal Setup tab. The pace calculation recalibrates instantly. Note the reason in the log so the end-of-quarter review has context. Adjusting a target is not cheating. Pretending a broken target is still valid is.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I account for seasonality in my sales targets?

Look at 12 months of historical revenue and calculate what percentage of annual revenue each month produced. Apply those percentages to your new annual target. If July historically accounts for 12% of annual revenue and your target is $576,000, July’s target is $69,120. This gives you weighted monthly targets that reflect how your business actually operates.

Should I track units sold or revenue?

Track whichever metric you can act on directly. If you sell one product at a fixed price, units sold is simpler and just as useful. If you sell multiple products or services at different price points, revenue is the better metric because it captures deal size. You can always track both in separate columns, but pick one as your primary target.

How do I calculate my required daily run rate?

Subtract your current actual revenue from your monthly target. Divide the result by the number of business days remaining in the month. That gives you the minimum daily revenue needed to finish on pace. Update this every time you log new revenue.

Can I connect this to my CRM data?

If you use a CRM that exports to CSV, you can import deal data into Google Sheets and use SUMIFS or pivot tables to calculate actual revenue by period. Some CRMs also integrate directly with Google Sheets through add-ons or Zapier. The goal tracker template works with manual entry, but there is nothing stopping you from automating the data input if your tools support it.

How often should I update my sales tracker?

Weekly at minimum. If you close deals daily, a daily update takes 30 seconds and gives you a more accurate run rate. The important thing is consistency. Pick a cadence and stick with it so the data is comparable week to week.

What is pipeline coverage and why does it matter?

Pipeline coverage is the total value of your open pipeline divided by your remaining target. A coverage ratio of 3x means you have three dollars in pipeline for every dollar you still need to close. Most sales teams aim for 3x to 4x coverage, because not every deal closes. If your coverage drops below 2x, you do not have enough pipeline to hit your number even with a strong close rate. The spreadsheet will not calculate this automatically, but you can add a cell that divides total open pipeline (from your sales tracker) by the gap column in your target tracker.