We were in a 40-person firm where the forecast lived in a workbook one sales manager updated every Sunday night. It was accurate, because he knew every deal. Nobody else could tell you why a £60k opportunity had moved from 40% to 70%. He had spoken to the buyer. That was the audit trail.

The board made hiring decisions on that number. When he handed in his notice, the workbook stayed on the shared drive and the knowledge left with him. Three months later the pipeline was 30% smaller than anyone had realised, because half the deals had only ever existed in his head.

The spreadsheet exists because the CRM was set up once and nobody trusts it. So one person compensates with memory, and the business runs on a number it cannot interrogate. When that person goes, so does the forecast, and you find out what your pipeline was actually worth at the worst possible time.