What is Commit Number?
The commit number is the promise at the heart of the forecast: what the team is willing to be held to.
Everything above it is upside; the commit itself must be defensible, which is why it draws the hardest inspection.
Short answer
The commit number is the total revenue a rep or team formally pledges to close in a period, the sum of their highest-confidence deals. It is the floor of the forecast, the figure leadership plans, reports, and often commits to investors on. Because it is a pledge, every deal within it should withstand scrutiny for a real economic buyer, close date, and paper path.
Key takeaways
- Total a rep or team pledges to close.
- The floor of the forecast.
- What leadership plans and reports on.
- Every commit deal should withstand scrutiny.
Why it matters
Leadership builds plans and investor expectations on the commit number, so an inflated one breaks those decisions. A reliable, defensible commit is far more valuable than an optimistic figure that misses.
How Ardovo handles it
Ardovo captures the commit number and rolls it up by team, and Rook pressure-tests each commit deal against real engagement, flagging any that lack an economic buyer or supporting activity before the number is trusted.
Frequently asked questions
What is the commit number?
It is the total revenue a rep or team formally pledges to close in a period, the sum of their highest-confidence deals. It is the floor of the forecast and the figure leadership plans and reports on.
How is the commit number different from the forecast?
The commit number is specifically the high-confidence floor a rep will stand behind. The full forecast may include upside and best-case deals above the commit. Commit is the number leadership can safely bank on.
How should the commit number be validated?
Every deal in it should have a named, engaged economic buyer, a close date the buyer confirmed, and a mapped paper path. A commit deal that cannot survive those questions is optimism, not a genuine pledge, and should be downgraded.