Monthly Forecasting
The Monthly Forecast screen allow a user to forecast out on a monthly basis, using either the Plus Software pre-defined P&L Format, or one that is created custom by the user.
Here's an explanation of what you can see and do on the Monthly Forecast screen:
Let's look at the two different tabs, above the RIBBON bar (shown in red above):
Home Tab (Top row)
- Most of the labels are self explanatory.
- The Clear Cache button forces the page to re-load the entire spreadsheet control, and applies any changes you may have made to the Report Categories or parameters.
Forecasts Tab
Categories and Accounts:
Categories: Categories appear as Bold. Those with children also have a ▸ symbol if it can be expanded, or ▾ if it is already expanded.
In the image above, Net Profit has a calculation "=[Sales] - [COGS]". The cells F7 and G7 translate and apply this function as =F3 - F5 and =G3 - G5 respectively to get the correct values.
Accounts: GL Accounts assigned to the Category are shows as "CODE - NAME" and appear as non-bolded text. The Actual values for the Accounts are the sum of all transactions in the business system during the appropriate month. Actuals for a GL Account are derived from the Budget selected in the Ribbon, which will be covered in more detail later.
Past Months: Months that are complete are evaluated and shown as a breakdown of Actual, Budget, Variance and % Variance. The latter two columns are conditionally formatted based on whether the Category has been assigned as Income or Not in the Report Builder.
Future Months: Months that are not yet complete are rendered as Future Months, and only show Budgetary values
Forecast Totals: A simple total of the Row's totals. The Forecast Total column is the sum of Past Months' Actuals + sum of Future Months' Budgets. The Budget totals are the sum of Budgetary values for Past and Future Months.
The Ribbon: Where the user can take actions on this page.
Add/Edit Report Formats: Opens the Report Format Builder page in a new tab for quick editing.
Budget Customising Section: The user can:
-Select a Budget from the Business System or use the Previous Year's Actuals to fill the Budget columns of the Forecast
-Select a Report format (or the Plus Software Default P&L View) to view the Forecast
-Override the start and end dates to see a specific time-frame
Show All/Hide To Top Level:
-Expand all Categories to show all Children and GL Accounts in this Forecast
-Collapse all Categories and display only the Top-Level Categories from the Report Builder
That's all there is to it. You're skilled up and ready to start forecasting using Custom Reports and Budgetary data from your system!
Need more information?
Send us a Support Ticket to Plus.Live - our team is happy to help!
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