Budget forecasts

A forecast is an amount expected on a given day: a planned cost or revenue. A budget item can have many forecasts spread over time. Their total is the item’s Forecast. The By period view of the budget shows how forecasts are distributed across periods (see Budget views). Forecasts are added, changed and deleted by users with the Admin permission for the budget.

Adding a forecast

1. Click an item name on the Budget tab. Its panel opens.
2. Click Add forecast in the section with the Forecast tab.
   
3. Enter the amount and press Enter. The new row has today’s date, which you change by clicking the date field. Leaving the amount empty cancels the row.

When the item is linked to the schedule, a new forecast gets the date that follows from the task and the offset set in the link, and its date cannot be edited — the hint Date comes from schedule item and is not editable appears (see Linking forecasts to the schedule).

A forecast can also be entered directly in the list, in the Forecast column of an item that has one forecast or none, or in the By period view, in a period cell.

Note: forecasts are added to a regular item. A group item has no forecasts of its own, because it adds up the forecasts of its sub-items. An amount can have at most two decimal places. The cross at the end of a row deletes the forecast. Every forecast change is recorded in the item history.

Shifting forecasts in time

When spending moves in time, you do not have to correct each forecast separately.

1. Open the item menu (right-click in the list, or the menu in the item panel) and choose Shift forecasts in time.
   
2. Choose the unit (Days or Months) and enter how far to shift the forecasts. A negative value moves them back.
3. Click Shift.

All of the item’s forecasts that are not linked to the schedule are shifted. The amounts stay the same. Forecasts linked to tasks are not covered by the shift, because their dates follow the schedule anyway. The shift is recorded in the item history.

Removing past forecasts

Forecasts from past periods that never materialized inflate the budget. You can zero them out in one go.

1. To cover the whole budget, click Settings above the budget list. To cover one item and its sub-items, open that item’s menu.
2. Choose Zero out past forecasts. The window lists the forecasts concerned and their total.
   
3. Click Zero out.

Past periods are those before the current one, in the scale selected in the By period view. Actuals and the baseline stay the same.

Note: zeroed forecasts are removed from the item rather than kept with an amount of 0. If there is nothing to zero out, the message No past forecasts to zero out. appears.

Linking forecasts to the schedule

An item’s forecasts can follow a task or milestone of the schedule: when the element’s date changes, the dates of the linked forecasts are recalculated by themselves.

Linking an item

1. Open the item menu (list or panel) and choose Assign to schedule. When the item is already linked, the option is called Edit schedule assignment. The link can also be changed through the Schedule field in the panel.
2. In the Link to schedule element window, choose the element in the Schedule field.
3. In the Forecast offset relative to the schedule section, choose how dates of new forecasts are determined: Don’t shift, Task start or Task end. For the last two, choose the unit: Days (Follow the exact date) or Months (Keep the same day of month).
4. Click Save.

The Schedule field in the panel shows the element name and its dates; click the name to go to the element. Only a regular item can be linked, not a group item. The setting in the window is the default for forecasts added later and does not change existing ones.

Linking a single forecast

When the item is linked to the schedule, the forecasts section in the panel gets the Determined by (Don’t shift, Task start, Task end) and Offset (a number with the Days or Months unit) columns. The date of a linked forecast is the task start or end date plus the offset and cannot be edited; a link icon is shown next to the date. Choosing Don’t shift detaches the forecast from the schedule and keeps its date.

Effects

• When the task date changes, the dates of linked forecasts are recalculated. When the schedule element loses its dates, linked forecasts lose their dates and the offsets stay.
• The start and end dates of an item come from its forecasts and actuals.
• The Delete button in the link window (after confirmation) detaches the item from the schedule and all its forecasts; their dates stay as fixed dates.
• A link cannot be added to a forecast of an item that is not linked to a schedule element (the message The forecast cannot be linked to the schedule — the budget item has no linked schedule element.).

Link changes are recorded in the item history.