Creating Forecast Scenario

The Forecast Scenario is used for creating forecasts, where the projection start date can be set and actuals are incorporated. The Projection start date period requires an entry in the Projection Start Date when the forecast begins. Months from the start of the fiscal year up to the selected Projection Start Date are considered closed periods, and data for these periods can be populated from the Actual scenario or a previous budget or forecast scenario. 

How to Create a Forecast Scenario?

To create a forecast scenario, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Administration > Scenario Setup.
2. Click the Add button to open the Add Scenario page.
3. Select Forecast from the Scenario Type drop-down list.
4. Enter a Scenario Code, Scenario Name, and select a Fiscal Year. By default, the current fiscal year is displayed.
5. Enter a History Column Name for the history periods displayed, which is generally a description for the historical periods. When Forecasts are prepared, history data may or may not be available. To address this, configure History periods from other scenarios that will be used for History data.
6. Choose the month and year from the Projection Start From drop-down list. Based on the Projection Start Month, Closed Period(s) populate with Actuals.
   For example, if the Projection Start is the first month of the fiscal year, there will be no closed period(s). If the Projection Start month is Jun-24 for a fiscal year from April to March, closed periods populate until May-24.
7. Select the Scenario Due Date.
   
8. Select the Reporting Cube From Current Scenario checkbox if you want to get data from the source scenario instead of retrieving the most current data from the Reporting Cube.
9. Select the Ignore Elimination Data For Open Periods checkbox if you want to ignore closed periods YTD data while calculating the first forecast period’s YTD/MTD data in reports. If you do not select this checkbox, the closed periods YTD data is used when calculating the first period's YTD/MTD data in reports. If the 'Ignore eliminations data for open periods' checkbox is selected and you still see YTD data of closed periods in calculations, this is probably because the scenario was edited. To correct perform the following steps:
   1. Access the Consolidation Control Panel.
   2. Select the scenario.
   3. Select the Elimination with the issue.
   4. Click Clear Data.
   5. Navigate to the Scenario Setup screen and refresh closed periods data for the Forecast scenario.
   6. Process the cube for the Forecast Scenario.
   7. Post eliminations for the same Elimination.
10. When the data becomes available for history periods, you might want to generate the cash flow calculations based on the new data. To allow this, select Enable History Scenario for Cash Flow. This setting allows you to select a scenario and period that willbe used as the base to calculate the MTD value for the first period in cash flow reports.
    1. History Scenario -Indicate the source to display comparative data from two (or more different) scenarios. As typically, a full year of prior actuals are not available, you may "plug in" data against open months from other scenarios (i.e. the latest forecast).
    2. History Period - Select the months from which the historical actuals need to be displayed in the template and the months in which data needs to be displayed from other scenarios.
11. Select source scenario and source period details in which to populate your scenario. By default, History Period selections show data from the Actual scenario's prior fiscal year. However, You may select a Source Period to seed actuals from the desired Source Scenario if you want to overwrite the default source periods.
12. Click the Data Seeding tab on the left. If you want the current forecast versions to be pre-populated with prior scenarios, select the Enable Data Seeding checkbox. If you are not seeding the scenario, click Compare Scenarios. If you want all Dynamic Journals for closed periods to be ignored / not populated in this scenario when seeding from another, select the Ignore Dynamic Journals Data for Closed Periods checkbox.
    See: Alternate Approach to Data Seeding
    1. Select Seed all from Reference Scenario to select one scenario you want to seed all templates, notes, and sublines from a scenario you select.
       Template seeding is available for the following template types; Global Template – Single Copy, Global Template – Entity Copy, and Line Item templates.
    2. Another option is to leave the Seed all from Reference Scenario checkbox blank and select a reference scenario. Then, make selections to seed templates, notes, dynamic journals, and sublines as needed from a referenced scenario.
       If you have the Consolidation application, you can seed Dynamic Journals.
    3. The final option is the Seed Data Fromoption. Available selections are:
       1. Seed Templates/Notes/Sub-lines from a reference scenario without data seeding- select None.
       2. Seed Templates/Notes/Sub-lines from a reference scenario with the data seeded from the reference scenario - select Reference Scenario.
       3. Seed Templates/Notes/Sub-lines from a reference scenario with the data seed scenario changed by period - select Varying Scenario and Period Selections.
       4. Seed Templates/Notes/Sub-lines from a reference scenario to a target scenario where overlapping template periods and mismatched template structures exist in the source to target scenarios. Select Reference Scenario with Overlapping Periods.
13. Select the Compare Scenario tab. Compare scenarios are used to display comparative data from other scenarios such as: historical actuals, latest forecast, data from the prior budget cycle, and plans with budget targets. Click Enable Compare Scenarios and select scenarios. The number of Compare Scenarios is determined during application configuration (Define Budget Parameters task on the Configuration Task List page).
    
    
    Note:

    If you are a MyPlan user, select the Data Trend Setup tab. Data Trends allow users to use prior, present or future data points to help them complete a budget or forecast, by looking at data from any given scenario and time period, in order to analyze and benchmark against their working scenario. Users can use this feature to make actionable decisions by knowing how and what should be Planned, knowing where they are going to ultimately Land, and most importantly have a clear picture of where they currently Stand. For more information, see the MyPlan guide.

14. Select the Workflow Setup tab. Click the Enable Workflow for this Scenario checkbox to enable workflow actions like forward and approve. Workflow tasks are generated for roll up members and not all artifacts (templates and entities) associated with the rollup. For example, if Joe has access to the Budget Hierarchy and Denver HQ roll ups, the workflow task is generated only for Budget Hierarchy. If Joe has access to Denver HQ only, Denver HQ becomes the roll up for him and the workflow task is generated only for Denver HQ. To generate tasks for all the artifacts associated with a roll up, select the Generate Tasks for all Artifacts check box on the General tab of the My Settings page. By default, this check box is not selected. Access is based on Approval Role Setup.
15. Click Save and return to the Scenario list page.

Now that you have created a Forecast Scenario, you can lock the scenario so that budget users can't modify it, attach documents to the scenario, create a copy of the scenario, add templates, and so on. From the Scenario list page, select three vertical dots and click Forward scenario. Scenarios must be in a forwarded state to make them available to budget users.

Complete the fields on the Global Fields Data Input page:

To input values for budget entities for the created Forecast Scenario, follow the steps below:

1. On the Scenario List page, select the three vertical dots and click Global Data Input.
2. Select the forecast scenario created from the Scenario drop-down list.
3. Click the Add button on the right page. Note that all entities are listed in the left pane.
4. Select from defined global fields and click Add. The selected global field and defined format are displayed in the right pane.
5. Enter a value for each global field.
6. Click Save.
7. Select a global field. Click Copy To to map the global field to the entity.
8. Select the entity from the hierarchy and click Copy.