Scenario Types Overview

Scenarios are placeholders for a group of data such as budget, plan, or forecast that cover a specific, pre-determined period. Scenarios will determine the columns (time horizon) in templates and house the data in the cube for reporting.

Planful offers four main types of scenarios: 

1. 1. • Budget 
      • Forecast 
      • Plan 
      • Pre-loaded budget 

In addition to the above types, Planful also offers two system-defined scenarios 

1. 1. • Actual 
      • Default

Budget - This scenario is designed for budgeting purposes and cannot incorporate actual data. The Budget Scenario can be seeded from a previous budget or forecast scenario or created as a Zero-based scenario. This scenario offers the option to show historical data to guide through budget inputs.

Forecast - 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. 

Plan - The Plan Scenario serves both budget and forecast purposes. This scenario allows Data Seeding and can incorporate Actuals. Similar to a forecast scenario, the Plan Scenario also has a Projection Start Date. The periods of the fiscal year before the Projection Start Date are considered closed periods, and data can be populated from the Actual scenario or a previous budget or forecast scenario.

Preloaded Budget - The Preloaded Budget scenario is used for historic budget/forecast data generated outside of Planful and needs to be imported for reporting purposes. Data loaded into this scenario cannot be modified with a template and remains in a read-only state.

Actual - A system-defined scenario that holds the actual data of the legal entities organized by fiscal years.

Default - The common scenario used to add all templates to, which can then be mapped to other scenarios.