Predict Projections

Predict Projections helps plan your budget/forecast scenarios in a data-driven approach as part of Structured Planning. {{variable.Predict Projections}} generates future projections using Planful’s proprietary AI/ML algorithms through the {{variable.Predict Projections}} AI engine.

Prerequisites

There are specific functionality rules for Predict Projections that are listed below.

• The Projections AI engine requires a minimum of 36 months of historical actuals to generate proper data-driven Projections. However, Planful recommends that there are at least 48 months of historical actual scenario data.
• At the moment, Predict Projections are supported only for the GTSC and GTEC templates of the GTSC family of templates for the Flow MTD accounts.
• Budget entities of the supported templates should be mapped to G/L Data LC (Or LC=CC) and not be configured to use Dimension Attributes.
• Predict Projections will work only for the 'L' type lines on the GTSC template. RA lines, H, and C type lines are not supported.
• If the line has any spread method or formula applied, you will get a pop-up message to confirm if you want to go ahead with projections that would overwrite the formula cells.
• You can generate projections for smaller templates of 100 lines using the Fill All Lines option.
• You can select a maximum of 50 lines at a time to generate projections through the Fill Selected Lines option and only one line through the Adjust Projections option.
• You must Save the template after generating projections for the projected numbers to be saved. If you refresh the page or close the page without saving the template, projections will be lost and you will have to generate the projections again.
• Projections always apply to the Open periods. Closed/locked Periods remain unaffected.
• If you have multiple history lines mapped to a single posting line, the system would consider the historical actuals of all the mapped lines and aggregate them to get projections for the posting line. Essentially, when the projection happens for the posting line, it takes into account all the aggregated actuals of the mapped lines.
• Currently, the system assumes that there are no multiple postings from the same line via different methods or templates.

Scenario Seeding

Directly seed AI projections into scenarios using the Preloaded Budget option in the Scenario Type drop-down and selecting the Predict Scenario check box in the scenario creation process. You can create a template prefilled with AI-generated projections to generate more data-driven forecasts and reduce the manual efforts required to create baseline budgets. Templates filled with AI projections are a great start to building baseline budgets and forecast scenarios.

In Practice

1. To pre-populate a template with AI projections, perform the following steps:
2. Go to Maintenance > Admin > Scenario Setup to access the Scenario List page.
3. Select the Add Scenario option.
   
   
4. In the General Information section of the Add Scenario page, select Scenario Type as Preloaded Budget.
5. Check the Predict Scenario check box; this will prefill the Scenario Code with a prefix of Predict_Scenario_. You can then add a meaningful suffix to identify the scenario.
   
   
6. Save the scenario.
   You can then use this scenario during the data seeding of other scenarios to pre-populate templates with AI projections. Also, you can use the preloaded Predict scenario in Dynamic Reports for further analysis.

Seed from Predict Projections

Seed from Predict Projections is the capability to seed scenarios in templates from the Predict Projections Engine while creating new scenarios. Once you enable the Seed from Predict Projections option in Scenario Setup, the selected template will be filled with projections honoring the history-mapped lines of those templates with data-driven forecasts. The scenario types supported for seeding from Predict Projections are Budget Scenarios, Plan Scenarios, and Forecast Scenarios.

In Practice: Seeding Scenarios with Predict Projections

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Administration > Scenario Setup.
2. On the Scenario List page, click the Add icon.
   
   The Add Scenario page appears.
   
   
3. After you have entered the required details in the General Information tab, click the Data Seeding tab.
4. Check the Seed from Predict Projections checkbox.
   
   
5. Optionally, you can select the reference scenario type as Budget, Plan, or Forecast from the Scenario drop-down list, and select the required elements you want to copy while seeding by checking the checkboxes.
6. Click the Save icon once done.
   
   Note:

   Once the scenario is set up, the templates will be automatically filled with projections honoring the history-mapped lines whenever the user opens the template.

Projections in Templates

The Predict Projections feature is supported only for the LIT, GTSC, and GTEC templates of the GTSC family of templates for the Flow MTD accounts.

To access Predict Projections, perform the following:

1. In your application, navigate to Structured Planning and select a Scenario of your choice.
2. Choose a Template, and click Input from Template Workflow.
3. You will now see the Predict Projections button available in the top menu bar. You can access Projections from this menu button, or from the context menu when you right-click on any cell for the same option with both  Fill All Lines, Fill Selected Lines, and Adjust Projectionsfeatures.
   

Limitations for Projections Generation

• Currently, Predict Projections do not work with Custom Timeset. If you have a template with Custom Timeset, the Predict Projections option will not be available in that template. You must create a template with Default Timeset for Projections to be enabled for the template.
• When the same dimension intersection is planned from multiple sources (e.g. planning from multiple templates), Predict Projections may not generate reliable projections. (applicable for non-FAAS tents only)
• When the Projections Engine does not find enough Historical Actuals (it requires at least 3 years of actuals for all the months, which is 12 x 3 = 36 data points), it cannot generate projections and displays an error.
• Predict only enables fiscal year setups of 12 months; any setup other than 12 months will not be supported.
• Projections cannot be generated for sublines.
• Projections cannot be generated for the lines with excluded GL combinations.
• Sublines and lines without Destination Account mappings are excluded from Projections generation.