Editing forecasts and reforecasting

1. Editing generated forecasts

Inforiver allows you to edit a forecast that was configured previously. To edit, click on the Manage button to open the Forecast Measures side pane and click on the edit icon near the forecast that needs to be edited.

Edit forecast side pane

i) Forecast period

You can update the forecast time frame. You may have forecasted for the entire year, then decided to extend the forecast to the next year or reduce the forecast duration to 6 months.

Changing the forecast period

Notice how the open forecast has been reduced to 3 months after updating the forecast period.

Forecast period changed from Jan - Mar from Jan - Dec 2025

ii) Update closed period range

The forecasted periods that have been closed after actuals become available can be reset using this option. When we click on the 'Reset closed period link', all the closed forecasts within the 'Closed Period Range' will be reopened. You can specify the end date of the closed period range - in this case, Jan 2025.

Resetting open forecasts that were manually closed

Notice how the Closed Period Range has been updated. The Update closed period link will open the Close Period dialog box that we discussed in the previous module - Date rollover and extending forecasts.

Closed forecast restored to original configuration

When you click the Update button, you'll see that the January forecast has been reopened and is no longer greyed out.

Manually closed forecasts are reopened

iii) Update values for past/closed periods from

Select the measure that will be used to populate previous/closed periods.

Actuals used to populated forecasts for previous periods

iv) Aggregate total

When column totals and subtotals are enabled, you can choose whether to use open forecasts, closed forecasts, or both to calculate the total for the forecast measures.

Aggregation option for forecast totals and subtotal columns

The images below show how the totals change based on the option selected.

Totals based on all periods

Totals based on closed periods

Totals based on open periods

v) Action for closed periods

When you close forecasts, you can choose to retain the original forecasted values or replace the forecasted values with actuals.

Overwrite forecasts

Retain forecasted values

2. Re-forecasting

You can update the forecast for a specific period using the reforecast option. For instance, if you need to change the forecast for February and March to the average sales for 2024, you can reforecast for that period alone, without affecting the other forecasts. You can configure the forecast from scratch, the same way we did in the Configuring the forecast section.

Re-forecasting for a specific period

Notice how the open forecasts for February and March have been updated based on the re-forecast configuration.

Forecast values updated for February and March