This feature enables you to forecast fees and resources (hours) for a period estimated in the Tasks/Stages/Phases screen.
When you provide the estimated Start date and End date of a Task, Job Forecast will disperse the estimated fees and hours within the given period on a monthly basis.
You can then edit them and forecast the resources in a way that suits your cash flow. You can even forecast the Subtask resources for each Task.
Creating your Forecast
Step 1: Setup
Go to Clients, Contacts & Jobs >> Search Clients and Jobs >> click on the relevant Job Code to go into the ‘Job Details’ page >> click on the Tasks/Stages/Phases tab on the left to go into the ‘Job Tasks’ page.
Specify the start dates and end dates of your Tasks and make sure you have estimated your Fees for each Task. You can include the Disbursement estimate also with the fees here. To forecast Subtasks, make sure you have Subtasks defined under each Task. Right click on a Task line and select ‘Job Sub Tasks’ to enter the sub tasks for the selected Task.
Step 2: Three options to base the forecast on
Click on the Forecast button and you will be directed to the Forecast Page where you can see three options to base the forecast on.
Option 1: Forecast based on Fees and Disbursements
This option will disperse the given estimated fees and disbursements for the period of the task. Below you can see the task named Variation 1 Entry Lobby, which has an estimated Fee of $6,000 in the task page. It is now visible in the cash flow for nine months from Sept to May.
Option 2: Forecast based on Resources (Hours)
This option relates to forecasting based on the estimated hours. The sample task Variation 1 Entry Lobby, with 35 hours has been allocated to each month from Sept to May.
Option 3: Forecast based on Resources by Sub Task
This option allows you to drill down further into sub-tasks and forecast the estimated hours for employees over the given period.
Click on the arrow button to the left of each task, to view the forecast by subtask for the selected task line.
How to Recreate Forecast for All Tasks
This button will discard all of your changes and allows you to recreate the forecast for all the Tasks based on the selected option.
How to Recreate Forecast for one Task
The button provided on each row of the grid can recreate the forecast for each task.
Exporting the Forecast to CSV
The button below will export the grid to a CSV file which you can open in MS-Excel.
For options 1 and 2 (ie Fees and Disbursements; Resource Requirements), the format of the CSV is a raw file type so that when you open it in MS-Excel, you can further modify the columns and formula.
For option 3, Resources by Sub-Task, the CSV export is based on WYSIWYG format (What You See IS What You Get) because of the complexity of presenting it in raw format.
Print the Report for Reconciliation
When you edit values, the forecasts are not reconciled with the actual estimated values of the Task. This can be reconciled with the ‘Forecast Reconciliation’ report by clicking on the ‘Print’ button.
Available Reports
The following reports are available in the Reports section.
Go to Reports >> Performance Reports >> select ‘All’ >> select the relevant forecast report from the ‘Forward Planning’ section.
Forecast Fees and Disbursements Report
This report will show all the forecasts for Fees and Disbursements for all Jobs. Note that the data will be shown only for the past year based on the date chosen in the Date From option.
Forecast Resource Requirement Report
This report will show all the forecasts for Resource Requirement for all Jobs. Note that the data will be shown only for the past year based on the date chosen in the Date From option. There is a popup to give an option to show the SubTask forecast if you have defined any.
Forecast Reconciliation Report
This is the same report that you can open from the Forecast Page itself.
Forecast Residual Revenue by month
This report gives the residual revenue remaining by each month.
Abtrac KB# 2105