Rolling Forecast

One of the built-in planning functions in SAC is a rolling forecast configuration that allows users to define a “look back and look forward” template for rolling forecast visualization.

Using the rolling forecast layout, users can access a rolling forecast panel to setup and define their visualization.

1. Within the current story select Edit (If not already in the edit view).

2. Add a new canvas page in your current open story (or use PnL_CH7)

3. Insert a table.

4. Use the left Side Panel button to display the list of assets which can be added to the story.

5. Drag and drop the table widget onto the canvas.

6. As we are using the same Data Source as before, Rows should already have Accounts selected.

7. If not click on +Add Dimensions under Rows.

8. Under Columns select Version and Date

9. Version might already be selected so just add Date

10. Click on Version under Filters

11. Set the Version to Actual and Forecast.

12. Click OK.

13. Within Date click on Filter – Filter by Member

14. Expand 2020

15. Expand Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4

16. Click on each month within each quarter individually to select monthly time frame.(Clicking on Quarter Level will only select the Quarter)

17. Continue with this step for all the months within the quarters.

18. Click OK when all months have been selected.

19. Once the months have been selected the following table is returned.

20. Expand Net Income.

Once Net Income has been expanded, we want to see the Unbooked Data for Date Dimension.

21. Right-mouse click on the cell with Date in it.

22. Go to Show/Hide

23. Click on Unbooked

24. Notice that we can see 12 months of booked and unbooked data for 2020 for both the Actuals and Forecast Version.

We now want to setup a rolling forecast layout to see 2020 by month and configure our Actuals and Forecast view.

25. Within the Designer Panel - Select the Forecast Layout template under Cross Tab Icon.

26. This will bring up the Forecast Layout configuration panel.

27. You can ignore the warning message by clicking OK

28. Configure the panel as follows:

• Look back on: Actual

• Look ahead on: Forecast

• Cut-over date : Last booked (Actuals)

• Type: Rolling Forecast

• Look back: 3 (Month)

• Look ahead: 9 (Month)

• Sum for: Cut-over Year

29. Then select Apply.

This will now set up the visualization to show 12 months of Actuals and Forecast data based on when the month of Actuals data is booked. In this scenario we have 3 months of Actuals data and 9 months of Forecast data. If a change is applied to the Actuals data set the visualization will automatically update and adjust the visualization.

30. Examine the changes made by the forecast.

31. Save your Story.