Forecasting

Typically, the budget is out of date as soon as it is completed. Nevertheless, the budget, if constructed properly, is a powerful tool to align the organisation's strategic plans with the day to day tactics.

Many organisations refine the process further by forecasting either on a rolling or quarterly basis. In particular, organisations with strong brand management require complete control over promotion and trade spend as well as advertising & promotions budgets, all of which are linked to sales volumes. Re-forecasting the entire plan is usually an enormous task within a spreadsheet environment.

With PowerOLAP, there’s no need to wait until close-of-month (or any other time) to create Forecasts. You can now forecast based on today’s figures. Don’t rely on dead, historical data—use up-to-the-instant Actuals reflective of current business conditions and your own insightful formulas to project how your business will perform in the coming weeks and months.

Once a budget has been established, the next objective is to realize or exceed budgeted results. Forecasts are valuable tools that alert you when results are not on track with the budget. In addition to reporting Actual vs. Budget variances (easily accomplished in PowerOLAP), organisations typically review forecasted results for the next three to five months.

Forecasts so painless you’ll actually get them when you want them.

Forecasts are designed to reflect changing circumstances in the business environment: competitor initiatives, weather variations, level of the economy, etc. You set the formulas; then PowerOLAP automatically applies them across all areas for instant, efficient forecasts.

PowerOLAP Model incorporating Variances and Latest Forecast

Key benefits of forecasting using PowerOLAP:

· Timeliness : If it takes days or weeks to create forecasts, the opportunity to analyze the near-term business scenario will be lost.

· Immediate data for Actuals Dynamically retrieved from transactional systems, which in turn serves as the basis for Forecast figures. This means an end to waiting for end-of-the-month, batched reports, as well as an end to redundant re-keying to prepare Actuals, Budget and Forecast data in composite reports.

· Universal Formula Application : You decide the percentages, weighting and other metrics that affect your revised forecast figures. PowerOLAP applies them across all areas, regions, products, etc. for fully automated calculations.

· Driver Based Bottom Up models : Budgets and Forecasts based on driver based models are the easiest to complete. Simply enter the sales units by Sales Person, State etc and watch the numbers fall out. Sales, Cost of Sales,

· User Interface : Excel Users work within a familiar Excel environment. No lengthy classes to attend or programs to decipher. Just use Excel spreadsheets but with automatically-provided data and the power of combining hundreds of spreadsheets into one using PowerOLAP.

Share instantly throughout the enterprise Whether on the LAN or accessing forecast cubes remotely, PowerOLAP provides instant access and the certainty of working from the exact same version of the information.

Actuals provided dynamically from underlying systems.

Forecast data can be entered in PowerOLAP; or directly into the spreadsheet; or through a utility, which will allow you to alter absolute amounts or make calculated changes. With a touch of the F9 key, all figures are updated in PowerOLAP and dynamically available in your current spreadsheet. Forecasting could be painful, but not any more. Please see how PowerOLAP can also positively impact budgeting, analysis and reporting within your entire enterprise