Creating a Forecast

Open the Forecast Creation Utility.

Select whether you want to create a material or labor forecast.

Select whether you want to create a forecast for service orders or sales orders.

Select the Calculation Basis to use to determine how the forecast is generated:

Last Year Usage: This option accumulates service order transactions from the same period last year and applies the adjustment percentage.
Last Year Forecast: This option looks for any forecast records from the same period last year and applies the adjustment percentage.
3 Month Average: This option accumulates service order transactions from the last three months and divides the total by the number of recurrence periods in that time frame, to get an average. The adjustment percentage is then applied.
6 Month Average: This option accumulates service order transactions from the last six months and divides the total by the number of recurrence periods in that time frame, to get an average. The adjustment percentage is then applied.
Sales Forecast: This option accumulates CRM opportunity lines for the forecast period and applies the adjustment percentage.
Service Plan: This option accumulates planned service order transactions for the forecast period and applies the adjustment percentage.

In the Adjustment Percentage field, specify the percentage of the calculated basis that should be used in the new forecast.

In the Recurrence field, select the interval to use to create forecast records:

Optionally, use these check boxes as described:

Forecast by Customer: Select this check box to use the customer from past service orders to create one forecast record for the period for each customer.
Forecast by Warehouse or Department: Select this check box to group forecast information based on the warehouse or department associated with the service order or sales order.
Create Zero Forecast Records: Select this check box to create forecast records even if the historical basis evaluates to zero. The historical basis is the value that is calculated based on the selected algorithm.
Overwrite Existing Forecast: Select this check box to overwrite a forecast record that already exists for the selected item/date or work code/date combination.

For these fields, select the range of values to include in the forecast creation:

Click Process.