POS interface

Throughout the forecasting process, there are references to historical results or historical volumes. These numbers come from a point-of-sale (POS) system or data warehouse system where the sales actuals are available. These actual sales, transactions, units, traffic, etc. are imported into the system by the POS interface. The POS interface is generally performed by the job scheduler using an Import Task and an Interface Task. Both tasks use the SO RESULTS DETAIL TABLE IMPORT type.

The POS interface must be run to populate historical actuals data before a forecast can be generated. Depending on the method used for forecasting a particular driver, a different range of historical data is required. Usually 13 months of historical data is required for trend of historic averages, and 36–60 months of data is recommended for the machine learning model. The POS interface should also be scheduled to run daily, or on some other recurring basis, to populate new actuals data captured by the POS system.

See the "Interfaces" chapter in the Time and Attendance Implementation and Administration Guide for general instructions on how to set up interfaces.