Added "Forecast Profit & Loss Statement"

The latest version (22.1.20) allows to create forecast profit & loss statements.

Under Settings tab, there is new section called Forecasts.

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Here, you can configure your predicted income and expenses. For example, we can set up forecast for sales and cost of goods sales that will repeat monthly and increase by 5% each repetition.

Then under Reports, you will find new report.

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It’s like Profit & Loss Statement except the source of data are forecasts rather than general ledger transactions.

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Great Addition @lubos
Only a single request
Try to add a option for automatic forecasts from the historical data.
Like we have enter amount manually but it may be possible to get this amt automatically from last 12/24/36 months data and growth rate from trend in last 12/24/36 months.

I agree with @Omnipotent.inc and possibly the most useful would be the ability to copy a historical monthly Receipts & Payments Summary to a forecast to create a commonly required Forecast Cash Flow Statement. They are often required when a business submits an application for a loan with a financial institution. Even though the historical report can be copied to clipboard it would be easier if it could be done within Manager.

Great addition and good start.

What is important to add to this is actuals lines in addition to the forecasts, so one can compare the forecast with the actuals. So in example above assume February and March are completed then the actual results for February and March should appear below the forecast figures.

A popular business proposal application has this built in to their financial forecast component and can be linked to some of the Manager competitors. However, Manager would do well if it builds this actuals vs forecasts in.

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This looks very usefull. Now i am a very new user of Manager.io and like it a lot, i wonder how you got the report grouped by month? if i run that report then i only get totals. I am sure i am overlooking something.

Excellent @lubos, thank you for this wonderful add
I have a very simple modification, please
Is it possible to add an option to round the numbers because they appear as in the attached picture

I try to replicate your issue but have not found one except when increasing the number of digits in base currency settings.

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Screenshot_2

The Growth was made on a daily basis as is attached and got the result in the my former post
and the number of digits in base currency settings is just 2 digits

I expect it will also be useful to add the choice of Groups to collapse as well as the option of rounding

Screenshot_3

Please share the screenshot of the amount you put in the forecast (the info below the 1% growth).

But why do you oppose the addition of the option of rounding, although there is a normal state that has always been found in many reports

I thank @eko on your enthusiastic follow

You see @164Morhf the problem is caused by yourself by having all these digits in your forecast settings and then complaining it does not round. If you just entered rounded figures in your forecast it would only display the digits in the base currency settings.

You asked to help solve a problem that does not really exist, except by your own doing.

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Whatever what you say will remain the option of rounding is necessary
Once you enter any decimal value in the Forecasts setting, you will see decimal values ​​in the Forecasts report

I have been using forecast applications for many years.The principle of your base entries are that you enter the forecast data rounded to the decimals of your base currency. You enter these initial forecast numbers manually yourself similar as you do in Manager. I do not see any value in your request to have Manager round for you something that you entered yourself. It is a waste of the programmer’s time to do this.

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My intention was that every figure should be rounded to base currency for reporting purposes. Even if original amounts are not rounded.

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It does work properly if in forecast settings the amounts would not have more digits than the base currency. Forecasts are never highly accurate, ie they do not usually even need decimals because they are aspirational targets not results. As in my earlier post one would benefit from seeing the actuals against the forecasts over time. In such case the forecast should display the same amount of digits as the actuals for easy comparison.

Never mind, found it… Add comparative column in the report.

Hi all

I think new forecast option is great, good work.

Question2:

  • any plan to intregate PL data and Forecast data in one report? eg two columns per defined period, Col1 Result or actual and Col2 Forecast

  • any idea to have a auto fill option based on previous period? eg fill monthy forcaste figure on last year divided by 12

I think this would be job for Budget Profit & Loss Statement. You could copy figures from forecast into a budget and then the budget could be compared to actuals. The idea here is that your forecast is fluid. Something you can keep adding to and keep improving. When happy, you can copy forecast for the period into a budget. This budget will be fixed regardless what happens to your forecast figures. And budget can be compared to actuals.

I’d like forecast to be something someone has to think about and build up rather than blindly copying. But you should be able to copy actual figures from profit & loss statement to Budget Profit & Loss Statement. So your Budget Profit & Loss Statement figures could be either copied from actual figures or forecast figures. If you copy from actual figures, you might not need forecasts at all.

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@lubos Great concept introducing Forecasts, however all accountants would agree, you always compare Budgets and/or Forecasts against Actual in reporting, otherwise what is the point of creating a Forecast if you cannot compare it with a Budget or Actual results for a month or YTD, it is just numbers in isolation.

Thanks

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