Automatic forecasting uses existing spend on the program line to extrapolate to the rest of the program line period. This means that when new transactions come through, the phase spend values and the total spend will update to reflect the spending in the previous locked periods, while still being subject to the seasonality configured for the trading partner via the default phasing values.
Once automatic forecasting is selected, you can use the drop-down menu in the program line summary to specify how many phasing periods in the past the forecast should be generated from. Note: Once activated, automatic forecasting prevents the editing of the phase spends and total spend.
If the number set is greater than the number of locked periods, automatic forecasting will not start until that many phasing periods have been locked. For example, if 6 months are selected on a year-long program line, automatic forecasting will only activate halfway through the program line’s lifespan.
For this reason, it’s recommended to use an alternative forecasting method until automatic forecasting has enough data to use for its extrapolation. For example, if doubling the first period is not indicative of the full year, using a delay to automatic forecasting ensures that forecasting is based on more data.