Forecasting program line earnings

The Forecasting app allows you to view forecasted rebate earnings based on expected spend and seasonality. Forecasts are calculated at program line level, providing you with granularity on how each program line is forecasted to perform across its term.

This article will guide you through:

1. Accessing forecasting
2. Forecasting a program line
3. Program line summary
4. Total spend
5. Phase spending
6. Expected spend graphs

Looking for something else?

• Not yet familiar with the different types of forecasting calculations? Learn how to use the different forecasting methods here.
• Alternatively, see our Help Center for more on Trading Programs.

Accessing forecasting

To access forecasting for a program line:

Alternatively, if you are already in a program line’s view or edit page, click on the Forecasting tab to access the same page.

Note: If the Forecasting tab is not available, a channel admin user at your organization will need to provide you with the correct user permissions.

Forecasting a program line

At the top of the Forecasting tab, the program line’s forecasting method is displayed. This determines how the forecast is calculated for this specific program line.

Program line summary

The program line summary displays high level details and earnings for the entire program line. The details displayed are:

• Phasing periods: The periods over which forecasting will calculate, and can be set to either monthly or quarterly. These values can be manually edited if either preserve total or preserve phase spending is used.
• Total spend: The forecasted actual transaction value, i.e. the expected value of all transactions which apply to the program line at the end of the program line’s period. This can be manually edited if preserve total is used.
• Latest transaction date: The date of the transaction which applies to the program line’s qualifying transactions and has the latest date.
• Actual transactions: The current total value of transactions which apply to this program line. This includes transactions across all phasing periods. Note: If a discount is applied to the program line, then the effective transacted value is used.
• Actual earnings: The amount which has been earned through rebate on this program line from the transaction value above.
• Forecast earnings: The expected amount to be earned at the end of the program line’s period.

Alternatively, click on one of the following buttons at the bottom of the program line summary:

• View rate/View band: Displays either the rate at which rebate is being earned on the actual transactions, or the target bands on the program line. The Actual, Accrual and Forecasted target bands reached are denoted by the letters A, C and F respectively next to the band reached. The nature of this button depends on the program line’s mechanism.

• Link forecast: Allows you to link this program line to others in the current trading program, which causes this program line to become the master. The value for a specific phasing period in the master program line will then equal the sum of all the phasing period values on the linked program lines for the same period. Any changes made to the phase spend values on the linked program lines will then update the phase spend values on the master program line.

Total spend

The total spend of a program line is the forecasted total value of all transactions once the program line’s end date has passed. The forecast earnings value is calculated from this value using the program line’s mechanism. For example, a Fixed % Rate of 3% would give a forecasted earnings value of 3% of the total spend.

When a program line is created, the total spend will automatically populate with the expected total spend value based off the baseline transactions in the time period before the program line starts. This can however be manually changed if the forecast is set to preserve total.

Note: Changing the total while preserve phase spending is selected will not update the total spend as the phase spending values cannot change to accommodate the change in total spend. Changing the value of the phasing period under preserve phase spending will also change the total to reflect each phasing period.

If automatic forecasting is enabled, the total spend will change when new transactions come through to the program line, as automatic forecasting works by extrapolating existing transactions.

Phase spending

The phase spending is the forecasted or real transaction value for each phasing period within the program line. Note: Phasing periods are most commonly set by month, however this may be different depending on your forecasting requirements.

The numbers in each period are either displayed as green or black:

• Green: The phasing period has passed and been completed, and displays the actual transaction value for this period. Depending on the period locking basis, the period locks when either the period ends or when transactions dated for the following period have been uploaded. As the phasing period is locked, it can no longer be edited.
• Black: The phase spend for this period is still a forecasted value and is subject to change. Note: Depending on the period locking basis, the previous phasing period may still be forecasted if transactions surpassing the previous phasing period have not yet been imported into your Enable channel.

The sum of all of the phase spend values across the entire program line will always equal the total spend.

The phase spend will change based on the trading partner’s seasonality, imported as phasing values by a channel admin user. This means that some phasing periods will have a slightly lower or higher forecast, depending on the value of transactions expected in that period compared to others.

Expected spend graphs

The graphs on the right side of a program line’s Forecasting tab display forecasts over the program line’s lifetime. These graphs are:

• Expected spend: Displays the phase spending per phasing period.
• Cumulative expected spend: Displays the sum of the current and all previous expected spend value. Therefore, the last value on this graph will be the total spend.
• Expected spend in units: Displays the number of units expected to be transacted per phasing period.
• Cumulative expected spend in units: Displays the sum of the current and all previous number of forecasted transacted units.

Note: The types of graphs displayed will depend on the mechanism selected in the program line. For example, program lines using a Fixed Unit Rate mechanism will not display expected and cumulative expected spend graphs. Graphs are also not displayed for those using a Fixed Amount mechanism, since the forecast in this case is always set to the fixed amount value.

Tip: Other mechanisms, such as Target % Rate with Targets in Units, will display a toggle button in the top-left corner of the forecast graphs. Use this toggle to change the graphs displayed between units and spend. If Separate Targets and Earnings is being used, another toggle (displayed to the right of recalculate button) will change the graphs displayed between target and earning units and transactions.

Each graph displays 4 different values for each phasing period:

• Initial forecast (green): The forecast generated from the baseline transactions of the program line, spread according to the trading partner’s default phasing i.e. seasonality.
• Previous forecast (light gray): The forecast calculated immediately before the end of the last phasing period.
• Actual spend (dark gray): This is not a forecast, but a log of the actual transaction value per phasing period.
• Current forecast (yellow): The current forecast being used. This represents the values of the phasing period, and will initially be the initial forecast until the phase spending or seasonality is edited, or, if using automatic forecasting, until new transactions come in.

Tip: Hover over a bar or line on the graph to display its numerical value.

Tip: To remove a bar or line from the graph, click on the name of the value below the graph, e.g. click on Initial forecast to remove the initial forecast bar/line. Use this to amend and focus the view of your forecasting data to easily analyze between specific types.

What’s next?

Ready to review forecast earnings per trading partner or by other aggregations? Learn how to utilize the forecast earnings report here.