Manage revenue forecasts [in-depth guide] – Workamajig

Guide contents: Viewing & editing a revenue forecast | Editing lines | Resources

The Revenue forecast screen allows you to edit some of the data and allows for different sorting/grouping of the data. Changes can be made & saved before sending the forecast to account managers for review, update & approval. The data in the revenue forecast can be grouped by 'type' (as seen here), 'client', 'account manager' or 'office'. Additionally, the financial data can be displayed by gross, net or profit dollars. Other options on this screen are the standard options in the grid to add, delete, approve print, collapse or expand groups. Use the Pencil icon to edit a specific line. If data has been changed for any line item, select that line then click Regenerate items and save the changes. The Notify account manager option will send selected lines to account managers identified on a transaction that their review & approval is required. Once the revenue forecast lines have been updated/approved, the Create budget button will allow you to create a financial budget.

NOTE: If using multi-currency, all projects in a foreign currency will be revalued to the home currency. There is an option to filter based on a foreign currency. At that time, the forecast will only display those foreign currency projects and the amounts will be displayed in that currency.

Viewing & editing a revenue forecast

Menu > Accounting > Today accounting > Views > Revenue forecasts

Forecasted amounts are placed into monthly buckets based on the selected date range. Any amounts that falls before or after this date range will be in the 'prior' and 'next 12 months' columns.

NOTE: The revenue forecast will include non-billable projects. It will only include costs, however, no revenue (gross). The costs would still need to be a component in the forecast since the costs would still apply.

Total column = prior column + all month columns. Prior column = any money outside the time frame of the report data.

To edit the details of the forecast, click the .

Name: Update the forecast name

Spread expenses: Change how the expenses are spread. NOTE: Once 'exclude expenses' is selected, the expense amounts are removed from the forecast and cannot be added back.

Group by: Allows the forecast to group by 'type', 'account manager', 'office', or 'client'.

The forecast amounts can be viewed based on gross, net, and profit.

Gross is the billable gross amount in the current total budget. Gross expenses are determined based on the include/exclude option selected.
Net is the 'net costs' is the current total budget. The 'net labor' is based only on the hourly cost listed in the services, not on the employee’s hourly cost. The 'net expense' is the net cost within the expense line of the budget and will be based on the include/exclude option selected.
Profit is the gross amount - net amount

Net labor costs are derived from the estimate and the Hourly cost field within the services. This is generally a blended cost.

Editing lines

The line details can be edited by selecting that line and clicking Notify, Mark as sent, or Mark as reviewed. In addition, the selected line can be deleted from the forecast.

Notify: Account managers

This will send out an email to all account managers associated with the project or campaign included in the forecast. They will be allowed to review/update the included line items (i.e. budgets).

Security rights will restrict users to only edit lines that are assigned to them as the account manager of the project.

In reviewing their projects within the forecast, if the account manager updates the budget information, the forecast will need to be updated. At this time, the forecast will display "YES" in the Regenerate? field. When the account manager has completed their review, they will select the lines and click Mark as reviewed.

The finance manager will review the forecast to determine if the forecast needs to be updated by reviewing the Regenerate column. If the Regenerate = Yes in any of the projects, then the finance manager will need to update the forecast to reflect the changes made by the AM in the budget. Click on More > Update forecast.

Mark as sent

If the selected lines in the forecast are sent to the AM for review, the forecast will display the Status = Sent. Otherwise, the status = Not sent. The finance manager can also manually update the status = Sent by selecting the line and clicking Mark as sent.

Mark as reviewed

When the AM reviews the forecast that was sent to them, the system will mark the line as Reviewed = Yes. Otherwise, the field is set to No. The finance manager can also manually select the line and Mark as reviewed, the Reviewed column will update to Yes.

Delete

Select the line; then select Delete to remove the opportunity, project, campaign, invoice, or retainer from the forecast. If the line is deleted in error, the line can be re-added through Find new items.

You can also edit the existing lines by clicking on the edit icon for that line. Then, depending on what type of item (opportunity, project, campaign, invoice, retainer) it is, you will then be shown one of the following screens. Here, you can modify the amounts to fall more in line with expectations.

Opportunity / project/ campaign edit

If you click on the opportunity / project / campaign / invoice number or retainer, the opportunity, project, campaign, invoice or retainer will open. If you click on the Pencil edit, then the corresponding detail panels will display.

NOTE: Changes to the opportunity owner are for this forecast only. If a permanent change is required, it must be made on the opportunity itself.

NOTE: If you click on the estimate number, the project estimate will open.

NOTE: If you click on the estimate number, the campaign estimate will open.

Invoice edit

NOTE: The edit invoice allows you to view the details of the invoice but does not allow any edits.

Retainer edit

NOTE: The edit retainer allows you to edit the details of the retainer.

More options

Update forecast

This button will pull any changed budget data for the line items. However, if you want to pull all current data (that is not listed in the current forecast worksheet), it may be best to create a brand new forecast worksheet to pull all data.

Net labor costs are derived from the estimate and the hourly cost field within the services. This is generally a blended cost. When a forecast is opened, the system will review each line for any changes made to the project estimate or retainer/opportunity forecast detail. If a change is found, the regenerate will set that line to YES and an update forecast is needed. Once the update forecast is complete, this column will be reset to NO.

Create budget

This allows you to create a financial budget based on the information contained in the forecast. If the forecast contains any opportunity data, the GL tracking options: Revenue forecast tracking must be set up in your System setup. This will designate the sales & expense accounts for the opportunity amounts within the financial budget.

Add adjustment

This allows you to add additional amounts based on items/services to the existing forecast and will be added according to the options, timeframe, and probability percentage selected.

When the forecast is grouped by 'type', the new adjustment amounts will display under the type = Misc. items.

Find new items

This option will search for any new opportunities, projects, campaigns, retainers, or invoices not previously included based on the search criteria.

Detail grid settings

This allows you to edit some of the columns displayed within the forecast and the order of those columns.

Viewing multi-currency in a revenue forecast

If multi-currency is enabled, then the revenue forecast can be viewed in the home currency or the currency of the project/transaction.

When the currency filter = all, then all amounts are defaulted to be displayed in the home currency.

NOTE: Any foreign currency amounts are revalued based on the date of the forecast and the currency rate for that date. To view the currency rate, click on any monthly forecasted amount.

When the currency is set to any currency other than 'all', the revenue forecast will only display those opportunities/projects/campaigns/invoices and retainers for that currency. The amounts displayed will be in that foreign currency.