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Forecasting Product Consumption

For most products, the quantity to be used at an event is usually the quantity of the product line item. If a quantity is entered for a line item, then the line item value is used to calculate revenue. However, for some products, the quantity to be used at an event, which is used to forecast revenue, is calculated from the number of attendees.

For more information about how product consumption forecasting can be applied, see Example of Product Consumption Forecasting.

This task is a step in Roadmap for Setting Up Products and Assets.

To forecast product consumption

1. Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, then the Products view.
2. In the Products list, create a new product record.
3. In the new record, complete the fields, as required.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Forecast Qty	Select to enable product consumption forecasting. Clear to use the line item quantity to forecast the revenue for the item, instead of product consumption forecasting.
   UoM	The unit of measure by which the product is sold.
   Consumption UoM	The unit of measure for actual consumption by the attendees. For example, coffee might be sold by the gallon for a function, but the attendees might consume coffee by the cup.
   UoM Conversion Factor	The ratio of Consumption UoM to Product UoM. For example, if there were 20 cups of coffee in 1 gallon of coffee, then the ratio is 20 to 1, and the conversion factor is 20.
   Consumption Factor	The expected per-person consumption of the product. For example, if each attendee is expected to consume two cups of coffee, then the Consumption Factor is 2.
   % Participation	The percentage of attendees who are expected to consume the product, expressed as a fraction of 1. For example, if 80 percent of attendees are expected to consume the product, then enter 0.8 to this field. NOTE:  In some cases, the percentage participation might be different from property to property. For example, in colder states, people might drink hot coffee than in warmer states. In this case, it is necessary to create different products with different values in this field.

4. Click Release to make the product take effect.

Example of Product Consumption Forecasting

This topic gives one example of product consumption forecasting. You might use this feature differently, depending on your business model.

A customer requests coffee for an upcoming event at which 100 attendees are expected. You know from experience that approximately four out of five attendees drink an average of two cups of coffee at such an event. The price of coffee is 10.00 per gallon. From this information, the consumption quantity of the product can be forecast for this event. The amount of revenue expected from this product can also be estimated for this event.

Create a product representing the coffee in Siebel Hospitality, as shown in the procedure that follows.

To forecast product consumption for an event

1. Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, then the Products view.
2. In the Products list, create a new product record.
3. In the new record, complete the fields with the values shown in the following table.

   Field	Value	Comments
   Forecast Qty	Selected	Product consumption forecasting is enabled.
   UoM	Gallon	None
   Consumption UoM	Cup	None
   UoM Conversion Factor	20	Each coffee-sized cup holds approximately 6 ounces.
   Consumption Factor	2	Attendees who consume coffee are expected to consume two cups each, on average.
   % Participation	0.8	80 percent of attendees are expected to drink coffee.

   The forecasting calculations and results for the event are shown in the following table.

   Forecast	Calculation	Result
   Number of attendees consuming the product	100 multiplied by 0.8	80
   Number of cups consumed	80 multiplied by 2	160
   Number of gallons consumed	160 divided by 20	8
   Revenue	8 multiplied by 10.00	80.00