Understanding Forecast Time Collection, Distribution, and Review

This diagram shows forecast accumulation over time for a resource. In this example, the frequency is semimonthly with four horizon periods in the forecast horizon.

When a forecast has four horizon periods in the forecast horizon, and the forecast frequency is semimonthly, then the total remaining effort is equal to the remaining effort plus the hours entered in the current forecast horizon.

Forecast updates may require the system to distribute hours across multiple days. Forecasting distributes the hours based on some basic configuration assumptions and default rules:

• When you enter forecast hours on the Forecast Time - Summary page, the application populates the forecast by period and daily detail forecast by spreading the horizon hours evenly over the standard workdays within the entire time horizon for the resource.

  Entering forecast hours into horizon periods on the Forecast Time - Forecast by Period page also results in the population of the daily detail forecast. In this case, however, the hours entered in each period distribute to the days within that period so that the distribution of hours can vary from one period to another.

• If an odd number of hours must be spread over a resource's standard work days in a week, the extra hour is placed in the resource's last work day of the date range.

  If dividing a number of forecast hours results in the allocation of less than one hour per day to one or more days in a series, the distribution process rounds up to one hour per day and does not distribute evenly over all days. For example, if there are 8.6 hours to spread over 10 days, the system distributes 1.0 hour to each of the first seven days, and 1.6 hours on the eighth day, leaving the ninth and tenth days empty.

  Note: All hours are stored and appear with two decimal places.

• When distributing project time for a resource's forecast, the application does not double-book the resource on company holidays that are already loaded onto the Personal Time grid.

  Instead, it distributes the hours that are allocated to that period evenly among the remaining days in the calendar week.

• To enter a specific number of hours on the Forecast Activity Distribution page, the algorithm enters the specified number of hours for each workday, skipping company holidays.

  For example, if personal time for company holidays is encountered for the first 3.25 days of a 10-day distribution of seven hours a day, the distribution is 0 hours for the first through fourth day, and seven hours per day for the fifth through tenth days. To double-book the company holiday time, update those specific days by using the Forecast Horizon by Day pages.

• The system automatically double-books all days where personal time (other than a company holiday) is on the Personal Time grid.

  The resource or other authorized individual can correct the forecast as required.

Forecasting distributes the hours to the individual activities based on the following assumptions:

• For distributing hours, the forecast time collection tool needs to determine how many hours per unit of time a resource is normally expected to work.

  Forecast time collection is based on the assumption that you populate the Standard Hours field (STD_HRS) and Standard Work Period field (STD_HRS_FREQUENCY) on the Job record. The system populates these fields automatically when you use PeopleSoft Human Capitol Management (HCM). If you do not use PeopleSoft HCM, in addition to entering the required fields on the Personal Data record (PERSONAL_DATA), General Employment Data record (EMPLOYMENT), and Job record, you must also load the Standard Hours field, the Standard Work Period field, and the Frequency Table record (FREQUENCY_TBL). That data is used to determine standard hours. Forecast time collection and utilization interactive reports require these fields and records to convert each resource's standard hours per unit of time to standard hours per week.

• If you are using PeopleSoft Resource Management, the distribution of hours takes into account the resource's standard work days that are defined in the resource profile.

• If you are not using PeopleSoft Resource Management, standard work days are derived from the standard work days that are associated with the resource's GL business unit, and standard hours are derived from the Job record.

• The Forecast Activity Distribution page displays the activities that are in the project charging level for which you are a team member.

  If activity team security is used, you can see only the activities to which you have security access. If activity team security is not used, all that are in the project charging level activities appear.

  See Project Definitions - Project Costing Definition Page.

A forecast status is either Pending or Submitted. A forecast is first created in Pending status. Any user with permission to add or update a forecast can protect the forecast in this status and continue to make modifications. A protected forecast is not automatically overwritten by the forecast prepopulation process.

When you submit a forecast, the status changes to Submitted. Only the project manager and administrator can approve forecasts and modify forecasts that are in a Submitted status. The supervisor and administrator can unsubmit a forecast and modify it until the next forecast collection period begins.

After the forecast is submitted, it can be reviewed by the resource, project manager, supervisor, or administrator. The project manager can analyze project information to anticipate projected costs and revenues. Supervisors can analyze utilization to anticipate supply and demand of resources versus new business and projects.