Forecast Prepopulation

Forecast Prepopulation Data Sources

The Services Forecasting feature prepopulates a resource forecast from these data sources, if available:

The prior forecast.
Resource schedules in PeopleSoft Resource Management.
Other third-party project management tools.

You can prepopulate forecasts from the prior forecast or resource schedules in PeopleSoft Resource Management using the Populate Time Application Engine process (FC_HRS_LOAD) at the beginning of each iteration for all, one, or selected GL business units for which forecast time is collected. If you select both options, the system loads data from the previous forecast horizon into the current forecast iteration for all horizon periods except for the last one, and it loads project and personal time hours in the last horizon period for resources that are managed by PeopleSoft Resource Management.

If a resource has assignments in the PeopleSoft Resource Management resource schedule that fall within the current forecast horizon, or, if the resource has a forecast in the prior forecast horizon, the batch process creates a forecast for the resource for use in the current iteration of forecast time collection. For resources who either do not submit a forecast or whose last submission did not contain projects, the batch process does not create a forecast.

If you run the Populate Time process at the beginning of the forecast iteration and the forecasts become out of date, you can rerun the batch process to update and override the forecasts later in the forecast time collection iteration for forecasts that are not protected or submitted.

Important:

The project end date that is specified in PeopleSoft Program Management does not control the completion date of the project in the Services Forecasting feature. If a resource's project hours load to the forecast beyond the project end date that is specified in PeopleSoft Program Management, the completion date in the forecast is set equal to the last date on which hours load.

Forecast Prepopulation Without PeopleSoft Resource Management

If PeopleSoft Resource Management is not installed, the Populate Time process uses the prior period forecast (if one is available for the resource) to prepopulate the current forecast. A resource's forecast is not prepopulated if no prior period forecast exists for the resource.

The Forecast Time process adheres to these business rules when prepopulating a forecast for resources who are not established as active resources in PeopleSoft Resource Management:

If a resource's Employee Status field (EMPL_STATUS) on the Job record (JOB) is active on the date that the forecast time collection iteration begins, the resource is eligible for prepopulation.

If a resource's Employee Status field on the Job record changes to a status other than Active during the forecast horizon, the Populate Time process does not load data for days beyond the date of the status change.
The Populate Time process loads prior forecast horizon data only from the current forecast horizon begin date forward.
Depending on the project-level configuration setting, the forecast is prepopulated at the appropriate project or activity level of detail.

Prior forecast collection data is copied into the current forecast collection down to the daily detail, and hours are distributed at either the project or activity level. It is possible to open the forecast and make no changes at all before submitting it.
If a resource did not have forecast hours for a project in the most recent prior forecast horizon for a project, the project is not prepopulated in the resource's next forecast.
When populating the last period of the forecast horizon for which there is no detail available, the prepopulation process uses the number of remaining forecast hours from the prior forecast iteration minus the total number of hours in the prior forecast horizon's last horizon period.
- Scenario A: If the remaining value is greater than zero, that value becomes the remaining forecast hours for the current forecast iteration, and the number of hours that are subtracted from the prior forecast's remaining forecast hours populates the last horizon period of the current forecast.
- Scenario B: If the remaining value equals zero, the number of remaining forecast hours for the current forecast is set to zero, and the number of hours that are subtracted from the prior forecast's remaining forecast hours populates the last horizon period of the current forecast.
- Scenario C: If the remaining value is less than zero, the number of remaining forecast hours for the current period is set to zero and all of the remaining forecast hours that are left from the prior period are distributed over the last horizon period in the current forecast horizon.
If a resource's most recent prior forecast contains project or personal hours that overlap the current forecast horizon, the overlapping hours from the prior forecast carry forward into the current horizon.

Forecast Prepopulation With PeopleSoft Resource Management

If a forecast for the most recent prior horizon exists for a resource in any status, the Populate Time process loads the current forecast with a combination of data from the prior forecast and the resource schedule in PeopleSoft Resource Management. The prior forecast data loads into the horizon periods that overlap from the last forecast horizon, and the PeopleSoft Resource Management schedule data loads into the newest horizon period.

If a forecast for the most recent prior horizon does not exist for a resource, the entire resource schedule is loaded from PeopleSoft Resource Management for scheduled entries with an end date that is greater than or equal to the forecast beginning date. Historical days of an assignment that occur before the forecast beginning date do not load to the forecast.

If an assignment appeared on a resource schedule during the prior forecast horizon, and the assignment is no longer on the resource schedule in the current forecast horizon, the project that corresponds to the assignment does not automatically load to the current forecast.

The Populate Time process adheres to these additional business rules for PeopleSoft Resource Management resources:

If a resource is identified in PeopleSoft Resource Management as eligible for staffing (that is, an active, eligible resource in PeopleSoft Resource Management) at any time between the current forecast horizon begin and end dates, the resource's forecast is prepopulated with a combination of data from the resource's schedule in PeopleSoft Resource Management and the prior forecast.

If the resource's Employee Status field value on the Job record changes to a status other than Active during the forecast horizon, the Populate Time process does not load data for days beyond the date of that status change.
The process loads prior forecast data such as the project (assignment) time and personal time starting with the current forecast horizon begin date.
Prior forecast daily detail data is copied into the current forecast and, based on the project-level configuration setting, hours are distributed to either the project or activity level.

If the data from the prior forecast is still accurate, you might not have to adjust the data that was loaded from the prior forecast before submitting the current forecast.
The hours for any assignment in the last horizon period that has a project associated with it and exists on the resource's schedule in PeopleSoft Resource Management load into the forecast for the last horizon period.
The hours that are loaded to the forecast each day are based on the hours that appear for the assignment on the PeopleSoft Resource Management resource schedule.

Projects that forecast hours at the project level have their time loaded and distributed in the last forecast horizon period. However, for projects in which forecasting is at the activity level, the forecasted project hours from PeopleSoft Resource Management are evenly divided across the activities that are used for forecasting in the prior forecast time collection iteration.
If a project in a resource's forecast requires activity-level forecasting, the prior forecast data loads to the current forecast at the activity level.

However, data from the PeopleSoft Resource Management resource schedule loads at the project level, which requires the resource to adjust the prepopulated data across the appropriate activities in the forecast iteration.
The forecast prepopulates the Project Time grid on the Forecast Time - Summary page with assignments.

Any tasks on a resource schedule that are in a nonassignment (appointment) task category load to the appropriate TRC row of the Personal Time grid on the Forecast Time - Summary page. TRC hours load into the grid based on the mapping of PeopleSoft Resource Management task categories to TRCs. Each PeopleSoft Resource Management task category can map to zero or one TRC per SetID. Resource schedule tasks that are in a task category that is not mapped to a TRC are not prepopulated in the forecast.
If new assignments are associated with a project that does not already appear in the resource's forecast, the project is automatically added to the forecast for the resource.
If a PeopleSoft Resource Management assignment has an end date prior to the begin date of the current forecast iteration, the Populate Time process removes the project from the current forecast and does not populate any remaining hours to that project in the current forecast iteration, even if hours remain in the prior forecast.
Pending assignment extensions in PeopleSoft Resource Management are loaded by the prepopulation process regardless of whether the extension has been approved.
When a new PeopleSoft Resource Management assignment prepopulates a forecast, the remaining hours are calculated from the hours that are booked on the resource schedule in PeopleSoft Resource Management.

A resource can modify the calculated remaining hours on the forecast. In the next forecast iteration, however, the Populate Time process does not refresh the remaining hours again from booked hours in PeopleSoft Resource Management. Instead, the remaining hours are carried forward from the prior forecast. Although the PeopleSoft Resource Management schedule ideally reflects the same information that appears in the forecast, the hours that a resource actually works (or has left to work) may differ. The Populate Time process establishes that the resource is adjusting the estimate of remaining hours in the forecast, and it determines that the forecast is more accurate than the resource's schedule in PeopleSoft Resource Management. Therefore, the prior forecast's remaining hours are used instead of the hours in the PeopleSoft Resource Management resource schedule.
The Populate Time process removes the project from the current forecast for resources who are managed in PeopleSoft Resource Management (with a current row in the Worker Effective Date record (RS_WRKR_EFFDT) and a value of No in the Ineligible Worker field (WRKR_INELIGIBLE)) and who no longer have assignments in the prior forecast that appeared on their resource schedule.

If the resource had hours that were booked to the project in the prior forecast horizon but the assignment does not appear in the forecast horizon because it is cancelled or completed, the project is removed from the forecast.

Loading Company Holidays

The system uses this logic to load company holidays into a new forecast:

Company holidays from the prior forecast are copied forward into the new forecast for the overlapping horizon periods.
The new horizon period that is covered by a forecast obtains company holidays from either the Human Resources (HR) Holiday Date record (HOLIDAY_DATE) or the PeopleSoft Financials Business Calendar record (BUS_CAL_HOLIDAY) that is associated with the resource's GL business unit.

The Populate Time process checks the resource's holiday schedule (HOLIDAY_SCHEDULE) in the Job record, finds the holidays that corresponds to the holiday schedule in the Holiday Date record, and loads company holiday hours to the horizon period. If no holidays for a holiday schedule are found in the Holiday Date record on or after the current date (indicating that the organization did not load company holidays into this HR record), the company holidays are loaded from the PeopleSoft Financials Business Calendar record that is associated with the resource's GL business unit.

Project hours that are allocated with a period that includes a company holiday are distributed to the period evenly on the days that are not company holidays. For example, if a resource normally works a five-day work week and there are 40 project hours to allocate in a week that has only four work days (due to a company holiday), the 40 hours are distributed as four 10-hour days.

Unlike a project, a resource schedule has no specific start and end dates. For this reason, personal time loads only to horizon periods that are included in the current forecast. Personal time does not load to the Remaining Effort field.