Using Alternate Historical Data Sources

Specifying a Historical Data Source describes how to specify a source for the historical data used to predict future results. You select the source in the Plan Type box.

The default plan type is the plan associated with the current form, but administrators and others with appropriate security roles can define and use alternate plan types as historical data sources. For example, an administrator can create an ASO Plan Type for historical data, since this type supports efficient storage and access to large amounts of data (Alternate Plan Types and Dates).

Note:

Alternate plan types can contain data for dates that are earlier than those included in the default plan type (Alternate Plan Types and Dates).

If alternate plans types are available, you can select them for use in the Data Source panel. If you select an alternate plan type, the upper part of the Data Source panel includes additional controls:

  • Configure POV button—Opens the Member Selection dialog, where you can add members that are unmatched in the alternate plan type point of view (POV). See Alternate Plan Types and POV Configuration.

  • Warning icon—Clicking this icon, warning icon, or pressing the spacebar while it is selected displays a detailed message about POV issues to help identify unmatched members for configuration.

  • Consolidate with default plan type checkbox—When selected, this setting indicates that historical data is taken from the alternate plan type first and then from the default plan type.

    With consolidation, data overlaps or gaps are evaluated for each data series. In case of overlap, data from the two data sources are merged. Data from the alternate plan type overrides any data from the default plan type for the same date location. If there is a gap between the data sets, missing values are estimated and filled in when a prediction is run.

    When Consolidate with default plan type is not selected, historical data is read only from the alternate plan type.