Projects Planning and Forecast Preparation

You can configure the time frame and granularity for plans for each module. You can have a different time frame and granularity for each module and for each year.

To configure the time frame and granularity for plans:

1. In Current Fiscal Year, select the current fiscal year.
2. From Period, select the current actual month. For 13-period applications, select the current period. You need to update this value on a monthly basis.
3. From Plan Start Year, indicate if planners will plan in the current or next fiscal year.
4. Click Plan, and then the Years column to select the number of years to configure. For example, to configure the first five years of a ten year application, select 5 Years.
5. Select the planning basis for each year that you are configuring. If plans will be prepared at the same frequency each year, click All, and then select the frequency (for example, Monthly). If plans will be prepared at different frequencies in certain years, select the frequency in each year’s row. For example, to plan monthly in FY20 but quarterly in FY21, select Monthly in the row for FY20 and Quarterly in the row for FY21. For 13-period applications, you select 13 Periods instead of Monthly.
6. Click Forecast and repeat these steps to specify the forecasting basis.

   When you select Quarterly as the planning basis for Forecast for the first year, the provided valid intersections are set up so that forecast data entry is allowed only in the appropriate periods; quarterly forecast periods prior to the current month can't be updated. The substitution variable OEP_CurQtr is provided whenever you enable Quarterly planning.

   When you select Quarterly as the planning basis for Forecast for the first year, you can choose how Projects determines the current quarter, in cases where the current month is the last month of the quarter.

   When the current month is the last month of the quarter, select an option in Planning and Forecast Preparation for how Projects should define the current quarter:

   • If you select Lock Current Period For Forecast, Projects uses the next quarter. For example, if the current month is March, when you select this option, Projects defines the Current Quarter as Q2.
   • If you clear Lock Current Period For Forecast, Projects uses the current quarter. For example, if the current month is March, when you clear (deselect) this option, Projects defines the Current Quarter as Q1.

   Note:

   • Lock Current Period For Forecast is available only when Quarterly is selected as the planning basis for Forecast for the first year.
   • You can select the option for Lock Current Period For Forecast for each module.

7. For Projects, if you enabled Rolling Forecast, click Rolling Forecast to select the basis for continuous planning. Select the planning frequency (monthly or quarterly), the number of periods, and the number of actual periods.

   The number of actual periods defines how many time periods of actual data to show in forms and dashboards in conjunction with the rolling forecast time periods.

   The Rolling Forecast Range is updated based on your selections.

   When you configure rolling forecast, forms and dashboards are set up based on the planning frequency and number of periods. When you change the current planning period, the rolling forecast forms and dashboards are updated—time periods are added or dropped and actuals time periods are updated to reflect the new rolling forecast range.

   You can plan using a combination of standard forecasting and rolling forecasting.

This configuration task sets all required substitution variables.

Tip:

If you want to create or edit rules to customize your planning and forecasting tasks, you can use Planning Formula Expressions in your rules to call the configured time horizon information such as [[PlanningFunctions.getModuleStartPeriod("ModuleName","ScenarioName")]] and [[PlanningFunctions.isPlanStartYearSameAsCurrentFiscalYear("ModuleName")]].

Module names are not case sensitive and must be enclosed in double quotation marks:

• Capital

• Financials

• Projects

• Workforce

See Scenarios in Designing with Calculation Manager for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.