How Easily Does Your Forecast Roll – Quick Time-Saving Tips

I recently worked on a POC for a customer who created monthly forecasts.  It took them a week and a half to roll over their Microsoft Excel files from the previous month using an active Excel file that had more than 70 tabs.

HOW EASILY DOES YOUR FORECAST ROLL

Anaplan Solution
I wanted to challenge myself to see how long it would take me to replicate over 70 tabs of complexity, so I rebuilt this model in Anaplan.  After putting it all together, I used the “Bulk Copy” feature in Anaplan.  It’s genius!!

All I had to do to create the next month’s forecast was insert the next forecast into the forecast list, change the forecast switchover date to the following month, select the “Bulk Copy” button, run the process to import actuals for the prior month and Voila!  All of the assumptions from the prior forecast copy over to the new forecast, the actuals are updated and all the analyst needs to do is update any changes to the assumptions from the prior month.

Creating the new forecast can be completed in a matter of minutes depending on how many updates you have to your assumptions. The team now has the time they desire to do more meaningful analysis each month.

Estimated monthly time savings = 64-72 hours a month!

Quick Time-Saving Tips is updated every Monday on the Anaplan Blog. Interested in having Jill @jilleking review a tedious task or want to submit your own Time-Saving Tip? Tweet us at @anaplan and let us know!