Forecast Wizard – how does it work?

The Forecast Wizard (Create plan on the Plan vs Actual page) builds an annual financial plan – from past data or from a target annual profit. Refine it with AI analysis, scenarios and manual edits; once finalized, track it on Plan vs Actual.

Select the year. The label shows how many months of approved accountant reconciliation are available and how reliable the plan is therefore.

Company details (optional) – industry, headcount and a short description make the AI analysis more accurate.

Two planning modes

• Historical-based – the system builds the plan from past data: an average with little data (1–3 months), a trend with 4–6 months, and AI from 7 months. If you type anything into Instructions for AI, the plan is always made with AI. AI costs credits; if you don't have enough, a trend-based plan is made instead. Start with Generate forecast.
• Goal-based – enter your target annual profit and, optionally, planned monthly expenses and salary costs. The system back-calculates the revenue needed based on last year's expense structure and shows how realistic the target is (realistic, ambitious or very ambitious). Start with Plan from target.

Refining the plan

• Table – double-click a cell to edit it by hand.
• AI analysis & suggestions – the AI reviews the plan and offers clickable questions (💬) and corrections (🔧).
• Bottom bar – in 🔧 mode ask for a change in plain words (AI correction), in 💬 mode ask about your plan (Ask AI).
• Generate scenarios – pessimistic and optimistic versions next to the realistic one.
• What if...? – sliders adjust revenue and expenses by a percentage; Apply to plan takes it over.
• Refresh with actuals – replaces past months with the actual figures.
• If the AI suggests an account code that is not in your chart of accounts, you can create it with one click.

Checks

• The chart can show last year's actuals and compare the plan with an earlier version.
• Cash flow projection – expected monthly cash movement and cumulative balance; the Payment patterns switch accounts for typical payment delays. It warns if the balance would turn negative.
• Deviations from prior year actuals – flags months whose revenue or expenses differ a lot from last year.
• Break-even point – on which day of the year revenue covers the annual costs.

Finalizing

Finalize plan saves the plan; here you can choose a scenario separately for revenue and for expenses (for example optimistic revenue, pessimistic expenses). The finalized plan becomes the active plan on Plan vs Actual. Any of the Previous versions can be restored or deleted. You can export the draft to Excel, or throw it away with Discard.