Managing forecasted payments

A forecast is a reserved amount for payment on a later date. You can forecast any amount to be allocated to a budget on an expected payment date in the future. The amount can be forecasted to support a specific organization or left unallocated. The amount and date can later be changed. 

Forecasts are often useful at the start of the year, especially when you have a list of organizations that you expect to fund later. This helps in setting aside funds from specific budgets. If an organization has a forecasted amount for a future date, the system will notify the user when payments are created for a submitted proposal. This notification includes information about existing forecasts, with the option to convert the forecast into a payment for the new proposal.

Creating a forecast

To create a forecast for a budget: 

1. Go to Budgets & Payments > Budgets.
2. Apply filters and select a budget you want to create a forecast for. This opens the budget in a new tab.
3. Select Create Forecast underneath the budget name. 
4. Enter the forecasted details: 
   • Forecasted for: choose a specific organization or Don't Allocate to a budget.
   • Details: Additional context for the forecast. 
   • Forecast amount: enter any amount between 0 and the budget available amount. This can be edited later.
   • Expected payment date: Approximate date used for the forecast. Enter any date between the current date and the budget end date. This can be edited later.
5. Select Create Forecast.  

Finding forecasts

Go to the Budgets & Payments module and select the Forecasts tab to filter and view all forecasted payments in your program. 

You can filter forecasts by: 

• Forecast ID: a unique identifier for the forecast. 
• Forecasted For: the organization the forecast is allocated to. 
• Details: a description of the forecast.
• Budget: associated budget for the forecast amount. 
• Status: Forecast status.
• Currency: currency of the forecasted amount.
• Forecasted amount: the amount of the forecasted payment. 
• Remaining Amount: the current remaining amount left in the forecast after deducting
  payments made towards the forecast.
• Expected Payment Date: the date payments should be created by.

To specify a filter, choose a filter condition by selecting the filter icon next to the editable field under the filter. When you begin to enter text or numbers into the editable field, results are automatically filtered. You can Refresh to view the latest forecast data. 

Select the Forecast ID to view forecast details. 

Viewing forecasts

You can access forecasts in three ways: 

• Browsing forecasts in the Budgets & Payments > Forecasts tab.
• Open a budget and select the Forecasts tab. Here you'll find all forecasts related to a budget. 
• Open an organization and select View Forecasts in the History. Here you'll find all amounts forecasted for the organization. 

Select the Forecast ID to view forecast details. 

You can Edit Forecast to make changes to forecast details. All fields are editable except Forecasted For if it is already allocated to an organization. If a forecast is in a Distributed status it cannot be edited.

There is also the option to Delete the forecast if there are no payments linked.

Creating a payment with forecasts

Once a forecast is created the next step is to create a payment that draws down from the forecast. When a payment is created, the forecast remaining amount is adjusted.  

To create a payment and draw down from a forecast: 

1. Open a proposal and add a payment. 
2. Select Create Distribution. 
3. Choose to draw Directly from budget or from an existing forecast and Select to confirm.

The Remaining amount displays the amount of the forecast that has not been allocated to a payment. This is the maximum amount that can be added to the distribution if you are drawing down from a forecast. Create an additional distribution if you want to send a larger payment.