How to: Add historic data to an existing Castaway forecast

We've all been there. You've done the work and prepared a solid forecast. It includes Actuals data back to the start of the current financial year, or maybe a year or two prior. You present the reports to someone (say a boss, a bank or a business partner). And then that someone asks you to extend the model backwards to add more Actuals data for earlier years.

Although it's easy to extend a forecast by adding later years, there's no magic button to add earlier years. However, the good news is ... there is a way. 

Process Overview

In simple terms, the process is:

1. extract existing data from Castaway
2. move the start date backwards and make the forecast longer
3. reimport the forecast data
4. import the actuals data for the longer actuals period, or manually enter where needed

The precise steps depend on whether you import Actuals data from an Integrations source (Sage, Xero, MYOB or Excel) or you manually enter Actuals. There are separate instruction steps below for both options.

Something else to think about ... Original Budgets. To keep the steps below as simple as possible, we've assumed you don't want to retain your Original Budget for the current financial year. We do know these are critical to many users, so we've included instructions for this as well. If this applies to you, please read the Retaining the Original Budgets section first before taking any action.

Import Actuals via Integrations

Before starting, we recommend taking a copy of your forecast file as a prudent risk management step. After doing this, follow these steps:

1. Go to Forecast > External Sources and click Build Forecast Data Template to extract the existing forecast data to Excel
2. Go to Setup and increase the Number of Years by the number of prior years you want to add to the forecast (we want to maintain the forecast end date)
3. On the same screen, change the Forecast Start Date to the earlier date (it is neater, but not essential, that this be set to the start of a Financial Year)
4. Go to Forecast > Opening & Actuals The Actuals month will have moved backward by the number of years you added to the start of the forecast. So, you need to change it back to the correct period (ie where it was before you changed the forecast start date)
5. Go to Forecast > External Sources and click Upload Forecast Data Template to re-import the forecast data
6. From the External Sources screen, launch your integration. After checking that all accounts are still mapped, import the new Opening data and then the extended Actuals data from your Integrations Source. Note that when importing from Xero, you will need to change the Load Months setting from the default of 12 before clicking Load File Data
7. check your reports to make sure everything is balanced and looking good

Enter Actuals manually

If you are manually entering the Actuals data, the steps are slightly different:

1. Go to Forecast > External Sources > Build Forecast Data Template to extract the existing forecast data to Excel
2. From the same screen, Build Opening/Actuals Template to extract the existing Actuals data to Excel
3. Go to Settings and increase the Number of Years by the number of prior years you want to add to the forecast
4. On the same screen, change the Forecast Start Date to the earlier date (it is neater, but not essential, that this be set to the start of a Financial Year)
5. Go to Forecast > Opening & Actuals The Actuals month will have moved forward by the number of years you added to the start of the forecast. So, you need to change it back to the correct period (ie where it was before you changed the forecast start date)
6. Go to Forecast > External Sources > Upload Forecast Data Template to reimport the forecast data
7. From the same screen, go to Upload Opening/Actuals Template to reimport the Actuals data that was originally in the forecast. Note you should not import the Original column during this process, as you will need to use a different (earlier) month for Opening data
8. Go to Forecast > Opening & Actuals and manually enter the earlier Actuals data
9. Check your reports to make sure everything is balanced and looking good

NB. for anyone still manually entering Actuals data ... we'd like to suggest a MUCH FASTER approach. Using Excel integrations, adding all the Actuals data you like into Castaway takes seconds. We strongly recommend this approach to anyone who cannot use the other Integrations sources (Sage, Xero, MYOB, etc).

Retaining the Original Budgets

The process steps above mean the Original Budgets for the current financial year will be overwritten. If you are close to the start of a new financial year, this may be acceptable. If, however, you are early in a new financial year, we understand this may be a problem. 

To resolve this, there are several alternatives

1. Follow the above steps, but add the following:
   1. Extract an Original Budget P&L, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statement from the current file before changing the dates
   2. After changing forecast dates, move the Actuals month forward only to the last month of the previous financial year (not the latest Actuals month as instructed above)
   3. Import or enter Actuals data for until that month
   4. Either modify the Upload Forecast Data Template to cover the full current financial year, or upload the forecast data you extracted earlier and then manually enter any missing forecast data
   5. Once you are happy the forecast figures for the current financial year match the Original Budget you want to create, go to Forecast > Opening & Actuals and click Update Original Budget
   6. Check your Original Budget reports to make sure the numbers look right
   7. Now you can move the Actuals month forward to the most recent month and import or enter the missing Actuals data
      
      
2. If you have a copy of the file from the end of the last financial year, you could start with that (although be mindful that it will not contain subsequent changes to the forecast in your current file)
   
   
3. Contact our Customer Success team. Depending on your requirements, we may be able to offer more technical assistance.

Happy forecasting!