Custom Profiles

If you are wanting to add seasonality or use a particular spread when forecasting against your cost or sale elements, a great way to achieve this is through using Custom profiles.

To add a custom profile

1. Go to the Setup screen, under the Forecast section you'll see Annual profiles
2. Click on the dark blue box with 3 dots next to it and select  Add
3. Enter a name to the profile and add values for each month – these will represent the spread for the year. When done select OK
   
   

         

In the example above, there is a profile for ice cream sales where 100 is used as a base or normal sales value. For the warmer summer months between Dec and Mar, 200 is used to show a doubling of sales.  In the cooler winter periods of Jun to August, a rate of 50 is used to represent half the normal volume of sales. Once you have added your Custom Profile, you'll be able to select and apply it.

Applying a Custom Profile

1. In Element Settings, select the element you want to apply the profile against
2. In the annual column enter the amount for the year.
3. Right-click on the total value, and click on custom profiles. From here select the profile you want.  You’ll notice a profile can be added or edited at this step also.
   
   
   
   This will distribute the annual figure to each month according to the spread set in the profile.

Spread ALL Years - 445, 454, 544 profile options

There is the default option to select from 445, 454 or 544 profile options – these spread a figure related to the number of weeks in a month across a quarter (based on the theory a financial quarter will be made of 13 weeks: 2 months made of 4 weeks and 1 made of 5 weeks).