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Forecasting: How to Add a Forecast Group

Distributor steps for adding a Forecast Group in Encompass to group products for Forecasting and the PO Generator, with field definitions like max weight, PO prefix and generator mode. Requires v24.01+.

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Written by Bailey Naas-Thornton

Minimum Version Required: 24.01

Steps

How to Add a Forecast Group

1. Using Universal Search, navigate to the Forecast Groups table.
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​2. Click Add Forecast Group.
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3. Enter the required and optional information in the fields provided.
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a. Definitions can be found in the "Fields And Definitions" tab.


4. Click Add Record when the fields have been entered.
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​5. Set the Forecast Group to the Suppliers Vendors table or go to the Inventory table to link Products to the Forecast Group.
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Fields And Definitions

  • *Forecast Group - The name of the Forecast Group. A way to group products together by Product Type, Supplier, Vendor, etc.
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  • *Forecast Frequency - This field defaults to 7. This will be shown as a color-coded field on the Forecasting tool. If a user has gone into the Forecasting tool and saved data, it will be green in color. Otherwise, if no one has saved data it will be red. A visual indicator that someone has saved Forecasting information for a product which is reset by the Forecast frequency.
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  • Receive Location - Optional to set.
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  • Carrier - Optional to set.
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  • Max Weight in Lbs & Max Pallets - These are required for using the PO generator tool. This determines how many POs to create based on these parameters set. Max Weight is the capacity of the Supplier's Truck.
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  • Purchase Agent - Optional to set.
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  • *Consolidated - This field is False by default. Example: If there are different supplier vendors within a forecast group they can be consolidated in the same purchase if set to True.
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  • Ship Days in Advance - If populated on the Forecast Group, this will set the Ship Date on the Shipment when created from PO Generator.
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  • PO Number Pre-fix - This field will set the PO Number pre-fix on Purchases when created from PO Generator. If the Forecast Groups PO Number Pre-fix is null, the PO Number on the purchase will be the Purchase ID. If the Forecast Groups PO Number Prefix is not null, the PO Number on the purchase will be the PO Number Prefix + Purchase ID. Example: PO Number Prefix is ABC. PO created from PO Generator has Purchase ID = 12345 then PO Num will be ABC12345.
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  • *Round Up Percentage/ *Round Down Percentage - These fields will round to the nearest whole number and are needed for the PO generator to get whole numbers.
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  • *PO Generator Mode - "Manual" is the Default. This is recommended if starting to use the Forecasting and PO Generators tools in conjunction. Other options are "Auto by Week" or "Auto by Month" which will generate Purchase Orders automatically. Purchases that are created automatically will be in the New status and will still need to be reviewed to be Ordered and sent out.
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  • Promo Zone - This determines how 'This Year Max Discount' and 'This Year Min Price' values are calculated in the Forecast tool.
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  • *Manual Export - When Manual Export is set to True, this will display the manual export button from the Forecast tool.
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  • *Receive Day of Week - The specific day of the week to receive orders for this Forecast Group

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