A forecast lets you explore position, staffing, budget, and employee pay changes before making them. Compare results, review the changes you choose, and apply approved groups when ready. Forecasts are included in Workforce Planning.

Before you begin

You need the Manage workforce forecasts permission for every department included in the forecast. Proposed changes also require the permission for that action. Budget and compensation have separate viewing and management permissions; forecast access does not grant employee pay access or position approval authority.

Create the forecast

  1. Open Forecasts and choose Create plan.
  2. Enter a name you will recognize, such as “October hiring,” and choose the Start date and Through date. Both dates are included.
  3. Select the department, including departments beneath it during the planning period.
  4. Save and wait for the starting information to finish calculating.
  5. Review the first result before adding proposals. Check that the dates, departments, and approved staffing are what you expect.

Missing budget or compensation information remains unavailable. It is not replaced with zero or an amount from the other financial area.

Understand the starting point

Before proposed changes shows the approved information saved when the forecast was created. It includes approved changes already scheduled within its dates. For example, an approved FTE change taking effect in October appears from October in a July-to-June forecast.

Approved suspensions, reactivations, and eliminations also follow their effective dates. A suspended position retains its recorded FTE while its counted FTE is zero. Changing or cancelling one of these actions requires an explicit proposal.

Proposals are calculated against this saved information. Changes made elsewhere in FTE Tree do not automatically update the forecast or its earlier reports. When comparing two forecasts, check that their dates and starting information match so you can distinguish your proposals from other differences.

Use the planning workspace

Page Use it to
Overview Check dates, calculation progress, and monthly results
Proposed changes Enter what should change, when, and why
Positions Inspect FTE and annualized costs for a selected date
Dashboards Arrange personal views of staffing, costs, and review progress
Compare Compare forecasts with matching planning dates
Review and apply Complete approvals and apply selected groups
Revisions Look back at earlier versions and their proposals
Checkpoints Save a named set of results for later review or comparison
Application history See which changes were applied, by whom, and when

Start with Add proposed workforce changes or Propose budget and pay changes. For a straightforward correction that needs no comparison, use the relevant position, staffing, budget, or pay page.

Update the starting point

Use Actions, then Update starting point when the remaining forecast should include newer approved information. Explain the reason and review the updated version. Check affected proposals and their recalculated results before obtaining any required approval again.

Earlier versions and applied changes remain available in history. Applying part of a forecast does not add its effect twice. A change saved in May with a July effective date still begins in July.

If approved information affecting a proposal has changed, review the conflict even when the amounts match. Matching totals alone do not mean the proposal was already applied.

If preparation stops

Open Review and apply and follow the progress link. Use Retry remaining work to finish an update that has already prepared some changes.

If the message says approved information changed and no changes have been prepared, cancel the update, wait for that information to finish updating, and choose Update starting point again. Once part of the update is prepared, retry the remaining work instead of cancelling.

If the update repeatedly stops, contact support with the forecast link and the message shown. Previously applied changes and completed results remain saved.