Forecast Pro’s tutorials are designed to give you an overview of Forecast Pro’s functionality. The tutorials are organized into two section: General Operations and Forecasting Operations. The General Operations tutorial is designed to teach you how to use the Forecast Pro interface, while the Forecasting Operations tutorial focuses on customizing your models and forecasts.
The Tutorials include both video and written lessons. All videos appear as red links, and the links will launch the videos on Forecast Pro’s YouTube channel. You may use the links below or use the Bookmarks panel to navigate to each written lesson.
The first five lessons in the General Operations tutorial provide an overview of core functionality. You should be up and running after going through the first five General Operation lessons.
General Operations
The General Operations tutorial are written tutorials designed to teach you how
to use the Forecast Pro interface. The first five lessons in the General
Operations tutorial provide an overview of core functionality. You should be up
and running after going through the first five General Operation lessons.
Getting Started (video) and Getting Started walk you through a sample forecasting session using automatic model selection.
Advanced Navigation teaches you some techniques to efficiently navigate the program and customize reports.
Customizing the Override Grid covers working with external data, creating calculated rows as functions of other rows and specifying how rows are displayed.
Data Considerations teaches you how to prepare your data.
Specifying Alternative Baseline Forecasts teaches you how to work with multiple forecasts and specify which ones to use as the baseline forecast.
Working with Conversions and Alternative Hierarchies teaches you how to work with conversions and alternative hierarchies.
Updating a Forecast Project teaches you how to update your forecast project as new data become available.
Collaborating with Colleagues teaches you how to collaborate with colleagues to establish the final forecast. It covers two different approaches to collaboration; sharing stand-alone projects and using the super project manager in Forecast Pro to break large forecasting jobs into smaller pieces that can be worked on separately and then reassembled into a “super project.”
Exploring Forecast Pro’s Excel-based Collaborative Forecasting Functionality.
Tracking Forecast Accuracy teaches you how to archive your forecasts and use waterfall reports to track your forecast accuracy.
Forecast Value Add (FVA) Reporting (video) and Forecast Value Add (FVA) Reporting show how you can use Forecast Pro’s FVA reporting to understand where your forecasting process is adding value and improving forecast accuracy.
Exception Reporting teaches you how to use exception reports to identify poor forecasts and other potential problems in an efficient manner.
Pareto Analysis teaches you how to use Pareto analysis to assign ABC classifications to your forecast items and how to sort and filter reports.
Operating from the Command Line
Forecasting Operations
The Forecasting Operations tutorial focuses on customizing your models and forecasts.
Customizing Forecasts teaches you how to use forecast modifiers to dictate model selection.
Building Event Models teaches you how to build event models to capture promotional and seasonal effects.
Detecting and Correcting Outliers teaches you how to use Forecast Pro’s outlier detection and correction functionality.
Building Multiple-Level Models teaches you how to set up and forecast a multiple-level hierarchy.
Building Custom Component Models teaches you how to prepare forecasts using the custom component model Custom component models are useful in a variety of situations including (1) customizing the trend for longer-term forecasts, (2) customizing the seasonal pattern for new products or short data sets and (3) defining the impact of future events that have not occurred historically.
New Product Forecasting teaches you how to forecast new products prior to historic data being available, how to use forecast by analogy to forecast new products based on similar products, how to use the custom component model for new products, how to manage new products in your forecasting process and how to use the Bass model.
Product Mapping shows you how to combine histories for multiple items into a forecast history for a single item. Product mapping is very useful for forecasting replacement items.
Building Dynamic Regression Models teaches you how to build and evaluate dynamic regression models.
Using Weighting Transformations teaches you how to use weights to adjust for trading day impacts and how to account for a 4-4-5 calendar.
Out-of-sample Testing teaches you how to assess forecasting performance using a holdout sample approach.
All lessons use sample data provided with the software.