Database Setup - Budget / Forecast
Use the Budget / Forecast tab if you want to monitor actual business on books compared to your own budget and forecast
Your estimated business volume for meetings and events and for future dates. Usually, your forecast is updated regularly and therefore differs from your budget, which is static.. You can review the variances in revenue and revenue percentage on the Budget Forecast report. This information helps you identify opportunities and concerns and if you need to adjust your pricing strategy.
If the financial reporting period of your property does not follow the standard twelve-month calendar, you can adjust the start and end dates for each month to match fiscal periods.
Fiscal year views are only available in the Business Pace tools (Year on Year Revenue, Business Pick Up, and Budget Forecast). All other views are based on calendar year.
See Multi Property Mode to learn how this page functions when you have access to several venues Any business that sells function space. For example, hotel, conference centre or a sporting arena..
Setting up Budget / Forecast
- On the Database menu, click Database Setup.
- Click the Budget / Forecast tab.
- Click Edit to update the information in the table.
- Select a year from the Show Budget Forecast for list. You can select both historic and future years. Select two years if your budget or forecast period spans across two calendar years, for example, it starts in July and ends in June.
The Start Date and End Date values fill automatically for each of the 12 monthly periods. You can edit the date values as the first and last day of the period that represents each month. Enter start and end dates as consecutive periods. You can configure only 12 monthly periods per year. - Enter the Budget Revenue and Forecast Revenue amounts for each month of the selected year.
- Click Save to save your changes or click Cancel to discard your changes.
Data Details
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Month | The calendar month for the selected year. The default is the full 12 months. The months display as calendar months (January to December), but reflect the periods you define. For example, if you define the month of December as running from December 15 to January 14, SmartSpace displays it as December, even though it includes a large part of January. |
| Start Date | The start date for the budget and forecast cycle. Enter the date values as the first and last day of the period that represents each month. |
| End Date | The end date for the budget and forecast cycle. |
| Budget Revenue | The targeted budget revenue for the time period, excluding VAT. |
| Forecast Revenue | The targeted forecast revenue for the time period, excluding VAT. |
Best Practices
Regularly Update Your Values
This page enables you to compare your budget and forecast against your business on the books. That comparison is an important step for driving your business forward. Therefore, when your budget or forecast values change, update them here immediately. They do not update automatically.
We recommend a review at least once or twice a year, but it might be more frequent depending on your business operations.
