Rolling forecast: every company's next 12 months

Every company has a forecast of its profit and loss for the next 12 periods, without anyone setting it up, and it rolls forward by itself after each month's close (ADR-0106). It is a feature module (rolling_forecast) built on Plans, so it is reviewed, approved and compared with what was posted like any forecast. It posts nothing.

What the system does

• Makes it. A company without a plan named Rolling forecast gets one: a forecast of 12 periods, made by the system as soon as the company has an open period.
• Fills it from what the books know: the closed periods of the year are the actuals; each open period is the average of the last three closed periods (the run rate), never below what is already scheduled: the invoices recurring invoices and subscriptions will make, the recurring journals that will post, and the depreciation of the assets in service.
• Rolls it again after every close. Once a period closes, the next scheduled run makes a new version: the period just closed becomes actuals, the open periods are worked out again, and a new period joins at the end. A version made since the close, by a person or the close job, counts: the system does not add a second one.
• Keeps what people entered. A figure a person changed in a version stays as they set it in every later roll; the figures the system worked out are worked out again.

Each version is a draft: a person submits and approves it when they want it as the company's current forecast (the approval is a person's, as for every plan). The version's note says what was rolled.

Where to see it

• Home shows the net income it forecasts for the periods not closed yet among its key figures, with the version; a click opens the forecast.
• Reports → Budgets and Forecasts lists it; its versions show each account and period with how the figure was made (actual, run rate, scheduled, entered), and the comparison reads it against what was posted or against the budget, with the outlook for the year.
• GET /v1/entities/{entity}/rolling-forecast returns the latest roll period by period (revenue, expenses, net, whether a period is actual or holds scheduled figures) and the totals ahead (API); 404 no_rolling_forecast until the first run made it.
• An assistant over MCP reads it with rolling_forecast, and the account lines with get_plan_version and plan_comparison; the plans API has the versions.

Good to know

• A company that already has its own plan named "Rolling forecast" keeps it: that forecast is the one the system rolls (a budget of that name is left alone).
• The forecast covers the periods that exist: until the next fiscal year is opened it reaches the end of this one (Home then says "next 4 periods"), and it grows to 12 with the next roll once the year is opened. A company whose every period is closed is not rolled until then.
• Forecasts with other names are rolled only by a person or by the close job's step, as before.