Calculate
Forecast
Carries cash or invoices forward, with a fan of what might happen. You choose Forecast or Budget; the history decides the rest.
| Port | Side | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
what to forecast | In | The records to carry forward — a balance, transactions, or unpaid invoices. |
fine-tune | In | An optional number that scales the change, such as 1.03 for three percent more. |
paid invoices | In | Invoices already paid, so the forecast learns how each customer actually pays. Shown when invoices are forecast. |
out | Out | The forecast as ordinary dated records, with the fan of likely outcomes attached. |
What you choose
Only one thing: what you are after.
- Forecast — from today forward, for 3, 6 or 12 months.
- Budget — a year, January to December or July to June.
Everything else comes from the data you connect. The span bar on the card shows every option at once; choosing one decides what goes out.
What Fluidly decides
Fluidly picks the method from what arrives, and the card says which one ran and why.
| What you connect | Method | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Unpaid invoices | Invoice convolution | Each invoice is paid on the day that customer usually pays, not the due date. |
| Two years or more of history | Holt–Winters | Carries level, trend and seasonality forward. |
| One to two years | Replay | Each month repeats the same month from the most recent year that has it. |
| A rate, such as an exchange rate | Random walk | Today's value is the best guess; the uncertainty widens with time. |
Under invoice convolution the invoices decide the horizon too: the last due date plus thirty days.
The fan
Every forecast comes with probabilities, not just a line. Wire the output into a Timeline and you see a fan: the expected path in the middle, and how far above or below it things might go. Choose the level of risk you accept on the Timeline and read off the lowest balance to expect, day by day.
Include history
The toggle decides whether the months the forecast learned from are sent on as well. Turn it on to show history and forecast in one Timeline; turn it off to add the forecast to today's cash without counting the past twice. Budgets never include history.
Fine-tuning
A number on fine-tune scales the change, not the level: the forecast still starts from today's position, then moves 3% more. To shape the forecast by account — these up, those down — adjust the records before they reach the Forecast, so it works the same under every method.
Example
ERP (unpaid invoices) → Forecast → Timeline, with ERP (paid invoices) → paid invoices: expected cash in, day by day, from the invoices you already have — paid late by each customer's own habit.