Figured gives you multiple options for managing your forecast in the Planning Grid. This is the order we recommend working through them:
Configure accounts
Overdraft Settings
Importing/Exporting a forecast
Take a Snapshot/Approve plan
NOTE: Some of these options will be hidden if you're in a consolidated Multi-Farm or if your budget is locked.
1. Configure accounts
Account Configuration allows you to see all accounts from your preferred accounting software’s chart of accounts and change their categorisation, payment period, and details in planning.
Along with these options per account, you can copy the entire configuration from another farm you can access, provided the two farms share account codes.
2. Overdraft Settings
If you have an overdraft facility on your bank account, you can enable the automatic overdraft calculation from within Overdraft Settings.
The tool will look at your forecasted closing bank balance and interest rate and calculate the interest based on that.
3. Importing/Exporting
A good way to start a new forecast is by importing an existing plan and using that as the basis for the year's forecast. You have the option to import actuals from last year, import from a snapshot, and import from a file.
You also have the option to export a plan from the Planning Grid. For example, you can export a prior year's plan as a mix of Actuals + Forecast (if the prior year still needs to finish) and re-import that into the current year. You can also export a plan and send it via email if you'd like it reviewed by others.
You can read more about exporting and importing in the planning grid here.
4. Take a Snapshot/Approve annual plan
This button allows you to capture a snapshot of your farm. Snapshots are a picture of your farm at a point in time. Depending on whether this is your first Snapshot, you may see this button as either Approve Plan or Take Snapshot. The first Snapshot you take of a year's plan, the button will display as "Approve Plan", and it will automatically set that Snapshot as that year's annual plan. After that, the button will display as "Take Snapshot", and you will be given the option to set any new snapshots as the Annual Plan.
A Snapshot can't be edited, so you know that it’s an accurate picture of the farm at the time that the Snapshot was taken. However, you can make edits and take a new Snapshot anytime.
For video tutorials on the Planning Grid, check out our YouTube playlist here.