Make Better Business Decisions with Revenue and Workload Forecasting

What an amazing feeling it would be to take a peek into the future! Would we really want to know what’s going to happen tomorrow? In our personal lives we may choose not to know the future since it might affect the way we lead our daily lives. But when it comes to business, knowing future events can be invaluable.

For instance, if a manufacturer knew that Brazil was going to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, he could start manufacturing all sorts of related memorabilia to sell once the moment arrives. Unfortunately, there is no way of predicting the future with absolute certainty. This manufacturer could, however, take his chances and create the memorabilia anyway. Of course if Brazil didn’t win the World Cup, he would be left with worthless junk. But if Brazil did indeed take home the Cup, he’d be raking in the dough. And he could use BillQuick to forecast exactly how much revenue to expect from his gamble.

Forecasting revenue is vital to all businesses. Far from being guesswork, it is the art and science of predicting future by analyzing past and current trends and variables. To arrive at an accurate forecast, you must have the correct data at your fingertips, such as the monthly performances. The forecast becomes more realistic once you have the monthly performance figures.

Allocation Calendar View, a new feature in BillQuick 2013, makes forecasting simple yet useful for managers who want to predict future revenue as well as workload. It displays the actual hours worked/amount earned by employees as well as the scheduled hours/potential earnings for the next 10 weeks or months. It uses color-coding to show who is under- or overloaded with work, and hence who is available to work on the next project.

Project managers can easily forecast the revenue and workload per employee using the following Allocation Calendar views:

• Employee Hours – Provides a workload forecast for employees on a weekly/monthly basis. It displays their task assignments (in hours) on various projects for the next 10 weeks/months.
• Employee Amounts – Provides a revenue forecast for employees on a weekly/monthly basis. It displays their task assignments (in amounts) on various projects for the next 10 weeks/months.
• Project Hours – Provides a workload forecast for projects on a weekly/monthly basis. It displays the task assignments for employees (in hours) for the next 10 weeks/months.
• Projects Amounts – Provides a revenue forecast for projects on a weekly/monthly basis. It displays the task assignments for employees (in amounts) for the next 10 weeks/months.

You can see the totals for the actual and scheduled hours/amounts in all the views.

In fact, BillQuick 2013’s ability to let firms forecast workload and revenue has already helped it become the only finalist selected to win in the “Best New Product – Project Management” category of the Stevie American Business Awards. To learn more about forecasting in BillQuick, you can check out our website.