Create and manage forecasts in QuickBooks Online and Intuit Enterprise Suite

Learn how to add forecasts.

With QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can create your own reports using Custom Report Builder.

Forecasts help you set long-term and short-term goals for your business. Forecasting is typically based on past performance and trends in your industry. Your historical data is analyzed for patterns and projections are made based on this information. With all your financial data available in your company, you can quickly and easily create forecasts and use them to create budgets.

View a forecast made for you in Intuit Enterprise Suite

You can view the automatic forecast we've created based on your profit and loss statement. To view the forecast, you must sign in as an admin or as a Standard All user. Or, you need to have forecast view permissions in Intuit Enterprise Suite.

Note: Currently, we only support Accrual based accounting.

To view your profit and loss forecast:

1. On the left navigation bar, select Financial planning, and then select Forecasts.
   You’ll see a forecast graph for net income. You can navigate between different KPIs from this view. 
2. Select View detailed forecast to view the profit and loss forecast in detail for the next two fiscal years, by account categories and also make any changes you need.
3. You can select each cell and view more information about the forecast.
4. You can edit the forecast by selecting Edit forecast and Save.
5. Once the necessary changes are done, you can make the forecast into a budget using Make this a budget.

Note: Currently we only support Accrual accounting.

Create a forecast

You can create a forecast at any time but, the end of the year is a great time to start planning for the year ahead. To create a new forecast, you’ll need to sign in as an admin or as a Standard All user.

Step 1: Review the fiscal year for your business

Make sure the beginning of your fiscal year is set. You can create a forecast any time, but it helps if your forecast start date is set to the beginning of the fiscal year.

1. Sign into your company.
2. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Account and settings.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
4. In the Accounting section, review the First month of the fiscal year field. If it’s incorrect, select Edit ✎.
5. Select the required month from the dropdown ▼ and select Save.

Step 2: Get your forecast data

If you already have your data entered, you can skip this step. If not, you can base your forecast on data from either the current fiscal year or the year before. If you plan to use historical data, run a Profit and Loss Detail report to make sure transactions and accounts look correct.

The report automatically shows transactions created during the current year-to-date. To see a prior fiscal year's transactions, you will have to customize the report. See the Customize a report section below.

Step 3: Create your forecast

Note: The forecast accounts list is created based on your chart of accounts. If you need more accounts in your forecast, add them to your chart of accounts before you create the forecast.

To create a forecast, you can use your past financial data from your company. If this is your first forecast, start here:

1. Select Financial planning, then select Forecasts.
2. Select Create forecast. 
3. Go to Forecast format and select Consolidated or Subdivided.
   • For a subdivided forecast, select what you want to subdivide by, like class or dimension. 
     Note: Once added, a class or dimension can’t be removed from a forecast.
4. Go to Forcast format and select Consolidated or Subdivided.
   • For a subdivided forecast, select what you want to subdivide by like class or dimension.
     Note: Once added a class or dimension can't be removed from a forecast.
5. From the Forecast for ▼ dropdown, select the timeframe you’re creating the forecast for.
6. From the Forecast using ▼ dropdown, select one of the following forecast methods:
   • Average of actuals 
   • Actuals from last fiscal year (Note: You can modify the forecast duration and forecast method until the first time you save from the Settings panel.)
7. If you selected Average of actuals, select the past actuals duration to be used to calculate the average from the Use actuals from ▼ dropdown.
8. If you want to set rules (increase/decrease) at account type level, add them in the Set rules section.
9. When you’re done, select Next.
10. Select the edit ✎ icon to edit the name of your forecast, if needed.
11. When you’re done, select Save and close.

1. Go to Financial planning and select Forecasts.
2. Select Create forecast. 
3. From the Forecast for ▼ dropdown, select the timeframe you’re creating the forecast for.
4. From the Forecast using ▼ dropdown, select one of the following forecast methods:
   • Average of actuals 
   • Actuals from last fiscal year (Note: You can modify the forecast duration and forecast method until the first time you save from the Settings panel.)
5. If you selected Average of actuals, select the past actuals duration to be used to calculate the average from the Use actuals from ▼ dropdown.
6. If you want to set rules (increase/decrease) at account type level, add them in the Set rules section.
7. When you’re done, select Next.
8. Select the edit ✎ icon to edit the name of your forecast, if needed.
9. When you’re done, select Save and close.

Note: We recommend you refresh the forecast with the latest actuals by selecting Refresh actuals each time you view it.

Edit a forecast

If you need to edit a forecast:

1. Select Financial planning, then select Forecasts.
2. Find your forecast on the list and select View/Edit in the Action column.
3. Select Save or Save and close.

Note: We recommend you refresh the forecast with the latest actuals by selecting Refresh actuals each time you view it. Additionally, you can modify each account one month at a time.

Convert a forecast to a budget

1. Select Financial planning, then select Forecasts.
2. Find your forecast on the list and select View/Edit in the Action column.
3. Select Make this a budget to choose the fiscal year of the budgeting period.
4. Select Make this a budget again to save the forecast as a new budget.

Find out more about creating a budget.

Delete a forecast

1. Select Financial planning, then select Forecasts.
2. Once you find your forecast on the list, select the View/Edit ▼ dropdown in the Action column. 
3. Select the View/Edit ▼ dropdown, then select Delete.

Note: You can’t recover deleted forecasts.

Export a forecast

1. Select Financial planning, then select Forecasts.
2. Find your forecast on the list and select View/Edit in the Action column.
3. Select Export icon, select Print/Save as PDF or Export to Excel.

Run forecast reports

You can run forecast reports that help you keep track of your business performance against the forecasted numbers.

1. Select Financial planning, then select Forecasts.
2. Find your forecast on the list.
3. Go to Actions and select:
   • Run Forecast Overview report - summarizes forecasts by chart of accounts.
   • Run Forecast vs. Actuals report - compares your chart of accounts and the total of your actuals, it also shows the variance between your forcast and actuals.

Note: You can run forecast reports from Reports also (Take me there).

Customize a report

1. Go to Reports (Take me there).
2. Find and select the Profit and Loss Detail Report.
3. From the Report period ▼ dropdown, select a timeframe. For example:
   • If you want to use data from the prior year, select Last Year.
   • If you want to use data from your current fiscal year, select This Year-to-date.
     Note: Make sure the beginning and end of the year match your fiscal year. 
4. Select Run report.