(Beta) Setting up Services Forecasting Using the Feature Console

Warning:

Services Forecasting is Beta functionality in this release. Further development is required to deliver a fully functional solution. Contact Certinia Support.

Revenue Forecasting is unaffected and continues to work in the same way as before.

The Services Forecasting Feature Console feature provides a streamlined way of setting up Services Forecasting. For more information about the Feature Console, see Feature Console and Enabling and Disabling Features.

Work through the steps in the order shown.

  • For each automatic step, click Perform. When the step has completed, the Status changes from "Not Done" to "Done".
  • For each manual step, follow the instructions on screen then click Mark As Done when the step is complete.

When you have completed all the steps, use the Status slider in the Feature section to enable the feature.

Feature Steps

The Feature Steps table provides information about each feature step.

Feature Steps
Step Type Description Additional Information Further Information
1 Manual Manually ensure that your org meets the requirements for using Services Forecasting.

See the Help page listed in the Further Information column.

 (Beta) Setting up Services Forecasting
2 Automatic Create an active services forecast setup record with the required configuration, if it doesn't already exist. Then generate services forecast data for all eligible records.

This creates a services forecast setup record with the Active and Enable Cost Forecasting fields selected. The remaining fields have the default values. The record is only created if an active record doesn't already exist.

Once the active setup record exists, this also runs the process to generate services forecast data for all eligible records.

 Services Forecast Setup Fields
3 Automatic Create the PS Cloud Core Analytics app, if it doesn't already exist.

This creates a PS Cloud Analytics setup record with the Active field selected. The remaining fields have the default values. The record is only created if an active record doesn't already exist.

Once the active setup record exists, this runs the process to create the PS Cloud Core Analytics app.
4 Manual Manually create the Services Forecast Live and Services Forecast Plans datasets.

See the Help page listed in the Further Information column.
5 Manual Configure the Open Salesforce Record action for the relevant dimensions in the Services Forecast Live and Services Forecast Plans datasets. You must manually do this in Analytics Studio.

See the Help page listed in the Further Information column.

 (Beta) Configuring the Open Record Action for Services Forecast Live and Services Forecast Plans Datasets
6 Automatic Create Planning units that represent the currencies that you use. These are created from your active Salesforce currencies.

This creates a unit type named Currency and a Planning unit for each active Salesforce currency in your org. The units are created with the following data:

  • Planning Unit Name: name of the Salesforce currency, for example, U.S. Dollar.
  • Code: ISO code of the Salesforce currency, for example, USD.
  • Unit Type: Currency
  • Base Unit: selected for the corporate currency unit, deselected for all other units.
Notes:
  • If a unit type named Currency already exists, a new unit type is not created.
  • If a unit with the same Code field as the ISO code of a Salesforce currency already exists, a new unit is not created.
7 Automatic Create a rate table named Fixed Currency Exchange Rates. The rate table defines the exchange rates for your Planning units that represent currencies. It uses the latest dated Salesforce exchange rates for all time periods.

This creates a rate table named Fixed Currency Exchange Rates. The rate table contains a single exchange rate for each unit that represents a currency, relative to the corporate currency unit. It doesn't contain any dimensions so that it can be used for any forecast.

The Salesforce dated exchange rates that are the furthest in the future are used to populate the rate table.

 Rate Tables Overview
8 Automatic

Create the required dimensions and measures. Then create the following data sources:

  • Services Forecast Live
  • Services Forecast Plans

This creates the dimensions and measures required for the Services Forecast Live and Services Forecast Plans data sources.

Note:

The measures that contain (Corporate Currency) in their name are automatically linked to the unit that represents your corporate currency from feature step 4.

Once the dimensions and measures are available, the process then creates data sources for the Services Forecast Live and the Services Forecast Plans datasets.
9 Automatic

Create the following forecast templates:

  • Project Forecast (Embeddable)
  • Project Forecast (Multi-Plan Process)

This creates plan templates with the following names:

  • Project Forecast (Embeddable)
  • Project Forecast (Multi-Plan Process)
(Beta) Services Forecasting Templates
10 Automatic Add the Services Forecast field to the PSAAnalyticsSetup Layout page layout for the PS Cloud Analytics Setup object. — —
11 Automatic Select the Services Forecast checkbox field on the active PS Cloud Analytics setup record. This is needed to create the Services Forecasting assets in the PS Cloud Core Analytics app when it is updated. PS Cloud Analytics Setup Fields
12 Automatic Update the PS Cloud Core Analytics app to apply the configuration changes. This creates the Services Forecasting assets in the PS Cloud Core Analytics app. Using PS Cloud Core Analytics
13 Automatic Create the Project, Practice, and Region lookup fields on the Plan object. This is needed to link forecasts to projects, practices, and regions, as well as embed them on the relevant record page. —
14 Manual Manually embed the Project Forecast (Embeddable) template on the Project Lightning record page using the WorkGrid Embedded Plan component.

See the Help page listed in the Further Information column.

 (Beta) Embedding the Forecast on the Project Record Page
15 Manual Manually embed the PSA Services Forecast dashboard on the Practice or Region Lightning record page.

See the Help page listed in the Further Information column.

 Embedding the PSA Services Forecast Dashboard