Microsoft Forecaster is a robust budgeting tool that works with Microsoft Dynamics, as well as other General Ledger systems, and it can utilize a Microsoft SQL server, Oracle, or Microsoft Access database.  Although Microsoft Forecaster can seem complex on the initial setup, the tools and features that become available once the groundwork is done can greatly streamline a company’s budgeting process.  In addition, Forecaster strives to make the user feel at-home with familiar navigation and an intuitive interface.

The first thing you’ll notice when opening up Microsoft Forecaster is that the program seems rather familiar.  Although there are certainly new buttons and some of the tool bar options are different, many elements are borrowed from other Microsoft products such as Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer to help the user become acclimated with the program.  The Save, Print Preview, Print, Quick Print, Send by Email, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Find, Refresh, Sort, and Help buttons would be familiar to almost anyone.  Other buttons such as Insert (plus sign), Verify Calculations (calculator with check mark) , and Workflow Status (circle of arrows) are designed in such a way to become easily acquainted with their purpose.

Under the Setup menu segments are defined.  Much like a house needs proper planning and a foundation in order to build, the administrator should carefully consider how to setup the segments in Microsoft Forecaster.  Segments help to translate the chart of accounts into budgeting dimensions and, subsequently, all data is stored in segments.  A minimum of two and a maximum of ten user defined segments can be created (the system automatically defines a Period segment).  Take note that the segments created during the initial setup wizard cannot be changed in the resulting application.  In addition, only one segment can have assign properties, which is security at the segment level, and only one segment can have reverse properties, which gives the ability to reverse signs for input and reporting (almost always assigned to the Account segment). Although the segments themselves cannot be changed once created, the segment IDs, descriptions, and lengths can be altered, as well as marking a segment as active or inactive.  Although the segments do not have to mirror the dimensions in Microsoft Dynamics, that can be a good place to start planning how the company wants to budget.  If desired, multiple dimensions can be mapped to a single Forecaster segment.

If segments are the foundation of Microsoft Forecaster, then the Lines, Columns, Calculations, and Formats are the building blocks.  Lines define the rows of the report, which can be set to any of the segments, but typically is used with the Account segment.  In addition, Columns define the columns of the report and can be set to any segment but typically is used in conjunction with the Period segment.  Finally, Calculations store formulas to calculate data in rows, columns, or individual cells and Formats alter the appearance of printed reports by changing page orientation, margins, headers, etc.  When opened, the user will notice that the screen layout for the building blocks is a grid-based structure reminiscent of Microsoft Excel.  Once these building blocks are created they can be assigned to reports using the Reports Wizard or the Reports Worksheet and they can be grouped together under Input Sets.  Furthermore, building blocks can be re-used with multiple reports so that once setup, new budgets can be created with minimal effort.

Microsoft Forecaster is a detailed and flexible budgeting tool that can greatly assist a company with their budgeting needs.  Once the fundamentals are setup, a company can build reports, compare to actual or other baseline data, drill down to detail information, group segments into rollups to further assist with reporting, and streamline their budgeting process with workflows.  Although administrators should carefully consider how they want to structure Forecaster to meet their budgeting needs, the planning can be very rewarding and the overall look and feel of the program ease the experience with sense of familiarity.