Forecast correction events on the calendar

Forecast correction events on the calendar improve the accuracy of your forecast balances. Learn about the different types of forecast correction events and how to add or modify your own events to keep your forecast in line! 📈

Balances on the calendar

Actual balances

Each account in PocketSmith has a record of daily closing balances based on your bank transactions - these are your actual balances.

Your actual balances are shown on the Calendar when the Show actuals in history checkbox is ticked.

Forecast balances

There is also a separate record of your daily forecast balances based on your scheduled budgets. Based on your scheduled budgets for a particular account, these are the balances you were predicted to have. To view your past forecast balances, ensure that Show actuals in history is unticked.

Red and green forecast correction flags on the Calendar

To start the forecast projection from your account's current actual balance, PocketSmith automatically makes an adjustment to today's forecast balance to bring it to that amount. The adjustment informs you how far ahead or behind your forecast you are, and is marked by a red or green flag. 

• A red flag means that the actual balance is less than the forecasted balance.

• A green flag means that the actual balance is greater than the forecasted balance.

  
  

  

Click a red or green flag event to view more information about the balance correction.

The forecast balances aren't permanently changed to match the daily forecast correction, as we like to give you the option of preserving your original forecast balance so that you can compare your historical forecast figures to your actual figures.

However, if you'd like to reset your forecast to match your actual balance, you can click Reset past forecast. Clicking Reset past forecast will make the balance correction permanent and will create a blue flag event. This is useful if your forecast figures have diverged from your actual figures over time.

Blue flag forecast events on the calendar

Blue flag events on the Calendar page are adjustments to, or markers for, the forecast balance. These act like checkpoints for the forecast balance, with the historic forecast calculated from the most recent blue or grey flag event up until the current red or green forecast flag.

Blue flag forecast adjustments are only visible when Show actuals in history is unticked.

How Blue flag forecast events are created

There are a few different ways that Blue flag forecast events can be created:

Automatically:

• When creating the opening balance of an account.

  This is usually the balance of the account on the date it was added to PocketSmith

Manually:

• When resetting the forecast balance to the account balance from a red or green balance correction event
• When manually adding a forecast correction event to reset the forecast to match your actuals on a particular date

You may wish to manually create a blue flag forecast adjustment to bring your forecast in line with your current actual balance as outlined here: Steps to reset the forecast to today's balance.

If you wish to review your past performance from a particular point in time, you can learn how to reset the balance on a particular date here: Steps to manually set the forecast balance.

Grey 'checkpoint' flag forecast events

Grey flag forecast events are automatically generated and serve purely to act as a 'checkpoint' from which the forecast balance is calculated, preventing the forecast generation from slowing over time.

These will only ever appear on the last day of the month, and only as needed for calculation purposes. They are only visible when. Show actuals in history is unticked.

You can manually override a Grey 'checkpoint' flag, which will turn it into a Blue flag forecast correction event.

Just click on the Grey flag and then edit the forecast balance to suit:

Forecast correction events for grouped accounts

Forecast correction events for grouped accounts will show per account, rather than for the grouped account as a whole.

This allows you to see which accounts within the group are ahead or behind their forecast amounts, and allows you to correct the forecast for the accounts individually.

For example, if you have three accounts within your Account group; a Spending account, a Savings account, and an Investment account, these would each have their own forecast correction event on the calendar.

Steps to reset forecast to today's balance

If your historical forecast and your actual balance history have diverged over time, you can reset the forecast to today's balance.  This means that your forecast will begin again from your current balance. The difference between your past and actual balances will be preserved in your graph's history.

1. Make sure you are viewing the individual account on the Calendar, and that show actuals in history is unchecked

2. Click on the red or green forecast adjustment event that appears on today's date. This is the adjustment event that PocketSmith uses to bring the forecast balance to the account's closing balance.

   

3. In the window that appears, click the Reset past forecast to reset the past forecast balance to match the current actual balance.

   

   Your forecast balance has now been adjusted to be calculated from the date of the adjustment going forward ✨.

Steps to manually reset the forecast balance

If your historical forecast and your actual balance history have diverged over time, and you'd like to reset your forecast balance to match your actuals on a specific date, you can do so as outlined below:

Manually reset the Forecast Balance for an individual account

1. Make sure you are viewing the individual account on the Calendar, and that Show actuals in history is unticked

2. Head to the date on which your forecast began to diverge, or the date you'd like to reset your forecast from and click on the balance

   
   

   

   
   

3. In the window that appears, you can see both the Forecast Balance and Actual Balance for this account on this date. If you would like to reset your Forecast Balance to match your Actual Balance, click Reset to actual

   
   

   

4. This will match the Forecast and Actual balances. Then click UPDATE BALANCES to save this change

   
   

   

Your forecast balance has now been reset to the actual balance as of this date ✨

Manually reset the Forecast Balances for accounts that are grouped

1. Head to the Calendar, and ensure the option to Show actuals in history is unticked
2. In the sidebar, select the grouped account whose individual forecast balances you would like to update

3. Then, click on the balance on the date you wish to update the forecast from

   
   

   

4. Check the Forecast and Actual balances in the pop-up window, if you want to proceed with resetting the Forecast to the Actual, click Reset to actual for each of the accounts you are wanting to update

   
   

   

5. To save these changes click UPDATE BALANCES

This will reset the forecast balance to your actual balance for each of the accounts you changed on this date 🙌

Steps to manually set the forecast balance - Track Balance Changes accounts

For accounts that use the Track Balance Changes feature, the balance history will only begin to be recorded from the day that ‘Track Balance Changes’ is enabled or the date an account with the 'Investment' account-type was added.

Prior to this date, there will be no tracked balances, and the balance will show as 0.00.

To add changes in the balance before the date the option was enabled, you can manually add forecast correction events as per the steps below.

1. Make sure you are viewing the individual account on the Calendar, and that Show actuals in history is unticked

2. Head to the date you'd like to change your forecast from and click on the 0.00 balance

   
   

   

3. Enter the Forecast Balance you would like to change this to and select UPDATE BALANCES

   
   

   

4. This will now set your forecast balance from this date to this amount 🙌

If you would like to add further balance changes for your records, you can jump to other dates in the past and follow the same steps.