Forecasting is determining what is going to happen in the future by analyzing what happened in the past and what is happening now. It’s a planning tool that helps businesses adapt to uncertainty based on predicted demand for goods or services.
Financial forecasting is a vital part of business planning that uses past financial performance and current conditions or trends to predict future company performance. In other words, financial forecasts are a tool by which businesses can set and meet goals.
Financial forecasting is a financial plan that estimates the projected income and projected expenses of a business, and a solid financial forecast contains both macroeconomic factors and conditions that are specific to the organization. A thorough forecast includes but is not limited to short- and long-term outlooks on conditions that could impact revenues and contingencies for expenditures not currently viewed as necessary.
Many factors can affect the level of confidence you have in your financial forecasts. However, they are always valuable indicators of whether your organization is moving in the right direction. Forecasts can be made on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, depending on the numbers that are being tracked—and they can address metrics such as sales, expenses, cost of goods sold, and profits.
The purpose of the financial forecast is to evaluate current and future fiscal conditions to guide policy and programmatic decisions. A financial forecast is a fiscal management tool that presents estimated information based on past, current, and projected financial conditions. This will help identify future revenue and expenditure trends that may have an immediate or long-term influence on government policies, strategic goals, or community services. The forecast is an integral part of the annual budget process. An effective forecast allows for improved decision-making in maintaining fiscal discipline and delivering essential community services.
Importance of Financial forecasting:
Financial forecasts are an essential part of business planning, budgeting, operations, funding — they simply help leaders and outside stakeholders make better choices.
A financial forecast is an estimate of future financial outcomes for a company, and it’s an integral part of the annual budget process. It informs major financial decisions, such as whether to fund a capital project, undertake a staffing increase or seek funding. Businesses use material information from their financial forecasts on their balance sheets and other disclosures.
A financial forecast gives businesses access to cohesive reports, allowing finance departments to establish business goals that are both realistic and feasible. It also gives management valuable insights into the way the business performed in the past and the way it will compare in the future. Beyond informing internal fiscal controls and decisions, financial forecasts are essential in investor relations and when seeking loans. Banks and other funders weigh forecasts in their own decision-making processes. And startups aren’t exempt. Financial forecasts are part of any new business plan, as we’ll discuss.
