You can set up drivers to enter business inputs which drive your forecasts. For example, you might want to budget for a specific number of units to be sold at a particular price. With the Drivers option, you can create additional accounts to hold this information and then use them in a dynamic rule to calculate the values for the account. By updating the underlying drivers, you can quickly see how changes – for example a price increase next year – affect your forecast.
Ensure that the From Date and To Date cover the date range you need. Note: Because drivers can be used in any forecast, the date range you set here should cover all months you use in forecasts. Setting the date range here does not limit the range you can use in your forecasts, but does make driver information available for all relevant months.
To create your new driver click Add Driver. Tip: Some default drivers have already been set up for you, but you can create as many of your own as you need.
Enter the name of the new driver, for example 'Large widget price'.
You can use the category field (optional) to categorise drivers. For example by the type of driver 'Price' or model 'Large Widget'.
To save your new driver, click Save.
Enter values for your drivers
If you prefer, you can simply enter the values for each driver directly into the data grid. However, to save you time when entering or amending the values for the drivers there is also an adjustment option available.
Note: You can make changes to your drivers at any time. These changes will affect any forecast which uses the drivers.
Within the Create or Customise Drivers option, click any cell for the driver you want to adjust then click the adjust button to the right of the cell.
From the Apply Adjustment To section, select how you want to apply the adjustment:
All Months in Drivers - Adjust all of the months in the drivers section. This is the default option. Choose Dates - Adjust only the months in the date range you select. By Month - Adjust each month’s value individually. When you choose this option, a box appears to adjust each month in the Amount to Adjust section.
From the Amount to Adjust section, select one of the following adjustment options: Note: If you selected the By Month option in step 5, you must enter a value in each monthly box.
Apply fixed amount each month - Use the exact value you enter for all months. Adjust by amount each month - Adjust by a set amount. You can then choose to base this adjustment on the previous month's value, the existing value, or the previous year's value as the starting point. Adjust by percentage each month - Adjust by a percentage. You can then choose to base this adjustment on the previous month's value, the existing value, or the previous year's value as the starting point.
If required, enter any comments, then to save your adjustments click Apply.
Use your drivers in a forecast
Once you've added your drivers, you can use them to calculate business activity in your forecasts by using dynamic rules. Further information about working with dynamic rules is available within our dynamic rules article.
When you make future changes to your drivers, all dynamic rules which use the drivers automatically update.
Show your drivers on your report
If you want to show the driver values on the report, you can do this using the Drivers page.
