• ‍To add the Spotlight Forecasting data source
• To import data from your forecast
• To select your forecast data for the report
• To update your budget values
• To remove the Spotlight Forecasting data source

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When you work in Spotlight Forecasting, you can prepare and amend your budget values. If you also use Spotlight Reporting for the same organisation, you may prefer to take this budget into the Reporting module for use in your management reports.

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To add the Spotlight Forecasting data source

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Note: If you haven't yet set up your budget in Spotlight Forecasting, for details on how to do this please refer to our Spotlight Forecasting Help Centre.

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Before you can use your forecast data as your budget, you must set up the connection to the forecast. This is an easy process and only needs to be done once. In the following months, you can simply import the updated data.

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1. From the Import tab, click the Connect button underneath Spotlight Forecasting. Alternatively, if you've already added another data source, from the Import tab, click Add another data source, then click the Connect button underneath Spotlight Forecasting.
   
   

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2. From the Organisation drop-down list, choose the organisation which contains the forecast.
   
   Tip: You can enter a keyword to search for the organisation.
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3. From the Forecast task drop-down list, choose the task which contains the budget values you want.
4. To continue, click Next.

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You are now ready to import your forecast data.

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To import data from your forecast

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1. Enter the required date range for the budget data you want to import.
   
   Note: the default date range is the current financial year.
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2. To continue, click Import.

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Once the import completes, a message appears to let you know this was successful. To select where you want to use this data in your report, please see the following section.

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To select your forecast data for the report

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Before you can use the data in your report, you will need to select where your Spotlight Forecasting budget values should appear.

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1. Open the Customise Data tab.
2. From the Budget & Projection settings area, select which budget you want to use for budgets and future projections.
   
   Budget - The budget selected for this option will be used for retrospective budget comparisons, for example YTD vs budget.
   Projection - The budget selected for this option will be used for the future projection columns for example projecting the end of year position.

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For each option, you can choose to use either the Spotlight Forecasting budget you've imported, or the original budget imported from your accounting system or spreadsheet.

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To update your budget values

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Once you've added the budget as a data source, this does not automatically update if you update your forecast. Instead, you must reimport your data.

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1. Open the Import tab and click the Spotlight Forecasting data source.
2. If required, amend the date range for the import, then click Import.

The data is then updated with the most recent values from your forecast.

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To remove the Spotlight Forecasting data source

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If you no longer need the Spotlight Forecasting data in your report, you can remove the data source from within Spotlight Reporting.

Note: This removes the data from Spotlight Reporting only. It will not remove the data from Spotlight Forecasting, and you can add this again at any time.
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1. From the Import tab, click the Spotlight Forecasting data source then click Delete data source.

2. A message appears to confirm that you want to do this. To remove the data, click Delete data source.

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The data source is now removed, and the Budget & Projection settings area is no longer available in the Customise Data tab. The imported budget from your accounting system or spreadsheet will now be used for both the budgets and projections in your report.

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