Revenue Forecasting
Factor allows architecture and engineering firms to forecast revenue on a month-by-month, phase-by-phase basis. The Revenue Forecast page is located in PULSE and provides tools for projecting expected invoicing, monitoring forecast health, and comparing actuals to projections.
Overview
Revenue forecasting helps your firm with:
Cash flow planning
Financial reporting and analysis
Resource allocation and capacity planning
Identifying under- or over-invoiced phases early
How It Works
Revenue forecasts are based on project budget phases and their timelines. Factor supports two forecasting modes per phase:
Automatic forecasting distributes the phase's remaining budget across its timeline. For fixed-fee phases, the monthly forecast is calculated from the contract amount, previous invoiced amounts, and work completion percentage spread across remaining months. For hourly phases, it uses budgeted hours, blended billing rate, and planned percentage per month. As actual hours are logged and expenses incurred, the automatic forecast adjusts to reflect the difference between what was planned and what has actually been recorded.
Manual forecasting lets you enter specific dollar amounts or percentages per month, overriding the automatic calculation entirely. Factor tracks the history of manual changes including what changed, when, and who made the change.
Accessing Revenue Forecasting
Go to PULSE and select the Forecast tab. Access requires the View Revenue Forecast permission.
Reading the Forecast Page
The page displays projects as rows with months as columns. Expand a project to see its individual phases. Key visual indicators:
Cell shading indicates months that fall within the phase's timeline, helping you understand where forecasted values should land
Calculator icon on a phase row indicates automatic forecasting is active — toggling it off switches to manual forecasting
Budget dials on the left indicate whether a phase is under-forecasted (yellow), on-target (green), or over-forecasted (red)
Blue vertical line marks the current month, separating past months with actual invoice data from future months with forecasted values
Portfolio totals at the top sum all visible projects' forecasts — these reflect only projects showing after any applied filters
Entering Manual Forecasts
Click any editable cell to enter a value. You can enter a dollar amount (the system calculates the cumulative percentage of budget) or a percentage (the system calculates the dollar amount). As you move between months, the cumulative percentage updates to help you track progress toward 100% of the budget.
Switching from manual back to automatic will warn you that manual values will be wiped and replaced with the system's calculated spread.
Filtering the Forecast
Use the search and filter options to narrow the view by project manager, project type, or other criteria. Portfolio totals reflect only the filtered results — clear all filters to see the true firm-wide total.
Common Workflow
Most firms follow a monthly rhythm: review forecasts at the start of each month, then revisit after invoicing is complete to compare forecasted versus actual amounts. Project managers review their portfolios, spot discrepancies, and adjust future forecasts accordingly to maintain accurate firm-level revenue projections.
Setup and Permissions
Revenue forecasting does not require a separate configuration page. It works automatically once projects have budget phases with both a budget amount and a timeline (start and end dates). Phases missing either will show no automatic forecast — use manual forecasting for those phases.
Permissions are configured under SETTINGS > Your Team by editing a user's permission set:
View Revenue Forecast — Allows access to the Forecast page. Without this, the page is not visible.
Modify Revenue Forecast — Allows editing of forecasted values.
View/Modify Projects on Revenue Forecast where the user is not Project Manager — Users can always see and edit forecasts for projects where they're the designated project manager. This permission extends that access to projects where they are NOT the project manager - when enabled, it effectively gives them firm-wide visibility (and edit access, if the Modify version is on).
View dollar values — Controls whether the user sees dollar amounts or a percentage-only view. When off, the user sees forecasts expressed only as percentages and can only enter forecast values as percentages.
Troubleshooting
Phase Shows No Automatic Forecast
Factor needs both a budget amount and timeline dates on a phase to auto-calculate the forecast. If either is missing, no automatic values will appear. Add the missing information on the project's Budget tab and Schedule tab, or switch to manual forecasting for that phase.
Forecast Appears Over-Budget After Invoicing
This is expected behavior. After invoicing, Factor uses the actual invoiced amount rather than the original forecast when calculating remaining budget for future months. If you invoiced less than forecasted, the system may spread more into future months, which can push totals over if you also have manual forecasts that haven't been adjusted. Review and update manual forecasts after completing each month's invoicing.
Portfolio Total Doesn't Match Expected Firm Total
The portfolio total reflects only the projects currently visible after applied filters. If you've filtered by project manager, project type, or search, the total will only include matching projects. Clear all filters to see the firm-wide total. Note that users with permission-limited views will only see projects they manage, so their portfolio total will not reflect the full firm.
Cannot Edit Forecast Values
Editing requires the Modify Revenue Forecast permission. If "Modify Projects where user is not PM" is off, the user can only edit projects they manage. Also check whether the calculator icon is active on the phase — if auto-forecast mode is on, individual cells cannot be manually edited. Toggle the calculator off to enable manual entry.
Forecast Shows Values Outside the Phase Timeline
When manually forecasting, you can enter values in months outside the phase's timeline. Factor flags this with an indicator at both the phase and project level. This is allowed — you may intentionally forecast billing after the timeline ends — but verify it wasn't done in error.
Cannot See Dollar Values
There is a specific permission that controls whether a user sees dollar values on the Forecast page. If it is off, the user sees percentages only. Contact your firm administrator to enable dollar view access.