Forecast Manager | Access, Navigation

Forecast Manager is a centralized forecasting tool that uses AI-generated data from Fourth products and allows users to fine-tune forecasts, apply event-based changes, and sync forecasts across systems — improving accuracy, efficiency, and decision-making at scale.

Forecast Manager integrates AI Forecast data from Fourth, allows adjustments, and exports forecasts to core products, enhancing the overall efficiency and accuracy of your forecasting activities.

Accessing Forecast Manager

If your user account is assigned to a profile with access to Forecast Manager, it will be displayed within the application launcher (Fig.1).

• Using a desktop browser, go to secure.fourth.com, select All Applications and then ForecastManager

The application will launch in a new browser tab.

The Forecast Manager landing page serves as the Summary page, providing a consolidated weekly view of forecast performance. Weeks can be reviewed at a glance, with a summary of Event numbers, Forecast, Last Year Actual and Year-on-Year Variance (Fig.2). The Forecast Manager will be loaded to the default Location associated with your user profile.

The combined graph and data table support different ways to review the data, while event-level tooltips (Fig.3) provide additional context on specific factors. This view enables quick access to relevant information to support planning decisions.

Forecast Page

• To view Forecast details for the current week, select the Forecast Page button from the side menu (Fig.4), or select a different week from the list (also Fig.4)

The Forecast page contains the following:

• Header – Location selection, volume type (sales or items), Day/Week view, Week selection, and forecast actions
• Forecast Summary - AI Forecast, Adjusted Forecast, Actual, and Last Year values
• Forecast Graph - including Forecast Breakdown
• Forecast Detail Table - on the 'Week' view, Forecast series are presented as rows, and time periods are in columns
• Events Summary - 

Changing Locations

• If you have access to more than one Location, select Change (see Fig.6) next to the current Location

A side drawer will open, listing the locations that you have access to.

•  Select the desired location and then Apply to switch to that location
• To navigate back to the current location, either select Cancel or the X icon

Forecast Actions

When forecasts are edited/changed (via 'Events' see separate article), the Sync button becomes available. It is also possible to Lock and Reset the forecast. For more information on this, please see Forecast Manager | Forecast Actions

Forecast Manager Filters

Next on the page are filters (see Fig.8) that can be applied to control the data displayed. These are:

• Volume type – the forecast volumes for your location, e.g. Sales, Guests, Deliveries, Sales/Menu Items
• Day/Week – toggle between Day/Week view (default is Week)
• Week – allows selection of the desired week date range

For more information on filtering by Sales/Menu items, please see Forecast Manager | Sales/Menu Items Summary and Forecast Pages 

Forecast Summary

The forecast summary contains three tiles (Fig.9) representing totals for the filters applied:

• AI forecast – the current forecast that the AI Forecast engine has produced
• Adjusted forecast – the forecast based on events applied
• Actual – the actual sales achieved once processed
• Last year - the actual sales from this time last year

Next to the totals, a comparison of how the current forecasts and actuals trend in relation to the previous year is also displayed - see Fig.6.

Forecast Graph

Beneath the Forecast Summary, a graph providing a visual representation of the forecast over the volume, day/week and date/range selected is displayed. The style of the graph differs between day/week selection.

As with the forecast summary, representation of the forecast values is available:

• Forecast
• AI Forecast 
• Actual
• Last Year
• 4 Weeks Average
• System Event
• Adjusted forecast – stacked, split by revenue centre
   
• To see the values for each data point, hover your cursor over any point on the graph

• The graph displays forecasts in an aggregated view. To see them broken down by sales type/revenue stream, use the Forecast Breakdown toggle

Week graph

The week graph (Fig.12) starts on the week start day for the location.

 Day graph

 The day graph (Fig.13) will start based on the business day start time for the location selected. 

System Events in the Forecast Week Graph

If any events are set up in the system, they will be indicated on the Forecast Week graph with a star icon (Fig.12).

For guidance on setting up events, please see Forecast Manager | Events and Forecast Adjustments

• Hover over the event icon to see its details in the information displayed - see Fig.15.

Forecast Table

• On the 'Week' view, Forecast series are presented as rows, and time periods are in columns
  Intervals are represented as sub-rows on the 'Day' view.

• Forecast - The forecast used by downstream systems such as HotSchedules, Macromatix, WFM UK, and Inventory
• AI Forecast - The latest AI Forecast generated by Fourth's Forecast Engine
• Last Year - Actuals from the same weekday last year (for example, this Monday compared with Monday last year, not the same calendar date)
• 4-Week Average: The average actuals for the same weekday across the last four weeks
• Actuals - The actual values for each day/date

The '4 Weeks Average' % indicator compares the average value to the equivalent four-week period from the previous year. Again, this is shown in the tooltip explanation (Fig.19).

• On the 'Day' view, use the Business Hours toggle to show only the hours when the location is open, (reducing the number of intervals displayed)

Language Settings

Forecast Manager will use the language setting applied in the user's profile on the Fourth app.

• To change the language in the Fourth app, select your profile icon from the top left corner
• Make a selection from the Language drop-down

The text language onscreen will automatically change (see Fig.21), and the same can be seen in the Forecast Manager tool (see Fig.22).