Baseline vs Active forecast
Baseline vs. Active
Baseline forecast
The plan you set out to hit. Your first forecast is created automatically when you finish onboarding and is your Baseline from the start. Your home page compares your progress against it. Nothing in sherloc stops you from editing it afterwards, but the process is to leave it as it is, so it stays a fixed point to compare against.
Active forecast
The forecast you plan in, built from your latest accounts. Setting a forecast as Active anchors it to your most recently uploaded actuals. Each month, as actuals come in from your accounting package, they replace that month's projected figures, and any assumptions you've added carry forward from there.
Your first forecast is both your Baseline and your Active forecast. They only become two different forecasts once you set another one as Active.
How a separate Active forecast comes to exist
Your first forecast is created automatically the moment you finish onboarding, so you don't need to do anything to bring it into existence. It carries both the Baseline forecast and Active forecast chips.
To plan without touching your Baseline, go to the Forecasts page and select Duplicate on the forecast you want to copy. The Duplicate Forecast drawer asks for a File name and an optional Description. The copy starts with everything that was on the original, including its assumptions and their results, and the original is left as it was.
The copy has no chip to begin with. A duplicate never takes on the Baseline tag, and it doesn't become Active until you say so. Select Set active on its card and confirm in the Set as Active Forecast? dialog. That dialog tells you it will anchor the forecast to your most recently uploaded actuals, and that once set you can't then anchor it to a different month.
If you ever want to start over with a clean copy, duplicate your Baseline again rather than trying to undo changes inside an existing Active forecast. A duplicate always copies from the forecast you duplicate, which isn't necessarily your Baseline.
How each behaves over time
Baseline
By process isn't meant to change after creation. That's what keeps it useful as the plan you compare against. Once another forecast is your Active forecast, your Baseline doesn't pick up actuals. While it is also your Active forecast, it does.
Active
Updates as each accounting period closes: that month's actual figures replace the projected ones. Any assumptions you've added continue to apply forward from that point. An assumption stays an assumption until an actual arrives to replace it.
Starting a new Baseline later
Your Baseline won't stay relevant forever. A new fiscal year or a strategic reset are good reasons to want a new comparison point. To do that, select Set baseline on the forecast you want to use (a duplicate of your Active forecast works well). The Set as Baseline Forecast? dialog names your current Baseline and tells you it will be replaced. Confirm, and the comparisons on your home page use the new one.
Worked example
Round numbers, one revenue line, over three months.
Month | Baseline | Active | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
Month 1 | £10,000 | £10,000 | Your first forecast is created, and it is both Baseline and Active. You duplicate it and set the copy as Active. Both forecasts are identical: no actuals or new assumptions have landed yet. |
Month 2 | £10,000 | £8,500 | The accounting period closes and real revenue comes in at £8,500. Active updates to the actual figure, and any assumptions applied to this month now use that actual rather than the earlier projection. Baseline still shows the original £10,000 projection, untouched. |
Month 3 | £10,000 | £9,200 | You add an assumption to Active for a new hire's expected impact on sales. Month 3 hasn't closed yet, so this is still a projection. Once the accounts sync and the actual arrives, it replaces this figure, and your forecast's charts and numbers use that actual from then on. Baseline is unaffected. |
Reading them on the Forecasts page
Status chips
Each forecast card shows a Baseline forecast chip, an Active forecast chip, both, or neither. The Active forecast is the one you're currently planning in; the Baseline forecast is the one your home page compares against.
Set active and Set baseline
A card that isn't yet Active has a Set active button, and a card that isn't yet your Baseline has a Set baseline button. Once a forecast holds a role, its button goes.
Last updated
Shows the last time that forecast changed: when you created it, when an actual landed, or when you edited an assumption.