Planning and Forecasting

Planning and forecasting is the managerial process of mapping out corporate actions based on past and present data trends. Planning encompasses everything from high level corporate plans to strategic plans, to operational, HR, expense, capacity, sales and operational, balance sheet, profitability, capital, cash flow planning and more. Some may be long term, like strategic planning, while others are short term, like operational planning. To create a plan is to detail KPIs and events that should lead up to reaching a specific objective. Since forecasts are predictions of future events, plans often use forecasts in order to inform the decision making process.