Forecast Function in Anaplan

Hi team,

Can i know if we have an equivalent function for forecast() from excel in Anaplan. In Excel we have

Excel FORECAST function

The FORECAST function in Excel is used to predict a future value by using linear regression. In other words, FORECAST projects a future value along a line of best fit based on historical data.

The syntax of the FORECAST function is as follows:

FORECAST(x, known_y's, known_x's)

Where:

X (required) - a numerical x-value for which you want to predict a new y-value.
Known_y's (required) - an array of known dependent y-values.
Known_x's (required) - an array of known independent x-values.

Regards

Roshin Rasheed

Accepted answers

nathan_rudman

Linear regression is not a function in Anaplan but you can build the calculation.
Look for examples of it on the app hub (I know it is in the statistical forecast app)

All comments

Misbah

@roshinrasheed

No, there is no such functionality but there are other means thru which you can get the desired results after all this is Anaplan and it allows you to do flexible modelling. There are more than a dozen forecasting algorithms that can be created within Anaplan. If I have to name a few here are these

1. Simple Average

2. Moving Average

3. Single Exponential Smoothing

4. Double Exponential Smoothing (Holt's DES and Brown's DES)

5. Triple Exponential Smoothing

6. Winter's Additive

7. Winter's Multiplicative

nathan_rudman

Linear regression is not a function in Anaplan but you can build the calculation.
Look for examples of it on the app hub (I know it is in the statistical forecast app)

arti.kalekar1

Hello @Misbah ,

I have a requirement for a demand planning use case. Customer would like to see a 1) simple moving average forcast, 2) double exponential smoothing, 3) triple exponential smoothing. And finally Anaplan should identify the best fit forecast based on the above three.

Could you guide please on getting the best fit part.

Regards

Arti

kavinkumar

HI @arti.kalekar1,

Would suggest you download the prebuilt Statistical Forecast app from App hub. There you could find all the 3 methods and there is also an option to find which one is the best.

zimin-oleg

Hi, If it's still interesting, attached is an optimised logic that reproduce Excel forecast logic within 1 module (9 lineitems). The module is taking sales volumes across Product types - as Y. As X it takes Months number.
It then calculates Slope (B) and Intersect (A) for forecast equation = B*X+A

Attached is a blueprint.

Excel Forecast blueprint.xlsx

Having A and B calculated you then could calculate the forecast for Sales Volumes in external module using the equation

New_Y = B*New_X+A

I've attached a picture with more detailed theory explanation. All lineitems were named in accordance with it.

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