The historic and forecast financials are displayed here. The data is displayed in three sections: Actuals, Phase 1+2 (Budget and Projections) and Terminal Year.
The numbers are color-coded according to the methodology that was used to arrive at these:
Black - This is calculated value, if there a box around it you can still update it to something else
Green - This is a default value or taken from the Benchmarking data
Blue - This is a manual input
Red - The value you have entered isn't valid, most likely you're using a negative number that should have been positive
The +/- which can be found on the top left can be used to Collapse or Expand 1 Level. Next to it the user has the option to choose between different cases. Namely the Lower Case (25th percentile), the Base Case (Median) and the Upper Case (75th percentile).
On the right side above the business plan the user can alternate between different formatting. Here they can choose between black fonts for read-only, or colored fonts (and background), which highlight the difference between manual input, estimates based on peers as well as calculations done by our platform.
The user can change the financial projections (actual number or growth %/margin/ratio) by simply clicking on a cell and changing the value.
Additionally the user has the option to decide on how the forecasts will be calculated. Here they can choose between “Benchmarking data”, “Keep % constant” as well as “Interpolate %.
“Benchmarking data”: Based on the choice the user has chosen on the top left between: Lower Case (25th percentile), Base Case (Median) and Upper Case (75th percentile), the growth %/margin/ratio from the Benchmarking (peer group) will be applied to calculate the value for the Forecast Years.
“Keep % constant”: When chosen, the growth %/margin/ratio will be kept constant into the future based on either the first forecast year or the last actual year.
“Interpolate %”: incremental growth interpolation: It starts with a known value at the beginning of the period. From there, an initial growth rate is determined, which serves as the basis for the increase from the first to the second point. In the following periods, this growth rate is adjusted upwards by a set increment, reflecting an anticipated acceleration in growth. This adjusted rate is applied to the previous period's value to arrive at the next one. This procedure is repeated annually, each time increasing the growth rate by the fixed increment, and then applying this new rate to the previous period’s value, culminating in the end-period or Terminal Year value. This approach captures a scenario where growth is expected to speed up over time, rather than remaining static or linear.