The basics
Forecasting in Planbase is a tool that allows companies to analyze historical demand from various customer interactions—such as calls, tickets, chats, and appointments—and predict future demand. These predictions help businesses efficiently plan their staffing and scheduling to meet anticipated customer needs.
Navigating to the Forecasting Page: Click on the 'Forecasts' button on the left-hand sidebar in Planbase. This will take you to the forecasting page where you can view and manage your demand data and SLAs.
Understanding datastreams
Definition: SLAs are groupings of demand data that enter Planbase from various external systems like ticketing, call systems, or appointment systems. SLAs have productivity metrics assigned to them which allow you to calculate the required staffing to fulfill customer demand.
💡 SLAs break down your demand data into categories such as calls, chats, tickets, appointments, or even customer groups.
Examples of Integrations: Common integrations include platforms like Zoho Desk, Kustomer, Zendesk, Intercom and EMRs. Planbase pulls historical data and forecasts future customer interactions from these sources.
Setting Up and Viewing Data
Forecast Graph Overview: The forecasting page displays a line graph with actual volumes (dashed line) and forecasted volumes (solid line).
Staffing Graph Overview: Below the forecast graph is the staffing graph which displays your staffing requirements, which is calculated based on the above forecasts and your configured SLAs.
Filtering and Grouping Overview: You can choose to group and filter your charts by different attributes like skills, licenses, people and SLAs. For example, the below filtering and grouping will show you how many tickets are expected in California and Colorado as well as the required number of staff to service these states.
📣📣 Ensure that your demand data is uploaded to Planbase or your systems (e.g. ticketing system) are integrated before you can view any information on this page.
Interacting with the Forecast Graph
Adjusting Intervals: You can change the data aggregation interval by selecting options like 15-minute, hourly, day parts, or daily from the dropdown.
Customizing Date Ranges
Date options: In the upper left-hand corner, you can adjust the date range you’re viewing.
Manual adjustments and events
Making adjustments: You can manually adjust your forecasts by clicking the Add Adjustment button, dragging to select the period you want to adjust, naming your adjustment, choosing applicable SLA (and other filters if applicable), and then choosing how you would like to adjust the forecasts.
Adjustment Types: There are a number of different adjustment types that allow you to scale the forecasts for different situations. See the video below for more detail on selecting the adjustment type: