Forecast

Forecasting in Atlar lets you project future cash movements across your entities and accounts using either top-down estimates or detailed bottom-up transactions. You can build forecasts at the level of detail you need and then compare your high-level estimates with the specific future transactions that support them.

With Atlar, you can:

• Forecast at the entity or account level.
• Combine top-down forecast estimates with bottom-up forecasted transactions.
• Add forecasted transactions manually, via bulk CSV import, or from ERP integrations.
• Add forecast estimates by uploading a forecast or generating the forecast from historical data using statistical models like ARIMA.
• Analyze how forecasted transactions compare to the forecast estimates.

Forecast Level: Entity vs. Account

A forecast can be created at either the entity level or the account level, and this choice sets the level of detail you’ll work with. Entity-level forecasting gives you aggregated, top-down projections, while account-level forecasting exposes individual accounts and lets you filter or group by additional fields such as market, account group, or third party.

This choice determines both the data granularity and the available filtering and grouping options.

• Entity-level forecasting provides a broad overview—ideal for consolidated or strategic cash flow planning.
  • Aligns with budgets and board-level targets across subsidiaries.
  • Faster planning cycles with fewer inputs; good for scenario modeling.
  • Clearer view of group liquidity for funding/transfer decisions.
  • Reduces noise from account-level volatility; better for high-level covenants and runway tracking.
  • Simpler approvals/ownership (e.g., owned by FP&A or group treasury).
• Account-level forecasting gives greater detail and flexibility. You can filter and group by fields such as market, account group, or third party—options not available at the entity level.
  • Supports precise FX planning
  • More accurate payment scheduling (AP/AR timing, settlement cut-offs).
  • Early warning for overdraft risk on specific accounts; avoid fees and failed payments.
  • Optimizes interest and pooling (decide when to sweep, fund, or invest).
  • Finer-grained counterparty and market exposure reporting.
  • Better operational controls (limits by account, bank, or third party).

⚙️ Configuration:

Set your forecast level under Settings → Cash Flow Structure → Forecast Method.

You can only view a forecast using one level at a time—either entity or account. Because the two levels represent different aggregation structures, they can’t be mixed within the same forecast.

Forecast Type: Forecast vs. Forecasted Transactions

Atlar uses two complementary types of forecast values, each serving a different purpose in the cash-flow picture:

How values appear together

If you have both forecast estimates and forecasted transactions in the same cell (same entity or account, same date, same category), Atlar will display:

• The forecast estimate (top-down).
• The forecasted transactions (bottom-up) as a percentage of the forecast (if you toggle this on under table settings) → In the example above, €82,251 of known future transactions would fill 82.25% of the forecast.

This gives you visibility into how much of your estimate is covered by specific transactions.

Fallback behavior (when one is missing)

Atlar dynamically decides what value to display in each cell:

• If a forecast estimate exists, the system shows that value.
• If no forecast estimate exists but forecasted transactions do, the system shows the transaction total.
• If neither exists, the cell is left blank.

Data Sources

Forecast inputs can come from several sources:

• Manual entry – Add individual forecasted transactions directly.
• Bulk upload – Import CSV files containing forecasted transactions or forecast estimates.
• ERP integrations – Automatically pull in upcoming bills, invoices, or other expected transactions.
• Forecast models – Generate forecasts automatically using ARIMA or SMA models.
  • These model-generated values are treated as forecasts (top-level estimates), not forecasted transactions.

Configuration settings:

There are several ways to configure the forecast to look at the data from different lenses

Chart settings

• Chart type:
  • Line chart displays the values as lines
  • Bar chart display the values as bars
• Scenario comparison:
  • When comparing scenarios with each other, you can choose to compare either net cash flow or closing balance
• Bar layout:
  • Diverging will display negative values
  • Standard will display absolute values
• Groups:
  • Here, you can choose what you to display in the chart - you have the option to display various groups, net cash flow, or closing balance.

Scenarios:

• Select any scenario to view its chart and data.
• You can also compare scenarios—for example, the base case versus a more aggressive case by pressing the eye icon.

Standard configuration:

• As in most other places in the system, you can shift the dates, build filters and create filter sets for common views, and choose to display the data in a different currency.

Switching Forecast Levels

You can switch between entity- and account-level forecasting at any time without losing data. Switching levels doesn’t modify the forecast—it simply changes the level of aggregation shown.

This makes it easy to experiment with different forecasting structures without losing any data.