Forecasting

Forecast what can still be invoiced. Every active Task's value plotted by due date, by Account Manager, and by Client, split into what has already been billed and what has not.

The Forecasting report predicts what can still be converted into Invoices, and when.

It reads every active Task across the agency, takes its value, and splits it into the portion already billed and the portion still to bill. Where Work Distribution measures the same work in hours, Forecasting measures it in money.

Because Agencydesk was built exclusively for agencies, this comes out of work already sold and scheduled rather than a separate pipeline someone maintains by hand. It is a forecast of committed revenue, not a wish list.

Open it from Reports in the left-hand navigation, then the Forecasting tab.

The two measures

Every chart uses the same two-part bar:

• Unbilled (blue) — value on active Tasks that has not been invoiced yet. This is the forecast.

• Billed (grey) — value on those same Tasks already covered by an issued Invoice.

The two together are the Task's full value. As billing progresses, value moves from blue to grey.

A Job carries a Corporate Identity Task of 20 hours at R1,000 an hour, so R20,000 of value.

A 50% deposit is invoiced. The Task now contributes R10,000 grey and R10,000 blue.

The blue portion is what you can still invoice on that Task, and it sits in the month the Task is due.

Reading the charts

Hover any segment for its exact value.

Click a bar to drill in. A popup opens listing every Job contributing to that bar, with the hours behind it, paginated with a page-size control. So a month that looks unusually large is one click from the Jobs that made it so.

Total Receivables by Task Due Date

A month-by-month column chart of receivables, timed by Task due date.

A Task due in March contributes to March, whether or not anyone has invoiced it yet. That makes the chart a month-by-month revenue pipeline: the blue portion of each column is what should be billable by the end of that month.

Great for cash-flow planning. A quiet April followed by a very heavy May tells you when the money is likely to land and when it is not, far enough ahead to do something about it. Pull invoicing forward where the work allows, or plan around the gap.

A month carrying a large blue column that has already passed is not a forecast, it is a backlog. Work that was due and has not been billed belongs on the Active Jobs report as a billing action rather than sitting in a forward projection.

Total Receivables by Account Manager

The same receivables grouped by the Account Executive responsible for the Job.

This shows both how much revenue each AE is carrying and how much of it they have converted. Two AEs with similar totals can look very different once the split is visible: one mostly grey has been billing as work completes, one mostly blue has not.

Great for a billing discipline conversation. Unbilled value is not lost, but it is money the agency has earned the right to ask for and has not. Seeing it per AE turns a vague instruction to keep on top of billing into a specific number attached to a specific book.

Total Receivables by Client

Receivables grouped by Client, with the same billed and unbilled split.

Great for managing exposure. A Client carrying a very large unbilled balance is a concentration of risk, especially if the work is being delivered ahead of any payment. It is also the clearest argument for a deposit or staged billing on the next engagement with them.

What the forecast is, and is not

A few things worth holding in mind when reading these numbers.

• It is based on estimated values, not tracked time. A Task worth R20,000 contributes R20,000 whether it takes ten hours or thirty. It forecasts what you can invoice, not what the work will cost you.

• It covers active Tasks only. Draft work sitting on a Job Costing that has not been approved is not in here, which is correct. It has not been sold yet.

• Timing follows Task due dates. Move a due date and the receivable moves with it, so the accuracy of the forecast depends on the schedule being honest.

Use this alongside the Finance page. Forecasting shows what you can still invoice. Finance shows what you have invoiced and what has actually been paid. Between the two you have the full picture from work sold to cash received.