Sales Forecasting

Projection or prediction of future sales. It is the foundation for the quantification of the entire business plan and a Master (Comprehensive) Budget. Sales forecasts serve as a basis for planning. They are the basis for capacity planning, budgeting, production and inventory planning, manpower planning, and purchasing planning. There are two primary approaches to sales forecasting: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative approaches include salespeople polls and consumer surveys. Quantitative methods include Moving Average, Exponential Smoothing, Trend Analysis, and Regression Analysis.