About Planning
The major benefit of the Planning feature is the ability to generate accurate daily and weekly forecasts. A forecast is a tool that enhances your ability to make important decisions and control departmental performance. In the service industry, much of the day-to-day effort is devoted to anticipating and meeting the demands guests place , a responsibility that is placed upon management personnel and employees. Meeting these needs requires that you adequately provide and use available resources. The more you know about guest demand, the more effectively you can meet that demand. The key to meeting demand is to know how much demand there will be and when that demand will occur. The main purpose of a forecast is to determine the level of demand.
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About Planning Tasks
There are several tasks involved in creating an accurate forecast. Typically, planning tasks are performed once a week. To perform these tasks, you will need the actual book count and environments from the Reservations Manager, and the Group and Contract forecast from the Sales Department. 
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Terms & Definitions
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Display Basic/Advanced Options
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(icons in upper right corner-below Log Out). Allows you to view only the most-used Planning tasks (Regular) or all of the tasks (Advanced).
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Status
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Planning screen - field descriptions
| Field | Description | Notes |
Display basic options | View only the most used planning tasks. | |
Display advanced options | View all planning tasks. | |
| Task | Name of the planning task. | READ-ONLY. |
Status |
| READ-ONLY. |
User | Displays the user User name of the last person who performed the task. | READ-ONLY. |
Complete | Indicates whether Whether the task has been completed. If the task is marked as Complete, but you find that the task is not complete, you can de-select clear the check box. | |
Action Allows you to access the task. |
To access the task, you will click the appropriate button. |
Forecasting Elements
Configuring forecasting features is accomplished through the following:
System Configuration/Forecasting Configuration
- Establishing market segments for rooms forecasting.
- Establishing revenue centers for developing forecasts.
- Establishing KBIs that impact outlet forecasts, or that will be used for determining labor standards.
Using Forecasting Features
Using forecasting features is accomplished by performing the following tasks:
- Entering actual data that will be stored for use in forecast development.
- Entering revised forecasts based on data not available to Watson.
- Generating statistical forecasts based on the information that was entered into the system.
System Reports/Forecast Reports
After configuring LMS, and supplying the appropriate data, you can do the following:
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