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, 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.

Click the links below to learn more about forecasting:

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.

Planning screen - field descriptions

Field	Description	Notes
Display basic options	View only the most used planning tasks.	Default view: Display basic options.
Display advanced options	View all planning tasks.
Task	Name of the planning task.	READ-ONLY.
Status	Date on which the task was last performed N/A – Indicates that the task has not been performed.	READ-ONLY.
User	User name of the last person who performed the task.	READ-ONLY.
Complete	Whether the task has been completed. If the task is marked as Complete, but you find that the task is not complete, you can clear the check box.
Action	If the task has not previously been accessed, you see a Start button. If the task has been accessed but not completed, you see an Update button. If the task was marked as Complete, you see a Restart button. To access the task, 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:

Print reports that provide forecasts for the coming week.
Print reports that provide actual volumes for previous weeks.

Planning (Labor)