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The Setup Wizard

CompassForecasting Wizard: Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome to the CompassForecasting Wizard! The Wizard is designed to help you quickly set up your financial forecast by syncing with your Xero account and configuring your essential forecast drivers.

This guide walks you through each step of the Wizard to ensure your forecast is as accurate and tailored to your business as possible.

Step 1: Setup Details

In this initial step, we sync your foundational settings from Xero and configure the timeline of your forecast.

  • Company Profile: Review your Legal Name and Financial Year End as pulled from Xero.
  • Tax Settings: View your Xero tax basis and period. Your Forecast Entry Mode will automatically be set to Net if you are registered for tax, or Gross if you are not.
  • Number of Months: Choose how long you want your forecast to run (between 6 and 60 months). Tip: Selecting more months will give you a longer runway but may slightly slow down report generation.
  • First Month Ending: This is locked to the current month to ensure your forecast always starts from the current period.
  • Overdraft Rate: Enter your bank overdraft interest rate (% p.a.). Enter 0 if you do not use an overdraft.

Step 2: Account Mapping

Proper account mapping is critical for accurate reporting. In this step, you will categorize your Xero accounts into our standard forecasting types.

  • Review Suggested Categories: The Wizard uses an intelligent classifier to suggest a forecasting category for each account (along with a confidence score).
  • Adjust as Needed: Carefully review the suggestions. You can use the search bar to find specific accounts by name or code.
  • Locked Mappings: Some core accounts may be locked to ensure structural integrity.

Step 3: Income Tax

Configure how the system should calculate and forecast your income tax.

  • Tax Calculation Method:
    • None: No automatic tax calculation.
    • Flat Rate: Apply a single fixed percentage to your taxable income.
    • Marginal Rates: Set up progressive tax brackets (click Manage Brackets to define your ranges and rates).
  • Payment Timing: Enter how many months after the financial year-end your tax is typically paid.
  • Opening Tax Losses: Enter any prior year losses to carry forward.
  • Allow Loss Carry Forward: Toggle this on to automatically offset future taxable profits against past accumulated losses.
  • Enable Tax Adjustments: Add any specific additions or deductions required to reconcile your accounting profit to your taxable profit. You can input manual amounts or tie them directly to an account balance (Opening or Closing).

Step 4: Trade Debtors (Accounts Receivable)

Define how quickly your customers pay you.

  • Calculation Method:
    • Manual: Enter expected receipts manually in the worksheet.
    • Avg. Days: Calculate based on an average debtor days metric. You can enter this manually or use the auto-calculate wand button to automatically calculate your average days over the last year (or your selected historical period).
    • Percentages: Estimate the percentage of credit sales collected in the month of sale, and the subsequent 1 to 3 months.
  • Credit Sales Accounts: Select the revenue accounts that involve credit sales.
  • Allocation: Specify what percentage of each selected account represents credit sales.

Step 5: Trade Creditors (Accounts Payable)

Define how quickly you pay your suppliers.

  • Calculation Method: Similar to Debtors, choose between Manual, Avg. Days, or Percentages.
    • Tip: If you choose Avg. Days, you can use the auto-calculate wand button to automatically check what your average creditor days have been over the last year.
  • Credit Purchases Accounts: Select the expense accounts that involve credit purchases (accounts you don’t pay for immediately in cash).
  • Allocation: Specify what percentage of each account represents credit purchases.

Step 6: Inventory

If your business holds inventory, configure how it should be forecasted.

  • Inventory Method: Choose No Inventory, Periodic, or Perpetual.
  • Account Selection: Depending on your method, map your Opening Stock, Purchases, Closing Stock, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), and Inventory Asset accounts.
  • Drivers:
    • Sales Account(s): Select the revenue accounts used to calculate your Gross Profit Margin.
    • Avg. Inventory (days): Enter the average number of days you hold stock.
    • Gross Profit Margin %: Set your target margin.
    • Note: Both metrics can be auto-calculated from historical data using the wand icon.

Step 7: Loans

Manage your existing debt and forecast your loan repayments. Note: To use this step, ensure you mapped at least one account to LOANS_PAYABLE and one to INTEREST_EXPENSE in Step 2.

  • Loan Calculation Method: Choose No Loans or Use Schedules.
  • Group Selected Loans: If you have multiple accounts representing a single loan facility, you can select and merge them into a single group.
  • Loan Schedule Setup:
    • Enter the Loan Amount (PV), Interest Rate, Term (Months), Payment (PMT), and Residual (FV).
    • Set the Date Funded and choose the Payment Type (Arrears or Advance).
    • Click Calculate to generate the Amortization Schedule.
  • Print to Sheet: You can export a specific loan schedule to a new spreadsheet tab for your records.

Completion: Once you’ve configured your loans, click Save & Finish. Your settings will be stored securely, and you’ll be ready to dive into your detailed forecast worksheet!

Next Steps

Now that your initial setup is complete, learn more about how The Calculation Engine processes your data and how to manually trigger updates.