Frequently Asked Questions

4CastPro is essentially a business forecasting,budgeting consolidation and reporting system.

It also has a full help forum accessible from the main menu. 4CastPro can be used for monthly or quarterly forecasting/reporting,budgeting or for producing the financials for a 5 year plan (There is a 5 year planning tool under Administration menu).

4CastPro is designed to import actuals from your accounting system and it works best when you import your own Chart of accounts. It is a database system that records and forecasts TB movements and balances over time.

After creating a new company in the Company Manager you will have a company with a default Chart of Accounts.

An example TB.xlsx import spreadsheet is available for download. It requires a named range called "TB"

All Accounts need to be allocated to a Statutory Accounts TYPE and to a default Management Accounts layout grouping

Both files have the same first 5 columns: ACCT,ACCTName,CC,TYPE,ACCTGP0

CC - Needs to be same as that in 4CastPro eg 001FCT

TYPE - Each account needs to be assigned to a Statutory Accounts type eg INC,COS,OVH (see list below)

ACCTGP0 - This is your Management Accounts layout grouping Eg Main Sales, Other Sales etc.

Here is what it should look like:

Go to File-Upload/Import TB.

1 Upload your TB file

2 Select the file and the company into which you wish to import

3 Click on “Initial Sync TB” to initially sync the COA with your underlying Accounting system.

You can then select the uploaded file and Click on “Import TB” to bring in actual data for the current period

Once you have setup your TB Import spreadsheet & run “Initial Sync TB” or “Initial Sync NL” to initially sync the COA with your underlying Accounting system Go to File-Upload/Import TB.

1 Upload your latest TB for the current month

2 Select the file and the company into which you wish to import

3 Click on Import TB

Alternatively there is a "Quick TB Import" button. This requires a simple xls TB with columns headed ACCT(Account code) and BAL(Account balance) on row1 of Sheet1. No named range is necessary

Once you have sync'd the COA with your underlying Accounting system you should should consider the following tasks:

• Goto Administration-Setup: Setting up the Company Name, Year End, Current Year and other assumptions

• Goto Administration-COA: To check your COA and ensure everything is rolling up under correct TYPES and ACCTGP’s

• Goto Administration-P&L Layout: To add a custom structure to your P&L Account eg separate Sales, COS or Overhead sections

• Goto Administration-Companies: Setting up the Companies within a group

• Goto Administration-Departments: Setting up the Departments/Sites within the group

• Goto Administration-FAMatrix: Setting up Fixed Asset Matrix so Depreciation is automatically calculated in your forecast/budget

• Goto File-CompanyManager: The Administrator can setup Users and their access levels for a particular company database and create/delete/copy company databases

• Goto Excel-Custom Excel Reporting: Configuration of the offline reporting spreadsheets & writing any reports to cover requirements not covered by the 'canned' reports