The Budget Forecast shows projected IT spending for a client based on data already in Lifecycle Manager. It helps you and your clients see expected costs from contracts, initiatives, and hardware replacements across upcoming quarters or years.

This article explains what appears in the forecast, where that data comes from, and how to interpret what you see.

What the forecast includes

The Budget Forecast consists of several expandable rows. Each row represents a category of IT spending and shows the total projected cost over the selected reporting periods.

These categories include:

• Contracts
• Initiatives
• Hardware Asset Types based on the asset types configured in Lifecycle Manager.

The rows you see depend on your filters and available data. Click any row to view detailed line items contributing to your total.

Where budget data comes from

Forecast values are based on data already in Lifecycle Manager.

• Contract costs come from vendor contracts added manually or synced in from a supported PSA.

You can manage contracts from the Contracts page of the client's dashboard. For more information, see Vendor & Contract Management Overview.

• Initiatives are included in the forecast if they have budget line items added.

For more information on adding budget line items in initiatives, see Budgeting for maximum Initiative success

• Hardware replacement costs are based on assets that have reached their replacement age, using the average replacement values from your hardware settings.

For more information on setting hardware replacement age and values, see Managing Hardware Settings.

Changes made to contracts, initiatives, or hardware settings automatically update the Budget Forecast.

Viewing Line items

Each category in the forecast can be expanded to show detailed line items, such as individual contracts, initiative costs, or asset replacements.

Line items are updated automatically based on changes to contracts, initiatives, or hardware settings. The expanded view matches what's shown in the budget report.