Forecasting number of future periods, but not past a certain date

[wallingfordce]

It's the standard in our industry that products are on sale only for a limited time. For example, tickets being sold for an event aren't sold after the event has occurred. But there's not way to forecast future sales and prevent the forecast from predicting sales after the event has passed and no sales can possibly happen. Instead, customers have to edit every forecast that is currently predicting beyond its event date, every day, to predict only the correct number of future periods. 

We'd like a way to predict N future periods, but not past a point in time at which inventory is scheduled to be no longer available.

[DRay]

Hello @wallingfordce,

I like this idea. Would it also be helpful to be able to set a specific date to stop the forecast, rather than a number of time periods?

[wallingfordce]

@DRay yes, I think that's what I'm leaning toward as a recommendation, to be used in combination with a number of periods... forecast next 6 periods but not past yyyy-mm-dd. Thanks.

[DRay]

Hi @wallingfordce,

I think I understand. Am I correct that if we can set a custom end date then we will not need to set a number of periods?

[wallingfordce]

@DRay I can see only having the data to project a few days or weeks, while having an end date that is months away. I think a person would generally either set only a number of periods, or a number of periods and an end date / cut-off date. If the cut-off date were beyond the number of periods, then all periods are projected. If the number of periods go beyond the end date, then projection stops at the end date, or the period containing the end date. Setting a forecast to just use an end date, without a number of periods seems an unlikely or far less likely use case.

[DRay]

@wallingfordce Thank you for the fast response! These details will help our product team create a feature that meets the needs of our customers. I think this is a great idea, and hopefully we will see it in a future version of the product!