Generating Future Months not in dataset

[nsessa]

Hi,

I need help on a problem I am trying to solve. Basically I have a workflow where I summarize sales and create forecasts at different levels (product type, region, etc.) All sales and forecasts are at the month level for the past two years. I want to be able to show the projection values for future months (03/2021 - 12/2021), even though those date values are not in the data yet. The projection formula is a multi row formula, so I will have a running list of projection with no actuals. 

How can I do this? I have been trying to use the generating rows formula but am having issues. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

[Emil_Kos]

Hi @nsessa,

Generate rows can be quite challenging at the beginning. 

Hope this wil be helpful!

I have created a workflow for you that creates new 12 months.

[nsessa]

Thank you for the quick reply, this is helpful. Is the generating rows tool the right one to use for my use case? I have 2 years of data but it is summarized different times such as product type, area, etc. I need the future months to be added only once, for each value within a summarization. 

I will try uploading an example, I can't upload the actual data and workflow. 

[ArtApa]

Hi @nsessa - I understand that you have a solution idea in your mind. @Emil_Kos has provided a way how you can implement your idea. However, I wanted to throw something else on the table. Also, it may be totally irrelevant, but have you considered Time Series Forecasting for your use case? It's easy! You can learn this here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Interactive-Lessons/tkb-p/interactive-lessons/label-name/Time%20Ser...

[danilang · Accepted solution]

Hi @nsessa 

The concept that @Emil_Kos suggested is the way to go but you need to modify it to fit your summarization needs

Assuming that your data looks something like this with a date field, some data and a summarization field

Select the last date for each summarization level, generate 12 new months for each of these and append the new rows to your original data.  

This will give you 12 new months continuing on from the last month in each level.  From here you can apply your custom forecasting method to the new rows

Dan