How to: Set Up LS Forecast Dimensions

LS Forecast finds patterns and trends in the historical sales data and uses this knowledge to produce a sales forecast for a future time period.

To set up LS Forecast Dimensions

To upload and synchronize LS Forecast Dimensions to LS Forecast

To compare dimensions in LS Central and LS Forecast

See also

There are often so-called outliers in the historical data, which do not follow the common patterns and trends. The outliers might be explained by external factors such as weather, holiday, events, offers, and campaigns. LS Forecast Dimensions allow you to define these external factors as additional dimensions.

The dimensions can be linked to either LS Forecast Locations or LS Forecast Items. You decide how the values for the dimensions are obtained, that is downloaded from external APIs or imported from files.

LS Forecast Dimensions and LS Forecast Dimension Entries are part of the master data and need to be synchronized with LS Forecast. LS Forecast will take the uploaded dimension data into consideration during the model calculation. If the dimensions prove to be relevant, LS Forecast produces decimal values called lift factors, which represent the average effect of the dimensions on the sales. Positive lift factors mean that the external factors have a positive effect on the sales and negative lift factors indicate the opposite.

To set up LS Forecast Dimensions

Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Dimensions, and select the relevant link.
Click the New action to create a new dimension in your LS Central database.
Fill in the relevant fields:

Field	Description
Code	This field specifies the unique dimension code. The field cannot be blank and must only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z and 0-9) without spaces.
Description	This field is a description of the dimension.
Linked To	This field specifies if this dimension is item-specific or location-specific.
Active	This check box specifies whether the dimension is active or not. For newly created dimensions, you must first activate and then synchronize them to LS Forecast. For the dimensions you want to remove, you must deactivate and synchronize them to LS Forecast, before proceeding with the deletion in your LS Central client.
Pending Sync.	This check box specifies if the dimension is pending synchronization. Whenever you activate or deactivate a dimensions, this check box is automatically displayed as selected to tell you that you must synchronize the dimension before any further changes can be made on that dimension. You cannot edit this check box manually.
Use Lift in Replen. Jrnl Calc.	This field specifies if the dimension's lift values are added to the base forecast quantity during the replenishment journal calculation and on the Replenishment Sales Chart.
API URL	This field specifies the external API's URL, from which the dimension entries will be downloaded. For example, you might want to download the rain or temperature forecast from a known API service provider.
API Access Key	This field specifies the external API's Access Key which allows the download of dimension entries.
API Parameter String	This field specifies the parameters that are required by the external API. You can specify many parameters, separated by a comma.

To upload and synchronize LS Forecast Dimensions to LS Forecast

Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Dimensions, and select the relevant link.
Click Maintenance - Synchronize. This synchronizes all the dimensions in LS Central, which are pending synchronization, to LS Forecast. This means, any new dimension created in LS Central will be created in LS Forecast, and any deactivated dimension from LS Central will be removed from LS Forecast.

Alternatively, you can set up a Scheduler job to synchronize the LS Forecast Dimensions automatically. For more information see How to: Schedule Master Data Synchronization.

Note: When an inactive dimension is synchronized to LS Forecast, it will also be removed from all the related LS Forecast Locations and LS Forecast Items.

To compare dimensions in LS Central and LS Forecast

The LS Forecast Dimensions Compare page provides you with an overview of all the dimensions that are maintained in LS Forecast. You can use this page to compare these dimensions with the list of dimensions that are maintained locally in LS Central. This also helps you to easily identify any dimensions that may be out-of-sync between LS Central and LS Forecast.

Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Dimensions, and select the relevant link.
Click Maintenance- Compare (Local vs. Cloud). This helps you compare the LS Forecast dimensions with the LS Central dimensions.
Dimensions present in LS Forecast but not in LS Central are marked as Not Exist (Local). Use the Delete Dimension action to delete them from LS Forecast.

Any dimensions in LS Central, which are yet to be synchronized with LS Forecast, are marked as Out of Sync. You must synchronize these dimensions to LS Forecast.