Forecasting in PayCanvas

Forecasting compares Expected revenue with Expected payroll in a bar chart. It is a provisional operating snapshot, not an accounting statement or a new payroll calculation. The revenue label represents captured active booking subtotals; payroll is an estimate based on the selected calculated pay period.

Prerequisites

• Access to the payroll account.
• Captured booking data for booked-value charts.
• A selected calculated run for a meaningful payroll run-rate comparison.

Review a forecast

1. Open Forecasting.
2. Check the selected payroll period. Its calculated total supplies the payroll estimate.
3. Choose 13 weeks, 6 months, or 12 months. The 13-week view starts on the displayed as-of date. The month views look backward from that date, starting at the first day of the earliest included month.
4. Review Expected revenue, Expected payroll, and Payroll / revenue together.
5. Compare the Revenue and payroll bars. PayCanvas groups the window into daily, weekly, or monthly buckets.
6. Confirm source coverage and the payroll basis before using the figures for a business decision. Ask support if you cannot establish that the underlying data is complete.

Changing the timeframe changes only the view. It does not alter source data, Canvas rules, or a payroll run. The current dashboard does not offer scenario selectors, custom date ranges, or a separate data-quality panel.

What the three metrics mean

• Expected revenue: captured active booking subtotals within the displayed dates. These are booked values, not recognized accounting revenue or cash received. The view does not invent future bookings.
• Expected payroll: the selected calculated period's payroll divided by its number of days, then spread across the displayed window. It is not a prediction from future staffing schedules or a recalculation of each future employee's pay.
• Payroll / revenue: estimated payroll as a share of booked value. Any amount shown as remaining is before other costs, not profit. A missing or zero revenue basis does not establish a meaningful operating margin.

Expected result

You can compare booked value with a consistent payroll run-rate estimate across the available timeframes, while keeping the limitations below in mind.

Important limitations

• Booking subtotal is not recognized revenue, cash received, or settlement value.
• Cancelled and rebooked bookings are excluded when their lifecycle is known.
• Missing subtotals and unknown booking states are not filled with invented values. Their absence can make the chart incomplete.
• Operating expenses and opening cash are not connected in the current view.
• Operating margin, ending cash, and runway remain unavailable.
• The displayed generated/as-of date is not proof that every provider has just synced successfully.
• Zero or empty bars may reflect missing coverage, not genuinely zero sales or payroll.

Current limitation: This forecast does not yet have reviewed sources for accounting revenue, non-payroll operating expenses, bank activity, receivable or payable timing, or tax treatment.

Troubleshooting

• No captured bookings: the forecast source is not enabled, has not synced, or has no covered records.
• Payroll run rate is unavailable: select a calculated payroll period.
• Numbers look too low: confirm the selected period and source coverage with support; the simplified chart does not expose every collection diagnostic.
• The month view is not a future forecast: the 6- and 12-month controls show trailing calendar windows; use 13 weeks for the forward-looking window.
• A value looks like accounting revenue: the label Expected revenue still means provisional booked value, not recognized revenue.

Related articles

• Data sources and imports
• Creating and reviewing payroll runs
• Audit trails, evidence, and version history