Consensus forecasting (S&OP)¶
Growth+ and Agency orgs can run a structured sales and operations planning (S&OP) cycle on a completed forecast run. The statistical model output becomes the baseline; sales and ops teams layer adjustments; an admin locks the agreed numbers for exports and downstream reporting.
When to use it¶
Use consensus when your official plan must blend:
- Statistical forecast — walk-forward model output from AccuPredix
- Sales input — commercial outlook, pipeline, promotions not yet in history
- Ops input — supply constraints, capacity, inventory positioning
The locked consensus is the number you take to replenishment, finance, and customer meetings.
Starting a cycle¶
- Open a completed run for the workspace you are planning.
- Scroll to the Consensus panel (Growth+ feature gate).
- Click Start consensus cycle (admin or owner).
The cycle begins in Sales review (open). Only members in the sales lane (or
both) can edit sales-layer cells until sales submits.
Sales and ops lanes¶
Org admins assign each member an S&OP lane under Members:
| Lane | Can edit during |
|---|---|
| Sales | Sales review stage |
| Ops | Ops review stage |
| Both | Either stage (typical for analysts) |
| (unset) | Treated as both for analysts; viewers cannot edit |
Stages advance in order:
- Sales review — sales adjusts cells vs the statistical baseline
- Ops review — ops reviews and adjusts the ops layer
- Ready to lock — both layers submitted; admin can lock
- Locked — consensus frozen; exports can apply locked values
Admins advance the stage with Submit to ops, Submit to lock, and Lock consensus.
Live collaboration¶
While a cycle is open, the panel polls every few seconds and shows:
- Live badge when others are active on the same run
- Activity feed of recent edits and stage changes
- Conflict dialog if two people edit the same cell within 60 seconds — choose to keep your value or accept theirs
This mirrors the collaborative planning session pattern (WF-005) but follows the S&OP stage gates instead of free-form override editing.
Locking¶
Locking requires admin/owner role. Add an optional comment for the audit log. After lock:
- No further sales or ops edits on that run
- Export and meeting pack can apply consensus (
apply_consensus) - Scheduled reports automatically include locked consensus when the latest completed run for the workspace has a locked cycle
Dashboard widget¶
The org Dashboard shows an S&OP consensus card when any workspace has an active or recently locked cycle on its latest run. Jump straight into the run from the workspace link.
Exports and scheduled reports¶
From run detail Export:
- Enable Apply consensus when the cycle is locked to replace model quantiles with agreed values in CSV, Excel, or PDF.
Under Settings → Scheduled reports, portfolio and meeting-pack schedules note that locked consensus is applied automatically when available.
Related workflow features¶
| Feature | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Workspaces & scenarios | Overrides before consensus |
| Reports & exports | Scheduled delivery with consensus |
| Forecast approval (WF-001) | Optional governance before lock |
| Forecast lock (WF-002) | Separate run-level freeze |
Tier access¶
Consensus forecasting requires Growth or Agency. Freemium and Starter orgs see an upgrade prompt on the run page.