Forecast seasonal sales
See this course’s project requirements
A fictional twelve-month accrual income forecast with demand/capacity drivers, cost behavior, seasonality, sensitivity and revision log.
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What to include
- A feasible-unit and earned-revenue driver ledger.
- A twelve-month seasonal sales and capacity reconciliation.
- A cost-behavior and monthly profit bridge.
- A checked twelve-month income statement with annual bridge.
- A linked price/demand/cost sensitivity with twelve changed rows.
- An actual-versus-static/flexible profit bridge and revision log.
Review and revise
Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.
- Drivers: demand/capacity/price/cost assumptions are explicit.
- Aggregation: all 12 monthly rows reconcile annual profit.
- Scenarios: linked changes update rounding/capacity consistently.
- Evidence: actual/flexible/static bridges and historical revisions remain separate.
Want more background?
The idea in everyday life
Original fictional practice. All money is USD. No account, payment, personal record or outside participation is required. Original fictional service firm: monthly demand Jan.. Dec=80,90,100,110,120,130,140,150,160,170,180,190. Capacity 150 units/month; units=min(demand, capacity), no inventory/backlog. Each delivered unit earns 40 revenue and 22 variable cost; fixed operating expense 1,800/month and noncash depreciation 100/month. No interest, tax or owner withdrawal modeled. Revenue is earned on delivery, not payment arrival. January actual:90 units, price 38, variable cost 23/unit, fixed 1,800, depreciation 100. Linked price scenario: price 44, demand falls 10% rounded down to whole units, capacity 150; other costs initially fixed.
Seasonality changes monthly drivers; it does not remove physical capacity.
Forecast seasonal sales — complete worked case
Seasonality changes monthly drivers; it does not remove physical capacity.
Original fictional service firm: monthly demand Jan.. Dec=80,90,100,110,120,130,140,150,160,170,180,190. Capacity 150 units/month; units=min(demand, capacity), no inventory/backlog. Each delivered unit earns 40 revenue and 22 variable cost; fixed operating expense 1,800/month and noncash depreciation 100/month. No interest, tax or owner withdrawal modeled. Revenue is earned on delivery, not payment arrival. January actual:90 units, price 38, variable cost 23/unit, fixed 1,800, depreciation 100. Linked price scenario: price 44, demand falls 10% rounded down to whole units, capacity 150; other costs initially fixed.
Complete monthly drivers
Paste at A1.
| AMonth | BDemand | CCapacity | DUnits | ERevenue | FVariable cost | GFixed+depreciation | HProfit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80 | 150 | 80 | 3200 | 1760 | 1900 | -460 |
| 2 | 90 | 150 | 90 | 3600 | 1980 | 1900 | -280 |
| 3 | 100 | 150 | 100 | 4000 | 2200 | 1900 | -100 |
| 4 | 110 | 150 | 110 | 4400 | 2420 | 1900 | 80 |
| 5 | 120 | 150 | 120 | 4800 | 2640 | 1900 | 260 |
| 6 | 130 | 150 | 130 | 5200 | 2860 | 1900 | 440 |
| 7 | 140 | 150 | 140 | 5600 | 3080 | 1900 | 620 |
| 8 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 6000 | 3300 | 1900 | 800 |
| 9 | 160 | 150 | 150 | 6000 | 3300 | 1900 | 800 |
| 10 | 170 | 150 | 150 | 6000 | 3300 | 1900 | 800 |
| 11 | 180 | 150 | 150 | 6000 | 3300 | 1900 | 800 |
| 12 | 190 | 150 | 150 | 6000 | 3300 | 1900 | 800 |
Copy as plain text
1. 2.1 Forecast
List all 12 demands and apply capacity month by month.
You should see: Full inventory of twelve rows.
2. 2.2 Forecast
Add uncappeddemand and feasible units totals separately.
You should see: 1,620 versus 1,520.
3. 2.3 Forecast
Reconcile 100 lost units from Sep.. Dec, then multiply feasible 1,520 by 40.
You should see: Annual 60,800.
4. 2.4 Forecast
Change capacity to 160 and repeat monthly minimum rule.
You should see: Feasible 1,560, demand loss 60, annual 62,400.
What to finish
A twelve-month seasonal sales and capacity reconciliation.
Watch for this
Using annual average capacity to pretend peak demand can be served in quiet months.
How can I tell I understand it?
Verify that your completed twelve-month seasonal sales and capacity reconciliation meets the three lesson-specific checks and retains the supporting original records.
Quick knowledge check
Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.
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Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
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Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01
Read revenue/activity and variable/fixed operating budgets, noncash expense and income-statement assembly; all monthly driver values are original.
Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.
Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.
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