You can run a forecast with one click. When you select a workstream, Tymeshift begins calculating the future contact volumes and staffing needs. Depending on how much historical ticket data you have, it might take a moment to see the forecast for the selected workstream.
In some cases, not enough data may be collected yet to show the forecast. Instead, Tymeshift shows you a fauxcast. A fauxcast repeats the actual forecast.
For example, if you have three months of data, Tymeshift repeats the three-month pattern for the remainder of the year. You can contact support@tymeshift.com to initiate a manual historical ticket data collection.
This article contains the following sections:
- Organizing workstreams
- Understanding inbound volume
- About required staffing
- Selecting the historical volume period
- Related articles
Organizing workstreams
The workstreams you created appear on the left panel of the Forecast page. See Creating workstreams to create any additional workstreams or modify your existing workstreams.
To organize your workstreams, you can use the following options :
- Show or hide a workstream on your main trends chart by selecting the eye icon
to show the workstream in the forecast. - Workstreams with additional volume adjustments will have a chart icon
next to them for easier identification. - Recalculate your forecast at any time by hovering over a workstream and clicking on the options menu icon
. - Change the color of a workstream by hovering over the workstream and clicking the options menu icon .
- Group your workstreams in a folder to see a combined forecast for multiple workstreams. Click the folder icon (
) to create a folder, then drag your Workstreams there.
Only ten or fewer workstreams can be visible on a chart at a time.
Understanding inbound volume
After your forecast is available, it's displayed on the Inbound volume chart. The color represents the color of the selected workstream. You'll be able to see historical data and future volume estimations. On the chart, you can select daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly views of the incoming workload.
About the Inbound volume chart
The Inbound volume chart marks where the historical data ends and the forecast begins. Every time you recalculate the forecast, the mark moves accordingly. Each value on the line marked as a historical value is the amount registered until the last recalculation. If Tymeshift doesn't have the full value for that time period (either not a full day or a full week), then the chart displays the values tracked so far. This may appear as a sudden drop because they are only partial volumes.
Hovering over the chart intervals shows you the values of expected volumes for the selected workstreams.
You can also expand the chart to a table view which can be exported. The table allows you to view the estimated incoming volumes and the values for each workstream shown based on the selected interval option. 
The forecast allows you to adjust your expected volumes based on unique events (for example, marketing campaigns, feature sunset). To learn more, see Editing the forecast.
About required staffing
Based on the forecast, Tymeshift calculates the staff count needed to handle the expected workload in the Required staffing chart. Colors represent the selected workstreams and you'll see the required staffing values when you hover over the chart.
The chart shows the projected required staffing count for upcoming dates. Historical required staffing calculations aren't stored.
You can also expand the chart to a table view which can be exported.
When Tymeshift calculates required staffing, Zendesk business hours aren't taken into account. Instead, the staffing requirements based on the historical times of incoming volumes are displayed so you can consider business hours adjustments if needed. For the day and week view, the staffing requirements value reflects the maximum FTE value attained on that time interval. For the month and year view, it's the sum of the required hours.
The forecast allows you to modify your required staffing parameters. To learn more, see Editing the forecast.
Selecting the historical volume period
You can select the Historical volume period for each workstream. This allows you to choose to import or omit historical data from your forecast calculation.
There must be a minimum of one month worth of data to forecast. If you enter a date with less than one month of data, the forecast will not generate. Additionally, there is a maximum of two years of data used. Any data further out than two years will not be used.
To select the historical volume period
- Hover over the cloud icon, then select Forecast.
- Hover over the workstream you want to use, then click the options menu icon (three dots).
- Select Historical volume, then Use Zendesk data.
- In the window, leave the toggle on to use all data. Alternatively, to ignore data from before a certain date, toggle it off and choose the date you would like to ignore prior to the date chosen.
- Click Apply and generate the forecast. The forecast recalculates based on the data from the date entered.
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