A forecast is about estimating and allocating a budget in advance for a property or a project.

A forecast depends on the expenditure patterns of the currently allocated budget. Based on this forecast, the balance budget is calculated and the predicted expenditure is transferred to a real expenditure (orders / contracts).

Before a forecast is made, the commitments from the current orders and contracts as well as the upcoming expenditure must be considered. After a forecast is defined, the budget (for that forecast) cannot be changed.

A forecast can have hard and soft values. A hard forecast projects the real forecast value that gives the remaining budget.
A soft forecast provides a prediction of any possible changes that can influence the hard forecast.