Building a forecast from scratch is time-consuming — and often unnecessary. If you've already put the work into creating a solid budget, why not use it as your starting point? With the duplicate feature in Syft’s forecasting tool, you can turn your existing budget into a fully independent forecast in just a few clicks, giving you a head start without giving up flexibility.
Here's how it works, what to keep in mind, and an example of how it plays out in practice.
Overview
When you duplicate a budget into a forecast, a complete copy of the selected budget is created within the forecasting tool. From that moment on, the forecast becomes its own independent version — separate from the budget it was created from, and free to evolve on its own path.
How It works
When you create a forecast from a budget, the tool copies over everything you need to hit the ground running:
Budget structure — the overall framework and layout carry across
Population set-up — the categories included in the budget are replicated
Period — the forecast inherits the same date range as the original budget
Events — all budgeted events are duplicated into the forecast
Once that copy is created, the forecast and the budget go their separate ways. Any changes you make to events, assumptions, population values, or other forecast inputs stay contained within the forecast — the original budget is untouched. Likewise, if someone later updates the source budget, those changes won't flow through to the forecast. The two exist as distinct, standalone versions from the moment the forecast is generated.
Considerations
Because the budget and forecast are decoupled after duplication, it's worth keeping a couple of things in mind:
They can diverge over time. As each is updated independently, the forecast and budget may start to tell different stories.
Consistency is on you. If the source budget changes after the forecast has been created, it's up to you to decide whether — and how — those changes should be mirrored in the forecast.
This isn't a downside so much as a trade-off: you get full control to tailor the forecast to new information, but that control comes with the responsibility of managing any drift between the two.
Example
Let's say a budget is created in January, covering the full year from January to December.
In March, a forecast is generated from that budget. The forecast inherits the same date range — January to December — along with all the structure, events, and population set-up from the original.
From there, you update specific events in the forecast to reflect what's actually happened since January and what's now expected for the rest of the year. The original budget stays exactly as it was, untouched and available as a fixed point of comparison.
The takeaway
Duplicating a budget into a forecast is a simple way to save time while still getting a forecast that's fully yours to shape. You start with a solid foundation, then adjust as reality unfolds — all without disturbing the original plan you built your budget around.