Pause Forecast/Disallow Forecast

Created by Shyam Sayana, Modified on Thu, 18 Jun at 2:17 AM by Shyam Sayana

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview
How It Works — Functional Logic
Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

Three names — one feature

This capability is referred to interchangeably across the product and in user conversations. All three mean exactly the same thing:

Pause ForecastTurn Off ForecastDisallow Forecast

In the UI: the grid column is labelled "Turn off forecast." The toolbar toggle that unlocks it is under "Data maintenance." This document uses Pause Forecast throughout as the preferred user-facing term.

Pause Forecast (also referred to as Turn Off Forecast or Enable Disallow Forecast Flag) is a master data-level configuration flag that prevents the statistical forecasting engine from generating a forecast for a specific item. When this flag is enabled for a product, the engine skips that item entirely during a forecast run — no statistical forecast values are generated for that SKU.

When would a planner use this?

There are several legitimate business scenarios where you want to suppress the statistical engine for a specific item:

End-of-life (EOL) products — the item is being discontinued, and a system-generated forward forecast would be misleading or cause unintended replenishment signals.
New Product Introduction (NPI) — the product has insufficient history for statistical modeling; the planner prefers to enter a manual launch curve instead.
Superseded / replaced items — an older SKU has been replaced by a newer one. The history of the old SKU should not drive a new forecast.
Seasonal or one-off items — products sold only during a specific window (e.g. a promotional bundle) where statistical patterns are irrelevant.
Data quality hold — historical data is known-corrupt; pausing prevents bad forecasts until the data is corrected.

ℹ️

Key distinction: Pausing forecast does not erase existing planning values (Sales Manager Forecast, Consensus Plan). It only prevents the engine from writing new statistical values. Planners retain full manual control over those fields

Prerequisites & Configuration

The Forecast Disallow flag is a master data attribute. Before planners can use it, it must be enabled and configured by a Firstshift Implementer via the admin application. Planners cannot enable this feature themselves.

⚙️

Admin setup required: This feature is enabled through the admin app by the Firstshift Implementer. If the Data maintenance toggle does not appear in your Product grid toolbar, the feature has not yet been enabled for your tenant — contact your Firstshift implementation team.

Which entities can hold the flag?

The Forecast Disallow flag can be enabled on any of the following types of entity:

Single-dimension master data entities — e.g. Product Master, Customer Master, Location Master. The flag applies universally across all planning combinations that include that dimension value.
Cross-dimension (intersection) entities — e.g. Product Customer Master, Product Location Master. The flag applies only at the specific intersection, so the same SKU can be forecasted in one customer segment and paused in another.

One-Entity-Only Rule

The platform enforces a single source of truth for the Forecast Disallow flag: it can only be active on one entity per tenant at a time. The admin app does not allow selecting multiple entities simultaneously.

Configuration choice	Scope of the flag	When to use
Single dimension (e.g. Product Master)	Applies to all planning combinations that include that product. Example: Pausing Product A suppresses forecast for Product A \| Customer X \| Location-ALL \| Source-ALL — every combination.	Most tenants. Simpler to maintain, easier to audit, covers 95% of real-world use cases.
Cross-dimension intersection (e.g. Product Customer Master)	Applies only at the specific intersection. Example: Pausing Product A × Customer X still allows Product A × Customer Y to be forecasted.	Only when you have a proven business need for intersection-level suppression.

Recommendation: Start with the single-dimension (product-level) entity. Only move to a cross-dimension configuration if you have a confirmed business requirement for item-level suppression that varies by customer or location.

Where to Find It

Left sidebar›Inspect data›Master data›Product

After logging in, click the Inspect data icon in the left navigation bar. The sidebar expands showing all available data entities, grouped by category. Under Master data, click Product.

Note: This document covers the Forecast Disallow functionality under Product Master. (i.e. this functionality is enabled in the Product Master)

ℹ️

The page is titled "Product" in the app (breadcrumb: Home › Inspect data › Product). It is commonly referred to as Product Master by planners and in documentation — both terms refer to the same screen.

The Inspect Data sidebar is divided into category groups. The full structure visible after expanding the section is shown below, along with the screenshot:

Screenshot 1 — Inspect Data sidebar. The left panel shows all entities grouped by category. Product is selected (highlighted blue) under Master data. The background shows the Product grid in Data Maintenance mode with two items' "Turn off forecast" checkboxes already checked (✓).

⚠️

The Data maintenance toggle (and the "Turn off forecast" column) appears only on the entity your Firstshift Implementer has configured as the Forecast Disallow entity for your tenant. For most tenants this is Product, but it could also be a cross-dimension entity such as Product Customer Master. Only one entity per tenant is active at a time.

Data Maintenance Mode

The "Turn off forecast" column is always visible in the Product grid, but it is read-only by default. To make it editable, you must enable Data Maintenance Mode using the toggle in the toolbar.

Default State — Data Maintenance OFF

Screenshot 2 — Product grid, default state (Data Maintenance OFF). The "Data maintenance" toggle in the toolbar is off (grey). The Edit button is active for other editable columns, but the "Turn off forecast" column (far right, showing × for all rows) is read-only and cannot be changed. Save and Cancel buttons are greyed out.

Enabling Data Maintenance Mode

Click the Data maintenance toggle in the toolbar to switch it ON (turns blue).

Toolbar element	Toggle OFF (default)	Toggle ON (DM mode)
Data maintenance toggle	Grey / off	Blue / on
"Turn off forecast" column	Visible, read-only (× for all)	Editable checkbox — green column highlight, ✓ for paused items
Save button	Greyed out	Active when any checkbox is changed
Cancel button	Greyed out	Active — discards unsaved changes

Screenshot 3 — Product grid, Data Maintenance ON (background). The toggle is blue/on. The "Turn off forecast" column header and cells are highlighted green. Rows 1003 (eTab 3000 v1) and 1304 (Omega Tablet 2 v1) show a ✓ — these products have Pause Forecast enabled. All other rows show × (forecast active). The toolbar shows active Save and Cancel buttons.

⚠️

Tooltip on the toggle: Hovering the Data maintenance switch shows: "Enable data maintenance mode to manage forecast disallow settings." If you do not see this toggle at all, your role does not have access — contact your administrator.

Pausing Forecast for a Product

Step-by-step

1
Navigate to Inspect data › ProductUse the left sidebar: click the Inspect data icon, then selectProductunder the Master data group.
2
Enable Data maintenance modeClick theData maintenancetoggle in the top-right toolbar area. It turns blue, the "Turn off forecast" column gets a green highlight, and Save/Cancel activate.
3
Find the product(s) to pauseUse the grid's column filters or the search icon to narrow the list. The grid is server-side paginated (10 rows per page by default) — use filters to locate specific SKUs.
4
Check the "Turn off forecast" checkboxClick the cell in theTurn off forecastcolumn for the target row. The checkbox toggles to✓(checked = forecast paused). The cell is highlighted with an orange border to indicate an unsaved change. You can pause multiple products in one session before saving.
5
Click SaveClick theSavebutton in the toolbar. All changes are saved together in one operation. A green confirmation message appears at the bottom of the screen. The application triggers the USER EDIT Job.

Save Confirmation

Figure 4 — Successful save confirmation. After clicking Save, the green snackbar "Successfully saved the changes" appears at the bottom of the screen. The "Turn off forecast" column retains the ✓ for paused items (1003, 1304). The Data maintenance toggle remains ON — toggle it OFF or navigate away when done.

✅

Success: "Successfully saved the changes" — the pause flag is now persisted in the backend. The next forecast run that includes these items will skip them.

Turning off Data Maintenance mode with unsaved changes: If you toggle Data maintenance OFF while there are unsaved checkbox edits, a confirmation dialog appears: "All the previous changes will be lost. Please save the changes before disabling data maintenance mode." Click Continue to discard, or Cancel to go back and save first.

Removing the Pause Forecast Flag

Re-enabling forecasting for a paused product uses the same flow — just uncheck instead of check.

1
Navigate to Inspect data › Product and enable Data maintenanceFollow the same navigation and toggle steps as above.
2
Identify currently paused productsWith Data maintenance ON, paused products display a✓in the "Turn off forecast" column with a green column highlight. Use filters to find them: filter the "Turn off forecast" column for true / checked values.
3
Uncheck the "Turn off forecast" checkboxClick the ✓ cell — it toggles back to an unchecked state (×). An orange border indicates the pending change.
4
Click SaveThe backenddeletesthe disallow record for that product. The product is immediately re-eligible for forecasting. The next forecast run that covers this product will generate fresh forecast values for it.

ℹ️

Removing the flag does not trigger any backfill or retrospective calculation. Only the next forward-looking forecast run (after the flag is removed) will generate new values.

How It Works — Functional Logic

How the Pause Forecast State is Stored

When you open the Product grid, the system loads each product's current pause status from the backend alongside the rest of the product data. Products with Pause Forecast enabled are shown with a ✓ in the "Turn off forecast" column; all others show ×. The Data maintenance toggle only appears for users and roles that have been granted access to manage pause settings.

How the Product grid loads Pause Forecast state

You open Inspect data › Product→System fetches product records including each product's pause status

↓

Grid renders — ✓ for paused products, × for forecast-active products

What Happens When You Click Save

When you click Save in Data Maintenance mode, the system reviews every row you changed and takes one of two actions:

What you did	What the system does
✓ Checked a product (Pause Forecast ON)	Creates a pause record for that product — it will be skipped in all future forecast runs.
× Unchecked a product (Pause Forecast OFF)	Removes the pause record for that product — it becomes eligible for forecasting again immediately.

All changes from a single session are saved together in one operation. You can pause or re-enable as many products as needed before clicking Save.

Engine Behaviour When the Flag Is Set

When a forecast workbench runs, the engine follows these steps for every product in scope:

1
Read the product listThe engine loads the list of products defined by the workbench's filter.
2
Check the Pause Forecast flag for each itemFor every product in the list, the engine checks whether the Forecast Disallow flag is active.
3
Act on the resultIf the flag isactive: the engine skips that product entirely — no statistical forecast values are generated for that SKU.
If the flag isnot set(default): the engine proceeds normally and generates a statistical forecast.

ℹ️

If only some products in the forecast scope are paused, the run completes normally for the eligible products — paused ones are skipped silently with no error or warning.

If all products in the scope are paused, the run is blocked. At least one eligible product must exist. See the Forecast Wizard View section for how this is surfaced before a run is triggered.

Impact on Downstream Planning Measures

Because the statistical forecast is the starting point of the planning cascade, pausing it has a ripple effect on all downstream measures for that item:

Planning measure	Impact when Pause Forecast is ON
Statistical Forecast	Not updated — engine generates no new values. The previous value is retained or the cell goes blank depending on configuration.
Sales Manager Forecast	Not overwritten — retains whatever the planner had entered manually. Planners remain in full control.
Demand Plan	Not overwritten — inherits from Sales Manager Forecast as-is.
Consensus Demand Plan	Not overwritten — inherits from Demand Plan as-is.
Forecast Accuracy Metrics (MAPE, WMAPE)	Not generated — no engine output means no accuracy record for that item in that run.

⚠️

Existing values are not erased. The previous statistical forecast values for a paused product remain visible in the planning grid until a planner explicitly clears them or a data reset is performed. If the old values should not be visible to the team, planners should manually zero out or override those cells after enabling the pause flag.

How Pause Forecast affects a forecast run — end to end

Planner triggers a forecast run→System queues the forecast job

↓

System reads Pause Forecast flags for each product in scope

↓

Forecasting algorithm runs on eligible products only — paused items removed from input

↓

Forecast results saved — paused products have no new statistical values

↓

Planning grid: downstream measures for paused items unchanged — prior values retained

When Pause Forecast is removed (set back to OFF)

The product is immediately re-eligible for forecasting — there is no delay.
The next forecast run that covers this product will generate new statistical forecast values for it.
Existing planning values (Sales Manager Forecast, Consensus Plan) in the grid remain unchanged until a new forecast is run and published.
No historical recalculation is triggered — only forward-looking forecast runs are affected.

Forecast Wizard View

When creating or editing a forecast in Forecast › Create new forecast, planners can see which products in their selected scope are paused before running the forecast.

Where to see the disallow status

Forecast › Create new forecast › Filter Results grid

After selecting a filter in the "Choose items to forecast" section, click the pencil icon next to Hierarchy level. The dialog shows a preview grid of all products in scope. This grid includes a "Forecast Disallowed" column showing the pause status for each item.

Screenshot 5 — Forecast wizard: Hierarchy level dialog with Forecast Disallowed indicators. The filter is set to "Product id = 6 values" and the hierarchy is "Product | Customer-ALL | Location-ALL | Source-ALL." 6 planning items are returned. Products 1003 (eTab 3000 v1) and 1304 (Omega Tablet 2 v1) have a checked checkbox in the Forecast Disallowed column — these are the same products that were paused via Data Maintenance Mode (see Figures 3 and 4 above). The remaining 4 products have no checkbox checked and will be included in the forecast run.

Forecast Disallowed column values

Column display	Backend value	Meaning
☑ Checked checkbox	All items at this node are paused	The product node is fully paused. The forecast engine will skip it entirely.
Text: "Forecast disallowed for a few combinations"	Some items at this node are paused	Some product–location combinations under this node are paused, but not all. The forecast runs for eligible combinations and skips paused ones.
Empty / unchecked	No items paused	Forecast is fully active for this product. No restrictions.

All items paused — forecast blocked: If every product returned by the selected filter has Pause Forecast enabled, the system validates that no eligible item exists and will not allow the forecast run. You must either remove the Pause flag from at least one product, or adjust the filter to include an eligible product.

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1 — Phase out a discontinued product

Go to Inspect data › Product.
Enable Data maintenance.
Filter or search for the discontinued SKU.
Check its Turn off forecast checkbox.
Click Save.

From the next forecast run onwards that product is skipped. Its existing published forecast values remain in the planning grid until replaced by a subsequent run that does not include it.

Scenario 2 — Re-enable after a data fix

After fixing the bad historical data in the ETL source, go to Inspect data › Product.
Enable Data maintenance.
Find the previously paused product (it shows ✓). Uncheck it.
Click Save.
Run a new forecast — fresh values will be generated.

Scenario 3 — Partial product–location pause

This scenario is applicable only when the Product Location Master entity is enabled for Pause Forecast feature in the admin app.

If a product is sold at 10 locations but should only be paused at 2.

Go to Inspect data › Product Location Master.
Enable Data maintenance.
Filter or search for the discontinued SKU.
Check its Turn off forecast checkbox.
Click Save.

Those 2 combinations appear in the Forecast wizard item preview as "Forecast disallowed for a few combinations" at the product node, while the other 8 locations continue to receive forecasts normally.

ℹ️

Product–location level pauses are configured from a different Inspect Data entity (if Data Maintenance is enabled for that entity by your administrator). Note: At any point of time, only of entity can be enabled for the Pause Forecast feature.

Scenario 4 — Check which products are currently paused

Without enabling Data Maintenance Mode, open the Product grid, click the column filter on Turn off forecast, and filter for true (checked). This gives a read-only list of all currently paused products across your tenant.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will pausing a forecast delete existing forecast values?

No. Existing values in the planning grid remain untouched. Pausing only prevents new values from being generated in future forecast runs.

Does pausing take effect immediately?

Yes — from the very next forecast run. The moment you save, the backend record is written. Any forecast job triggered after that save will exclude the paused items. There is no delay or sync lag.

What if a forecast is already running when I save the pause flag?

The running job completes based on the items it loaded at startup (DS_INMEMORY_SETUP step). The pause takes effect from the next job triggered after the save. There is no way to interrupt a running job mid-flight.

Can I sort the grid by the "Turn off forecast" column?

No. Server-side sorting is intentionally disabled for that column. Use the column filter (filter for true) to see paused vs active items.

Does pausing affect error metrics (MAPE)?

Indirectly, yes. Because paused products are excluded from the forecast run entirely, they do not appear in that run's error metrics. Historical metrics from previous runs where the product was included remain unchanged.

Who can pause or un-pause forecasts?

Access is controlled by a backend configuration on the Product entity. If the Data maintenance toggle does not appear in your toolbar, your role does not have access. Contact your Firstshift administrator.

Is there an audit trail for pause / un-pause actions?

Every save action is recorded in the backend. Whether a full audit trail (who changed it and when) is available depends on your tenant's configuration. Check with your Firstshift administrator.

Why is the toggle called "Data maintenance" rather than "Pause forecast"?

Data maintenance mode is a general-purpose grid capability that could support additional per-row flags beyond "Turn off forecast" in the future. Currently its only function is to make the "Turn off forecast" checkbox editable, but the toggle name was kept generic by design.