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How often should I update my business forecast each period?
Update as often as new information arrives and decisions are made. Weekly is common for sales and inventory, daily for staffing and short-term operations, and monthly for budgets. Refreshing the data frequently is cheap; re-fitting or retraining the model can be done less often unless accuracy drops.
A rolling forecast, which always looks the same number of periods ahead, is more useful than an annual one that goes stale by March.
Change the forecast when facts change, not just because the calendar says so. But avoid constant fiddling: if the forecast swings wildly between updates, planners lose confidence and operations become unstable. Track forecast stability alongside accuracy, and agree a fixed cut-off after which plans freeze.
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