Volume Forecasting

Plan ahead with confidence.

Volume Forecast is the page that projects the next 7 to 180 days of call volume. There are two places to see the forecast: a slim peek card on the Overview page, and the full Forecasting tab in the sidebar.

Two surfaces

Surface	Where it lives
Overview peek card	The bottom of the Overview page. Shows a 2-card KPI pair plus a small chart, plus a See full forecast link.
Forecasting tab	The dedicated page at /forecasting, the last entry in the CCQA sidebar (after TimeLens AI).

Page anatomy (Forecasting tab)

Region	What you see
Filter bar	Date and hour controls. The hour range matters here, see The hour filter changes the forecast below.
Forecast controls	Three dropdowns above the KPI strip: Horizon, Training window, Confidence band.
Horizon warning	An amber strip that appears only when the chosen horizon is over 60 days.
KPI strip	Four cards specific to the forecast.
Main chart	A combined chart with historical, forecast, confidence band, and a Today marker.
Weekday profile chart	Bar chart showing the typical day of the week.
Hourly forecast heatmap	A 7-day by 24-hour grid of expected hourly call volumes.

Forecast controls

Three dropdowns drive the forecast. The selections are remembered in the URL so a shared link reproduces the same forecast.

Control	Options	Default
Horizon	Next 7 days, Next 14 days, Next 30 days, Next 60 days, Next 90 days, Next 180 days	Next 30 days
Training window	Last 28 days, Last 56 days, Last 84 days, All available	Last 28 days
Confidence band	20 / 80, 10 / 90, 5 / 95	20 / 80

The Confidence band dropdown carries a small help tooltip:

Confidence band	Meaning
20 / 80	60% of days fall between the lower and upper bounds.
10 / 90	80% of days fall inside the band. Wider, safer for staffing.
5 / 95	90% of days fall inside the band. Widest, most conservative.

KPI strip

KPI	Subtitle
Next 7 days expected	Sum of the central forecast for the next 7 days.
Next days expected	Sum across the chosen horizon.
Peak day in horizon	The day with the highest central estimate, with the date and the expected call count.
Avg daily (forecast)	Mean daily forecast across the chosen horizon.
Trained on days	Footer note, not a card. Tells you how many days of history fed the model.

The Overview peek card only shows Next 7 days expected and Avg daily (forecast).

Main chart

A combined chart that overlays:

Series	Visual
Historical	Solid line, calls per day so far.
Forecast	Dashed line, the central projection.
Confidence band	A shaded range from the lower bound to the upper bound of the chosen confidence.
Today	A vertical reference line where the historical line ends and the forecast starts.

The Export chart button on the card downloads the whole composition as a PNG.

Weekday profile chart

Mean daily call volume per weekday across the training window.

Element	What it shows
Title	Weekday profile.
Subtitle	Mean daily volume per weekday across the training window.
Bars	One bar per day, ordered Sunday first per product direction.
Tooltip	Shows the average call count for that weekday.
Export chart button	Downloads the bars as a PNG.

This chart is a sanity check: if the central forecast looks too high or too low, compare against the typical weekday rhythm here.

Hourly forecast heatmap

A 7 by 24 grid showing expected calls per hour across the next 7 days.

Element	What it shows
Title	Hourly forecast heatmap.
Subtitle	Expected calls per hour across the next 7 days.
Grid	Rows are days (next 7 days), columns are hours (00 to 23). Each cell is colored by intensity.
Tooltip on cell	Shows the date, the hour, and the expected call count.
Export chart button	Downloads the heatmap as a PNG.

The heatmap is rendered to a canvas directly so the PNG export looks identical to the screen.

Horizon warning

When the chosen horizon exceeds 60 days, an amber strip appears above the main chart with the message Accuracy degrades beyond 60 days with the seasonal-naive model, upgrade to Holt-Winters or Prophet for longer horizons.

You can keep the longer horizon, the warning is informational. The forecast continues to project but expect wider real-world variance than the band suggests.

The hour filter changes the forecast

The page filter bar’s hour range scales the forecast. A 09:00 to 17:00 range produces about half the volume of a full-day forecast (roughly 9 hours out of 24). The date range on the filter bar does not influence the forecast, the model always projects from the last known data point in your project.

CSV export

A page-level Export forecast CSV button downloads the forecast as a flat table.

Column	Notes
date	The forecast day.
central	The central estimate.
lower, upper	Bounds for the chosen confidence band.

The file uses a UTF-8 BOM and CRLF line endings.

Common questions

My forecast looks identical when I change the date range.

That is by design. The forecast always projects from the last known data point, the date range only affects historical charts (Daily Volume, Hourly Distribution, Heatmap on Overview). Change the Hour range on the filter bar to scope the forecast, or use the controls above the KPI strip to change the horizon, training window, or confidence band.

Why is my horizon dropdown limited to 180 days?

Beyond 180 days, the seasonal-naive model is too coarse to be useful. A future upgrade to Holt-Winters or Prophet will lift the cap. The amber Horizon warning strip already advises caution past 60 days.

The chart and the heatmap show different numbers for the same hour.

The main chart shows total calls per day. The heatmap shows calls per hour, so each cell is much smaller than the day’s total. Sum a row of the heatmap to compare with the chart.

The Overview peek card is missing.

The peek is hidden when no project is selected, when there are not enough days of history (the seasonal-naive model needs at least one full week per weekday), or when the forecast service has not yet run for this project. The Forecasting tab will surface a clearer state message.

The forecast says zero calls some days.

The seasonal-naive model uses the matching weekday’s mean. If the training window had a holiday or downtime on, say, every Sunday in scope, the Sunday forecast can collapse near zero. Widen the training window to All available to smooth this out.

Why is the Weekday profile chart Sunday-first?

Per product direction. Most contact centers in the region anchor their week around Sunday rather than Monday.

Can I share the forecast with someone else?

Yes. The forecast controls are written into the URL (?fh=, ?ft=, ?fb=) so a shared link reproduces the same view. Browser bookmarks work too.

The PNG export is fuzzy.

The main chart and weekday profile use SVG to PNG conversion, which scales to your screen size. If the PNG looks fuzzy, your viewport may be small, resize the browser window before exporting. The heatmap exports directly from a canvas so it always renders at the same crisp resolution.

Where to go next

Overview

Daily volume, hourly distribution, activity heatmap.

Alerts

Watch call volume drop or spike against a baseline.

Goals

Set a target Total Calls value.

Ask & Visualize

Ask “What is the busiest hour of the day?” and get a chart.