Turning a scenario into a plan

What this covers

The scenario modeler on Forecasting lets you test a growth or contraction plan against your own numbers before you commit to it. Once you have a plan you like, one button, Turn this into a plan, turns that model into a titled, trackable plan that lands in Take Action and in Decisions, with a concrete action-plan attached. This article covers that commit step: what it writes, what the title means, where the plan shows up afterward, and what happens if you model the same thing twice.

For the modeler itself (the sliders, the projection chart, and the "IQ's read on this plan" panel), see Modeling a growth scenario. This article assumes you already have a projection on screen and are deciding whether to commit it.

Where to find it

Open Forecasting from the sidebar (iq.verinode.ai/forecasting). In the Take Action row, the first tile is always Model a growth plan (labeled "Plan ahead," with a small rising-line chart), because the modeler is available even when the section has no draft decisions yet. Click it to open the modeler in the Model a plan overlay.

Set your levers (Field crew, Gross margin target, Demand adjustment) until the projection reads the way you want to test it. At the bottom of that overlay sits the commit control:

• A copper Turn this into a plan button.
• After it succeeds, a line of text next to it: "Plan created. Find it in Take Action and your Decisions."

That is the entire commit surface. There is no separate confirmation screen and no additional fields to fill in, the title and the plan steps are built for you from the levers you already set.

What clicking "Turn this into a plan" actually does

Clicking the button does four things, in order:

1. 1Titles the plan from your levers. The title is generated automatically, there is no field to type your own. If you added crew, it reads "Grow: add N field crew, target X% margin." If you removed crew, it reads "Tighten: N fewer field crew, target X% margin." If you left crew unchanged, it reads "Hold crew, target X% margin."
2. 2Writes a Decision. The plan is saved as a forecasting decision using your exact projection numbers: the modeled revenue and gross-profit change, the working capital the plan would tie up, and the levers you set. Nothing is re-derived or rounded differently after the fact, the Decision shows the same math you were looking at in the modeler.
3. 3Attaches a concrete action plan. A short sequence of steps is generated for this specific plan (see below), not a generic checklist.
4. 4Refreshes Forecasting and Decisions so the new plan appears immediately, no reload needed.

The action plan attached to your decision

The steps depend on which levers you moved:

• If you added field crew: a step to line up the added staff (hire, cross-train, or redeploy) before the capacity is needed, followed by a step to lock in subcontractor and equipment capacity while backlogs are tight, so trades do not become the bottleneck.
• If you cut field crew: a step to plan the reduction and re-sequence open jobs so cycle times hold.
• Always: a step to set the modeled gross-margin target with your estimators and hold the line on scope and supplements, a step to review working capital for the ramp (confirm your float or a line of credit covers the growth before committing), and a final step to re-run the scenario in 30 days against actuals and adjust.

These steps are the same action-plan mechanic used everywhere else Verinode drafts a plan for you, see Acting on decisions for how to work through steps, mark them done, and track outcomes.

Where the plan shows up afterward

In Forecasting itself. Return to the Take Action row and the committed plan appears as its own decision tile, alongside the Model a growth plan tile (which always stays first, so you can always model another scenario). If this is your first committed plan, it also replaces the row's empty state, which otherwise reads "No open demand decisions. As the outlook shifts, IQ drafts what to do about it. Model a plan to test how far you can push."

In Decisions. The same plan appears in your full Decisions list, tagged with the domain Forecasting, so it sits alongside every other decision IQ has surfaced across the platform, not siloed to one section. See The decision workspace for how decisions are organized, prioritized, and worked across sections, and Acting on decisions for how to move a decision from drafted to done.

The decision carries the plan's projected dollar impact (the modeled change in gross profit, positive or negative) as its headline number, and the working-capital figure from your projection as context, the same numbers you saw in the modeler.

Modeling the same plan twice

If you commit a plan with a title that exactly matches an already-open plan (same crew change, same margin target), Verinode does not create a duplicate decision. Instead, it recognizes the existing open plan and just refreshes its last-seen timestamp, and you still see the "Plan created" confirmation. Practically, this means you cannot accidentally clutter Take Action by clicking commit twice on the same numbers.

Changing any lever, even by one point of margin or one added head, produces a different title, so it becomes a new, distinct decision alongside the earlier one. If you want to compare two plans side by side (a conservative Hold and an aggressive Grow, say), that is exactly how you get both to show up.

Why the plan is worth committing, not just modeling

The projection chart in the modeler is exploratory: move a slider and the numbers change instantly, nothing is saved. Turning that into a plan is the deliberate step that:

• Gives the scenario a name you (and anyone else on your membership) can refer to later.
• Puts it on your actual to-do list (Take Action and Decisions) instead of leaving it as a chart you have to remember to come back to.
• Attaches the specific next moves, hiring, locking in subcontractor capacity, setting the margin target with your estimators, checking your cash cycle, so the plan is something you can start working the same day.
• Builds in its own review: the last action step is to re-run the scenario in 30 days against what actually happened, so the plan gets checked against reality rather than sitting untouched.

This commit path is also the on-ramp to Verinode's financing layer: a plan you have committed to, with its working-capital number attached, is exactly the grounded, data-backed case a cash or credit decision needs. See Cash flow and cash runway for how that working-capital figure connects to your actual runway and any bridging options.

Best-practice example

You test adding two field crew and holding your margin target where it is. The projection shows a meaningful revenue lift but a real jump in working capital tied up, because more revenue at your current days-to-pay means more cash sitting in receivables before it clears. You run "Have IQ pressure-test this plan" first (see Modeling a growth scenario) and it flags that cash reality as a watch-out. Satisfied the plan is workable if you line up the crew and confirm your float first, you click Turn this into a plan. The plan appears titled "Grow: add 2 field crew, target 32% margin" in both Take Action and Decisions, with the hiring and cash-review steps ready to work. Thirty days later, the plan's own last step reminds you to re-run the scenario against what actually happened and adjust from there.

Data sources