1. How does ON Forecasting fit with Option Navigator™?

Option Navigator™ Forecasting is built on the Option Navigator™ platform as a value-added, optional module. Companies who use Option Navigator™ for their "actual" FAS 123R valuation and financial reporting can generate forecasts of Expense and EPS Dilution into future reporting periods from their Historical (Actual) grants and also by creating Future (Hypothetical) grants for awards they expect to issue in the future. The reports show both the consolidated results and can be broken down by actual and hypothetical grants.

2. What is the implementation process for an Option Navigator™ customer?

For Option Navigator™ customers, access to Option Navigator™ Forecasting is granted by a flip of a switch and requires no further implementation. As always, your Customer Relationship Manager will be available to answer questions and provide training, but the intuitiveness of the user interface will likely make training unnecessary. Hypothetical grant information can be entered through the "Grant Detail" page, or can be uploaded in the same file format as actual grants, and all classifications for grouping and sorting on the historical grants carry over to the forecasting reports.

3. How far into the future can I forecast?

The detail provided in the reports allows you to see a continuous trend of your future compensation and diluted earnings per share for up to six sequential future periods of your choosing.

4. If I already have a forecasting process in a spreadsheet, why should I use Option Navigator™ Forecasting?

Option Navigator™ Forecasting is superior to a spreadsheet in the same ways that Option Navigator™ is the superior choice for your FAS 123R compliance. The calculations for compensation expense amortization and diluted earnings per share are complex and the forecasted numbers should be consistent with the financial reporting system. Spreadsheets are error-prone since they are mostly manual and are subject to inadvertent changes of formulas or cells. It is also very difficult to set up and perform scenario analysis in a spreadsheet and the resulting sheet ends up being too large to send by email, and the reports difficult to read. We would rather that you spend your time analyzing and using the information than figuring out how to get a result or what went wrong. And, usually, the person who creates the spreadsheet is the only one who knows it, so you are open to knowledge loss by not institutionalizing this important process. Option Navigator™ Forecasting addresses all of these issues in a web-based application that takes the complexity off your hands and simplifies the process and reports for greater accuracy and efficiency.

5. Can I allocate my forecasted expense to different cost centers without having to create separate grants for each cost center?

Yes! Option Navigator™ Forecasting includes efficiency features such as "Percentage Allocation". By creating Percentage Allocation scenarios which designate the percentage associated with each reporting segment, such as cost center, department, or location, you only have to create one or a few hypothetical grants representing the total shares of planned future awards. Reports will reflect the allocation of the scenario selected to all hypothetical grants. Actual grants, if any, will be broken down by their actual attributes. There is an additional reporting level of award type, and a different Percentage Allocation scenario can be applied by each award type.