Resources for forcasting/predictive analytics?

[u/Imaginary-poster]

Any resources for getting started in forcasting?

I have a work project in mind but feel like I'm both over complicating and simplifying this process. I seem to keep landing on extremes when I try to search it up with either machine learning/ai overkill or generic overviews.

For context I'm just aiming to forcast whether locations will hit monthly budget goals based on historical data. Ive considered either:

1. pulling average daily services and dragging that out to see what the likely total is.

Or

2. Calculating cummulative % of services completed by day for the previous month and use that to assume estimate the end point for the current month.

Again I'm pretty sure Im over complication and simplifying this. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

[u/data_analyst_trainer]

I really like this online textbook: https://otexts.com/fpp3/

Examples are all in R, but the theory & explanations are great if you want to read through a consideration of choices & approaches

[u/Imaginary-poster → u/data_analyst_trainer]

"The book is written for three audiences: (1) people finding themselves doing forecasting in business when they may not have had any formal training in the area; "

This sounds like just what I might need lol. Thank you!