TRUE Forecasting is quite different than Financial Statement Analysis Forecasts are only used to establish budgets. j Forecasts may be qualitative or quantitative. Forecasts are generally focused on the next 3 months. Normalized Earnings focus on predicting one-time and non-recurring items. The concept of earnings power is the long-term (3 to 5 year) expectation of the company's earnings after any near-term anomalous behavior has passed