Thus far, the chapter has emphasized a methodical, detailed approach to forecasting drivers of expected future operating, investing, and financing activities that will determine future amounts for individual accounts on the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. In some circumstances, however, you may find it necessary to forecast income statement and balance sheet totals directly without carefully considering each account. This shortcut approach has the potential to introduce forecasting error if the shortcut assumptions do not fit each account very well. On the other hand, if the firm is stable and mature in an industry in steady-state equilibrium, shortcut forecasting techniques are efficient approaches to project current steady-state conditions to the future. This section illustrates shortcut approaches for forecasting PepsiCo’s income statements and balance sheets.