Forecasting overview: plan demand, season buys and stock actions

Overview

Guidelines

1. Sync before you plan

   Forecasts, trends and recommendations come from a sync. If the Overview says No forecasts yet, run Sync now (or Run a sync) first, then come back to the other pages.

2. Generate the buy plan for the season you are buying

   The Overview's season figures stay empty until an Open to Buy plan exists for the selected planning window. Generate it on Forecasting → Open to Buy before you rely on Season buy value or Required intake units.

3. Check costs before committing a buy

   Buy lines without a unit cost add nothing to the order value. Clear the items listed under Risks and exceptions, such as Buy lines without cost, before you commit the plan.

Steps

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   Step 1: Open the Overview and choose a planning window

   Go to Forecasting → Overview. Pick a season in Planning window (the first option is the current season). Click Sync now to refresh forecasts; a message confirms Sync complete. Data updated. or explains why the last sync failed or finished with warnings.

   The page shows when the forecast and the Open to Buy run were last refreshed, Store movement actions, Planning risks, Forecast health and, where available, the Season buy plan, Store-to-store movement, Season drivers and Risks and exceptions panels.

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   Step 2: Review the demand forecast

   Open Forecasting → Demand Forecast. Search by SKU or product, and filter by Granularity (Monthly or Weekly), Category and Sub-category. Use the Rising, Falling and Low confidence quick filters to find SKUs that need attention. Each row shows the next forecast period, a sparkline, the trend, Next Forecast, Confidence and the forecast's age; click a row to see its forecast band chart.

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   Step 3: Generate an Open to Buy plan

   Open Forecasting → Open to Buy. Choose the Scope (Organization, Warehouse or Store, and then the site) and the Period (Month, Season, Quarter, Half-year or Festive (Indian season)), then click Generate. The page shows the headline spend against projected revenue and margin, Total order value, Projected revenue, Blended margin, Total styles, and a card for each division or group.

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   Step 4: Work the buy list

   The Buy list shows actionable lines by default; click Show all to include lines that need no buying. Group by Design No. or Article Name, search, filter by department, group and category, sort by any numeric column, and choose columns with Columns. Expand a line to see its SKUs. Click Export CSV to download the list. For a Season plan, an organisation owner or admin can click Send to Merchandise Plan.

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   Step 5: Read sales trends

   Open Forecasting → Sales Trends. Choose a Store (or All Stores (org-level)) and Granularity. The cards show Total Sales, Total Units (or Total Orders for weekly), Avg Order Value and growth against the previous period, followed by a chart and a period table.

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   Step 6: Check season drivers

   Open Forecasting → Trend Intelligence to see the AI Trend Summary and trend themes, each with its domain and signal strength. Filter by domain with the chips. An organisation owner or admin can choose a Season and click Refresh to re-run the analysis; the card shows how many calls have been used this month.

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   Step 7: Triage recommendations

   Open Forecasting → Recommendations. Filter by status (New, Dismissed, Accepted), by domain, and by Season. Recommendations are grouped into High priority, Worth a look and Keep an eye on, or switch to By category. Dismiss items you don't need with the X button (or Dismiss all for a group), and use Restore on the Dismissed view to bring one back. For an upcoming season, an owner or admin can click Generate for that season.

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   Step 8: Keep products and vendors matched

   Open Forecasting → Mapping (or Vendor Coverage). On Vendor Coverage, filter by Coverage and use Set vendor, Change or Revert to manage each SKU's preferred vendor. On Mapping, filter by Status, enter the matching record under Set target ID and click Save, or click Clear to unmatch. Manual matches are kept across syncs.

Terms

Open to Buy (OTB)

The quantity still to buy for a period. It is the demand divided by the target sell-through rate (rounded up), minus stock on hand and on order, and never below zero.

Target STR

The sell-through rate you aim for in the period. A lower target means buying more stock to cover the same demand. The organisation default is shown on the Open to Buy page; if none is set, the Overview shows a default target of 70%.

Demand source

Where a buy line's demand came from: the forecast when it is above zero, otherwise sales history.

OTB value

OTB units multiplied by the unit cost.

Margin %

Unit price minus unit cost, divided by unit price.

Confidence

On the Demand Forecast, how narrow the forecast range is for the next period. A wide range between the low and high estimates means low confidence.

Key points

Notes

Warnings

FAQs