Predictive Purchasing

Overview

Predictive purchasing helps you forecast the order quantity for a predicted amount of future sales. The projection is based on several factors, including the number of past sales and the currently available quantity. Past sales are used to determine the velocity or the rate of sales per day over a given date range. Velocity is then multiplied to calculate the deficit supply for multiple date ranges. In more complex cases, days in stock and on-order quantities are also factored into the prediction.

Key Terms and Settings

Example: Days of Order 30, Days to Order 15.

In this example, 108 units were sold in the past 30 days (Qty Sold column). Since it is based on a 30-day period, the daily sales velocity is 3.6.

• Deficit Supply 15 — Multiplying 3.6 by 15 = 54. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 15 of 26. ((108/30) * 15) – 28 = 26 
• Deficit Supply30 — Multiplying 3.6 by 30 = 108. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 30 of 80 ((108/30) * 30) – 28 = 80 
• Deficit Supply 45 —Multiplying 3.6 by 45 = 162. Subtract available qty of 28 to get a Deficit 45 of 134. ((108/30) * 45) – 28 = 134 
• The same calculation is for 60 and 90; see below for an explanation of 11/M. 

Since Days To Order 15 was selected, the deficit qty of 26 was auto-entered into the Qty field to add to a PO.

Vendor Lead Time

You can add another parameter called Vendor Lead Time to the calculation. The Vendor Lead Time is the time it takes for a vendor to ship a purchase order to you.

Enabling this feature changes the Deficit Supply calculation:

• Deficit Supply = (Velocity * (Days TO Order + Vendor Lead Time)) – (Available Quantity + On Order).

Exclude Channels From Predictive Purchasing

To exclude channels from predictive purchasing:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Select Purchasing > Predicted Purchasing Excluded Channels.
3. Check Enabled for channels you want to exclude from the predicted purchasing report and click Save.

Generate a Purchase Prediction

Purchasing predictions are generated automatically when the client setting Calculate Qty Sold in X days for Predicted Purchasing is enabled. This client setting is enabled by default.

To generate a Purchase Prediction:

1. Go to Purchasing > Tools > Predictive Purchasing.
2. Select the Days Of Order / Days To Order from their respective default filter dropdowns.
3. Select Yes from the Show Only with Qty Ordered default filter.
4. Click Search to populate the grid with items with the columns from the accordion below.
   
5. Refer to the Filters and Columns section below for descriptions of all filters and columns on this page.

Filters and Columns

The table below lists and defines all default filters.

The table below lists and defines all custom filters.

The table below lists and defines all columns.

Add Items to PO

To create a PO from the Predictive Purchasing report:

1. A deficit quantity based on the Days To Order selection will auto-populate in the Qty To Order field. Edit the field as necessary.
   
2. Select the products on the grid.
3. Click the Actions icon and select Add to PO.
   
4. You will be prompted to create a new PO or add to an existing one. Choose your option and click Continue.

Export a Predictive Purchase Report

You can create a scheduled task that automatically exports a predictive purchasing Excel file. You can save the file for future reference and documentation. This report will track a variety of information, like Site Cost or Average Profit.

To export a Predictive Purchase report:

1. Go to Purchasing > Predictive Purchasing.
2. Search and select specific items.
3. Click the Actions icon and select Export Selected Items to Excel.
   

Enhanced Predictive Purchasing

You can enable an enhanced version of the report to add more features.

The enhanced version has a new column and a Level 2 that you can expand per line or for all items simultaneously to see the new features.

To show or hide Level 2, click:

• (1) The Down Arrow next to the column headers on top for all items.
• (2) The Down Arrow next to each row for a single item.

Sales Graph

The Sales Graph shows the daily sales for the last 365 days. You can see the following:

1. Orders – The number of orders for each day.
2. Trendline – The sales trend over time.
3. Averages – The average sales Velocity for different Days OF Order periods. To hide lines, click the colored squares.
4. Last Year – The selected Days OF Order time period during the previous year is highlighted in yellow.

Velocities Chart

The Velocities Chart shows the Quantity Sold, Sales Velocity, and Restock Quantity for multiple Days OF Order periods. The period you initially selected when generating the report will be highlighted in yellow. To apply the Restock Quantity for another period, click Use, and it will populate in Level 1 of the report.

You can switch the Days OF Order type between In Stock Days and Calendar Days with the toggle button. The default type comes from the Client Setting Use InStock days in predictive purchasing data. For In Stock Days below 365, the font will be red, indicating a projected velocity that is not entirely based on the actual sales history.

If you choose to show the Calendar Days, you will also see the Last Year row, which gets the data for the selected Days OF Order starting from today’s date on the previous year. For example, if you set the Days OF Order to 30 on July 9th, it will check the 30 days after July 9th of the previous year.

If you show the In Stock Days, you can click the Blackout Days button next to the Sales Graph to open the blackout days window.

The Blackout Days feature allows you to exclude specific days, entire date ranges, or sale quantities above or below specific numbers from the calculation. For example, if there was a sales spike or no sales, you can exclude these days so they don’t skew your restocking numbers incorrectly. Blackout days are shown in red in the Sales Graph. 

• In the Blackout Days grid, you can check the box under the Blackout Day column to exclude any day from the calculation.
• In the Add Range grid, you can specify a From Date and To Date to exclude a whole date range or enter a Qty Sold Above and/or Qty Sold Below to exclude specific sale quantities.
• The Last Year period is highlighted in yellow.