Understanding Kit Purchasing Recommendations

ForecastRx has the ability to forecast future demand for kits and advise you on how much of each component to purchase in order to fulfill the demand for both kits and individual product sales. 

What are Kits:

Kits, also known as BoMs (Bill of Materials), are components purchased individually from your suppliers that are then assembled by you before they become saleable. For example, if you order individual t-shirts from your supplier, but sell them as 3 packs, you would enter this item in ForecastRx as a kit. This also applies to sets sold with multiple types of items, such as a pair of pants and a t-shirt as a set.  

 

How to set up kits in ForecastRx:

If you are a QuickBooks integration user, you do not need to set up kits in ForecastRx, they will be synced automatically from your BOMs. If your kits do not look correct in ForecastRx, please double-check them in QuickBooks and contact ForecastRx Support if you're still experiencing a data discrepancy. 

If you are an Amazon integration user, please follow the steps outlined here to set up kits.

 

Purchasing recommendations for kit SKUs:

Kit SKUs will still display under the Purchasing > Custom tab, even though they are not typically items you order from a supplier, you will still receive purchasing recommendations for them. All data (sales, inventory, projected sales, out-of-stock date, and monthly demand) in the Item Card of a kit SKU will pertain to the kit only; component sales and inventory are not included here. This information is useful for tracking inventory levels and sales of the final product and is influential in deciding the number of units to assemble for the sale of the kit to satisfy upcoming demand. 

If you are viewing the Item card for the kit item, the Kit Demand section will display what SKUs make up that kit, their individual inventories, and how many units are needed from each component for reference.

 

Purchasing recommendations for component SKUs:

Component SKUs will be displayed under the Purchasing > Custom tab and Purchasing > My Suggested. The recommendations column will display the number of units to order of this SKU based on it and its connected kit's sales history, inventory, and forecasted demand. The recommended quantity will be the recommended inventory to purchase in order to stock both the connected kits and the components (if sold individually).

When viewing the Item Card of a component SKU, the data presented will be in relation to both the component, and kit's, sales and inventory combined. ForecastRx will calculate exactly how many materials of the specified component are used in kits, along with standalone component sales and inventory, to provide an accurate purchase order recommendation. 

 

All kits the component item is associated with are listed under the Kit Demand tab. Here, direct demand and inventory will show the forecasted demand and current inventory of the kit listed. Demand Inventory is the difference between Direct Demand and Inventory; if this number is positive, the kit is understocked by that amount of units, and if it is negative, then the kit is well stocked. Units per assembly will list the amount of this component used in each kit.

This is useful when bundling products in your facilities so you know what units to allocate to which kit. For example, if the Demand Inventory of a kit shows 10 and the Units Per Assembly is 2, that would mean you would need to allocate 20 units of the component to that kit in order to not run out of stock. 

 

Item History for component SKUs:

Navigate to Manage Company> Items and click on the pie chart icon under the History column to open the Item History window. Here you will see sales (in units) per month of the specified SKU, going back 4 years. 

For a component SKU, the Direct Sales tab will include the sales history of the component item only. If a component item is not a saleable product, this tab will be blank.

 

The Kit Sales tab will display all sales of the component, in units, from the kits they are assigned to. This history represents the number of component parts that were needed in the sale of kit items. For example, if a kit is comprised of 2 units of the component SKU, for each sale of the kit, 2 units of the component will be recorded in the Kit Sales history. 

 

The Total Sales tab will display the combined unit sales from the Direct Sales and Kit Sales tabs. This will provide a clear picture of the total inventory sold of the component SKU and is necessary to track in order to accurately forecast future demand. The data in the Total Sales tab is the inventory data shown in the Item Card Forecast Graph and Forecast Data. 

 

Item History for kit SKUs:

Same as above, you will find kit SKU sales history in Manage Company > Items, under the History column. Direct Sales will display unit sales of the kit SKU only, Kit Sales will be blank, and Total Sales will show the direct sales of the kit once again. The sales history of the kit will also be shown in the Item Card, along with forecasted sales of the kit. The kit sales history is not necessary for restocking purposes but as a means to track data and forecast demand for the kit.

 

RestockAMZ kit recommendations: 

RestockAMZ will provide restock recommendations based on an individual product's sales history and inventory levels only. Products are fully assembled before being sent to FBA, therefore it is only necessary to use the individual item's sales and Amazon inventory to forecast the restock recommendations. 

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