Let’s spend some time understanding how to maximize your use of the Purchasing Button.
Forecasting the future demand for your products is the first important step, but making sure you are ordering the right amount of products at the right time is the most impactful to your bottom line. Running out of stock or storing excess slow-turn, high capital investment inventory can be catastrophic to your revenue and profitability.
PURCHASING BUTTON
There are two sections of Purchasing, My Suggested POs and Custom. Both sections will show the same information and recommendations for each item but are categorized differently for a smoother and faster ordering process. Continue below to understand the difference between the two.
My Suggested POs
Here, you have a list of purchase orders, grouped by supplier, that contain items with recommended purchase quantities. ForecastRx suggests you process these items within the current sales horizon to avoid running out of stock. A recommended order date is shown next to each item to know the last day to order so items will arrive before going out of stock. If an item has not been assigned a supplier in the Manage > Items area, they will be similarly grouped in a single line entry called “Items Without Supplier”. You can click on our suggested POs to further analyze item inclusions, quantities, and prices before exporting the data and placing your order.
Create Custom POs
The Custom area of Purchasing is where ForecastRx offers you the ability to view recommendations and create custom purchase orders from your entire active item list, whether it is recommended to order the items now or not. Items that are well stocked will show a negative quantity recommendation, meaning they are well stocked. In Custom, you can manually add items to a working purchase order or you can click on a working PO to further analyze and modify the items, quantities, and prices until you feel ready to Export your results via CSV.
Take A Closer Look
Note: Filtering, sorting, and column preferences are stored with your user profile and will remain applied when you return to a specific grid in the Purchasing Button. You can also save multiple grid preferences for easy access to multiple processes, including exporting your purchase order to the right specifications for your supplier. Learn more about grid sorting and filtering.
Understanding the Purchasing Grid and Recommendations
PO Recommendations
Recommended quantities are shown in multiple ways in the Purchasing grid to give you a variety of options to add to your order. All ForecastRx purchasing recommendations update with each data sync and forecast, and are based on current sales and inventory data.
Forecast Recommended Qty: Your recommended order quantity at this point in time, based on projected sales minus available and incoming inventory.
Daily Sales Rate Recommendation: Your recommended order quantity at this point in time, based on recent sales history and forecast projections minus available and incoming inventory (QuickBooks and Amazon users only).
Purchase Qty: The same recommended order quantity as the Forecast Recommended Qty, but rounded up according to your set item MOQs and case pack intervals.
Dates and Days of Inventory
Recommended Order Date: This is the date ForecastRx recommends you order the product on or before to have inventory arrive before going out of stock. This is based on lead times and projected out-of-stock dates.
Days Left to Order: The amount of days between now and your Recommended Order Date.
Projected OOS Date: The date ForecastRx projects you will go out of stock based on projected sales and current available inventory (does not include units on an existing PO).
Projected Days Left in Stock: The amount of days between now and your Projected OOS Date.
Due Date: The date inventory is expected to arrive if you were to place a purchase order today. This information is based on lead time.
Additional Recommendations and Data
Projected Sales: The number of units you are projected to sell over the sales horizon (lead time + order interval) based on the forecast.
Recommended Safety Stock: This is the additional inventory you would need (on top of projected sales) over the sales horizon (lead time + order interval). This is based on the Service Level you set and is factored into the Forecast Recommended Qty and Purchase Qty.
Additional Data: In addition to the recommendations and fields above, Purchasing will display product details, price, inventory status, and sales history to help influence your purchasing decisions and provide relevant information needed for your PO.
You can also view your 12-month forecast, 4 years of sales history, and condensed product information in the Item Card, found under the graph icon for Forecast Recommended Qty. To learn more about the Item Card, click here.
To dive into the calculations, inventory data, and average daily sales rate, select the rocketship icon next to the Daily Sales Rate Recommendation. To learn more about Daily Sales Rate for QuickBooks users, click here and for Amazon users, click here.
If you would like to schedule a meeting with a member of the team—let us know, we are here to help!
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