Ordering for a launch

Enhanced plan

A launch plan knows how many units each new product should sell in its first weeks. Create purchase order turns that into a draft purchase order, so the launch stock is ordered from the same numbers the forecast uses.

Create purchase order

On the launch plan, open Actions › Create purchase order. The dialog creates one draft PO line per variant, sized to cover the plan’s demand over a window you choose. It works while the plan is Draft, Confirmed or Locked: ordering doesn’t change the plan, so a Locked plan can order too.

The order is sized from the plan as saved. Save or discard your changes on the Plan tab first; until then the menu item is greyed out (see When it’s greyed out).

A launch plan creates purchase orders only. It can’t create transfer orders or Shopify draft orders; those are for inventory commitments.

Coverage window

Coverage window (days) is how many days of the launch the order covers. The default is 60 days.

Cover from sets where the window starts:

Launch: the window starts on each product’s launch date. A product launching on Mar 1, 2027 with a 60-day window orders what the plan expects it to sell from Mar 1 to Apr 29, 2027. Stock you already have or have on order is not subtracted. This is the default before launch.
Today: the window starts today, for a reorder once the product is selling. Weeks that already passed are not ordered again, and each line takes off the stock that location has on hand and on order. A product or location that launches later covers only the days of the window after its launch: with a 30-day window, a product launching in 20 days orders its first 10 days. This is the default once any product of the plan has launched.

The line under the choice says which one is active: “Covers the window from each product’s launch date.” or “Covers the window from today, minus each line’s stock on hand and incoming at its location.”

The quantity is the plan’s demand in that window, minus that stock with Today.

One PO per location or one combined PO

Under Purchase orders, choose:

One PO per location (the default): one draft PO for each launch location, delivered to that location.
One combined PO: a single draft PO for every location. The same variant at several locations becomes one line with the total. Pick a Destination location (optional) for it, or leave No destination.

With a single launch location, both create one PO.

What will be created

What will be created previews the result before you click: one row per PO with its Location, Lines and Units, and a total line such as “2 purchase orders · 14 lines · 860 units”. With Cover from on Today, a Stock subtracted column shows the stock on hand and on order that was taken off. A combined PO shows one row, All locations. The preview updates when you change the window, Cover from, the split or At least 1 per size. While it loads it reads “Calculating order quantities…”; if it can’t be worked out, it says “Couldn’t calculate the order quantities.” You can still create the order: its quantities are worked out when you click.

If no product has anything to order in the window, it says “No variant has a positive order quantity in this window.” and the create button is greyed out. This happens, for example, with Cover from on Today when the stock you already have and have on order covers the whole window. Lines with 0 units are left out of the PO.

How quantities are rounded

Individual products are rounded up one by one. A product that needs 41.3 units orders 42.
Size groups are rounded once, for the whole group. Five sizes that each need 2.2 units order 11 together, not 3 each (15). The 11 units are then shared out across the sizes by the split.
At least 1 per size, on a plan with size groups, is off by default. Tick it to order at least 1 unit of every size, taken from the largest sizes. If a group needs fewer units than it has sizes, the order grows to 1 per size. With Cover from on Today, a size whose own stock already covers it isn’t given an extra unit.
One combined PO rounds the locations together. A variant’s needs at every location are added up and rounded once, because the combined PO has one line per variant. A size group is rounded once across all its locations, and At least 1 per size means one unit per size on the whole order, not per location. With One PO per location, each location is rounded on its own.

See Ordering a size group.

Suppliers

The draft PO has no supplier, and a launch plan doesn’t split the order by supplier. A new product often has no supplier set up yet, so you choose it on the draft PO before sending.

Only inventory commitments split their orders into one PO per supplier.

If only some orders are created

When something goes wrong on the way, the dialog stays open and lists the results under Purchase order creation results. The settings above lock, so a retry uses exactly the same coverage window, Cover from, rounding and split.

Open PO-… links every order that was created.
“Order created; review its lines.” means the order exists but some of its lines may not have been saved. Open it and check its lines.
“Location: order not created.” names a location whose order failed.
“Location: order was created and needs review. Do not create it again.” and “Location: order was created but its details were not returned. Do not create it again.” mean an order exists. Look for it in your purchase orders before ordering again; these locations are never retried.
“PO-… was created but could not be linked to this plan … Contact support to relink it; there is no relink action here. Do not create it again.” The order exists but doesn’t show on the plan. Opening it doesn’t repair the link, and there is no relink button.

With One PO per location, the button becomes Retry failed locations: it retries only the locations whose orders were not created, and created orders are never created again. The message above it says “Some purchase orders still need attention. Retry only the failed locations; created orders will not be recreated.” When nothing can be retried, for example on a combined PO, the button reads Nothing to retry and the message says “Open the orders above to review them. There is nothing to retry.” Close closes the dialog.

If an attempt ends with an unexpected error or no response, check the plan’s linked orders and your order list before trying again. The error alone does not tell you whether an order was created.

After creating

Click Create draft PO. With One PO per location and several locations, the button counts the orders, for example Create 2 draft POs. A message confirms what was created, for example “Draft PO created: 3 lines, 120 units”, or with several POs “2 draft POs created: Berlin (3 lines, 120 units), Hamburg (3 lines, 80 units)”. Open PO jumps to the new purchase order; with several, Open POs opens the purchase order list with the new ones highlighted. The plan stays open, and the new purchase order appears in the Linked purchase order bar at the top of it (Linked purchase orders once there are several), by its number.

The draft PO is a normal purchase order. Set the supplier, check prices and quantities, and send it as usual. See Purchase orders.

On the plan, Actions now lists View purchase order for each purchase order created from it (named by its number) and Create another purchase order. Use it to reorder once the product is selling: once any product of the plan has launched, the dialog opens with Cover from on Today, so weeks that already passed and stock already on hand or on order are not ordered again. Every purchase order stays linked to the plan, and the plan’s Activity names each one by its number.

When it’s greyed out

Message beside the menu item	Why	What to do
”Plan is Completed” or “Plan is Cancelled”	Ordering works while the plan is Draft, Confirmed or Locked.	Reopen a Completed plan. A Cancelled plan cannot be reopened.
”Add a product first”	The plan has no products.	Add a product on the Plan tab.
”Save or discard your changes first”	The Plan tab has unsaved changes, or a save is still on its way. The order is sized from the saved plan, so it waits.	Click Save (or Save & rebuild in a size group’s panel), or Discard.

Inside the dialog, the create button is greyed out while the coverage window is empty or the preview says no variant has a positive order quantity.

New Product Planning comes with the Enhanced plan. On a lower plan the plan can be reviewed but not changed: Create purchase order is greyed out with “Requires the Enhanced Plan”.

Walkthrough: order 8 weeks of launch stock

Open the launch plan and check that it is Draft, Confirmed or Locked.
Open Actions › Create purchase order.
Set Coverage window (days) to 56.
Keep One PO per location, or pick One combined PO and a Destination location.
On a plan with size groups, tick At least 1 per size if every size should be in stock at launch.
Check What will be created and click Create 2 draft POs (the button counts the POs it will create). A message confirms the POs; click Open POs to see them.
On each draft PO, set the supplier and send it.