Plans in the forecast

Enhanced plan

Your forecast predicts demand from what you sold in the past. Inventory Planning lets you add what the past can’t show: a big order that’s coming, a product you’re about to launch. This page explains, plan type by plan type, what reaches the forecast and what doesn’t.

At a glance

	Changes the forecast and reorder suggestions?	When
Inventory commitment	Yes, as planned outflow	While it’s Confirmed or Locked, unless you excluded it with Exclude from forecast
Launch plan	Yes, as planned outflow along its launch curve	While it’s Confirmed or Locked and Feed into forecast is on (it’s on by default)
Sales plan	Never	Its targets are shown next to the forecast for comparison while it’s Confirmed or Locked
Promotional event	Yes, as extra demand on the event’s dates	While it’s switched on with Use in forecasts

Draft, Completed and Cancelled plans never change the forecast. See Plan statuses & lifecycle.

Each one also needs a subscription plan that includes it. Commitments count on the Elevate plan, launch plans and promotional events on the Enhanced or Elevate plan. On a lower plan they stop changing the forecast, but nothing is deleted, and they count again once you upgrade. The Supply view’s sales-plan chart needs Elevate. See Plan requirements.

Planned outflow

Planned outflow is demand you’ve told Logistified about in advance. The forecast treats it like sales that will happen on top of your normal sales: stock runs down sooner, the reorder date moves earlier, and the suggested reorder quantity grows to cover it. Gross Profit at Risk also counts the planned units you couldn’t ship if you run out before the supplier’s lead time.

How much counts:

Inventory commitments count their expected quantity: the estimated quantity times the probability. An item of 500 units at 80% adds 400 units. See Items, dates & probability.
Launch plans count their launch curve, the units the plan expects week by week.

Where you see it:

The In Stock cell. In a forecast view, a line under the variant’s quantity, such as ”− 400 planned outflow”, shows the planned outflow that is still ahead, from tomorrow on. A commitment spread over a week that started three days ago counts only the days still to come, and a plan dated today counts 0.
The In Stock hover card. Point at a variant’s In Stock cell to see a Planned outflow tile with the total and how many plans contribute, and one row per plan with its plan number, status, start date and what it still takes from tomorrow on.
The Supply view. A period with planned outflow shows a planned outflow icon in its cell (or the units, if you pick Value under Show in cells). Click the cell: its card shows Planned outflow under Inventory movements, and Inventory documents lists every contributing plan by plan number, with its status and date. Click a plan number to open the plan. See Supply view.

Planned outflow is kept apart from the forecast’s own demand line, so nothing is counted twice.

Which date it lands on

Each commitment item lands on its own date if it has one. If not, it uses the commitment’s Target date:

A single date puts the whole expected quantity on that day.
A date range spreads it evenly over every day of the range. A 300-unit item over March adds about 10 units a day.

So you can give a whole commitment one date and override it only for the items that differ. The Target date column on the Items tab shows Plan default for items that use the commitment’s date.

Launch plans follow their curve

A launch plan doesn’t spread its units evenly. It adds them day by day along its launch curve, so a launch that starts slowly and then picks up does the same in the forecast. See Similar products & the launch curve.

Two switches on a launch plan control this:

Feed into forecast: on by default. Turn it off to keep the plan for reference without changing the forecast. A badge beside the title of the plan’s Details card shows where the plan stands right now: Feeds forecast only while the switch is on and the plan is Confirmed or Locked, Not feeding forecast otherwise (a Draft, Completed or Cancelled plan, or the switch is off), and Excluded from forecast for a plan that was excluded from the forecast through the API. Point at the badge, or move to it with the keyboard, to see why, for example “Feed into forecast is off for this plan. Turn it on in Edit details.” The New Product Planning list’s Forecast column says the same in short: Feeding, Not feeding, Off (the switch is off) or Excluded.
Stop feeding on first real sale: when it’s on, the plan stops feeding the forecast at a location as soon as the new product has its first real sale there. From then on, the product’s own sales drive its forecast. Once every product of the plan has sold at its locations, the badge reads Stopped (first sale) and the list’s Forecast column says the same. While some locations still have no sale, the plan keeps feeding there and the badge stays Feeds forecast.

Completing a launch plan also stops it feeding the forecast.

Sales plans: goals, not demand

A sales plan is a goal, not a prediction. It never changes forecast quantities, reorder dates or reorder suggestions. That way an ambitious target can’t make you overbuy.

While a sales plan is Confirmed or Locked, its targets are shown next to the forecast so you can compare:

The Supply view: a Sales plans chart above the table with Sold, Forecast and Plan bars per period, and the plan totals in each cell’s and period’s card. You can leave single plans out of a view, and a Show sales plans switch in the Supply menu hides or shows them all. See Supply view.

To act on a sales plan, adjust your forecast settings or order through the forecast as usual. See Sales Plans.

Excluding one commitment

To keep a single commitment out of the forecast without changing its status, open it and choose Actions › Exclude from forecast. To bring it back, choose Include in forecast. This works while the commitment is Draft, Confirmed or Locked, even though a Locked plan can’t otherwise be edited.

The badge next to Details on the commitment page always tells you where it stands. Point at it for the reason:

Feeds forecast: “This commitment’s expected quantities count as future demand while it is Confirmed or Locked.”
Not feeding forecast: “A commitment feeds the forecast only while it is Confirmed or Locked.”
Excluded from forecast: “Excluded from the forecast. Include it again from the Actions menu.”

Use it to test what the forecast looks like without a commitment, or to keep a doubtful one on file.

Plans and locations

Forecast views can cover all locations or only some. A view covers all locations when it’s set to All locations or when it picks every one of your locations. Planned outflow follows the location it’s planned at:

A commitment item with a location counts in views that include that location, and in views covering all locations.
A commitment item set to Unallocated (all locations) counts once in views covering all locations, and not in views limited to some locations. Pick a location to count it there.
Launch plans and sales plans plan each product per location. Each location’s numbers count in views that include it, and a view covering all locations adds the locations up. See Plans at several locations.

Promotional events

A promotional event lifts the forecast on its dates every year, once you switch it on with Use in forecasts. Unlike plans, it applies to every product and location. With an uplift per product, each product gets its own measured uplift. The forecast’s Amplifiers popover shows which events are active. See Promotional events.