Planning¶
2 screens.
Replenishment and At Risk¶
Planning → Replenishment · At Risk & Expiring
What to buy, how much, and the argument behind it — and, on the other tab, what should not have been bought.
What you see¶
On Replenishment: a service level and a "show everything" tick box, then a row of urgency counts — stocked out, critical, reorder, ok, no demand — then the list.
The standing explanation sits under the controls: the reorder point is calculated, not typed in — average daily demand measured from actual shipments, times the supplier lead time, plus safety stock for how variable that demand is.
Columns worth reading: Daily demand carries a rising or falling tag when the trend has moved more than a fifth; Cover is how many days the stock will last; Suggest carries a capped tag when the quantity was reduced to what can sell before the shelf life runs out; Confidence is a warning when the demand history is thin.
On At Risk: the value at risk in bold, then slow-moving stock — more cover than shelf life, or no demand at all — and lots expiring within 90 days, with days left tagged as a warning under 30.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Service level | 90%, 95%, 98% or 99%. Ninety-five by default. It drives the safety stock and therefore the reorder point. |
| Show everything | Off by default, so you only see what needs attention. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Why? | On every row. | Opens the calculation line by line — demand over 30 and 90 days, the blended forecast, the trend, how many days in the last ninety had any demand, the lead time, the safety stock, the reorder point and the suggested quantity — plus a daily demand chart. |
| Close | On the working card. | Dismisses it. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- Demand counts shipments, not orders. An order placed and never sent does not count as demand.
- A tall bar with long gaps either side is lumpy demand from a few large orders. The average is arithmetically right and operationally misleading — the chart is there so you can see that for yourself.
- If the supplier lead time on the item is wrong, the reorder point is wrong. That is the single field most worth checking, and the screen says so at the foot of every explanation.
- This screen does not raise a purchase order. It gives you a number and the reasoning; the order is raised under Transactions → Purchases.
- The forecast is a weighted moving average — not seasonal, and not an economic order quantity. Both were deliberate: a model with parameters needs somebody to maintain them, and an order quantity needs an order cost and a holding rate, neither of which exists here.
When there is nothing to show¶
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Replenishment | Nothing needs ordering. |
| Slow moving | Nothing flagged. |
| Expiring lots | No lots expiring soon. |
Standard Costs, Price Variance and Landed Costs¶
Planning → Standard Costs · Price Variance · Landed Costs
What an item was expected to cost, what was actually paid, and getting freight and duty into the cost of the goods they arrived with.
What you see¶
Standard Costs: a form to set one, then every standard in force with the current average cost beside it, and a live coverage line.
Price Variance: three figures — unfavourable, favourable and net — then the variance by item.
Landed Costs: a form to record one, then the list, each with an Allocation button.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Item, Standard cost, Effective from | All three required to set a standard. Only inventory items are listed. |
| Item receipt | Required. The most recent hundred receipts, shown with their date and supplier. |
| Cost type | Typed, not chosen — freight, duty, handling. |
| Amount, Currency, Rate | The cost as invoiced. The currency is forced to upper case as you type. |
| Allocate by | value, quantity or weight. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Set | Always. Refuses with Pick an item, a cost and an effective date if anything is missing. | Records the standard cost from that date. |
| Record | Once a receipt and an amount are filled in. | Records the cost. The amount clears; the receipt, type, currency, rate and method stay, so several costs on one shipment go in quickly. |
| Allocation | On every recorded cost. | Opens the allocation detail below. |
| Preview posting | On the allocation card. | Shows how it would land. Nothing is written. |
| Apply | On the allocation card, until it has been applied. | Asks first, then posts it. Afterwards the button is disabled with the hover note Already applied — applying again would double the cost of every unit. |
| Close | On the allocation card. | Dismisses it. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- An item is standard-costed only while a standard is in force; everything without one keeps using moving average exactly as before.
- A change is a new effective-dated row. The old one is closed, never edited, so variances already posted against it are not restated.
- Favourable and unfavourable variances are shown separately as well as netted, because a small net can hide large errors in both directions.
- Whatever share of a landed cost belongs to units already sold cannot be added to stock — their cost has been recorded — so it is expensed and shown to you separately.
When there is nothing to show¶
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Standard costs | None set. |
| Price variance | No variances recorded — either nothing is standard-costed yet, or everything was bought at standard. |
| Landed costs | None recorded. Every duty or freight invoice on a shipment belongs here. |