Premium Feature: Inventory Forecasting

 

Please reach out to your Growth Advisor or our Support team to enable a 14 day trial of our Inventory Forecasting feature!

We are excited to announce our Inventory Forecasting functionality as a premium add-on feature which will offer the following: 

Product usage/Selling Velocity Reports

View product usage over a specified time period, including kit parts 

Forecast product usage

Low Inventory Alerts Automation

Customize rules for dynamic low inventory alert thresholds based on usage, lead times, etc

Filter and view items with low inventory alerts

Sales Dashboard improvements

Add custom date range selection for order, sales, and best seller products

Download the data as a CSV report

 

Setup your Advanced Inventory Rules

After the inventory forecasting feature is enabled in your Channels Manager account, you'll want to setup your inventory rules in your Channels Manager account by navigating to Inventory>Inventory Rules:

 

1. Click on "New Advanced Inventory Rule"

2. Name your rule under "Rule Name"

3. By default, all items will have a non-calculation rule, meaning nothing will be calculating.  You have the option to create a new rule and assign it as a default rule, which means all new items will automatically be assigned the default rule.

4.  As you create your rule and populate the details of our rule, please note the formula being used:

 ReorderPoint = (ReorderPointTerm * AvgSalePerDay) + SafetyStock + LeadTimeStock

 

Terms	Details
Sales Period factor(Optional)	(Seasonal Sales Period) Period when you plan to have higher sales based on demand. It will be automatically applied for Avg Sale per Day calculation for selected Date period.
Supply Period factor (Optional)	(Seasonal Supply Period) Period when you plan to have a longer lead time to stock. It will be automatically applied for Lead Time to stock calculation for selected Date period.
Safety Stock Term	Number of days. Average Daily usage calculated above, multiped by XX days.  Safety Stock = Avg Daily Usage * XX
Lead Time to Stock Term	The number of days used during the time of order placement and stocking of new inventory. This considers the time it takes for the entire life cycle of reordering: from placing the order, confirmation, to processing, shipping and receiving inventory.
Avg Sale per Day Term	For calculating Average Sale per Day, you need to provide the number of days for which amount should be calculated.
Replenish Stock Term	The amount you want to refill the inventory to every time you place a re-order. This stock considers the number of months' worth of inventory you want expressed in days, multiplied by Average Daily Usage, the Safety Stock, and the Lead Time to Stock.  Replenish Stock =(XX*Average Daily Usage)+ Lead Time to Stock + Safety Stock
Reorder Point Term	Is the point when you want to place the re-order. This point is where we use the most inventory maximizing order potential. This term is calculated by determining when you want place your next order.

5. Please note you can either type in your value or use the up/down keys to edit default quantities.

After choosing and populating the fields for your rule, click "Create"  to save your rule

 

Column Set Up

To apply your Inventory Rule so your alerts are calculated, you will need to use the Inventory Manager (NEW).  

 

1. In Channels Manager, navigate to Inventory>Inventory Manager (New)

2. On the far right of the page, you will see the Gear icon for the column set up manager:

3. Column Set up Options

 

Column Name	Details
Rule	Name of Rule that you created under "Inventory Rules" section
Reorder Amount	Proposed amount to reorder
Days Till Projected Stock Out	Days till stock will be zero
Days Till Inventory Alert	Days till inventory alert appears
Product Usage Per Day	Your actual usage per day based on "Average Sale Per Day Term"

 

4. View

 

Apply Inventory Rules

Now you are ready to apply your Inventory Rule to your products!  You can apply a rule by multi selection or one by one.

NOTE: Currently, applying Inventory Rules is limited to 150 items at one time.

 

1. To apply the Inventory Rule, select the item or items by clicking the check box to the left of the sku or clicking the check box next to "Actions" to select all of the items on the page

 

2.  The "Apply Inventory Rule" will then be highlighted.  Click "Apply Inventory Rule" 

 

3. You will then receive a popup allowing you to choose the Inventory Rule you wish to use and select the products you wish to apply the rule to:

• Apply for all items on the page or
• Apply for all items (up to 150 items)

 

4.  Click "Apply" and the Inventory Rule will be applied to the selected inventory

 

NOTE: Recalculation is done ONCE per day (overnight Pacific Time)

 

Inventory Alerts

Inventory alerts are shown in three places.

1. On the main dashboard of Channels Manager under the Product & Inventory section, you will see any alerts populated.  If you click the "Inventory Manager" hyperlink, you will be directed to the Inventory Manager (New)

2.  At the bottom of the page in the Inventory Manager (New),  there will be a box populated with the number of alerts:

3. Finally. clicking "All Filters" in the New Inventory Manager will allow a fly out panel

4. In the fly out panel you can choose the check box " Show Inventory Alerts Only". After checking, click Apply, this filter will show only the inventory where the alert is active based on the Rule applied