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Forecast demand and replenish stock

Demand Planning forecasts how much of each product you'll need and recommends what to reorder, so you can turn a forecast into purchase orders in a few clicks. A parallel tool, Manufacturing Suggestions, does the same for things you make — suggesting draft manufacturing orders when stock runs low.

Before you begin​

Forecasting needs data to work from. A recommendation only appears when there's something to base it on:

  • Sales-based forecasts need sales history for the products.
  • Target stock level forecasts need a target quantity or each product's minimum stock level.
  • Supplier lead times, MOQ, and case pack sizes shape the recommended quantities.

Without any of these, Build Forecast returns "No Forecast Results."

Build a forecast​

  1. Go to Inventory → Demand Planning.
  2. In the configuration panel, pick the Suppliers, a Destination Warehouse, and a Forecast Type:
    • Target Stock Level — top every product up to a target.
    • Sales Based — project from recent sales over a window you choose.
    • Fill Backorders Only — order just what's needed to clear backorders.
  3. Set the type's inputs (target quantity, sales-history days, or target-stock days) and any options — Include Lead Time, Enforce MOQ, rounding, case-pack rounding.
  4. Click Build Forecast. Results appear per supplier with summary tiles (line items, units, investment, days of coverage, at-risk and low-stock counts) and a per-product recommendation table.

Turn recommendations into purchase orders​

From the results, select the lines you want and use Create PO for Selected, or Create PO for All. Choose the destination warehouse and whether the PO is created as Draft or Approved (and optionally submitted to the supplier). The recommendations become real purchase orders.

To run this on a schedule, use the Auto-Replenishment tab to create a recurring forecast that builds and (optionally) creates POs automatically; the History tab lists past runs.

Demand-driven manufacturing suggestions​

For manufactured products, go to Manufacturing → Suggestions and click Generate Now. SKU.io scans products that are manufacturing-enabled with an active recipe and, where net-available stock falls below the target or minimum, suggests a build. Adjust the suggested quantity, then Confirm to create a draft manufacturing order, or Dismiss it. As with purchase forecasting, suggestions only appear when there's sales history or a configured minimum stock level to drive them.

Next steps​

Video transcript

Demand Planning forecasts what to reorder, then turns it into purchase orders. Pick a supplier, choose how to forecast — here, from recent sales — and build. The forecast sizes the whole order at a glance: line items, total units, the cash it ties up, and how many products are running low or at risk. Every product gets its own line — its average daily demand, the supplier's minimum order quantity, and a suggested order size, each priced out to a running total. The analytics go deeper — an ABC breakdown, a cash-flow projection, and coverage and risk views that show where your money should go first. When it looks right, set the destination and status, and create the purchase orders in one click. Your forecast becomes real orders, ready to send.

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