Introduction to the Sales Forecast Register
The Sales Forecast register is where you can enter future sales predictions for each Item, as describedin the bullet points below. These sales predictions will provide the basis for all the
Production Plan and
Purchase Order Plan calculations made in the MRP module.
In this register, you can enterfuture sales predictions for each Item, as follows:
- Each Sales Forecast should be one week or one month in duration, depending on the Period Type that you have selected in the Forecast Settings setting.
- For each Item, you should enter one Sales Forecast for each period (i.e. for each week or each month).
- You can enter more than one Sales Forecast record for each period, but they must contain different Items. You cannot use the same Item in more than one Sales Forecast in the same period (unless you are using Forecast Classes).
- If you need to enter more than one Sales Forecast for the same period for the same Item, assign different Forecast Classes to the Sales Forecast records. For example, you can use Forecast Classes to represent different branches, allowing you to forecast sales of the same Item in different branches.
- You must mark a Sales Forecast as OK to make it available to the Production Plan and Purchase Order Plan calculations. After marking a Sales Forecast as OK, no further changes will be possible.
- It is likely that you will enter Sales Forecasts several weeks or months in advance, and that you will mark them as OK to make them available to the calculations. Entering Sales Forecasts well in advance will ensure there is enough time to produce and purchase the Items in the Forecasts.
From the point of view of the calculations, future Sales Forecast records will be used in the calculation of the required beginning-of-period stock level figures for each Item. The calculation of these figures depends on the No. of Periods that you have specified in the Forecast Settings setting. If you specify a large No. of Periods figure, you will need to ensure that you have Sales Forecasts for at least that number of periods ahead of your reporting periods, to maintain accuracy in the calculation. For example, if a report covers the period from March to August and the number of months is six, this requires you to enter Sales Forecasts until the next February, six months ahead of August.
- If you have entered Sales Forecasts well in advance, it may be that sales trends change. If so, you will not be able to change a particular Sales Forecast, but you will be able to create a new version of it. The new version will replace the previous version.
- If you need to test the accuracy of past Sales Forecasts, use the Sales Forecast Accuracy report.
After creating Sales Forecasts for a particular period and marking them as OK, you will be able to generate Production Plans and Purchase Order Plans from them. To do this, use the
'Create Production Plan' and
'Create Purchase Order Plan' Maintenance functions respectively. Production Plans and Purchase Order Plans are scheduling tools that you can use to plan the production work and purchasing that will be needed to ensure you have the stock to satisfy the Sales Forecasts. It is recommended that you create the Production Plan first and then the Purchase Order Plan, as this will ensure that any Items that are required as components in the Production Plan will be included in the Purchase Order Plan. This will probably mean that you will need to create the Purchase Order Plan for an earlier period or periods than the Production Plan. Please refer to the
'Dates and Workflow' page for more information.
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The Sales Forecast register in Standard ERP:
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