Inventory Planner keeps track of your variants' stockouts (days when a variant is out of stock) and stock level history, starting from the date you created your Inventory Planner account. The stockout and stock level history prior to that date is not available.
However, if you have the stockout or stock level history available from another platform, you can import that information into your Inventory Planner account, helping produce a more accurate forecast more quickly.ย
Inventory Planner takes stockouts into account when calculating the forecast and replenishment recommendations. Read more about how the forecast is calculated here.
Tip: If your stock level history includes dates when your stock was "0", Inventory Planner will automatically identify that as a stockout - so you don't need to import both your stockouts and your stock level history!
Importing the stock level history
To import the stock level history for your variants, create a spreadsheet with the following information, including a header for each column:
SKU, or another identifier such as title, ID (used by your sales platform), Inventory Planner ID, vendor reference, or barcode
Stock date, in the format "mm/dd/yyyy" - for example, 1/31/2019
Stock level for the corresponding date
Then, go to Account > Import.
Select "Stock history", then click "Upload file" at the bottom of the page:
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Either drag and drop your file into the upload area, or click the upload area to select your file from your computer, then click "Map columns":
Map your columns in the file to Inventory Planner fields:
Field | Description | Required? |
Match by | The identifier Inventory Planner should use to determine which variant to update
SKU is the default option | Yes |
Stock date | The column in the file relating to the date of the stock level | Yes |
Stock | The column in the file relating to the stock level on the stock date | Yes |
Warehouse | The warehouse whose history is being uploaded | Yes |
Period | The period the upload relates to. Existing stock history within this period will be erased and replaced. This period should not be after your Inventory Planner start date. | Yes |
Date format | The format of the stock dates, automatically detected by default | No |
Note: Since stock history is tracked automatically starting with the account creation date, it's usually unnecessary to replace information post-account creation. The primary purpose for this import is for stock history prior to connection, but the import can be used if needed to replace stock history beyond that point.
When all fields are matched to the corresponding field in Inventory Planner, click Import.
You will then see an Import overview page, where changes will be confirmed.
If there are errors, please action these and then re-attempt the import.
Importing the stockout history
Note: Importing a stockout history does not adjust the stored stock history, only the number of stockouts.
Begin importing your variants' stockout histories by creating a spreadsheet with the following information, including a column header for each:
SKU, or another identifier such as title, ID (used by your sales platform), Inventory Planner ID, vendor reference, or barcode
Month and year when stockouts occurred, in the format "mm/yyyy" - for example 01/2020
Number of stockouts during that month - each day when the item was out of stock counts as a stockout
Once you have the file, go to Account > Import.
Select "Stockouts", then click "Upload file" at the bottom of the page:
Either drag and drop your file into the upload area, or click the upload area to select your file from your computer, then click "Map columns":
Map your columns in the file to Inventory Planner fields:
Field | Description | Required? |
Match by | The identifier Inventory Planner should use to determine which variant to update
SKU is the default option | Yes |
Month | The column in the file relating to the month of the stockout | Yes |
Stockouts (days) | The column in the file relating to the stockouts in days for the month | Yes |
Warehouse | The warehouse whose history is being uploaded | Yes |
When all fields are matched to the corresponding field in Inventory Planner, click Import.
You will then see an Import overview page, where changes will be confirmed.
If there are errors, please action these and then re-attempt the import.
Note: You can import files as large as 100 MB but larger files might take longer to upload.