Overview
Launching Inventory Planner
The Inventory Planner Launch Guide walks through setting up a new account, account settings, catalog maintenance, forecasting and replenishment, and other key details to help with gaining success with Inventory Planner.
This guide is more specialized, as it explains how Inventory Planner can be configured when connecting directly through an Inventory Management System. Both guides will be a useful reference throughout your Inventory Planner experience.
What if I have multiple connections?
This guide is focused on configuring Inventory Planner with an eCommerce connection. If/When you have multiple connections with Inventory Planner beyond an eCommerce connection, you can refer to the following specialized guides:
Is Inventory Planner an Inventory Management System?
Inventory Planner strictly pulls product, sales, and stock information from other eCommerce and inventory management systems to provide forecasted needs, replenishment recommendations, reporting insights, and purchase order creation. An exception is for customers who are connected through an eCommerce platform - we offer the opportunity for users to increase stock in the store after receiving a PO from a Vendor (or a Transfer Order from another warehouse).
Inventory Planner does not adjust stock information beyond this functionality, but we do connect with numerous inventory management systems that can assist with day to day order management & fulfillment, warehouse management, stock takes, etc.
You can see a full list of platforms that integrate with Inventory Planner along with the details we pull from each system here: https://www.inventory-planner.com/integrations
Configure Connection(s) and Warehouses
When you connect a store with Inventory Planner, the warehouses appear as options you can enable/disable in Account > Settings > Connections & Warehouses. Only enable locations/warehouses that you need to evaluate independently for forecasting and replenishment planning purposes.
You can create a Combined Warehouse to aggregate sales (and/or stock) information from multiple warehouses into a single view - to generate forecasted needs and replenishment recommendations based on totaled data.
Note: you do not need to enable individual warehouses if it's sufficient to include them the combined warehouse configuration.
In this example, the sales are combined from all Shopify locations/warehouses, along with sales only (ignoring stock) from Shopify France and Shopify Italy. With this configuration, all sales orders are captured in the 'combined warehouse' view for forecasting and replenishment planning purposes, but the stock in France and Italy is irrelevant in this case since the sales are fulfilled from the Germany warehouse.
Note: if you have multiple connections and/or duplicative listings of the exact same Variant/SKU connected to Inventory Planner, it is important to combine Listings first in order to maintain accurate reports using a combined warehouse.
Forecasting, Replenishment, and Reporting
Here are some videos and resources that Amazon users can reference related to forecasting, replenishment, purchase orders, and reports in Inventory Planner.
Replenishment and Edit Forecast are the key areas of Inventory Planner to generate your forecast and replenishment recommendations. Use the Replenishment Report for Variant/SKU level forecasting and replenishment analysis, and to create Purchase Orders using replenishment recommendations. Replenishment is an output of your Forecast Method & Settings, Forecast Edits, and your planning period (lead time + days of stock).
The Edit Forecast section shows a monthly breakdown of forecasted sales. Select the date range in the top right for your Report, then click on Columns (using the gear icon in the top right) and Filters to see the information you need. Metrics are calculated at the Variant (SKU) level. Use the top left dropdown to aggregate reports and/or override forecasts in different dimensions (eg. by category, by vendor, etc).
Purchase Orders and Transfer Orders
Information related to Purchase Orders and Transfers is typically not available through an eCommerce API. In this case Inventory Planner acts as a Purchase Order Management System - allowing users to generate and receive Purchase Orders and Transfers, then to optionally increase stock in the eCommerce store upon receiving and closing the order.
If/When an eCommerce API is updated to include Purchase Orders or Transfers information, the functionality to sync them to/from Inventory Planner will be implemented. Check the Integrations Page anytime to see if these features are supported for your integration.
Planning for Bundles and Assemblies (Pre-Kitted Goods) using an eCommerce Integration
A Bundle can also be referred to as a kit, a virtual bundle, or a gift set. Bundles are simply different ways of selling the Variants - eg. 10 total shirts = (1) 10PK or (2) 5PK or (10) 1PK. In this case, all of the stock is tied together - and goods are bundled after the sale occurs when the customer order is fulfilled.
Configuring Bundles with Variants (components) allows Inventory Planner to consider sales from Bundles in directly with the sales of components/variants when producing a forecast and replenishment recommendation at the Variant level.
Note: Inventory Planner does not manage the stock of Bundles and Components based on customer orders. Using the same example, if a customer purchases a 5PK T-SHIRT bundle - an external solution is needed to decrease the stock level respectively for the 1PK T-SHIRT. This should be handled through an inventory management system, or through a third-party application such as the Bundles App for creating bundles and managing bundle stock.
For many Inventory Management System integrations, Bundle/Variant and Assembly/Variant relationships are synced to Inventory Planner automatically. With eCommerce integrations, these relationships often need to be configured directly within Inventory Planner. If/When an eCommerce API is updated to include these relationships, the functionality to sync them to/from Inventory Planner will be implemented. Check the Integrations Page anytime to see if these features are supported for your integration.
An Assembly must be produced from components (variants) before it can be placed into stock and available for sale. These goods are pre-assembled before the sale and fulfillment of an item.
Assemblies include any produced goods with a bill-of-materials (BOM), and bundles/kits that must be produced before sending to Amazon (or a different fulfillment warehouse).
Planning for Assemblies should only take place in warehouses where there are forecasted sales and accurate stock levels. If components are stocked and/or assembled in a different facility from where customer orders are fulfilled, configuring a combined warehouse allows you to aggregate the stock and/or sales information from multiple warehouses into a single warehouse for Assemblies Replenishment planning.
Whether you create a new Purchase Order, Assembly Order, or Transfer Order using recommendations from a combined warehouse or an individual warehouse view, you can select the 'true' Destination Warehouse once the new order is created.
Replenishment for Assemblies
Understanding forecasting and How Replenishment is Calculated for any item is key to understanding replenishment recommendations for Assemblies & Variants (components). The Bundle and Assemblies article goes in depth in the "Forecasting & Replenishment for Assemblies" section.
In order to calculate Replenishment for Assemblies and generate a schedule, the planning period and cycle details must be defined:
Select "Assemblies" in the top left of Replenishment, then configure your Forecast Method, Forecast Edits (if applicable), Assembly Time, and Assembly Cycle.
Select "Variants" in the top left of Replenishment, then configure your Lead Time and Days of Stock for component Variants. Note: if components are sold separately on their own, configure forecast method and/or forecast edits at the Variant level as well.
The recommended workflow for eCommerce integrations is to:
Create Assembly Orders (production orders) to create new assemblies from component stock.
Once AOs are received, decrease stock of components and increase stock of assemblies in your store (via Inventory Planner, or directly in your store).
Create Purchase Orders (POs) to purchase component Variants from Vendors.
As POs are received, increase the stock of components in your store (via Inventory Planner, or directly in your store).
Vendors and Vendor Attributes
Vendors and Vendor Attributes (eg. Cost Price, Vendor Reference) typically need to be configured directly within Inventory Planner when connecting through an eCommerce integration. Attributes synced from each system vary, and when they are not synced - they can be inputted (or uploaded directly) into Inventory Planner. Check the Integrations Page to see which features are supported for your integration.
Additional Resources for eCommerce Integrations
Vendors / Set Variants with Vendors: configure Vendors, and associate Variants with Vendors in order to populate information on Purchase Orders automatically as they are created.
IP Warehouse: to track extra stock manually. IP Warehouses can be added with other warehouses as part of a combined warehouse configuration.
Combined Warehouse: to aggregate sales (and/or stock) information from multiple warehouses into a single view - to generate forecasted needs and replenishment recommendations based on totaled data.
Listings: connect multiple listings of the same exact Variant/SKU (if you have multiple connections, or duplicative listings within a single connection).
Compare Warehouse Report: compare metrics across multiple warehouses, and optionally generate warehouse transfer recommendations.
Explanations of metrics, columns/filters, or other features:
Visit the Integrations Page for a full list of details Inventory Planner syncs from every integration, or experiment with features anytime in the Inventory Planner Demo Store.
Feel free to contact Inventory Planner directly at [email protected] or to schedule a call to review any other questions.