Inventory Planning > Inventory Forecasting > Processing > Demand History Maintenance

Demand History Maintenance

You use this program to view the sales history accumulated into the forecasting periods as defined by the calendar in use.

Adjustments can be made to the history to ensure that it is representative of typical sales for the product at the time of year.

Toolbar and menu

Field Description
Functions  
Maintain Sales Adjustments Select this to add or change sales history (see IO Demand History Adjustments).
Adjust for outliers Select this to use the IO Adjust History for Outliers program to generate adjustment entries for periods with demand that differs from the mean by more than the maximum allowed as defined against the option: Number of standard deviations outliers (Inventory Optimization - General Setup).

Outliers are periods of exceptional demand (either high or low) when compared to the norm.
Warehouse Enter the warehouse for the stock item for which you want to view the sales history.
Stock code

Enter the code of the stock item for which you want to view the sales history.

A stock item defined as a Notional part (Stock Codes) cannot be included in this selection.
Change Rev/Rel

Select this to change the revision/release of the item for which you want to maintain the forecasting options.

When you select this option the ECC Revision Release listview is displayed, enabling you to select the rev/rel your require.

This is only enabled if you entered a stock code which is defined as ECC controlled (Stock Codes).

Stock Details

This pane displays details on the Stock code entered.

Column Description
Cost This is the current inventory cost of the item in the selected warehouse.
List price This indicates the current list price defined against the stock item.
Replenishment item This indicates whether the item was defined as a replenishment item using the Options Maintenance program.
Forecast calendar This indicates the forecast calendar being used for the forecast.
Stock on hand This is the current quantity on hand for the item in the selected warehouse.
Stock on order This is the current quantity on order for the item in the selected warehouse.
Stock on backorder This is the current quantity on backorder for the item in the selected warehouse.

IO Demand History Graph

This pane displays a graphical representation of the information for the selected stock code/warehouse combination.

IO Demand History List view

The listview displays the past three years sales history bucketed into forecasting periods as defined by the forecast calendar in use.

[Note]

IO uses the Inventory Movements table to obtain it's sales history and no movements are output for Kit types 'S' and 'K' items. Movements are only output for the components of these items. Against the components, there is no transaction value and the transaction value is used as the sales value in IO Demand History.

Therefore, 'S' or Sub type kit components have no Sales value, only a Cost value. The Sales value is against the parent.

The following information (sorted from the most recent to the latest), is included in the listview:

Column Description
Period This displays the forecasting period.
From date This is the start date of the forecasting period.
To date This is the end date of the forecasting period.
Net sales This displays the net sales for the forecasting period. This figure is calculated form the values in the Sales, Credits and Adjustment columns.
Sales

This displays the accumulated credits for the forecasting period.

[Note]

Proxies are not processed when calculating these values.
Credits

This displays the accumulated credits for the forecasting period.

[Note]

Proxies are not processed when calculating these values.
Adjustments This displays the accumulated adjustments for the forecasting period. These include outlier adjustments, manual adjustments and sales transaction exclusions.
Comment Comments associated with adjustment values are displayed in this column.

IO Demand History Adjustments

This screen is displayed when you select the Maintain Sales Adjustments option from the Functions menu to add/change adjustments to history.

Field Description
Period - from/to

This indicates the start and end dates of the currently selected forecasting period.

You use the Prev and Next buttons to cycle through the forecasting periods.

You can use the Adjustments Settings in the Adjustment Selections pane to automatically navigate to the next or previous period when you save adjustments.

Adjustment Selections

Field Description
SKU details  
Warehouse This indicates the warehouse for the stock item for which you are maintaining history.
Stock code This indicates the stock item for which you are maintaining history.
Description This indicates the description of the stock item you are maintaining history.
Rev/Rel This indicates the revision/release for an ECC item.
Period demand details  
Period from This indicates the first date of the forecasting period selected.
Period to This indicates the last date of the forecasting period selected.
Sales This indicates the accumulated sales for the forecasting period.
Credits This indicates the accumulated credits for the forecasting period.
Adjustments This indicates the accumulated adjustments for the forecasting period.
Net sales This indicates the net sales for the forecasting period. This value is derived from the previous three fields (i.e. Sales minus Credits plus Adjustments).
Adjustments settings  
Auto navigate period Select this to automatically navigate to the next or previous forecasting period after an adjustment is added.
After saving adjustment  
Go to previous period Select this to automatically select the previous forecasting period after an adjustment has been added.
Go to next period Select this to automatically select the next forecasting period after an adjustment has been added.

Adjustment Details for Period

Field Description
New Select this to add a new adjustment line.
Delete Select this to remove the line currently highlighted in the listview.
Save Select this to update the forecast with the adjustments/exclusions entered in the listview.

The results are displayed in the Demand History listview (see IO Demand History List view).
Date

Enter the date of the adjustment.

[Note]

If the entered date does not fall within the start/end period range, an error message is displayed when you try to save the adjustment and the adjustment is not added.

Linking adjustments to specific dates instead of the forecasting periods enables you to change the calendar associated with the stock code without invalidating the data.

It would be prudent (when adding adjustments) to consider the possible effect of changing calendars.

For example: If you add an adjustment for a stock code associated with a monthly calendar, it would be wise to split the adjustment into equal weekly adjustments if you think that you might want to change to a weekly calendar in future.

Adjustment quantity This indicates the adjustment quantity and is automatically calculated by the system according to the entries made in the Adjust net sales by and Change net sales to fields.
Method This indicates the method used to make the adjustment.

Adjust is displayed if you entered and saved values in the Adjust net sales by or Change net sales to fields.

Exclude is displayed if you excluded the sales transaction (see Sales Transactions for Period).
Adjust net sales by Enter the quantity that you want to change the net sales by. A positive or negative value can be entered depending on whether you want to increase or decrease the net sales.

The quantity entered here adjusts the net sales for the forecasting period.

For example, if the net sales are currently 10 and you enter -2, then when you save, the net sales are set to 8 (i.e. 10 - 2).

Change net sales to

Enter the quantity that you want to change the net sales to.

The quantity entered here replaces current net sales for the forecasting period.

For example, if the net sales are currently 10 and you enter -2, then when you save, the net sales are set to -2.

Comment Enter the reason for the adjustment.

Sales Transactions for Period

This pane displays details of sales transactions for the period currently highlighted in the Demand History listview (see IO Demand History List view).

The sales transactions shown for the period are extracted from the Inventory movements table. They are, therefore, the actual sales transactions that have taken place in the system. This enables you to view the sales transactions for the selected stock code/rev/rel/warehouse and forecasting period and to exclude or include these transactions from the sales history for forecasting purposes (for example you may want to exclude a credit note).

Additional columns can be added to the listview by right clicking in any listview column heading and selecting the Field Chooser option.

Field Description
Show exclusions Select this to display transactions excluded from the forecast.

This enables you to deselect the Exclude option and top re-include the transaction if the forecast if required.
Exclude

Indicate which transactions to exclude from the transaction history for forecasting purposes.

A tick in this column indicates that the transaction has been excluded.

A previously excluded transaction can be included by deselecting the tick against the transaction. A warning is displayed if you select to include a previously excluded transaction which has since been purged from inventory movements.

When you select to exclude a transaction (or to re-include a previously excluded transaction), the transaction is listed in the Adjustment Details for Period listview. You need to select the Save icon from this listview to exclude (or re-include) the transaction from/in the forecast.
Date This indicates the date of the transaction.
Transaction type

This indicates the transaction type which can be one of the following:

  • Invoice
  • Debit note
  • Dispatch note
  • Credit note
Quantity This indicates the transaction quantity in the stocking unit of measure.
Sale amount This indicates the transaction sales value.
Customer name This indicates the name of the customer for against whom the transaction was processed.
Branch name This indicates the name of the Accounts Receivable branch against which the transaction was processed.
Salesperson name This indicates the name of the salesperson against whom the transaction was processed.
Comment Enter a comment relevant to the exclusion of the transaction. For example, the reason for excluding it.
Transaction cost

This indicates the transaction cost value.

See Field considerations in Notes and warnings.
Invoice ref This displays the invoice, debit note, credit note or dispatch note number.
Sales order This displays the sales order with which the transaction is associated.

Notes and warnings

Program access

  • This program can also be accessed from the Manual Forecasting program.

Forecast history updates

  • If the option: Update sales history automatically is enabled (Inventory Optimization - General Setup) then updates to the forecast history for sales and sales returns take place automatically for the stock code/warehouse combinations you process.

Field considerations

Operator access to the following fields within this program can be restricted. You configure this using the Security Fields function of the Operators program.

Field Description
INV Show costs in Inventory/WIP queries

Controls whether stock item costs are displayed in the Inventory, Work in Progress, Projects and Contracts and Inventory Planning modules. It also controls whether cost values are printed on the Stock Take Variance report and the unit cost for bought out items is printed on the Advanced Trial Kitting (Legacy) report.

[Note]

If you deny an operator access to the viewing costs in Inventory Query while allowing the same operator to maintain stock codes, then the operator can view details of BOM Costs held against the item.

Inserting Application Help

You would typically follow this procedure to display help for the current program in a customized pane that can be pinned to the program window.

Information includes step-by-step instructions for the various functions available within the program, including a brief overview of what the program does, what setup options are required and how to personalize the program.

  1. Open the program for which you want to insert application help into a customized pane.

    This functionality is only available for a program that has panes.

  2. Right-click any form field.

    You can also click the triangle menu icon that appears in the title area of a pane.

  3. Select Insert Application Help from the context-sensitive menu.

    The application help appears in a pane within your program. You can reposition the pane using the docking stickers or pin it to the program window.

Removing the Application Help pane

If you no longer want to display application help in a pane for your current program, you can simply remove it.

  1. Select the Close icon in the right-hand corner of the application help pane.

  2. Confirm that you want to delete the pane.