Demand planning turns a client's sales history into what they should order, when, and what it will cost — so purchasing decisions come from demand rather than instinct.
This runs per client. You pick a client, and the plan is theirs.
What you need first
Sales data for that client. The planner works from what's actually sold. Connect their sales channel — Faire is live now; Shopify and Etsy are pending platform approval. You can also import sales history directly if a channel isn't connected.
Product categories, which can also be imported, so recommendations group sensibly rather than treating every SKU as unrelated.
Planning inputs — suppliers, lead times, and current stock. These are what turn "you'll sell roughly this much" into "order this, on this date." Without lead times especially, timing recommendations can't be meaningful.
Running a plan
Choose the client and run it. The planner reads their sales history and planning inputs and produces:
Per-SKU detail — the demand picture for each product
A risk board — what's heading for a stockout, and what's overstocked
Batched purchase orders — grouped so you're not raising one PO per SKU
A cash calendar — when the money for those orders actually goes out
Alerts — the things worth acting on now
The cash calendar is the part people find most useful and least expect. Knowing what to order is one thing; knowing that three suppliers all want paying in the same fortnight is what changes decisions.
Who can change what
Everyone with access to the tool can run plans and read the output.
Editing the planning inputs — suppliers, lead times, stock levels — is a separate permission your account owner grants per person. So someone can work with plans daily without being able to change the assumptions underneath them.
Keeping it accurate
Recommendations are only as good as their inputs. Lead times drift, suppliers change, and a plan built on last year's assumptions will confidently recommend the wrong thing.
Sales data refreshes from the connected channel. Suppliers and lead times don't — those are yours to keep current.
Troubleshooting
The tool isn't in my menu
It isn't enabled for your user. Your account owner can switch it on in Settings.
I can see plans but can't change suppliers or lead times
That's the separate editing permission. Ask your account owner to enable it.
No plan is produced, or the output looks empty
The client probably has no sales data yet. Check their sales channel is connected against that client, or import their sales history.
Recommendations look wrong
Check lead times and current stock first. Those two drive timing more than anything else, and they're the values most likely to be stale.
A client isn't in my list
Either they're marked churned, or your access is scoped to assigned clients only. See Roles and permissions.