To manage seasonal indexes of product groups, the following options are available:
- Allocating products by seasonal groups.
- Registering seasonal groups of business regions.
- Registering seasonal fluctuations of each group by months or weeks.
- Registering seasonal indexes (both manually and automatically) by various seasonal groups of business regions.
You can use seasonal indexes as allocation factors in formulas used on plan conversion and in settings of planning data sources.
Seasonal indexes are used to register seasonal demand fluctuations by goods groups and considered on planning.
Operations with seasonal indexes
When filling in plans using a formula, the Seasonal index value is available in the operand list.
To adjust plans filled in by sources, the Change to the seasonal index parameter is available in settings of the Planning data sources planning data source.
This is how you can enable seasonal indexes:
- Select the Seasonal indexes check box and select frequency of seasonal index specification.
- Fill in the Seasonal groups list and the same name attribute in the Products profile.
- Fill in values by all periods for each group in the Seasonal indexes workplace.
- Include the Seasonal index operand in the formula of plans with the Using formula filling option.
- In the Planning data sources list, add the use of the Change to the seasonal index parameter.
Setting up and calculating seasonal indexes
To set up and calculate seasonal indexes for seasonal product groups, go to Settings and catalogs – Inventory planning – Seasonal indexes. You can also access the workplace from the plan filling form based on a data source which supports seasonal indexes. For example, the Sales planning data source which supports seasonal indexes is used to fill in a plan.
To use the workplace for seasonal index operations, select Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Budgeting and planning – Planning – Seasonal indexes.
With the Seasonal indexes workplace, you can do the following:
- Register seasonal product groups.
- Register seasonal product groups by various groups of business regions.
- Specify seasonal index values manually.
- Calculate seasonal index values by sales statistics data according to the set period. To calculate them, click Calculate by sales statistics on the workplace form.
- Enter seasonal indexes by months and weeks.
- Update seasonal index data by clicking Update.
- Filter data by seasonal product groups (the Product groups field in the workplace header).
- Analyze seasonal demand fluctuations by goods groups using relevant charts.
The Seasonal indexes workplace is a wizard where each step of operations with seasonal indexes is represented on a separate tab:
- Indexes – entering new seasonal product groups to calculate seasonal index values.
- Schedule – analyzing seasonal fluctuations by seasonal product groups.
The following options are available on the Indexes tab:
- Registering new seasonal groups of products (click Create). There are no restrictions on naming a seasonal group.
- Entering or calculating seasonal index values automatically for each seasonal group of products.
Seasonal index values are entered or calculated according to the frequency of seasonal index specification (a month or a week) specified in Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Budgeting and planning – Planning – Frequency of seasonal index specification. They show a relative variance by periods.
Click Calculate by sales statistics to calculate seasonal index values automatically. The Select period form appears. It allows you to set parameters according to which seasonal indexes will be calculated:
- Period. The selected period will be calculated in multiples of 365 days.
- By sales quantity or sales amount.
- If necessary, you can set arbitrary filters (click Arbitrary filter), for example, by products. In this case, when calculating seasonal indexes, sales statistics of products by which a filter is set will be considered.
To calculate seasonal indexes automatically, specify seasonal groups in product item profiles (the Seasonal group field).
One product item is included in one seasonal group only. You can specify the default seasonal group value in a profile of an item in the Product kinds list.
Considering seasonal indexes by business region groups
When planning sales considering seasonal fluctuations, you can use seasonal product groups by various seasonal groups of business regions.
To use seasonal groups of business regions, select Master data and settings – Budgeting and planning – Planning – Seasonal indexes.
Seasonal groups of business regions are used on sales planning and intended to unite business regions by seasonal demand fluctuations.
You can register seasonal groups of business regions in the Seasonal groups of business regions list. The Other predefined value is added to the list. Use it to consider other seasonal demand fluctuations by seasonal product groups. It also helps you unite business regions by other seasonal demand fluctuations.
Use business regions for further analysis by enterprise warehouses and partners.
Specify information about a seasonal business region group the business region belongs to in the Business region profile, the Seasonal group field.
In the diagram, you can see an example of uniting business regions by seasonal demand fluctuations.
You can generate seasonal indexes of product groups by seasonal groups of business regions (the Business region group column).
If the Business region groups field is not filled in the workplace header, seasonal indexes of product groups will be generated by all seasonal groups of business regions registered in the infobase in the Seasonal groups of business regions list.
Analyzing seasonal fluctuation by seasonal goods groups
Seasonal fluctuations by seasonal goods groups are displayed as a chart in the Seasonal indexes workplace on the Schedule tab. Seasonal fluctuations can be displayed as charts of various types (a histogram, a schedule, a pie chart, etc). You can select a display option in the Chart type field.
Seasonal index values can be displayed graphically in the following modes:
- Entered values – the chart shows absolute values of seasonal indexes according to the values entered in the table on the Indexes tab. You can enter absolute values in different units (for example, in sales amount, sales quantity, etc). The calculated value will be brought to one unit.
- Normalized values – the chart shows relative values of seasonal indexes. Relative values are defined by comparing entered values of an absolute indicator with a basic indicator value. Use normalized values to bring analyzed data to a comparable form.
Allocating big planning periods by smaller ones
With seasonal indexes of product groups on sales planning, you can divide annual plan data (for example, into months or weeks). With this option, you can create one document for several periods or one document for one period.
For instance, an annual sales plan by products is generated by a plan profile not considering seasonality.
Generate a new sales plan by a new planning scenario and plan profile considering seasonality (monthly). Set the advanced option for filling in a plan (by sources) in the plan profile.
To plan sales considering seasonal indexes of product groups, do the following:
- Click Fill in goods – Configure rule and fill in in the tabular section of the sales plan.
- Select a planning data source which supports seasonal indexes.
- In the settings of the planning data source, set the Change to the seasonal index parameter which helps to consider seasonal indexes of product groups on sales planning.
During sales planning, you can set up seasonal indexes within the Seasonal indexes workplace. To access the workplace, click Open and set up seasonal indexes in the form of the planning data source settings.
Selecting/filling in products in the sales plan considering seasonal indexes is carried out if the following conditions are met:
- Products are included in a certain seasonal product group.
- A counterparty or a warehouse specified in the sales plan belongs to a certain business region. In its turn, a business region belongs to a certain seasonal group of business regions (the Seasonal group field in the business region form).
- If you plan sales without details by counterparties and warehouses or if a counterparty/warehouse does not have a business region, seasonal indexes common for a seasonal product group are considered.
In the diagram, you can see an example of annual sales plan allocation by months considering seasonal indexes.
Quantity of sales plan data is changed based on previous period trends considering seasonal indexes.
The diagram shows an example of planning future period sales considering the previous period trends.
For example, you can generate a sales plan of future periods considering the previous period trend and seasonality. Specify a plan profile with the set filling option (by sources) in the Sales plan by products document. The document is generated for April 2016.
Specify the following as planning data sources:
- Sales with period offset by "-2" months considering seasonal indexes – sales for the previous period "March".
- Sales with period offset by "-3" months considering seasonal indexes – sales for the previous period "February".
- Sales with period offset by "-4" months considering seasonal indexes – sales for the previous period "January".
Group the specified planning data sources and select "Average" joint application rule for them. You will receive average sales values for the previous months "March 2016", "February 2016", and "January 2016" considering seasonal indexes for the plan period "April 2016".