Sales planning

<< Prev   Next >>

Sales planning is often a starting point for planning in the enterprise as a whole. Plans for all other lines of business are drawn up based on a sales plan.

Create sales plans to do the following:

• Estimate the quantity of product units which the company can sell to a partner/a customer.
• Ensure the most complete fulfillment of customer demand.
• Link the volume of sales and production with the resources and capacities of the enterprise.

The application allows you to make separate plans for different kinds of customers targeting, for example, a certain region, activity, etc.

You can develop both rough-cut strategic plans and detailed work plans for overlapping periods. For example, you can make a rough-cut annual plan at the beginning of the year, and then make detailed monthly plans according to it. For such purposes, there are easy-to-use tools for automating the process of drawing up a detailed plan based on the existing rough-cut plan.

Indicators of a rough-cut plan can be allocated to short periods of time either evenly or in accordance with seasonal index values (see chapter "Allocating big planning periods by smaller ones").

You can plan sales for both an enterprise as a whole and by departments. This allows department managers and sales persons to make sales plans by their lines of business. Department plans are consolidated into a master sales plan by the enterprise.

To register forecasted sales indicators over a fixed period, you can do the following:

• Plan sales and payments from customers with details up to a department, a warehouse, a partner, and an agreement.
• Store parameters of generation and automatic filling of sales plans.
• Automatically fill in sales plans using formulas, by planning data sources (application data), or by importing information from spreadsheet files.
• Analyze how sales plans and payments from customers are fulfilled.
• Map sales plans to other demand and fulfillment plans.

To plan sales demand, use relevant documents.

There are the following sales planning kinds:

• Sales planning by categories
• Sales planning by products

Sales planning by categories

To keep sales plans consolidated by product categories (without products) or by periods which can be filled by sales statistics, use the Sales plan by categories document.

The result of using sales plans by categories is sales plans by products. The quantity of product category sales is allocated to the quantity of goods sales. For easier allocation of the total number of product category sales, use allocation standards.

To use the document, select Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Budgeting and planning – Planning – Sales plans by categories.

You can register sales plans by categories in Budgeting and planning – Inventory planning – Sales plans by categories.

To be able to classify product items by product categories, select Master data and sections – CRM and marketing – Marketing – Product categories.

To forecast sales by product categories, there are the following options:

• Planning sales by categories with details up to departments.
• Planning sales by product categories for a specific warehouse or a store format.
• Creating a joint sales plan by product categories (without details by departments, warehouses, and store formats).
• Planning sales by product categories "By volume".
• Planning sales by product categories "By sales speed" considering sales ranks.

A product category is a minimum group of goods that is easy to manage.

The more diverse products a store has, the more detailed product categories can be.

When planning sales by product categories, you may wonder when you should plan sales of product categories "By volume" and when you should plan them "By sales speed".

If sales volume does not depend on quantity of product items within one product category, then it is recommended that you plan sales by product categories "By volume".

For example, if there are 3 kinds of milk within a product category of dairy products, then 1,000 l will be sold per month. If a product category has 10 kinds of milk and 1,000 l are sold per month, then you need to plan sales by product categories "By volume".

If sales volume depends on quantity of product items within one product category, then it is recommended that you plan sales by product categories "By sales speed".

For example, if there are 10 phone brands within a product category, then 1,000 phones will be sold per month. If there are 15 models within a product category and 1,500 phones are sold, or any other quantity, then it is recommended that you plan sales by product categories "By sales speed".

Sales planning "By volume"

Sales planning by product categories "By volume" allows you to forecast the total quantity of product items within one product category (total sales volume by a product category).

Sales planning by product categories "By volume" has the following features:

• Sales volume remains unchanged (or is forecasted) within one product category.
• Sales volume does not depend directly on quantity of product items within one product category.
• Expected volume should be allocated to new products by rules (standards). Whereas:
  • Proportion of different goods properties is considered to compare ratios.
  • Weight factor is defined for each property of products.
  • Resulting allocation factor of goods is defined as a Cartesian product of all property factors.

Key parameters of the document of sales planning "By volume":

• Scenario – defines general planning rules (planning frequency, period display, etc.)
• Plan profile – defines planning data details and filling rules.
• Period – generated according to planning scenario frequency.
• Product category – a group of goods (a group of product items) perceived by customers as interdependent or replaceable ones. For example, brands "Atlant Refrigerator factory", "BOSCH Appliance factory", and "Samsung-X Refrigerator factory" are merged into one product category – Refrigerators.
• Quantity – total quantity of product items within one product category.

Plan profile and planning scenario determine parameters of generation and automatic filling of the Sales plan by categories document (using formula/by sources).

To fill in the plan using the formula, click Fill in categories. The Fill in plan form appears.

You can fill in product categories:

• By all product categories which participated in sales (statistics by product categories).
• Using formula – product categories will be received from operands (sources) specified in the formula.
• By filter – allows you to fill in product categories by arbitrary filters set in the document.

Fill in quantity of product categories using the formula created using operators and functions (Fill in quantity using the formula in the Fill in plan form).

To fill in product categories, you can use accumulated data from the base (for the previous period and so on).

In case of an advanced option (by sources), you can fill in a plan:

• Using goods filtering by any parameters (products, a warehouse, a price, a store format, etc). Click Fill in categories – By filter.
• According to rule – click Fill in categories – Acc. to rule. To configure rules of filling in goods, click Fill in categories – Configure rule and fill in. The Fill in plan form appears. Here you can set a planning data source (available stock, sales from a warehouse, sales plans, etc).

You can control sales planning by product categories "By volume" using the following statuses:

• Under development – the document is being filled in.
• On confirmation – the plan is awaiting approval of a responsible person.
• Confirmed – the document is confirmed by the person responsible for the plan approval. Such plans are used as sources for sales planning by products.
• Canceled – the plan is not confirmed by the responsible person.

Sales planning "By sales speed" considering sales ranks

You can forecast goods sales speed by sales ranks and product categories.

Sales planning by product categories "By sales speed" has the following features:

• Sales speed of one product item (model) within a product category remains unchanged (or forecasted).
• Total sales volume is directly proportional to sales volume and quantity of product items (models) within a product category.

Before planning by product categories considering a sales rank, specify product categories and sales ranks for all product items to which this planning option will be applied.

To classify goods by sales ranks and plan sales by speed by ranks and product categories, select Master data and settings – Master data and sections – CRM and marketing – Marketing – Product sales ranks.

First, register sales ranks in CRM and marketing – Settings and catalogs – Assortment management – Product sales ranks. They allow you to group/combine product items by a product category depending on their sales speed.

A sales rank is a list of all goods items within one product category.

You can use an arbitrary text value (for example, "low", "normal", or "high") as a sales rank, or you can give a more detailed description with various additional information specified. You can specify a rank as a percent of the average sales of all goods within the product category.

You need to decide which system to use for defining a rank (for example, a 10 point system, a 5 point system, or a 100 per cent system).

For example, there are 30 different TV brands within one product category. For convenience, classify the list of these brands by a sales rank. Assign high rank to the first 50% of brands (15 product items within the product category) from the list. Normal – to the remaining 50%.

You can assign product categories and sales ranks to product items using group processing by clicking Change selected ones in the Products list.

Parameters of the document of sales planning "By sales speed":

• Scenario – defines general planning rules (planning frequency, period display, etc). Sales planning by sales speed is possible within a scenario with the Calculation by sales speed check box selected. You can specify a sales rank and speed of product category sales in the sales plan by categories.
• Plan profile – defines planning data details and filling rules.
• Period – generated according to planning scenario frequency.
• Sales rank – an indicator of popularity of/demand for product items by one product category. You can fill in a rank of product item sales in the plan in the following ways:
  • From the product item profile
  • Using data of the Assortment change document if assortment management is used (values of this document are of higher priority since they are of a clarification nature compared to the sales rank specified in the product profile). For example, the sales rank in the profile of product item "LG 32 LH 590 television" is Normal. In the Assortment change document, the sales rank of the same product is high. When planning sales by sales speed, a sales rank specified in the assortment change document will be used.
• Sale speed – quantity of sales of each product item of the specified product category with the sales rank set.

You can fill in sales speed both automatically and manually.

If a plan is filled in automatically, then sales speed will be calculated for each rank of product category sales. Product category sales speed is calculated using the following formulas:

Sales speed = Sales volume by product category (data of the "Revenue and sales cost" accumulation register) / Item quantity in one product category.

Sales volume by product category = Sales speed (from the plan) * Item quantity in one product category.

In the diagram, you can see an example of calculating the product category sales speed.

By sales ranks, there can be various sales speeds by one product category.

When planning sales by speed considering a rank, specify data details parameters and a data filling option in the plan profile. To fill in data of a sales plan by categories, you can use both a simple option (using formula) and an advanced option (by sources). You can also fill in information in a sales plan by categories using more complex formulas or any data from the infobase. Select an advanced filling option in the plan profile and generate filling rules using DCS.

You can also fill in information in the sales plan by categories manually using various statistical data calculated outside the application.

To change quantity of product categories, you can use the relevant tools. To access them, click Change quantity:

• Specify arbitrary formula
• Round off quantity
• Change by percentage

Determining allocation standards within product categories

You can allocate rough-cut sales plans by product categories up to sales plans by products in proportions using standards of sales plan allocation by product categories.

To work with allocation standards, click Budgeting and planning – Settings and catalogs – Inventory planning – Standards of sales plan allocation by categories.

The Standards of sales plan allocation by categories workplace contains a list of product categories/attributes registered in the infobase.

With this workplace, you can do the following:

• Analyze the existing allocation standards.
• Edit allocation standards accessible by clicking Open standards. As a result, the Standard of sales plan allocation by categories document is opened.
• Create new allocation standards by clicking Create. As a result, a new Standard of sales plan allocation by categories document is created. The document is created by a product category and an attribute.
• Filter by product categories and relevant attributes of product categories. You can use the following filters: Product category and Attribute.

The main tool to create a new standard of allocating product categories and edit the existing one is the Standard of sales plan allocation by categories document.

The Standard of sales plan allocation by categories document is used for storing parameters of allocation by product (product characteristics) attribute (property) values which are used when creating a detailed sales plan based on a sales plan by categories.

With this document, you can do the following:

• Determine a start date of the standard (the Effective date field). It is recommended that you synchronize it with the planning dates.
• Fill in and define a product category. Standards are valid by product categories.
• Define a product attribute (or product characteristics). You can use any product/characteristics attribute, including additional attributes.
• Fill in standards for which sales plans by categories will be allocated up to sales plans by products. The following can be used as standards:
  • Attribute values – you can fill in values that totally match the product attribute (product characteristics).
  • Allocation shares – you should define a weight factor within the selected attribute for each product category. If the value is not filled in, then the share considered during allocation is equal to 0.

You can fill in the document either manually or automatically.

Standards are filled in automatically in accordance with the following algorithms (click Fill in):

• By sales statistics – allows you to receive values of products (a product characteristic) that were sold within the specified period, and to calculate shares of allocation by sales quantity.
• By ones used in products – all values that were specified in the Products or Product characteristics lists.
• All values – by all values entered in the list. For example, if Manufacturer is set as an attribute, then all the values registered in the Manufacturers list will be filled in as values of this attribute.

You can also fill in allocation standards by importing them from a file (click Import from file). The following import options are available:

• By filling in the table – copy data to the table from an external file via clipboard.
• From an external file – fill in the table by saving the template to a file. After that, import the table saved in one of the following formats: Microsoft Excel or MXL.

You can use several allocation standards for one product category at the same time.

Sales planning by products

To keep sales plans by products considering seasonal indexes, stock, and other statistical data over the selected period, use the Sales plan by products document.

To use the document, select Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Budgeting and planning – Planning – Sales plans. Use this document to develop a detailed plan by products.

You can register sales plans by products in Budgeting and planning – Inventory planning – Sales plans by products.

It solves the following tasks:

• Planning sales with details up to departments.
• Planning sales by several enterprise warehouses, several customers (suppliers), and agreement with suppliers.
• Planning generalized sales by products without details by warehouses and customers (suppliers).
• Planning sales based on planning data sources considering seasonal indexes of product groups.
• Analyzing sales by products over a certain period.

Parameters of the Sales plan by products document:

• Scenario – defines general planning rules (planning frequency, period display, etc.)
• Plan profile – defines planning data details and filling rules.
• Period – generated according to planning scenario frequency.
• Goods – products by which planned sales should be forecasted.

Plan profile and planning scenario determine parameters of generation and automatic filling of the Sales plan by products document.

A sales plan is recorded for a certain period with a set plan frequency (a week, a ten-day period, a month, etc). For example, if the specified period is one year and the frequency is a month, then enter 12 monthly plans in each sales plan line.

You can fill in the Sales plan by products document both using a formula (a simple filling option) and by sources (an advanced filling option) depending on the filling option defined in the plan profile.

For Sales plan, the following scenarios of automatic filling are available:

• In case of simple filling option (by formula), click Fill in goods. This provides access to the Fill in plan form. In this form, you can fill in products:
  • By goods purchased by all customers (sales statistics).
  • By assortment. It allows you to fill in products by assortment allowed for sales in the specified format/warehouse.
  • By filter. It allows you to fill in products by custom filters set in the document.
  • Using formula. Products will be received from operands (sources) specified in the formula.

When filling in a sales plan using the formula, you can use accumulated data from the base for the previous period, a period moved for 1 month, etc.

• In case of advanced filling option (by sources), you can fill in plans as follows:
  • Using goods filtering by any parameters (products, a warehouse, a price, a store format, and other). Click Fill in goods – By filter.
  • Using a rule. Click Fill in goods – Acc. to rule. To configure rules of filling in goods, click Fill in goods – Configure rule and fill in. This provides access to the Fill in plan form where you can set a planning data source (sales plans, available stock, sales plans by categories, etc).

You can use data of a sales plan by categories as a data source of sales planning by products. Using a sales plan by categories allows you to make detailed sales plans by products taking into account allocation standards. In this case, when planning sales by products, specify the Sales plan by categories operand (when filling in using a formula) or the Sales plan by categories source (when filling in by sources).

In the diagram, you can see how sales plans by product categories are allocated up to sales plans by products.

In the Sales plan by categories source, you can set a filter by items included in the assortment and by items purchases and/or sales are allowed for. In a sales plan by products, quantity of product items will be filled in automatically. The total quantity within a product category will be allocated by product items according to set allocation standards. Goods included in the assortment (for example, included in a new collection) will be used in allocation. If allocation standards are not specified, they will be allocated evenly among all product items that are included in the product category and match set filter parameters.

You can register planned payments for goods from customers in Sales plan. To enable this option, use a plan profile within which the sales plan is being registered.

If necessary, you can specify a warehouse/a store (warehouse) format, a customer, and a customer agreement for each plan item. Sales plans are summarized by matching planning sections (products, a customer, etc). You can specify a department in sales plans. Sales plans without a specified department are general enterprise plans by the enterprise and displayed in reports separately from plans by departments.

You can itemize a sales plan by a sales person (a responsible employee). To do so, enable the relevant parameter in the plan profile by which the sales plan is being generated.

You can also cancel planned product items by clicking Cancel plan lines / Clear marks on the tools panel in the document tabular section.

To control sales planning by products, use the following document statuses:

• Under development – the document is being filled in.
• On confirmation – the document is awaiting approval of a responsible person.
• Confirmed – the document was confirmed by the person responsible for the plan approval.
• Canceled – the document was not confirmed by the person responsible for the plan approval.

Sales planning analysis

To receive summary data on the sales plan and the shipment period, use the Sales plan print form. To access it, click Sales plan in the Sales plan form.

To control actual sales plan fulfillment by goods and payments broken down by departments, use report Budgeting and planning — Budgeting and planning reports — Inventory planning — Sales plan fulfillment by departments.

The following report options are available:

• Sales plan fulfillment by customers
• Sales plan fulfillment by managers
• Sales plan fulfillment by warehouses
• Payment and shipment plan fulfillment by customers – allows you to check payment plan fulfillment against actual cash receipt and compare it with the amount of planned and actual shipments to the customer over the period.

To check correctness and balance of the drafted plans, use the Plan balance report. With this report, you can assess whether demand plans can be fulfilled using fulfillment plans. The report is generated by a planning period, a scenario, and products from Sales plan.

Example

Variance is an absolute value of variance of fulfillment plans from demand plans.

Example

<< Prev   Next >>