Intro to Demand
What is demand in OpenBoxes?
The demand for a product in OpenBoxes is the quantity of the product needed during a given time period. Demand is distinct from consumption, which is the amount of a product that was used during a given time period. Demand in OpenBoxes is defined as the quantity of an item that was issued from the warehouse + the quantity that was requested that the warehouse could not fill due to low stock. Through the request feature, OpenBoxes can see what was requested as well as what was issued, allowing the software to determine the quantity needed even during stock outs. The demand calculation for products allows users to predict the quantity of those products required to meet the needs of requestors. In OpenBoxes, we can see the demand for specific products in different ways: Electronic Stock Card and various reports.
Click here for a video walkthrough on demand.
In this document, we will discuss how demand for products is calculated. If you want to learn about how to forecast based on demand, here are some reports that might be helpful: Forecast Report and Request Details Report.
Electronic Stock Card
We can see the demand for a product by looking at the electronic stock card for that product. To access an electronic stock card, we can directly type in the product code or name on the Global Search bar. We can also click on the product hyperlink that is available on various other pages. 
On the Stock Card, there are two ways to view the demand: Status bar and Demand tab.
Status bar
We can view the monthly demand for a product under the Status bar on the stock card.
OpenBoxes tallies all of the requests for a product over the last six months (180 days). That number is then used to provide an average monthly demand. Please note that this number is based on the course of 180 days so this number might be different from your own calculations, depending on how many days is being considered, such as 183 days instead of 180 days.
In the above screenshot, we can see that the Demand for the product is 56 per month. We can also see the On hand months for the product, meaning how long will the product's On Hand quantity last us (calculated by dividing On hand quantity by Demand). In this case, we have 0 quantity on hand, therefore, the on hand months is also 0 months.
Demand Tab
We can view more detailed information on a product's demand by going to the demand tab. 
Under the demand tab, there is a note that states that the information displayed in this tab defaults to the last 12 months but it does not include the current month. We can change the time period by changing the Start Date and the End Date.
Exception: When we set the date criteria, if the product only recently started to get issued (because it's a new product), the date range will default to the range of months for which the product has been issued. This ensures that the demand is calculated only for the months that the product has been issued and not the months that we did not even carry the product or when the product had no history.
In the Demand tab, we have four columns that give us information for the product on a monthly basis: Months Issued, Requested, Issued, and Demand. 
Here, we can see that the total demand for the product is 669. This number will be different from the demand in the left-hand status bar because this is based on the last 12 months, while the status bar demand is based on the last 6 months.
We receive these demand numbers from the Outbound Stock Movement workflow. It is especially helpful to see Outbound Shipment - Edit to see how Reason Codes impact demand.
Note: After an outbound stock movement is Shipped, the demand for the shipped product is updated overnight.
We can also expand the monthly information by clicking on the month itself or any numbers for the month.
Here, we can see who requested the product, how much was requested by each requestor, how much was issued, and the reason code if the quantity requested and issued are not the same. Depending on the reason code, OpenBoxes decides whether the Quantity Requested should be the demand or the Quantity issued. For example, in the above screenshot, JJ Dossen Memorial Hospital requested 50 of the product but only 40 was issued because an insufficient quantity was available. We would have issued 50 if we had sufficient quantity available. Therefore, the demand for this request is 50.
On the Other hand Pleebo Health Center requested 40 and 40 was issued. In this case, the demand is 40. After assessing each request for the month of September, an average demand (130) for the month has been calculated.
In the same way, the average demand for 12 months is calculated.