Forecast report

The forecast report allows users to project how much these need to order of each item based on demand and the amount on order, on hand, and expiring. It provides a more flexible forecast than the reorder report and is recommended for users that want a data-driven forecast which considers lead time.

How to Run the Report

Go to Reporting> Order Reports > Forecast Report

Clicking on the menu item will bring up a screen where you can set the parameters for the report.

Location: This will be automatically set to you current location

Demand Date Range: The time period that you want to use to calculate average demand. OpenBoxes will generate an average demand based on requests between these dates

Order Period: Enter the period of time the order is for in days. For example, to forecast for a 6-month order, enter 180 days. Order period can also be set by product using the inventory level feature. If you have set order periods for individual products, leave this field blank to use that data instead.

Lead Time: Enter the number of days you expect it will take from the time of order for the goods to arrive. Lead time can also be set by product using the inventory level feature. If you have set lead times for individual products, leave this field blank to use that data instead.

Optional filters: Fill these out if you want to apply specific filters to the report

Demand Destination: Only calculate demand based on the destinations indicated

Category: Only show products in the chosen category

Formulary: Only show products in the chosen formularies

Tag: Only show products with the chosen tags

Once you have set the parameters and any desired filters, press download. Depending on the amount of data, it may take up to a minute for the report to download.

Detailed Field Description

Order Period: The order period that was indicated in the report parameters; or if it was left blank, the order period set on the inventory level for that product

Lead time: The lead time that was indicated in the report parameters; or if it was left blank, the order period set on the inventory level for that product

Qty on order: The quantity of the product that is in incoming shipments or open POs to this location

Qty on hand: The quantity of the product that is currently on hand in your location

Qty expiring: The quantity of the product that will expire before the end of the order period. You may want to adjust this to take into amount the amount you will be able to use before it expires

Qty available: The quantity on order + qty on hand - the qty expiring. This is the amount of stock that will be available to you to fulfill the needed qty.

Average Demand: The average demand per month for the product, based on requests during the time period indicated in the parameters.

Months of stock needed: The lead time + order period in months. This represents the number of months between now and the end of the period the order needs to cover. For example, if you are making a 6 month order, and you expect it to take 3 months for the order to arrive, then you need to have nine months of stock on hand in order to not need to order anything.

Qty needed: Months of stock needed * Average monthly demand

Qty to order: Qty needed - Qty available

Estimated Cost: Qty to order * the unit price of the product