Forecasting turns your sales history into a prioritized reorder list: it predicts when each item will run out, estimates the revenue you could lose, and suggests how much to reorder. This guide walks through getting your data ready, setting your defaults, running a calculation, and reading the results. Forecasting lives under the Demand Planning section and is available to managers and admins by default.
Before you start: let your data import finish
Forecasts are built from your historical sales and current inventory, which come from your connected store (for example Shopify). Until that data is in Organizely, the numbers are based on limited history.
When you open Demand Planning → Overview, Organizely checks your integrations. If no store is connected, or the initial product and order import has not finished yet, you will see an amber notice explaining that forecasts may be based on limited data, with a link to View integrations.
Forecasting is also paused while a large sync or import is still running, so the demand inputs stay consistent.
Tip: Connect your store first and wait for the initial import to complete. Once it has finished at least once, your forecast reflects your real sales history.
Step 1: Set your global defaults
Every item inherits a set of organization-wide defaults unless you override it. Set these once so new products get sensible forecasts automatically.
Go to Demand Planning → Settings.
In the Default Forecasting Settings card, fill in the values you want as your baseline. All fields are optional:
Default Lead Time (Days): typical days from placing an order to receiving it.
Default Safety Stock (Days): extra days of stock to cover demand variability.
Default Minimum Order Quantity, Default Reorder Point, Default Reorder Quantity, Default Maximum Stock Level.
Default Buffer Stock (%): an additional buffer as a percentage of demand.
Default Seasonality Factor: a seasonal demand multiplier (1.0 means no seasonality).
Click Save Changes.
Note: The Default Maximum Stock Level matters for reorder suggestions. Suggested quantities are capped at an item's maximum stock level so a recommendation never overshoots.
Step 2: Override settings for specific items
Global defaults are the starting point. You can refine them at more specific levels, and the most specific setting always wins. The resolution order runs from broadest to narrowest: Organization, then Category, Vendor, Tag, Product, Supplier, Variant, and finally a Variant at a specific Location.
Per variant: open the product, go to the variant's Purchasing tab, and set that variant's lead time, reorder point, safety stock, and other forecasting values.
Per product: use the product's Purchasing tab to set values that apply across its variants.
Per vendor: open Purchasing → Vendors, edit a vendor, and set its forecasting settings.
Per supplier: when a variant is sourced from a specific supplier, that supplier's lead time and minimum order quantity can feed the forecast for orders placed with them.
Tip: In the Overview, open a row's More Info dialog to see the Resolved Forecasting Settings actually used, plus a Settings Sources list that tells you which level supplied each value. Use Configure Variant Settings to jump straight to that variant's Purchasing tab.
Step 3: Run a forecasting calculation
Go to Demand Planning → Overview.
If no forecast exists yet, click Start Forecasting Calculation.
Watch the progress indicator. The calculation runs in the background and analyzes your sales data and inventory levels; the page updates automatically when it finishes.
After the first run, use the Recalculate button (top right) any time you want fresh numbers, for example after changing settings or receiving a large shipment.
A few things to know about calculations:
Forecasting runs automatically every 24 hours, so your dashboard stays reasonably current on its own.
If a forecast becomes out of date, a "stale" notice appears prompting you to Recalculate.
You can scope the dashboard to All locations or to a single store location using the location selector. Recalculating while a specific location is selected generates that location's forecast.
Step 4: Read the recommendations
The Overview shows summary cards followed by a table of reorder recommendations, prioritized by urgency and profit potential so the most at-risk, highest-impact items rise to the top.
Summary cards
Critical Items and High Priority: counts of items that need attention now or soon.
Potential Loss: estimated revenue you could lose if items go out of stock, based on sales velocity.
Avg Sell Out: average days until items run out at the current sales rate.
Additional cards can show Inventory Value, Total Reorder Cost, Avg Gross Margin, and Incoming Stock.
The recommendations table
Each row represents a variant and shows its current stock (plus incoming units), recent sales per day with a trend indicator, predicted sell-out days, urgency (Critical, High, Medium, or Low), the suggested reorder quantity and estimated cost, gross margin, the recommended reorder-by date, and the preferred supplier and its lead time.
Click any row (or use More Info) to open a detail dialog with the full picture: forecasting metrics, a Daily Sales Loss estimate, financial metrics, sales-trend history, and the resolved settings and their sources.
Filter, search, and tidy the list
Search by product, variant, or SKU.
Filter by Urgency, Category, Vendor, Supplier, ABC Class, Sales Trend, and Incoming Stock.
Hide a variant (or select several and Hide from Forecasting) to remove items you do not want to reorder, such as discontinued products.
Step 5: Act on a recommendation
From the recommendations you have two ways to replenish.
Reorder from a supplier (buy)
Select one or more rows and choose Create PO to hand the suggestions into a pre-filled new purchase order.
For a fuller workflow, use Demand Planning → Generate PO to turn the whole forecast into supplier-grouped suggested purchase orders.
Create a work order for items you make (Pro plan)
For items that are replenished by making rather than buying, each row offers a Create Work Order action in its row menu.
Open the row's menu (the three-dot button).
Click Create Work Order.
You land on the New Work Order page, pre-filled with the item, the recommended quantity, and a title. Review and confirm.
Note: The Create Work Order action requires the Raw-Material Tracking entitlement (Pro plan) and only appears on rows for items that can be manufactured.
Need help?
If you have questions or run into anything unexpected, reach out to our support team.