You can use the following features to plan for future sales:
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Sales Budgets
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Production Forecasts
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Blanket Sales Orders
As input to decision makers in the finance department, you can use sales budgets to record how many or for how much of each item you expect to sell in future periods. Budget figures are always created per item, but they may be combined with different dimensions, such as location, customer, and project. Budgets can also be viewed in multiple ways by filtering on the used dimensions or budget values.
The Production Forecast window is used to organize both sales and production forecasts and is primarily used as input to decision makers in supply planning. The sales forecast is the sales department's best guess at what will be sold in the future, and is specified by item and by period. However, the sales forecast is not always adequate for production. In contrast, a production forecast is the projected level of customer demand for a make-to-order end item or component.
You can also use a blanket sales order to forecast indirect sales demand.
The following table describes a sequence of tasks, with links to the topics that describe them. These tasks are listed in the order in which they are generally performed.
| To | See |
|---|---|
View budgeted sales figures per item, period, location, or dimensions. | |
Learn how to use forecasting in planning, such as to create "what if" scenarios and efficiently plan for and meet demand. | |
Enter forecasted sales and production demand into the planning system to include them as indirect demand in supply plans. | |
Learn how to use blanket sales orders to generate indirect sales demand and thereby provide a type of forecast for sales and production planners. | |
Compile agreed future sales orders to one customer in a blanket sales order to enable quick order creation and to capture the indirect demand as a type of forecast. |