SLFC – SALES FORECASTING/OPEN TO BUY

To open SLFC, press <Alt M> (“Menu”) and follow the Menu path illustrated below, then press <Enter>, or simply enter <SLFC> in the “Enter Program Name” field and press <Enter>.

 

 

This program forecasts sales and open to buy for the next three months.

 

Note:    Running this program will produce a Sales Forecast report and a consolidated Open to Buy report for all departments.  If you uncheck the “Dept. Summary Only” option, the program will produce a one-page Open to Buy report for each department, in addition to the above-mentioned reports (26 pages total).

 

Sales Forecast Report

The concept of this report is for the system look at the last three months of sales and, based upon that, project the next three months of sales.  This gives the bookstores an idea of where their sales are going to be over the next three months, as well as how much money they are going to have to spend based upon that projection.

Sales Forecast for Sep-Nov, 2000

  Sales          Jun-99   Jun-00     % Chg    Last Year Actual           Forecast                    CGS      Invent    Ave Inv   Proj

Dept.          Aug-99   Aug-00    Forecast  Sep      Oct      Nov      Sep      Oct      Nov       Est.    Current    Bud Qtr   Turn

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 BOOKS          15,555    16,500   6.07 %   16,273   17,707   18,534   17,260   18,781   19,659    30,983    24,666     25,000    4.9

BIBLES             9,328     9,700   3.98 %   13,848   17,201   20,574   14,399   17,885   21,392    30,457    27,326     28,000    4.3

TAPE/CD        11,034   13,800  25.06 %   14,971   12,290   15,219   18,722   15,369   19,032    25,488    22,595     24,000    4.2

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 Total          57,011    67,294  18.03 %   69,080   80,295  109,217   73,915   85,915  116,015   166,015   173,560    175,000    4.2

 

NOTE: Projected turn is calculated as follows:

      Forecasted Sales for the quarter, times 4, divided by Inventory Budget.

·        By default, the Sales Forecast report is based upon the previous three months’ increase or decrease in sales.  

Example:    If book sales in Jan, Feb & Mar of 2000 were 10% higher than Jan, Feb and Mar of 1999, the sales projection for Apr, May & Jun would be up 10% over Apr, May & Jun of 1999.

·        You may override the default by changing the  “Fore” (forecast) department entries in SYS, Config. File, Cash Register Config.  Using this feature you may project an increase or decrease, regardless of the past three months’ sales.  

  Example:    If sales for Apr, May & Jun of 1999 were unusually low, due to road construction in front of your store, a sales projection of 10% increase for Apr, May & Jun 2000 may not be an accurate projection.

Open to Buy Report

This report will be built off the sales projection, upon which you can make spending projections. You can then see how spending projections are coming along, based upon where inventory dollars are currently.  Therefore, to have a true open to buy, you must have a sales projection, a cost of goods projection, a beginning inventory, a month-to-date inventory amount and an ending inventory.  You will then need to know how much you are over- inventoried or under-inventoried as the month began.

 

OTB Report for All Departments          Sep 2000

 

 

 Projected Sales & CGS

 

   Projected Sales for Sep 2000                                                    $    73,915

   Projected CGS                                                                          $    44,349

          Projected Gross Profit                                                       $    29,566

 

 

 Cost of Goods Sold

 

   Beginning Inventory Sep 01, 2000                                            $ 169,505

   Inventory Received thru Sep 2000                                            $    17,500

   Ending Inventory Sep 07, 2000                                                 $ 173,560

          Actual Cost of Goods                                                          $   13,445

 

 Prior Months Inventory Adjustment

 

   Inventory Budget for Sep 2000                                                 $  175,000

   Beginning Inventory Sep 01, 2000                                            $  169,505

          Budget Adjustment                                                             $      5,495

 

 

 Open to Buy

 

   Budget Adjustment                                                                     $     5,495

   Projected Cost of Goods for Sep                                                 $   44,349

   Actual Cost of Goods for Sep                                                     $    13,445

          Remaining Open to Buy for Sep                                          $    36,399

 

 

 

Miscellaneous

 

 

 Inventory on Order

 

          On Order  Sep 07, 2000                                                       $    14,459

 

 

 Oct-Nov OTB

 

Oct Budget change from Sep                                                           $     5,000

Projected CGS for Oct                                                                    $    51,549

Nov Budget change from Oct                                           $         0

Projected CGS for Nov                                                                   $    70,117

          Total Oct-Nov OTB                                                            $   126,666

 

    In order for this report to be accurate, there are two things that are required:

·        Budget figures must be set up in SYS, Configurations 2037-2040.

·        Beginning and ending inventory amounts on the Open to Buy report are based on the IVT ("Inventory Totals") report having been run the first of the month.  Therefore, you must run the IVT report the first of every month and on the day the Open to Buy report is run.