Open to Buy (OTB)
Plan purchasing budgets with a six-month Open to Buy view—using manual targets or live forecast and inventory data from your shop.
Open to Buy answers: “Given what I expect to sell, what I want on hand, and what I’ve already ordered, how much can I still spend on inventory?”
It’s a cash and buying budget view—not the same as line-level Suggested Restock, but it complements it when you plan purchases at the dollar level.
Where to find it: /dashboard/open-to-buy. This is a planning page (not listed under Reports). Select a shop in the header.
What OTB is for
| Use OTB when you want to… | OTB is not… |
|---|---|
| See remaining buy budget after open POs | A SKU-by-SKU reorder list (use Suggested Restock for that) |
| Model 6 months of planned sales vs. target stock | A financial accounting system—figures are planning aids at cost |
| Align buying with growth % and weeks-of-stock targets | Guaranteed to match your ERP; validate numbers against your books |
Data sources: Manual vs. forecast
You can run the planner in two modes (toggle in the UI). The page opens in forecast mode when a shop is selected.
Manual
You enter:
- Average weekly sales (at cost) — your expected sell-through per week in dollars.
- Planned growth (% per month) — compounds each month in the 6-month plan (e.g.
5= +5% per month vs. the prior month’s planned sales). - Target weeks of stock — how many weeks of sales (at the planned weekly rate) you want represented as inventory value at month end.
Beginning inventory value in manual mode is approximated as:
average weekly sales × target weeks of stock
(so it stays consistent with your targets when you don’t load live stock).
Forecast data (from your shop)
In forecast mode (default), Open to Buy uses the same product data as Stock Replenishment, then rolls it up:
- Weekly demand at cost — for each product, average daily demand × unit cost × 7, then added together.
- Current inventory value — available × unit cost, added across products.
- On order at cost — open purchase-order quantity × unit cost for each product.
Use this when you want OTB anchored to live velocity and stock, not static weekly estimates.
How the six-month plan is calculated
The planner builds six forward months from today.
- Weeks per month uses 4.33 (average), not 4.
- Each month applies your growth multiplier:
(1 + growth%/100) ^ monthIndexon the base weekly sales rate. - Planned sales (month) ≈
weekly sales × 4.33 × growth multiplierfor that month. - Target end-of-month inventory (EOM) ≈
weekly sales × growth multiplier × target weeks of stock(how much inventory value you want on hand at month end).
Traditional OTB-style purchase need:
Planned purchases = Planned sales + Planned EOM − Beginning inventory (BOM)
- Month 1 uses your current beginning inventory (from manual assumption or loaded inventory value).
- Later months set the next month’s BOM to the previous month’s planned EOM (simplified roll-forward).
Open to Buy for the month:
Open to Buy = Planned purchases − Scheduled receipts (on order) for that month
- On order is open PO dollars assigned to the calendar month of each PO’s estimated arrival (relative to the plan start month). That models multi-period receipts: each month’s OTB is reduced by inbound inventory you already committed for that period.
- POs with missing or invalid arrival dates are counted in month 1 (current plan month). Arrivals before the plan start month are also rolled into month 1.
- Arrivals after the sixth plan month are rolled into month 6 so all open commitment stays visible in the horizon.
- If the shop has no purchase order records but forecast mode is on, the total on order from Stock Replenishment is placed in month 1 only.
- Open PO value uses orders whose status is treated as open (not cancelled/draft/delivered, etc.), and values remaining line quantity (ordered minus received; rejected qty is PO notes only) pro-rated dollars, plus a share of cost lines (e.g. shipping) proportional to open lines—aligned with how open PO exposure is reasoned about elsewhere in the app.
Totals at the top of the page show 6-month sums for planned sales, planned purchases, and OTB, plus current month OTB for quick reference.
Tips
- Reconcile with finance — OTB uses cost and your rules for open POs; your accounting system may classify commitments differently.
- After big promotions — manual weekly sales may need a one-off adjustment; forecast mode follows recent demand.
- Use with Suggested Restock — OTB tells you how much you can spend; Suggested Restock helps with what to buy per SKU.
Troubleshooting
“Please select a shop”
Choose a store from the shop selector. OTB is per shop.
On Order looks wrong
Check that each purchase order has a status, line quantities, and an estimated arrival. Cancelled and delivered orders should not count as open. When the shop has purchase orders, Open to Buy uses those and puts the value in the month of the estimated arrival. If there are no purchase orders, forecast mode puts the Stock Replenishment on-order total in month 1. Manual mode with no purchase orders shows no on-order until you create some.
Forecast toggle fails to load
Confirm the shop is connected and Stock Replenishment has data. Try again, or switch to manual inputs for now.