How to: Perform Open-to-Buy Checks on Allocation Plans

The Open-to-Buy Check is a tool that enables the Sales Budget and its Open-to-Buy values to act as an upper limit for related item purchases. It can be used in an Allocation Plan to check and update its Open-to-Buy status. This check indicates if purchase orders can be created from the Allocation Plan without exceeding the Open-to-Buy values of the related sales budgets.

In case of violations, the details of the violations will be prompted, allowing you to make a well-informed decision before proceeding to create the Purchase Order.

To set up the default Open-to-Buy Checks in Replenishment Setup

  1. Click the icon, enter Replen. Setup, and select the relevant link.
  2. In the Open-to-Buy FastTab, select or clear the Check Allocation Plan check box to activate or deactivate the Open-to-Buy checks on the Allocation Plan:
  3. Note: This setting only acts as the default value that is passed into a newly created Retail Sales Budget. The setting in the Retail Sales Budget is the switch to control the Open-to-Buy checks on the Allocation Plan.

To set up the Open-to-Buy Checks in a Retail Sales Budget

  1. Click the icon, enter Retail Sales Budget List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Select a sales budget to set up the Open-to-Buy Check for, and click Manage - Edit. Note: The Open-to-Buy Check only works for a sales budget with a valid OTB View Code.
  3. In the Open-to-Buy FastTab, fill in the following fields in the Checks (Allocation Plan) section:
Field Description
Check Allocation Plan Specifies if the Allocation Plan is checked against the Open-to-Buy value for this budget.
Check Alloc. Plan Level Specifies on which level the Open-to-Buy check is performed. This can be Budget level or Budget Details level.
Check Alloc. Plan (Ignore Zero Budget Lines) Specifies if the Open-to-Buy check at the Allocation Plan level should be ignored or capped at zero, when there is no value defined in the Sales Budget for a specific Division, Item Category, Retail Product Group, or Item.
Check Alloc. Plan (Curr. Period) Specifies if the Open-to-Buy check at the Allocation Plan level should be performed for the current period. This will consider Purchases, Committed Purchases, Planned Sales Amount (Cost), Planned Neg. Adjustment, and Planned Discounts. This is the most restrictive method.
Check Alloc. Plan (Until Curr. Period) Specifies if the Open-to-Buy check at the Allocation Plan level should be performed for the periods until the current period. This will consider Purchases, Committed Purchases, Planned Sales Amount (Cost), Planned Neg. Adjustment, Planned Discounts, as well as the Opening Stock for the current period.
Check Alloc. Plan (Until Last Period) Specifies if the Open-to-Buy check at the Allocation Plan level should be performed for the last period. This will consider Purchases, Committed Purchases, Planned Sales Amount (Cost), Planned Neg. Adjustment, Planned Discounts, as well as the Opening Stock for the last period. This is the least restrictive method.

To perform Open-to-Buy Checks on an Allocation Plan

  1. Click the icon, enter Allocation Plan List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Open an existing Allocation Plan that is ready for Purchase Order Creation.
  3. Fill in the Open-To-Buy Date field. This date will be used to perform an Open-to-Buy check on this Allocation Plan. This will also flow into the Open-to-Buy Date for the purchase order upon document creation from this Allocation Plan.
  4. Click the Check Open-to-Buy action.
  5. If there is a retail sales budget with an activated Open-to-Buy check for an allocation plan, the system calculates how many purchase orders will be generated from this allocation plan and the values for each of these purchase orders.
  6. Based on the active check setting at the related sales budget level, the system then looks for the relevant upper limit values for the current period, until current period, and until last period from the calculated Open-to-Buy values.
  7. Next, the system compares each of the purchase order values against the calculated upper limit values. If the purchase order value exceeds the upper limit, the check fails. For an allocation plan to pass the Open-to-Buy check, it must pass ALL active checks for all purchase orders to be created.
  8. The fields Last Open-to-Buy Checked and Last Open-to-Buy Check Status are updated with the current time and the check result.
  9. If the Open-to-Buy check is successful, the system notifies with a message. If the check fails, the system redirects to the Open-to-Buy Log page:

Note: In order to keep the Open-to-Buy meaningful it is important to ensure that the budgets and Open-to-Buy values are updated. The Open-to-Buy can be updated manually or periodically with a Scheduler Job. For more information see How to: Schedule the Calculation of Open-to-Buy.

Example of Open-to-Buy Check at Budget Level

You have a sales budget ITEMCAT with Budget Type Item Category, Check Allocation Plan set to TRUE, and Check Alloc. Plan Level set to Budget.

You have an allocation plan which will generate the following Purchase Order document upon document creation:

The Open-to-Buy calculation for the sales budget ITEMCAT generates the following values:

For the budget level check, the system sums up the purchase order amount for all related lines. Therefore, the checked Purchase Order Value will be 350 + 200 = 550.

The Open-to-Buy Date is 15-02-2019, and therefore the current period is Feb-2019. The last period is Dec-19.

If the Check Alloc. Plan (Curr. Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE, the system will look for the Current Period Value using the following formula:

Sales Budget Amount (Cost)
+ Negative Adjustment (Planned)
+ Discounts (Planned)
- Purchases
- Purchases (Committed)
-------------------------------------------------
= Current Period Value

Therefore, the Current Period Value for the check is 700 + 40 + 90 - 40 - 105 = 685. The Purchase Order Value is less than the Current Period Value.
Thus, this order will PASS the check for the Current Period.

If the Check Alloc. Plan (Until Curr. Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE, the system will look for the Value Until Current Period, which is the Open-to-Buy value for the current period, in this case, -790. The Purchase Order Value exceeds the Value Until Current Period.
Thus, this order will FAIL the check for Until Current Period.

If the Check Alloc. Plan (Until Last Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE, the system will look for the Value Until Last Period, which is the Open-to-Buy value for the last period, in this case, 7142. The Purchase Order Value is less than the Value Until Last Period.
Thus, this order will PASS the check for Until Current Period.

For an Allocation Plan to pass the Open-to-Buy check, it must pass ALL the active checks for all purchase orders to be created.
Thus, in this example, the Allocation Plan will FAIL the Open-to-Buy check as long as the Check Alloc. Plan (Until Curr. Period) is activated.

Example of an Open-to-Buy Check at Budget Details Level

You have a sales budget ITEMCAT with Budget Type Item Category, Check Allocation Plan set to TRUE, and Check Alloc. Plan Level set to Budget Details. Also, the Check Alloc. Plan (Until Curr. Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE.

You have an allocation plan which will generate the following two Purchase Order documents upon the document creation:

The Open-to-Buy calculation for the sales budget ITEMCAT generates the following values at the details level:

For the budget details level check, the system sums up the purchase order amount grouped by the sales budget type, in this case, Item Category.

Hence, for the Purchase Order 001, the Purchase Order Value for DAIRY will be 250 + 275 = 525.

In the case of Purchase Order 002, the Purchase Order Values for BEVERAGES will be 30 + 40 = 70. In the case of item category STATIONARY, the category has no sales budget values defined and the Check Alloc. Plan (Ignore Zero Budget Lines) setting for ITEMCAT is TRUE. Therefore, the Open-to-Buy checks for this item category will be skipped.

The Open-to-Buy Date is 15-02-2019, and therefore the current period is Feb-2019. The last period is Dec-19.

If the Check Alloc. Plan (Curr. Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE, the system will look for the Current Period Value using the following formula:

Sales Budget Amount (Cost)
+ Negative Adjustment (Planned)
+ Discounts (Planned)
- Purchases
- Purchases (Committed)
-------------------------------------------------
= Current Period Value
  • For Purchase Order 001 and item category DAIRY, the Current Period Value is 300 + 20 + 50 - 15 - 50 = 305. The Purchase Order Value for DAIRY exceeds Current Period Value.
    Thus, this order will FAIL the check for the current period.
  • For Purchase Order 002 and item category BEVERAGES, the Current Period Value is 400 + 20 + 40 - 10 - 5 = 445. The Purchase Order Value for BEVERAGES is less than Current Period Value.
    Thus, this order will PASS for the current period.

If the Check Alloc. Plan (Until Curr. Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE, the system will look for the Value Until Current Period, which is the Open-to-Buy value for the current period.

  • For Purchase Order 001 and item category DAIRY, the Value Until Current Period is -115. The Purchase Order Value exceeds the Value Until Current Period.
    Thus, this order will FAIL the check for Until Current Period.
  • For Purchase Order 002 and item category BEVERAGES, the Value Until Current Period is 90. The Purchase Order Value is less than the Value Until Current Period.
    Thus, this order will PASS the check for Until Current Period.

If the Check Alloc. Plan (Until Last Period) for ITEMCAT is set to TRUE, the system will look for the Value Until Last Period, which is the Open-to-Buy value for the last period.

  • For Purchase Order 001 and item category DAIRY, the Value Until Last Period is 3348. The Purchase Order Value is less than the Value Until Last Period.
    Thus, this order will PASS the check for Until Last Period.
  • For Purchase Order 002 and item category BEVERAGES, the Value Until Last Period is 4559. The Purchase Order Value is less than the Value Until Last Period.
    Thus, this order will PASS the check for Until Last Period.

For an Allocation Plan to pass the Open-to-Buy check, it must pass ALL the active checks for all purchase orders to be created.
Thus, in this example, even though the order 002 passes all active checks, the allocation plan will FAIL the Open-to-Buy check as long as the order 001 fails any one of the active checks.

See Also

Open-to-Buy

How to: Perform Open-to-Buy Checks on Purchase Orders