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AIM Basic Functions guide

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Modelling or Forecasting? Understanding how AIM can help you control your stock

It's important to understand how your stock on hand will be replenished using different methods in Unleashed. You can choose to use two main methods: low stock alerts from stock limits or a replenishment plan. 

If we look at these two examples of a future stock on hand using each:

You can see that Modelling stock limit for min/max stock will trigger replenishments. However, because the rate of demand is variable, the replenishments are occurring at different rates. AIM will model the min/max based on the average rate of demand from the products history and the number of days of stock you want to hold. You could also manually set the min/max in AIM.
Alternatively, you can forecast a product with a Stock-Days strategy. AIM forecasting will then plot the required replenishments in the Supply chart based on a dynamic calculation of how much demand occurs within a given time period. Forecasting will populate the Replenishments tab, detailing the quantity and date of each required replenishment.
You can take forecasting further with AIM Production Planning. This will use the forecast replenishments to create forecast demand on linked components. The replenishments tab in AIM will then list all the required replenishments through your supply chain without the need to forecast demand on each component (unless you plan to sell a component separately).

 

Creating a Product Forecast in AIM

    1. To open a Product Forecast click the coloured dot next to the product of interest:


    Alternatively, you can navigate to the Forecasting tab in AIM and then search for a product directly.

    1. You can find the product you want to forecast in the AIM Dashboard using the Product Search field pictured above.


      The AIM Product Forecast Interface

    2. Set demand
      You can set demand in a few ways – firstly, the blue points of the demand chart are draggable. Secondly, you can type demand into the forecast tab of the table below. Finally, you can use the trend lines calculated from the demand history using the Fill Forecast option.
      Once you have a forecast value entered for each month, then you will have a green tick icon appear. This will appear automatically if the demand is calculated from Production Demand on a component. In that case, you only need to set the demand for additional sales.
    3. Plan Supply
      Clicking on the Plan Supply panel will open the Supply chart to show you a future timeline for your stock on and and where replenishments are required.

      Select between a Stock Days strategy or a Manual Strategy
      Stock Days: Depending on how many days of stock you want; the system will calculate a dynamic quantity of stock to hold.
      Manual: Set a static min quantity and max quantity.



    Fix replenishment dates:
    Min Stock (default): Replenishes at min stock. When stock reaches a minimum level set by either the Min Days of Stock, or Min Qty, the system will calculate a replenishment to be placed.
    Set Interval: Set a start date and interval in days between your replenishments. On this date the system will calculate a replenishment to bring stock up to the Max Days / Qty of stock.

    1. Review the Table details
      The Table will show you the values of linear, seasonal and forecast of the past and future months. Compare these to the ‘actual’ values to see how accurate you have been. If the forecast is plotting replenishments to occur, review the ‘Required’ column to indicate your purchase or production forecast needed to meet demand.

     

     

    1. The table includes tabs that will list the replenishments required by the forecast, the production demand details for components and parent assemblies and the product analysis details, including useful charts to see the expected stock burndown and movement of stock based on only open transactions.
    Once you are done click Save Forecast in the top right of the screen. You can edit the name of your Transaction (save point) and set a Review Timer.

 

Modelling Product Stock Limits based on historic demand

The AIM Modelling page allows you to quickly set stock limits on multiple products quickly according to each products historic rate of demand. In order to model a products stock limits:

Use the drop down menu to select a group of products in the AIM Insights Dashboard and click 'Model' or, go to the Modelling page and use the filters to select a group of products:

Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 12.08.32.png

Set your strategy parameters:

A Just-In-Time strategy will lock in the stock needed to cover the lead days, you can then add an additional min buffer. Set the max buffer to the number of days of stock you wish to hold in between replenishment. The system will then calculate a min and max quantity of stock to hold.

A Stock Days strategy allows you to simply set the min and max quantity of stock according to the number of days of stock you wish to hold. Note that you can potentially set the min days of stock to be less than the lead time, which will result in the a replenishment being triggered that will not arrive before a stock out in the forecast.

A Manual strategy simply allows you to enter your own min and max quantity of stock.

Adjust your lead days. If you know how long it will take to replenish the product and all the products have the same value (if you are modelling products from the same supplier), enter this value in the Lead Days field and set the drop down to overwrite. Alternatively, you can enable the ‘Use Actual’ value to update all products, or only those that are missing a value. This will take the historic delivery time of the product and apply that value.
NOTE: The lead days value is critical for the Just-In-Time strategy, but is not used for Stock Days or Manual strategies. However, you should keep an accurate lead days value for products, as this will set the default delivery date of purchase orders.

Press Calculate to see the ‘new’ stock limit values applied and scroll down to review the list
Note that products that have an active forecast are excluded from Modelling, as they are controlled by the forecast instead. Click the AIM icon to open the forecast to change the stock limits.

AIM Modelling. Note the green icon denotes an active forecast

Click the Summary expander to review the stock limit and value changes that will occur with the new stock limits.

Click Submit, give the transaction a meaningful name and set a review time limit. Once complete, this will send the new stock limit values to the product records.

 

How to ensure lead days are accurate

There are a few easy ways to update lead days for products and keep the values accurate.

  1. You can quickly set up lead days by supplier. Filter the modelling page by a supplier and a warehouse that you know the lead time for, then overwrite the lead days with this known value.
  2. You can update the lead days based on past performance by choosing to overwrite the lead days with the ‘Use Actuals’ option:

    Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 14.41.06.png
  3. Check the supplier performance chart to see how often orders from a supplier are considered late. You may consider changing the lead days value of products from suppliers that often deliver outside of the lead days window:

    Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 14.43.36.png

    The AIM Insights Dashboard Supplier Performance chart will outline how many deliveries are beyond the lead days



Import Historic Data to AIM.

BI Vision and AIM allows you to import historic sales data. With this feature, you will be able to upload your historical sales data (Invoiced Sales Orders and Credits) from your previous stock management system to AIM. 

We are limiting the date range for uploading historical sales data to not allow transactions older than 2015-01-01. The suggested limit is to only upload 5 years of data and there is a file size limit of 100MB per file to upload.

NOTE: Due to the complexity and other integrations such as integration with accounting software, the historical sales data will only be visible in BI and not in Unleashed core.

The processing time for uploading the historical data could be quick or take a couple of hours depending on the volume of data. You will receive an email informing you of any errors found during validating your imported data or when processing was completed successfully so you don't need to wait for it to be done and may continue using Unleashed as normal.

The failure and success notifications will be visible in Unleashed under the notifications icon, you will also receive emails with more detail. 

There is a limit of 10 attempts per day.

Every upload will replace and overwrite the previous uploaded historical sales data so it should always include all the transactions.

To begin the import process, click the Import button on the AIM Insights Dashboard

 

Sales Order Template field definitions 

Field

Definition

Field Size (Max)

Type

Mandatory field

OrderNumber

Unique sales order number per sales order

20

PK - Alphanumeric 

Yes

OrderDate

The date the order was placed (Oldest date allowed = 2015-01-01)

-

yyyy-mm-dd

Yes

RequiredDate

Date when delivery/shipment was required. (Oldest date allowed = 2015-01-01)

-

yyyy-mm-dd

Yes

CustomerCode

The unique customer code (as created in Unleashed) who placed the order.

500

Alphanumeric

Yes

SalesChannel

Sales channel - Mobile,  B2BPortal, API
 

50

Alphanumeric

Leave blank if not applicable.

SalesPerson

Name and surname of the salesperson who made the sale - Ideally all these salespersons will be added to Unleashed - https://unleashedsoftware.com/v2/SalesPerson/Update

256

Alphanumeric

Leave blank if not applicable.

SalesOrderGroup

This should match a Sales Order Group as setup in Unleashed -

https://unleashedsoftware.com/v2/SalesOrderGroup/Update

50

Alphanumeric

Leave blank if not applicable.

WarehouseCode

This is the warehouse linked to the Sales Orders. The code entered should match a Warehouse code as setup in Unleashed - https://unleashedsoftware.com/v2/Warehouse/List 

15

Alphanumeric

Yes

DeliveryCity

The City field for delivering the products sold.

500

Alphanumeric

Leave blank if not applicable.

DeliveryRegion

The State/Region field for delivering the products sold. 

500

Alphanumeric

Leave blank if not applicable.

DeliveryCountry

The Country field for delivering the products sold. 

500

Alphanumeric

Leave blank if not applicable.

CurrencyCode

The default currency code linked to the Customer record. It must be a valid currency code used in your Unleashed account, set up under Settings. https://unleashedsoftware.com/v2/Currency/Update 

3

Alphanumeric

Yes

ExchangeRate

The exchange rate at the time of Sale. Only needed to complete if the sale to the customer was done in a foreign currency. This exchange rate will be used to apply to the values entered in LineTotal. 

18

Numeric *

Yes - Enter “1” if it is the same as the base currency

ChargeTotal

Total charges/costs linked to the Sales Order, repeat the total on all line items.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.) 

18

Numeric *

Leave blank if there were no additional charges.

LineNumber

Each product on the Sales Order represents a sales order line, starting from number 1 for the first product, 2 for the second, etc.

18

Numeric

Yes

ProductCode

The product code must match the product code as captured in Unleashed. https://unleashedsoftware.com/v2/Product/List#Obsolete=All,Sellable=All 

100

Alphanumeric

Yes

OrderQuantity

The number of units sold 

18

Numeric

Yes

UnitPrice

The sale price, in your local currency, per Unit sold at the time of sale. Excluding tax. 

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.)

18

Numeric *

Yes

DiscountRate

Any discount percentage applied to the unit price. 10% discount should be entered as 0.1 and 100% discount = 1

18

Numeric *

Yes - Enter 0, if not applicable.

LineTotal

Total sale, in your local currency, including any discounts applied. Excluding tax.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000,000.00 should be entered as 1000000.00.)

18

Numeric *

No

LineCost

Average landed cost price at the time of sale.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.)

18

Numeric *

Yes

 

* NOTE: Numeric fields should not have more than 4 decimal values.

 

Sales Invoice Template field definitions 

Field

Definition

Size

Type

Mandatory field

InvoiceNumber

Unique invoice number linked to the Sales Order number

21

PK - Alphanumeric

Yes

InvoiceDate

The date the order was invoiced. (Oldest date = 2015-01-01)

-

yyyy-MM-dd

Yes

CompleteDate

The date the invoice was completed.(Oldest date = 2015-01-01)

-

yyyy-MM-dd

Yes

OrderNumber

The unique sales order number this invoice is linked to.

20

FK - Alphanumeric

Yes

ExchangeRate

The exchange rate at the time of sale. Only needed to be complete if the sale to the customer was done in a foreign currency. 

(eg. 0.984)

18

Numeric

Enter “1” if it is the same as the base currency

ChargeTotal

Any additional charges/costs linked to this Sales Invoice, repeat the amount on all line items.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.)

18

Numeric *

Leave blank if there were no additional charges.

LineNumber

Each product on the Sales Invoice represents a sales order line, starting from number 1 for the first product, 2 for the second etc. This should match the line order number per product listed on the completed sales orders template.

18

Numeric

Yes

ProductCode

The product code must match the product code as captured in Unleashed. https://unleashedsoftware.com/v2/Product/List#Obsolete=All,Sellable=All 

100

Alphanumeric

Yes

InvoiceQuantity

The number of units invoiced.

18

Numeric

Yes

 

* NOTE: Numeric fields should not have more than 4 decimal values.

 

Credit Note Template field definitions 

(Only applicable to complete if you processed credit for any of the Sales Orders captured or for free credits (not linked to Sales Orders).

Field

Definition

Size

Type

Mandatory field

CreditNoteNumber

Unique credit note number.

20

PK - Alphanumeric

Yes

CreditDate

Date the credit note was processed. (Oldest date = 2015-01-01)

-

yyyy-MM-dd

Yes

CreditType

Option of 2 types, credit linked to a sales order should be type = “Credit”. If the credit is not linked to a Sales Order it should be type = “FreeCredit”

20

Alphanumeric

Yes

OrderNumber

Unique Sales Order number linked to this credit.

20

FK - Alphanumeric

Yes - only if credittype = “credit”

InvoiceNumber

Unique Sales Invoice number linked to this credit.

21

FK - Alphanumeric

Yes - only if credittype = “credit”

CustomerCode

The unique customer code (as created in Unleashed) who placed the order and who  received the credit.

500

Alphanumeric

Yes

CurrencyCode

The default currency code linked to the Sales Order. It must be a valid currency code used in your Unleashed account, setup under: Settings - System - Currency Rates.

3

Alphanumeric

Yes

ExchangeRate

The exchange rate at the time of sale. Only needed to complete if the sale to the customer was done in a foreign currency. 

18

Numeric *

Enter “1” if it is the same as the base currency.

ChargeTotal

Total charges linked to the Credit note, repeat the total on all line items if there is more than one credit line.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.)

18

Numeric *

Leave blank if there were no additional charges.

LineNumber

Each product on the Credit Note represents a line number, starting from number 1 for the first product, 2 for the second, etc.

18

Numeric

Yes

ProductCode

The product code must match the product code as captured on the Sales Invoice / Sales Order. 

100

Alphanumeric

Yes

CreditQuantity

The number of units credited

18

Numeric *

Yes

UnitPrice

The price per Unit credited.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.)

18

Numeric *

Yes

LineTotal

Total credit processed. Excluding tax.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $10,000.00 should be entered as 10000.00.)

18

Numeric *

No

LineCost

Average landed cost price at the time of sale.

(The format of this field should be plain numeric with no thousand separators or currencies eg. $1,000.00 should be entered as 1000.00.)

18

Numeric *

Yes

ReturnToStock

Indication if the product credited was returned to stock.

Returned to stock options are: TRUE or FALSE

-

Boolean

Yes: TRUE or FALSE

  

* NOTE: Numeric fields should not have more than 4 decimal values.

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