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How to use forecast demand

Enhance inventory planning with Katana’s demand forecasting, using manual and automatic inputs.

Michael De Giovanni avatar
Written by Michael De Giovanni
Updated over a week ago

Forecasting demand in Katana helps you maintain optimal stock levels by predicting future sales using both historical data and manual inputs.

Whether you're preparing for a seasonal spike, a sales event like Black Friday, or launching a brand-new product, demand forecasting ensures your inventory is ready.

Note: The Planning and Forecasting add-on can be added to the Standard plan, and is automatically included in all other plans.


What is forecast demand?

Katana automatically analyzes your historical sales data to calculate forecasted demand for each item. You can:

  • Let Katana handle forecasts automatically,

  • Or manually enter your own weekly or monthly predictions.

This flexibility ensures better planning for:

  • Seasonal peaks (e.g., summer sales)

  • Promotional periods (e.g., Black Friday)

  • New product launches without sales history


Activating forecast demand

To begin, enable forecasting:

Activate forecast demand toggle
  1. Go to the Plan screen.

  2. Toggle on Activate forecast demand at the top of the screen.

Once enabled, Katana will display forecasted demand in the item's detail view.


Editing a weekly forecast

Detail view of an item from the Plan screen

You can manually edit the forecast for any week:

  1. From the Plan screen, click on an item to open its detail view.

  2. Locate the Forecast demand section.

  3. Click on the cell for the week you want to change.

  4. Enter your custom forecast quantity.

    GIF showing the forecast demand being manually changed

You can click the edit icon to view the automatically calculated forecast for comparison.

To revert to the automatic forecast:

  • Simply delete your manually entered value from the cell.

    Editing a forecasted week

Editing a monthly forecast

You can also forecast on a monthly level:

  • Navigate to the Monthly view inside the item detail.

  • Click on a month and enter your forecast number.

Example:

If you edit a Weekly forecast and the week is in two different months, then both months are updated:

Weekly:


Monthly

Important Notes:

  • Monthly forecasts override weekly forecasts for the selected month.

  • If a week spans two months, both months will reflect the new value proportionally.


Forecasting for new products

Add forecast for a newly added product

If you're adding a new product without sales history, you can still forecast demand manually.

You have two options:

  • Short-term manual forecast: Enter estimates for the first few weeks. Once real sales data is available, Katana will begin automatic forecasting.

  • Full manual forecast: Manually forecast the full period if you prefer to control the entire forecasting timeline.


Understanding the forecast impact

After editing a forecast:

  • Katana recalculates In stock values for upcoming weeks.

  • If you see negative In stock numbers, this means you’ll need to replenish more to avoid stockouts.

  • Any changes will reflect in Katana’s Replenishment suggestions automatically.

Note: You might see a temporary delay while forecasts recalculate. A warning will appear, but the system will correct itself shortly.


Summary

Feature

What it Does

Auto forecast

Uses historical data to predict demand

Manual override

Adjust forecasts per week or month

New product support

Manually enter demand forecasts when no sales history exists

Forecast effects

Updates stock projections and replenishment timing


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