Smart Replenishment: Release Notes

Suggested orders you can trust, in minutes

Smart Replenishment works out what to order from each supplier, shows you why, and sends the approved orders straight back to Counterpoint. It builds every suggestion from your own sales history, stock and lead times, then flags the lines most likely to be wrong so you spend your time where it matters.

Instead of working through a long suggested order line by line, you start with the few lines that need a second look. Every quantity comes with a plain-language explanation, and nothing goes to Counterpoint until you approve it.

Why it matters

• Less time ordering. Pick your suppliers and categories, click Calculate, and the order is ready to review. The lines most at risk are listed first.
• Fewer stock-outs. Safety stock covers busier-than-usual weeks and late deliveries, sized to how often you want each item in stock.
• Less money tied up in stock. Lines that would leave you with months of supply, or that are driven by a one-off spike in sales, are flagged before you send them.
• Your Counterpoint settings still count. Item minimums and maximums from Counterpoint can act as a floor, replace CP2's figures, or be ignored. You choose for each order.
• Supplier minimums met automatically. When an order falls short of a supplier's minimum, CP2 tops up the items that will run out soonest.
• No retyping. Approved orders go back to Counterpoint as standard suggested-order files, one per supplier, ready for its purchasing import.

How it works

An order goes from your Counterpoint data to an approved file in five steps.

1. A fresh snapshot every night. After the overnight Counterpoint import, CP2 takes a snapshot of every item at every branch: stock, sales history, open purchase orders, customer backorders and receipts. Need it sooner? Click Build snapshot now.
2. Calculate. Choose the branches, suppliers and categories, check the settings, and click Calculate suggested order. For each item CP2 works out:
   • average daily sales, from completed months only;
   • the lead time: the item's, the supplier's, or the average of its recent receipts;
   • safety stock for busy weeks and late deliveries;
   • a reorder point and a target, then the quantity to order, rounded to the item's purchase quantity.
3. Review. Each line gets a score out of 100. Anything under 70 is worth a look, and Why? explains what CP2 found. Change a quantity, exclude a line, or use the quantity CP2 suggests with one click.
4. Recalculate if you like. Change a setting and recalculate: your own changes carry over to the new version.
5. Approve and send. Approve the order, then Send to Counterpoint. CP2 writes one file per supplier and shows when Counterpoint has picked each one up.

You can also bring in Counterpoint's own suggested orders to compare them side by side with CP2's.

Settings that fit how you buy

The defaults suit most orders, so you can calculate straight away. Every setting has a ? next to it that explains what it changes.

More settings also covers lost sales, special orders, days between orders, the lead time to use when none is known, minimum and maximum days of supply, and order multiples.

Know which lines to check

Every line, and every order as a whole, gets a score out of 100 for how likely its quantity is right, along with the dollars in doubt. Orders are sorted with the most money at risk first, so a five-minute review covers what matters.

Click Why? on any line to see what CP2 found and what it would order instead. It looks for things such as:

• a one-off spike in sales that is inflating the average;
• a seasonal pattern the order hasn't allowed for;
• sales trending up or down faster than the history shows;
• recent deliveries taking longer, or shorter, than the lead time used;
• an order that would leave months of stock, or still leave you short;
• data that makes the figures uncertain, such as negative stock on hand.

One click uses the quantity the evidence points to. Scores update as you make changes, so they always describe what will be sent.

A second opinion from AI (optional)

With AI turned on, Ask AI for suggestions reviews the flagged and largest lines and proposes changes, each with its reason. You use or decline each one, and every proposal is checked against your ordering rules first. Proposals are rounded to each item's purchase quantity, and any that would break a limit, such as a Counterpoint maximum, are set aside.

AI is off until your company turns it on. Only summarized inventory and sales figures for items are sent, never customer details. Your company can turn it off at any time.

Getting started

Smart Replenishment is part of CP2 1.4.6. To start using it:

1. Ask AMS to set it up. AMS sets the suggested-order format your Counterpoint uses and the folder Counterpoint collects approved orders from. Without a folder, approved orders can be downloaded and loaded into Counterpoint by hand.
2. Give buyers access. Turn on the Smart Replenishment module for each user who orders.
3. Turn on AI, if you want it. It's off until your company opts in through CP2's settings.

On the page, the How to use this page guide walks a first-time buyer through the steps, and the ? in the top corner explains how each quantity is worked out.