Cash buying reference
This page lists the settings, columns, statuses and permissions behind cash-constrained buying on Inventory → Demand Planning. To see how they fit together, read How cash-constrained buying works.
Buying capacity settings
You change these in the Buying capacity dialog, opened from the strip above a plan's results.
Cash & credit tab
| Setting | What it does | Allowed values |
|---|---|---|
| Cash on hand comes from | Enter manually to type the figure. Or read it from QuickBooks Online or Xero. | — |
| Cash on hand | The cash the plan starts from. Typed, or the confirmed book balance. An overdrawn account counts as negative cash. | Any amount |
| Bank accounts to count | With an accounting connection, the bank accounts whose book balance counts as cash. Selected total adds them up. | — |
| Credit line limit | The most you can borrow on your credit line. | 0 or more |
| Drawn | How much of the credit line is already used. Typed, or read from the liability account you tick as the credit line. | 0 or more |
| Available credit | Worked out for you: the limit minus what's drawn, never below zero. | — |
| Count expected sales payouts as cash coming in | Adds expected sales payouts to each week. Off by default. | On or off |
| Payout lag | Days between a sale and its payout reaching your bank. | 0–120 days |
| Haircut | The share of each expected payout that's counted. | 0–100% |
| Horizon | How many weeks ahead the strip and the ranking look. | 4–26 weeks |
| Payables with no due date | Count in week 1 (conservative) or Leave out. | — |
A book balance read from QuickBooks Online or Xero shows as Unconfirmed until you confirm it, and the plan keeps using the last confirmed figure until then.
Reserve tab
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Base reserve | Never plan below this bank balance. Applies to every week without an override. |
| Seasonal overrides | A label, a start date, an end date and a reserve amount. The override replaces the base reserve for the weeks it covers. Where two overlap, the higher amount applies. |
| Reserve by week | A preview of the reserve each week will use. The strip's dashed capacity line follows it. |
Ranking tab
| Setting | What it does | Allowed values |
|---|---|---|
| Stockout risk weights | How much a line's stockout risk counts towards its score: high, medium, low, none and unknown. Defaults: 1.0, 0.6, 0.3, 0.1 and 0.5. | 0–1 each |
| Low confidence × | Multiplies the score of a line whose forecast has low confidence. Default 0.8. | 0.1–1 |
| Default markup % | Used when a product has no selling price: its profit per unit is the landed cost times this markup. Such lines are flagged. | 0–500% |
Live fit preview shows how many lines would fit with the weights you've typed, and which lines would move across the cut line, before you save. Reset to defaults restores the default weights, which are saved when you click Save.
The buying capacity strip
| Item | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Buying capacity | Cash + available credit − reserve: what you could spend before scheduled payables. |
| Credit available | The credit line limit minus what's drawn. |
| Base reserve | The balance you never plan below. |
| Spendable by week | One bar per week: capacity minus every payable due by then. |
| Tightest week | The week with the least spendable cash. |
| Under reserve | A week that would drop below the reserve. |
| Planned buys | The cash the lines that fit will use, in the weeks they pay. |
Ranked by cash columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| # | Rank across all suppliers by margin protected per $1 of cash. |
| Risk | Stockout risk: days of cover against the lead time. |
| Qty | Units in this cut. A partial fit shows fitted / total. |
| Cash | Landed cost of the units, paid in the weeks the supplier's terms say. |
| Pays | The weeks the deposit and the balance are paid. |
| Order by | The last day to order before stock runs out, given the lead time. Buy now when that day is today or past. |
| Out in | Days until stock runs out at the forecast rate. |
| $/ $1 | Margin protected per $1 of cash: the ranking score. |
| Status | Fits, Waits or Excluded (below). |
The Cut line — budget runs out here row separates the lines that fit from the lines that wait. Use All, Fits, Waits and Excluded above the table to filter it.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Fits | Inside the weekly headroom. |
| Waits | No week has room for it yet. Shows the first week it would fit. |
| Excluded | Can't be ranked, for example because it has no cost. |
A line can also carry one of these notes:
| Note | Meaning |
|---|---|
| No selling price: the default markup was used | The product has no price, so its profit came from the default markup. |
| Topped up to reach the supplier's minimum | Extra units were added so the supplier's order meets its minimum. |
| Below the supplier's minimum order | The supplier's order would fall short of its minimum, so these lines wait. |
| Bigger than any week's headroom | Even on its own, the line costs more than any week can spare. |
| Capacity is below the reserve before any buying | Your cash and credit are already below the reserve, so nothing fits. |
| Pays the supplier's fixed payment milestone | The line's cash follows a fixed payment milestone in the supplier's terms. |
| Pinned | A buyer pinned it to Fits or Waits. Pins are logged on the plan. |
Permissions
Cash figures are sensitive, so cash buying has its own permissions under Cash-Constrained Buying in a role's settings.
| Permission | Lets a user |
|---|---|
View ranking & headroom (cash_buying.index) | See the Ranked by cash view, the cut line and the weekly headroom. |
View balances (cash_buying.view_balances) | See the raw figures: cash on hand, credit and reserve. Together with capacity these reveal your bank balance. |
Edit capacity (cash_buying.update) | Change the Buying capacity settings, the reserve schedule and the ranking weights, enter cash, and confirm a balance read from your books. |
Read accounting balance (cash_buying.sync) | Read the book balance from QuickBooks Online or Xero. Also needs access to accounting. |
Pin lines (cash_buying.override) | Pin a line to Fits or Waits. |
Roles that could already create purchase orders get View ranking & headroom. Roles that could see accounting get View balances. Roles that could approve purchase orders get Pin lines. Edit capacity and Read accounting balance are financial controls: only administrators and the Finance role have them until you grant them.