Plans, scenarios and send runs
Every time the Send Planner calculates, it saves the result as a plan. There are three kinds, and each has its own tab on Inventory → Send Planner. The working plan is the live plan you act on. A scenario is a what-if you compare against it. A send run is the weekly checklist that takes the working plan's rules from exceptions to shipment drafts. Knowing which one you're looking at tells you what you can change and whether anything you do touches real stock.
The three kinds of plan
| Working plan | Scenario | Send run | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where you work on it | Plan tab | Scenarios tab, and read-only on the Plan tab | Send runs tab |
| What it's for | The live answer to "what should go where": edit quantities, allocate stock, create drafts | Seeing what a change would send before you commit to it | The weekly routine: decide the exceptions, approve each network, create every draft at once |
| Rules it uses | Your Network rules, plus any tuning you apply | The working plan's rules plus the scenario's own changes | The working plan's rules, plus any changes you make in its first step |
| Allocates stock and creates drafts | Yes | Never | Yes, after each network is approved |
| How many | One current plan. A new calculation replaces it once it's ready | As many as you like, each with a name | One per run. Scheduled runs are named "Week N send run" |
| Name in lists | Working plan | Its name, or "Scenario #" and its number | Send run, or the scheduled name |
The tab bar shows a count next to Scenarios (active scenarios) and next to Send runs (networks in the latest send run still waiting for approval).
The working plan
The working plan is the plan on the Plan tab. It's the only plan that is always current: when you recalculate, the new plan takes over once it's ready, and the previous one is marked Superseded in History. Edits you made carry forward to the new plan wherever the same SKU and network still exist. Allocations and shipment drafts come from the working plan, or from a send run. See Read the send plan.
Scenarios
A scenario answers "what would a promotion, a longer target or counting incoming production send?" It starts from the working plan's rules and applies the changes you pick: a demand multiplier or a promo window per network, different target days, a different amount kept for self-fulfilled orders, counting stock on the way, a cut to every capacity limit, or a smaller set of products. It then calculates in the background like any plan, and you track it in the job tray.
A scenario always calculates on the stock that's there, even when a network's stock is out of date. The out-of-date networks are flagged on the scenario, but they never stop it. That's the opposite of the working plan and send runs, which fail until you refresh the stock or choose Plan anyway.
What you can't do in a scenario
You can open a ready scenario on the Plan tab from the view picker. The header shows a purple Scenario: chip with its name, and the summary reads This scenario. Everything that would change stock, the plan or a network is turned off, and each disabled control says why when you hover it:
| You try to… | The control says |
|---|---|
| Edit a send quantity, or change When stock is short on the grid | Scenarios are read-only. Promote the scenario to edit sends. |
| Create drafts | Scenarios never create drafts. Promote the scenario first. |
| Allocate stock | Scenarios never allocate stock or create drafts. Promote the scenario first. |
| Open Review AI plan | Scenarios are what-ifs: approve the working plan |
| Draft supplier POs or create a PO from a short SKU | Scenarios are what-ifs: create POs from the working plan |
| Plan production from a short SKU | Scenarios are what-ifs: plan production from the working plan |
| Tune the plan | You are viewing a scenario, which is read-only. Switch to the working plan to tune it. |
| Refresh a network's numbers | Scenarios are read-only. Switch to the working plan to refresh the network's numbers. |
Export still works, so you can take a scenario's numbers into a spreadsheet. To act on a scenario, promote it: its rules become the working rules and the working plan recalculates with them. Its changes then stay on the working plan through every later recalculation; see What a promoted scenario or applied tuning leaves on the working plan. See Compare and promote a scenario.
Unused scenarios are archived after 30 days
An hourly check archives any scenario that hasn't been updated for 30 days, so the Scenarios list holds only what you're still working with. An archived scenario moves under Archived at the bottom of the list. You can still open it read-only from History, and unarchive it there. See Archive plans and review history.
Send runs
A send run is "one checklist for everything going to FBA, AWD, WFS and FBT this week." It's calculated with the working plan's rules and then worked in four steps:
- Scope & rules: the warehouses it ships from, how much it keeps for self-fulfilled orders, and each network's target and priority. Changes here apply to this run only.
- Exceptions: one card for each decision, such as a shortfall, a stranded listing or a stock-out before arrival.
- Review by network: each network's lines, approved one network at a time. Approvals are shared with everyone working on the run, and recorded.
- Create drafts: once every network with units is approved, all the drafts are created together.
The Send runs tab opens the newest run, and you can switch to an earlier one from the picker beside its title. When you recalculate a run, or start a new one, the new run replaces the earlier ready runs once it's calculated: each earlier run shows a Replaced chip, becomes read-only, and releases the stock it allocated that isn't on a draft yet. A run you discard is archived, its allocations are released, and it stays readable. You can also start one every week on a schedule. See Work through a send run and Schedule weekly send runs.
What a promoted scenario or applied tuning leaves on the working plan
When you promote a scenario, or tune the plan and recalculate with your changes, the changed settings are saved on the working plan itself. They are not written to Network rules. Five things follow from that:
- You can see them on the Plan tab. A purple Tuned chip appears next to the plan's freshness chip. Click it to see a This plan is tuned box that lists each change, such as FBA US demand ×1.6 or Keep for self-fulfilled orders 14 days. The Tune this plan drawer lists the same changes under Already applied.
- They carry forward. Every later Recalculate, send run and new scenario applies them again, whoever starts it. Promote a scenario that multiplies FBA demand by 1.6 for a sale, and FBA demand stays multiplied by 1.6 until you reset it.
- They win over Network rules. If the working plan carries its own target days for FBA, changing Target days on the FBA card has no effect on the working plan. Fields you never tuned still follow Network rules.
- You can see them in History. In the History and Scenarios lists, a short summary under each plan's name lists what it changed, for example
FBA US demand ×1.6 · Keep for self-fulfilled orders 14 days. - A smaller set of products doesn't carry forward. If the promoted scenario covered only one saved view, the working plan it creates covers only that view. The next Recalculate goes back to all products.
To go back to your Network rules, click Tuned, then Reset to Network rules. The working plan recalculates with no tuning at all; send quantities you edited by hand still carry forward. See Reset to Network rules.
Plan statuses
A plan is Calculating, Ready, Failed or Superseded (replaced by a newer working plan or send run), and archived plans are listed under Archived at the bottom of each list. For what each status means and what you can do in it, see Send Planner statuses.
Related
- Try a what-if with a scenario
- Tune the plan, for trying changes on the working plan before you save them as a scenario
- Recalculate the plan and fix calculation problems