Enhanced Planning Worksheet
The Enhanced Planning Worksheet provides an informative and efficient planning worksheet that includes new planning-specific FactBoxes and tabs and adds additional planning capabilities beyond the standard Business Central planning worksheet including:
- A fast and focused purchase plan calculation (for distribution centers or organizations that only care about the sales forecast ending date) with customizable purchase order creation.
- Get Drop Shipment Sales Orders from the Business Central requisition worksheet.
- Get Special Sales Orders from the Business Central requisition worksheet.
- Gives you the ability to plan based on only released sales and service orders.
The Enhanced Planning Worksheet consists of a main worksheet part that is similar to the Business Central planning worksheet with FactBox parts along the right-hand side of the page and tab parts along the bottom of the worksheet part.
- Navigate to the Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup page in Business Central.
- Ensure the Extended Purchase Planning field is enabled on the Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup page.
- Navigate to the Enhanced Planning Worksheet page.
- Set user preferences on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page, if needed (opens the first time you access the worksheet).
- Complete the setup wizard, if needed (opens the first time you access the worksheet if not already completed).
- Select Related and select User Preferences.
- Modify the Chart FastTab’s settings, as needed.
- Modify the Planning Summary FastTab’s settings, as needed.
- Modify the Planning FastTab’s settings (where purchase plan calculation results are sent and consideration of released production order component line quantities in the calculation).
- Modify the Forecast FastTab’s settings, if needed.
- Close the page to return to the Enhanced Planning Worksheet.
Note:
- The All Locations/Variants field in the Planning Summary FactBox drills down to the Item Availability by Location page (Item by Location page) when the Location Drill-Down field on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page is set to “Single Item Availability” (“All Items On-Hand”).
- The Qty. on Planning Lines field in the Planning Summary FactBox is displayed regardless of the Planned Qty. in FactBox field value on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page. The Planned Qty. in FactBox field controls whether the planning quantity is included in the Supply Net field value (in the same FactBox) and whether it reduces the available quantity based on the purchase quantities.
- The Availability by Location FactBox shows only locations set in the Availability Location Filter field on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page (e.g., The Availability by Location FactBox does not display any locations if no locations are set in the field).
- The value of the Allowed Companies Filter field on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page cannot exceed 30 characters, and when not blank, the All Companies On Hand field appears in the Planning Summary FactBox. You must also begin lower-case company names with “@” to indicate case-insensitive treatment; otherwise, the All Companies On Hand field may not show the expected value.
Calculate Purchase Plan
The Enhanced Planning Worksheet’s Calculate Purchase Plan is specific to planning purchases and transfers. You can plan purchases and transfers separately or plan both at the same time (e.g., intracompany transfers planned by someone other than the purchaser). The purchase plan is based on stockkeeping units and not items; you must have stockkeeping units created for the item or the item is not planned.
- Navigate to the Enhanced Planning Worksheet page in Business Central.
- Select Prepare and select Calculate Purchase Plan.
- Set the following Option fields (for a typical run):
- Plan replenishment for: All
- Include Planned Purchases: Include
- Minimum Level to Trigger Reorder: Use Reorder Point (recommended)
- Don’t Show Blocked Vendor Warning: Disabled
- Batch to Populate: Use Specific Batch
- Use Batch Name: DEFAULT
- Existing Worksheet Lines: Delete All Lines
- Set the following Filter: Stockkeeping Unit fields as needed:
- Vendor No.
- Location Code
- Additional SKU filters using + Filter…
- Select OK to run the purchase plan calculation.
- Open the required Enhanced Planning Worksheet batch (specified on the Run Purchase Plan request page).
You can now use the other parts of the Enhanced Planning Worksheet page to assist in present and future planning.
Note:
- If you select Exclude for Include Planned Purchases, we recommend you set the Existing Worksheet Lines field to Delete All Lines.
- For Minimum Level to Trigger Reorder, you can use Use Maximum Qty. for seasonality (to keep full stock in high demand periods). If you set a Reordering Policy of Lot-for-Lot, planning lines are generated for SKUs although Reorder Point or Maximum Inventory values cannot be defined.
- Enable Don’t Show Blocked Vendor Warning when running the purchase plan in the job queue.
- Use Batch Name is editable/effective only if you set Batch to Populate to Use Specific Batch.
- If you select Delete Lines in SKU Filter in Existing Worksheet Lines, all lines that satisfy the stockkeeping unit filter fields are deleted and replanned.
FactBoxes
Planning Summary
The Planning Summary FactBox shows current inventory and quantities on document lines for the SKU on the selected planning line with drilldowns to the source data. Some of the FactBox fields are controlled by settings on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page.
Availability by Location
The Availability by Location FactBox shows current inventory and future availability for the item on the selected planning line at each location specified in the Availability Location Filter field on the Enhanced Planning User Preferences page.
Vendor Planning Summary
The Vendor Planning Summary FactBox is designed to show information based on the Enhanced Plan Vendor Summary setup and results. Please see the article/section for that page for more details.
Planning Tabs
Chart
The Chart tab displays past outbound (sale, consumption, transfer, and negative adjustment) and inbound (purchase, output, and positive adjustment) usage for the selected planning line’s SKU. The information is shown in a convenient and configurable chart that can be used to detect patterns in historical supply and demand.
- Navigate to Enhanced Planning Worksheet in Business Central.
- Select the Chart tab and select the required line from the worksheet.
- Select a point on the chart to see usage totals for the applicable period.
Planning
The Planning tab gives you access to the Planning FastTab’s fields on the selected planning line’s SKU card (or Item card if a SKU does not exist), enabling updates to planning parameters without having to navigate away from the Enhanced Planning Worksheet.
Order Tracking
The Order Tracking tab shows the order tracking entries only when Order Tracking Policy <> “None” on the Item card, so you can see the basis of the supply suggestion for the selected line.
Supply/Demand
Supply/Demand is similar to Business Central’s Item Availability by Event view, expanding and organizing the Planning Summary FactBox by demand and supply events with the view showing all orders, open and released. The main difference is that Supply/Demand is part of the main worksheet page and updates immediately for the selected line.
History
History allows you to view item ledger entries for the selected planning line’s SKU. History is a tabular version of the Chart tab.
Create Purchase Orders
Create Purchase Orders provides a configurable way of generating purchase orders from planning lines in the Enhanced Planning Worksheet. It allows you to combine purchase planning lines (with the same item, UOM, variant, location, and vendor) and set the released status of the generated orders in advance. Create Purchase Orders provides you with options for printing or sending the orders according to the applicable document sending profile.