How the Enhanced Planning Worksheet Uses Business Central Planning

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet provides the standard Business Central planning worksheet functions in a workspace that gives planners additional information, navigation, filtering, and purchasing tools.

It uses standard Business Central requisition lines and supports the standard planning engine. Existing item and stockkeeping unit planning parameters continue to determine how standard planning suggestions are calculated.

To get the most out of this article we recommend that you review these articles first:

• Business Central Planning Parameters: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/design-details-planning-parameters
• Business Central Planning System Core Concepts : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/design-details-central-concepts-of-the-planning-system
• Overview of the Enhanced Planning Worksheet: https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/enhanced-planning-worksheet/

Before you begin

Planning results depend on the planning parameters defined on the Item Card or Stockkeeping Unit Card, including:

• Reordering Policy
• Reorder Point
• Safety Stock Quantity
• Reorder Quantity
• Maximum Inventory
• Time Bucket
• Rescheduling Period
• Lot Accumulation Period
• Dampener Period
• Minimum and Maximum Order Quantity
• Order Multiple
• Replenishment System

When a stockkeeping unit exists for an item, variant, and location combination, its planning values take precedence over the corresponding values on the Item Card.

Items without a reordering policy are not included in standard automatic planning calculations.

Open the Enhanced Planning Worksheet

1. Search for Enhanced Planning Worksheet.
2. Select the planning worksheet batch in the Name field.
3. Review or calculate the planning lines for that batch.

The page can also be found by searching for terms such as MRP, MPS, supply planning, or Enhanced Plan Worksheet.

Calculate a standard supply plan

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet includes the standard Business Central planning calculations.

Calculate Net Change Plan

Select Calculate Net Change Plan to plan only items whose demand, supply, or planning setup has changed since the previous planning calculation.

This is generally the appropriate calculation for regular planning runs.

Calculate Regenerative Plan

Select Calculate Regenerative Plan to recalculate the plan for all items included by the request-page filters.

Use a regenerative calculation after broader changes that might affect many items, such as changes to:

• Planning parameters
• Production BOMs
• Routings
• Calendars
• Capacity
• Locations or stockkeeping units

Get Action Messages

Select Get Action Messages to retrieve immediate suggestions resulting from changes since the previous planning calculation.

This is useful for short-term review but does not replace a complete net change or regenerative planning calculation.

Review the planning suggestions

Each worksheet line represents a suggested change to supply.

Common action messages include:

• New
• Change Qty.
• Reschedule
• Reschedule & Change Qty.
• Cancel

Use Accept Action Message to determine which suggestions will be processed.

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet also provides:

• Accept All Messages
• Unaccept All Messages

Warnings identify lines that require additional review. Use Get Error Log to review errors encountered during the planning calculation.

Additional planning information

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet places additional planning information directly alongside the worksheet.

Depending on the selected worksheet line, you can review:

Supply/Demand

Displays supply and demand entries for the selected item, variant, and location.

Sales return orders can be included as incoming supply, and purchase return orders can be included as demand. The Include Sales Returns and Include Purchase Returns settings on the Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup page determine which return orders are included based on their document status.

History

Displays historical item transactions for the selected item, variant, and location.

Order Tracking

Shows the relationship between the selected planning suggestion and its related supply or demand.

Planning

Displays the planning parameters from either the Stockkeeping Unit Card or Item Card.

When a stockkeeping unit exists for the selected item, variant, and location, the worksheet displays the stockkeeping unit planning values.

Chart

Displays item usage information graphically.

The chart behavior can be configured separately for each user.

Additional worksheet FactBoxes

The worksheet includes FactBoxes that provide information without leaving the planning lines.

Planning Summary

Shows summarized planning information for the selected item, variant, and location.

The summarized supply and demand quantities reflect the return-order inclusion settings configured on the Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup page. When enabled by those settings, sales return orders contribute supply and purchase return orders contribute demand.

Availability by Location

Shows item availability across locations.

Vendor Planning Summary

Shows summarized vendor-related planning information. Location filtering can be controlled through user preferences.

Review related records

From a worksheet line, you can open related information such as:

• Stockkeeping Unit Card or Item Card
• Item ledger entries
• Item availability by event, period, variant, location, lot, or BOM level
• Planning components
• Planning routing
• Reservations
• Item tracking lines
• Dimensions
• Bin contents
• The related sales order
• Order tracking information

This allows planners to investigate a suggestion without repeatedly leaving and reopening the worksheet.

Change the proposed replenishment system

The Replenishment System field can be changed directly on an Enhanced Planning Worksheet line.

Depending on the selected replenishment system, the resulting supply can be created as a:

• Purchase order
• Production order
• Transfer order
• Assembly order

Review the related Supply From, vendor, transfer-from location, BOM, and routing values after changing the replenishment system.

Calculate a purchase plan

Enhanced Planning Worksheet includes an additional Calculate Purchase Plan action.

This action is available when Extended Purchase Planning is enabled in Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup.

Unlike the standard regenerative and net change calculations, Calculate Purchase Plan performs an additional SKU-based replenishment calculation intended primarily for purchasing and transfer planning.

It does not replace standard MRP or MPS when multi-level demand and production requirements must be calculated.

To calculate a purchase plan:

1. Open the Enhanced Planning Worksheet.
2. Select Calculate Purchase Plan.
3. Filter the stockkeeping units by fields such as:
   • Vendor No.
   • Item No.
   • Location Code
4. Complete the calculation options.
5. Select OK.

Plan replenishment for

Determines which replenishment systems are included in the calculation. Available choices can include:

• All
• Transfer Only
• Non-Transfer Only
• Purchase and Transfer Only

Include Planned Purchases

Determines whether existing planned supply is included when calculating availability.

Excluding planned supply can create excess supply if the existing planned orders and the new worksheet suggestions are both processed.

Minimum Level to Trigger Reorder

Determines which inventory threshold triggers a suggestion:

• Use Reorder Point creates a suggestion when availability reaches the reorder point.
• Use Maximum Qty. can trigger replenishment when availability is below the maximum inventory quantity.

Batch to Populate

Determines whether the calculation uses the planning batches defined in user preferences or a specifically selected batch.

Existing Worksheet Lines

Determines how existing worksheet lines are handled before the calculation.

The available options include retaining the existing lines or deleting lines according to the selected calculation scope. Review this option carefully before running the calculation.

Forecast Name and Forecast End Date

Specify the production forecast included in the purchase-plan calculation.

The forecast end date cannot be earlier than the current work date.

Create supply orders

After reviewing and accepting the appropriate lines, use one of the following actions.

Carry Out Action Message

Uses the standard Business Central process to create or modify the appropriate purchase, production, transfer, or assembly supply documents.

Create Purchase Orders

Creates purchase orders from applicable worksheet lines using the Enhanced Planning Worksheet purchase-order process.

Use this action when the accepted worksheet lines are specifically intended to become purchase orders.

Configure Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup

Search for Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup to configure the additional purchase-planning behavior.

Extended Purchase Planning

Enables the Calculate Purchase Plan action.

Sales Demand Evaluation

Determines which sales-order demand is used by the purchase-plan calculation.

For example, Released Only limits the calculation to demand from released sales orders.

Include Service Demand

Determines whether and how service demand is included in the purchase-plan calculation.

Include Sales Returns

Determines which outstanding sales return orders are included as incoming supply in purchase-plan calculations and supply/demand displays.

Available options are:

• Never: Excludes sales return orders.
• Open: Includes only sales return orders with an Open status.
• Released: Includes only sales return orders with a Released status.
• All Demand: Includes both Open and Released sales return orders.

The default value is Released.

Including a sales return increases available supply because the returned quantity is expected to come back into inventory.

Include Purchase Returns

Determines which outstanding purchase return orders are included as demand in purchase-plan calculations and supply/demand displays.

Available options are:

• Never: Excludes purchase return orders.
• Open: Includes only purchase return orders with an Open status.
• Released: Includes only purchase return orders with a Released status.
• All Demand: Includes both Open and Released purchase return orders.

The default value is All Demand.

Including a purchase return increases demand because the returned quantity is expected to leave inventory and be sent back to the vendor.

Expired Inventory Handling

Determines whether expired inventory is counted as available inventory.

• Include Expired uses inventory without excluding quantities based on expiration.
• Exclude Expired excludes positive remaining quantities that expire before the calculated inventory cutoff date.

Negative remaining quantities are retained in the availability calculation.

Expired Inventory Lead Time

Specifies the date formula added to the work date to determine the inventory expiration cutoff date.

When the field is blank, the work date is used as the cutoff date.

Configure user preferences

From the Enhanced Planning Worksheet, select User Preferences.

Preferences are stored separately for each user and can include:

• Purchase planning batch
• Transfer planning batch
• Whether consumption quantity is included
• Default forecast name
• Default forecast ending date
• Chart style
• Whether purchases appear on charts
• Chart start-date offset
• Whether planned quantities appear in the Planning Summary FactBox
• Availability location filter
• Location drill-down behavior
• Vendor summary location filtering

Save and reuse worksheet views

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet supports custom views.

A custom view stores the worksheet filters and sorting that a planner uses regularly.

Available actions include:

• Select View
• Save View
• Create View
• Edit View

Custom views can be useful for reviewing specific vendors, locations, purchasers, replenishment systems, warnings, or action-message types.

Recommended planning sequence

For environments that use production planning or multi-level bills of material:

1. Confirm that items and stockkeeping units have appropriate standard planning parameters.
2. Run Calculate Net Change Plan or Calculate Regenerative Plan to calculate standard Business Central MRP or MPS requirements.
3. Review warnings, order tracking, supply, demand, and planning settings.
4. Run Calculate Purchase Plan only when its additional SKU-based purchasing or transfer calculation is required.
5. Review and accept the appropriate action messages.
6. Use Carry Out Action Message or Create Purchase Orders to create the required supply documents.

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet improves the planner’s ability to analyze and process the results, but the quality of the plan still depends on accurate demand, inventory, lead times, replenishment settings, and item or stockkeeping unit planning parameters.