Skip to main content

Reading and Editing Demand Plans

The Demand Planning page is where you review forecasted demand across your product catalogue and make manual adjustments when needed. This page explains every part of the UI and how editing works.

Getting There​

Navigate to Demand Planning in the main sidebar. The page title reads "Demand Planning" with the subtitle "Plan and forecast your inventory demands across locations."

Page Layout​

The page is structured top to bottom as:

  1. Filters bar — location, category, timeframe, and search
  2. Chart — an aggregate view of actual, planned, and forecasted quantities over time
  3. Table — one row per product variant, with a monthly column for each month in the selected timeframe

Filters​

Location filter​

The location filter is the most important control on the page. It has two states:

  • No location selected (default) — the table shows all product variants aggregated across all locations. This is a read-only view. Cells cannot be edited.
  • One location selected — the table shows inventory levels for that specific location. Editing is enabled.

Editing is only available when exactly one location is selected. If no location is selected, all input fields are disabled and read-only. A banner will remind you: "To edit demand plans, please select a specific location in the filters above."

Timeframe filter​

Controls which 12 months appear as columns in the table. Three options:

OptionColumns shown
Current 12 months (default)6 months back through 5 months forward, centred on the current month
Last 12 monthsThe 12 completed months prior to the current month
Future 12 monthsThe 12 months starting from next month

Category filter​

Filters the table to show only variants belonging to a specific Shopify product type.

A text search bar filters rows by product name, variant title, or SKU. Search uses an 800ms debounce — results update shortly after you stop typing. When a search is active, the chart switches to aggregate only the rows currently visible in the table rather than shop-wide data.

Changing any filter while you have unsaved edits will show a warning asking you to save or discard before proceeding. The same applies to pagination.

The Chart​

Above the table, a line chart shows three series across the selected timeframe:

SeriesMeaning
ActualUnits actually sold, sourced from your Shopify sales history
PlannedThe planned quantity in effect — either the machine forecast or a user override
ForecastedThe original machine-generated forecast

The chart is collapsible. Click the toggle to hide it if you want more table space.

In normal mode (no active search), the chart aggregates data across your entire shop for the selected location and category. When a search is active, it aggregates only from the rows on the current page.

The Table​

Rows​

Each row represents one product variant. The first column shows:

  • Product name (bold)
  • Variant title (tag)
  • SKU

Rows are split into two groups:

  • Active variants — variants that have at least one demand plan record in the selected timeframe. These rows are fully interactive.
  • Inactive variants — variants that appear in the catalogue but have no demand plan data for the selected date range. These rows are greyed out, carry a warning icon, and show "No demand plans in selected range." They cannot be edited.

Month columns​

Each month column shows different content depending on whether the month is in the past or the future:

Past months (read-only):

Two stacked values per cell:

  • Plan — the planned quantity that was in effect for that month
  • Actual — the units actually sold that month

Past month cells cannot be edited. If a cell was previously overridden by a user, it is highlighted with a caution background.

Current month and future months (editable when a location is selected):

Two stacked values per cell:

  • Input field — shows the current planned quantity; can be typed into directly
  • Forecast — the original machine-generated forecast for that month, shown below the input as a reference

When an input field contains a user-edited value (not yet saved), it renders with a purple/magic highlight to indicate a pending change. When a value has been previously saved as an override, it also renders highlighted to distinguish it from a machine forecast.

If no location is selected, all input fields are disabled regardless of month.

Editing Demand Plans​

Making edits​

  1. Select a single location using the location filter.
  2. Find the product variant row you want to edit.
  3. Click into the input field for any current or future month.
  4. Type the new planned quantity.

Changes are tracked in memory as you type. The footer shows how many changes are pending. A save bar appears at the top of the page once the first edit is made.

You can edit multiple rows and multiple months before saving — all pending changes are submitted together in a single operation.

Saving​

Click Save in the save bar. All pending changes are written at once. On success, a toast notification confirms: "Demand plans updated successfully!"

After saving, the supply plan for each affected inventory level is automatically recalculated in the background. If any saved variant is a BOM parent product, the demand plans for its component variants at the same location and month are also updated automatically.

Discarding​

Click Discard in the save bar to revert all pending edits. The table reloads with the last saved values. You can also discard by navigating away — a confirmation modal will appear if there are unsaved changes.

Bulk Action: Sync with Forecast​

When one location is selected, you can select one or more rows using the checkboxes and use the Sync with forecast bulk action.

This sets the planned quantity for all future months of the selected variants back to the machine-generated forecasted quantity. It is the fastest way to reset overrides for multiple variants at once without editing each cell individually.

This action only affects future months. Past month values are never modified.

Active vs Inactive Variants​

A variant is considered active on the Demand Planning page if it has any demand plan data — actual or planned — within the selected timeframe. A variant with demand plans in a different timeframe but not the currently selected one will appear as inactive for that view.

If you see more inactive variants than expected, try switching to Current 12 months to confirm whether demand plans exist, or check whether the initial data import has completed (see below).

Initial Setup Banner​

If your shop's initial data import has not yet completed, a banner is shown at the top of the table:

"Demand plan editing will be available once your sales history and forecasts have been generated."

All input fields remain disabled until the import finishes. This typically only occurs in the first few minutes after installing the app.

Questions? Contact support@synplex.dev