Generate purchase forecast for printer supplies

The purchase forecast allows you to generate a report estimating the quantity of supplies needed for printers over a specific period. This feature aids in strategic planning by allowing you to anticipate purchasing needs and support decision-making.

The forecast is generated by device, consolidating the required quantities based on the following criteria: manufacturer, printer model, product, product type, and product color. Data is grouped when there is a match between these criteria.

After the forecast is generated, you can make manual adjustments to the forecasted quantities and simulate different scenarios to assess impacts based on variables such as print volume and products used.

At the end of the analysis, the data can be exported, facilitating sharing with other departments within the organization.

Unlike scheduled replenishment, the purchase forecast does not allow for the generation of demand; it only allows for the visualization and analysis of data.

Instructions

1. Make sure that the replenishment service is enabled on the printers on which the purchase forecast will be generated, as instructed below:

   1. Go to the Monitoring > Printers menu

   2. Click on the name of the desired printer to open its properties

   3. Click on the Services and Replacement tab

   4. Check the Enabled option

   5. Click the Save button

2. Go to Supplies > Forecasts > Purchase forecast

3. Select one or more customers, or all of them, to include in the forecast

4. Enter the desired purchase forecast period in days (maximum 365 days)
   The purchase forecast will be based on the quantity of supplies required for the specified period.

5. If desired, select specific manufacturers from the customers selected in step 3
   By default, the selection will be from all manufacturers, but you can change this.

6. If desired, select specific models from the manufacturers selected in step 5
   By default, the selection will be from all models, but you can change it.

7. If desired, uncheck the option to consider monitored printers, so that unmonitored printers are included in the purchase forecast

8. Select one or more or all supply types to include in the purchase forecast
   By default, the Toner type will already be selected, but you can change it.

9. Select one or more or all supply colors to include in the purchase forecast
   By default, the colors Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are already selected, but you can change them.

10. Click on the Purchase forecast button

The purchase forecast will be generated based on the standard product defined for the printer models. If a model does not have a standard product, the product present in the largest number of devices of that model in the monitored base will be considered.

Only supplies that need to be replenishment during the requested period will be included in the purchase forecast. If there are no replenishments scheduled for the filtered supplies, a message will inform you that no data was found.

After generation, you will be directed to the consolidated analysis of the purchase forecast.