Demand Planner allows you to automatically create purchase orders or transfers on a schedule. This can be useful if you raise orders with specific vendors every month or if you ship goods to another warehouse regularly, e.g. if using Amazon FBA.
The functionality can be accessed at Account > Automations. Entering the settings page will display a list of your current automations.
Creating a new automation
From the account menu
To add a new automation, go to Account > Automations and click 'New Automation' on the bottom left hand side, then click 'Automate Stock Orders':
To learn more about automating reports, click here.
Through a bulk action
Automations can also be created from the relevant reports when performing bulk actions.
For example, go to Replenishment and click the arrow next to “New purchase order”, then select “Multiple stock orders”. On the resulting page, there is an option to “Enable Automation”.
Configuring an automation
You will be taken to a screen containing the following settings:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable automation | Activate or deactivate the automation using this rule. |
| Name |
Give the automation a name. |
| Frequency |
Select the schedule the automation should run on. Choose from:
For each option, you can also choose when to stop the automation. |
| Notification emails |
Set an email address to send error reports to. Multiple emails can be entered, separated by a comma. |
| Notify upon success | Check the box to send an email every time the automation runs successfully too. |
The next section goes through details about the stock order (purchase or transfer) to be created using the rule.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type |
Choose from:
|
| Status | Status of the purchase order/transfer on creation. |
| Items type |
What kind of items to be included on the order. Choose from:
If picking assemblies, additionally choose whether to replace the assemblies with their component products. |
| Filters | Choose what products to include in the order or transfer using filters. |
Vendors
If the stock order is a purchase order, the Vendors section will appear.
This contains the following fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Vendors | Select the vendors to create the purchase orders for. |
| Vendor UOM | Choose whether or not to use the vendors' units of measurement. |
| Round quantity | Pick whether to round quantities up or down if applicable. |
Source warehouse
If the stock order is a transfer, the Source warehouse section will appear.
This contains the following fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Source warehouse | Choose the source warehouse (i.e. where to do the transfer from). |
| Limit transfer quantities by |
Choose whether to limit the quantities on the transfer by what stock is available, or the total current stock. The forecasted available stock is lower than the current stock if there are forecasted sales at the source warehouse to be taken into consideration. |
| Rounding | Pick whether to round quantities up or down if applicable. |
| Transfer UOM | Choose whether or not to use the vendors' units of measurement and the transfer's units of measurement. |
Destination warehouse
The final section is about configuring the destination warehouse and, if doing a transfer, the prioritization.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Destination warehouse |
Select the warehouse(s) to deliver the goods to. Also choose whether to send the order/transfer to Brightpearl. |
If multiple destination warehouses are selected, a method of prioritization also has to be configured.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Primary method Secondary method |
Choose from:
|
Viewing existing automations
Once you've created and configured your automation, you will see it in the list of automations under Account > Automations.
Clicking in to the automation will bring you to a summary screen.
The summary screen is broken into two sections.
Upcoming
The top of the page will show you information about your automation, including:
- When it will next run
- How the rule is currently configured
Additionally, you have the option to edit the automation, as well as run it immediately (by clicking "Create now").
Past stock order batches
The bottom of the page shows you information on the previous times the rule has run.
Each instance of it running is displayed, with the time and date it ran, any errors or additional information, and a list of the stock orders created.
You can also see how the rule was configured at the time it ran by hovering over the 
icon:
Automation history
Click the "Automation history" button within the automation summary screen to view a history of the edits made to the automation and a log of every time the automation ran.