SmartPlan uses the stock on hand, forecasts and planning parameters (safety stocks, lead times, etc…) you provide to determine when you need to place your next orders, and for how much.

Similar to calculating the next order quantity, SmartPlan will use the forecasts and stock on hand to determine how long your stock will last.

You will need some basic planning data to power all the calculations in the tool. For each product you will need a unique code as well as the lead time for that item, the safety stocks that you want to keep, minimum order quantities, incremental quantities and how often you want to order.

Each time you run a planning cycle we recommend that you refresh the forecasts (where there are significant changes), stock on hand and any changes to orders that have been placed with your suppliers.

The planning cycle will typically take less than an hour but this is dependant on how much is changing and the issues you find.  All planning systems and tools still need humans to determine what to do next when faced with a problem.

SmartPlan will tell you if and when you are going to run out of stock, and provides a visual per product that indicates projected low and out of stock situations so that you can prevent future out of stock’s from becoming a reality.

Safety stocks can be calculated mathematically (which is complicated even at the best of times!).  Most of our clients know the levels of safety stock they are comfortable with, and it is dependent on the accuracy of your forecasts (how stable is your customer demand?), and how reliable your suppliers are.  If the demand is erratic or your suppliers are poor you will need to hold more stocks.

SmartPlan requires that you know the lead time for your products, which is the time from placing an order with your suppliers to when it is with you available for sale or further processes in your business.

Good inventory control (to keep costs low) is to place orders for the most valuable items the most often.  However this has to be balanced against transportation costs and the additional time you will spend  on the increased planning cycles.

Yes, you can.  A single value can be added that is then used to multiply the stock on hand, or the order quantity to be placed, to give the projected value of the orders and stocks per product.

SmartPlan will not place your orders. We strongly advise that for such an important part of the business (where money is committed) that orders are checked and placed manually in line with SmartPlan recommendations.

At this time no, however, most warehouse management systems can generate an excel export and from this the upload into SmartPlan takes very little time.  We don’t like to say seconds, but in many cases it only takes seconds.

There are many good online apps that can be used, but they are usually targeting larger medium size businesses and therefore are costed accordingly.  With SmartPlan, the full planning functionality can be achieved using excel as a platform for up to 200 products in a single plan.  Using excel also enables you to keep your data local rather than on another companies servers.

We do not keep any of your critical planning data or forecasts.  This is what differentiates us from the competition, we don’t have your data on our servers.

SmartPlan is an application that is required to be saved to your computer. Once you’ve successfully started your trial or subscription, simply click on the link emailed to you to download the file, save it to a suitable place on your computer, and create a shortcut to the file. 

SmartPlan will save your work into a file with the extension of XLSC. The XLSC file can be shared with other users of SmartPlan.  

XLS Padlock is software for Microsoft Excel to copy-protect Excel workbooks. It allows us to control access to the application.

We will automatically send you the latest versions of SmartPlan as it’s updated free of change.  You will need to transfer all your data and settings.

In addition to our training materials and Knowledge Hub, we have a dedicated team on hand to help with any question you have (you can get in touch via our Contact Us page). You can also Book A Demo to get personalised support to help get you set up and running.

Your copy of SmartPlan is configured to work on one machine only, if you change your computer we will send you a new key and deactivate the old one.

At this time no. This is because it is very difficult to perform all the planning processes on current smartphones due to screen size limitations.

At this time there is a limitation for the encryption software, so unfortunately not, but we are working with our partners to find a solution.

You can contact us by phone or email and we will get back to you asap. See Contact Us page.

Subscriptions are ongoing and so it is not necessary to renew. Of course you can cancel your subscription at any time.

Payment can be made by credit or debit cards in either USD, GBP or Euro’s.

Our office is based in the United Kingdom, however we support clients all around the globe.