[glowfish]

Now that we've been open for a few years I would like to try and put together an open to buy plan. To do so I need to know what our beginning/ending monthly inventories were throughout the year. I have looked at reports and can't seem to find one that will give me a monthly report over a period of time. I would idealy like to see end of month inventory for all of 2014 and 2015 by department but also by vendor. Please let me know if there is a way to get this information.
Thank you!

[RetailEdge Moderator]

You can get an inventory by vendor and department by running an inventory item by category report. Then setting your As Of Date for a particular date. That being said the As Of Date filter should really be used for as of dates close to the current date, as this filter gives you the quantities at the As Of Time but if there have been large price changes it will not be accurate.
But for this type of analysis that might not be that important. If inventory valuation at a particular time is important we really recommend that you run your reports at the when you need them (e.g., at the end or beginning of every month).

But in your case, you might be okay, since Open To Buy is really a projection out based on current inventory and calculating Ending Inventory and Beginning Inventory by looking at historical Sales and Markdowns.

Here is a topic that discusses this in more detail.

http://www.retailedge.com/phpBB/viewtop ... 158&p=5494

Now that we've been open for a few years I would like to try and put together an open to buy plan. To do so I need to know what our beginning/ending monthly inventories were throughout the year. I have looked at reports and can't seem to find one that will give me a monthly report over a period of time. I would idealy like to see end of month inventory for all of 2014 and 2015 by department but also by vendor. Please let me know if there is a way to get this information.
Thank you!

[glowfish]

So is it possible to get that chart shown in the link? I guess I'm missing how I will get beginning and ending inventory since this data was not collected each month.

[RetailEdge Moderator]

You could look at your beginning and ending inventory levels for the past year, but you would want to look at other factors as well (sell through rates, turn rates, markdowns taken during the period, etc.) Calculating optimal inventory levels is a fairly complex process. But looking at how you did last year would be a good starting point and so using the "As Of Date" filter for the periods you are interested in. A discussion of sell trough reports can be found here.

Then you would run the reports mentioned in the link. So based on these numbers you might want to adjust. For instance, if you had $500,000 of inventory and you found that you ended up marking it all down because it was not selling, you might want to adjust down. Or you might want to increase your inventory from last year since you know you were short on a number of styles (your sell through report would show this).

Again this is a projection of what you think you might need based on a number of factors. Once you have these numbers where you want them, then your Open To Buy falls out and you can determine the amount you have available for purchasing items for a particular month.

So is it possible to get that chart shown in the link? I guess I'm missing how I will get beginning and ending inventory since this data was not collected each month.

[glowfish]

I want a monthly breakdown of inventory. I was hoping I wouldn't have to run an "as of " report for each month but would be able to get a snap shot for the end of each month (which would be the beginning of the next) in a table so I could analyze it easily. Let me know if this is possible and if not if it is something you could add to a new update?

[glowfish]

So looking at the link you sent I would need to print a PO based on ship date. Is there a way to look at inventory based on what has been received? Just straight up, "what is the inventory on hand at this date?"

[glowfish]

Last question...is there a way to have a company look at our books for us? You listed a few companies that you work with. Where would I find their contact info? I really want to get a handle on what is moving and what isn't. It seems like all the info is here I just need to know what to do with it.
Thank you