Additional Demand Planning Features Overview

GoldFinch includes additional demand planning capabilities that help businesses analyze historical demand, improve forecast accuracy, automate planning preparation, and organize responsibilities across planning teams.

These features complement sales forecasting and supply planning by keeping planning information current and helping planners focus on the items and exceptions that require attention.

Analyze Historical Item Usage

GoldFinch summarizes historical item transactions into weekly or monthly usage information. This gives planners a consistent view of how demand has changed over time.

Item-usage information can support:

• Historical sales analysis
• Demand forecasting
• Seasonal and trend evaluation
• Comparison of actual and forecasted demand
• Item- and warehouse-level planning
• Identification of unusual demand patterns

Businesses transitioning to GoldFinch may also incorporate appropriate historical usage information to support forecasting before the system accumulates extensive transaction history.

Account for Unusual Activity

Not every historical transaction represents normal future demand. A large one-time order, promotion, discontinued customer relationship, or temporary disruption could distort future forecasts.

Item-usage adjustments allow organizations to account for exceptional activity when preparing forecasts. This helps planners distinguish recurring demand from events that are unlikely to repeat.

Evaluate Multiple Forecast Models

Different items can have very different demand patterns. Some products have stable demand, while others experience growth, seasonality, or irregular purchasing cycles.

GoldFinch supports multiple forecast models and can compare their performance against historical results. This helps identify a model that appropriately represents each item’s demand pattern.

Forecasting approaches may account for factors such as:

• Recent demand
• Weighted historical averages
• Growth trends
• Seasonal changes
• Business adjustments
• Forecast accuracy

Using different models for different items can produce more meaningful forecasts than applying one calculation method across the entire product portfolio.

Keep Planning Information Current

GoldFinch can regularly update information used by sales forecasting and supply planning. Automated planning preparation can help:

• Maintain item-and-warehouse planning records
• Summarize recent inventory activity
• Update historical item usage
• Reevaluate forecast-model performance
• Refresh calculated planning information
• Prepare current data for the next Supply Plan

Keeping this information current reduces repetitive administrative work and gives planners a more reliable foundation for decision-making.

Support Data-Driven Planning Parameters

Historical activity helps planners evaluate whether existing planning policies still reflect current business conditions.

GoldFinch can provide calculated information related to areas such as:

• Average item usage
• Supplier or production lead time
• Reorder quantities
• Safety stock requirements
• Forecast accuracy

Planners can compare calculated information with established policies before deciding whether changes are appropriate. This preserves management oversight while providing useful data for planning decisions.

Organize Planning by Purchasing Responsibility

Organizations managing many items, suppliers, or warehouses can assign planning responsibility to purchasing agents or planners.

This capability helps teams:

• Group items by responsible planner
• Focus each planner on relevant inventory
• Review supply recommendations by responsibility
• Coordinate work across multiple buyers
• Maintain continuity when responsibilities change
• Reduce the complexity of large planning workloads

Planning can also be organized using relevant operational information such as vendors, item categories, and warehouse assignments.

Improve Collaboration Across Teams

Demand planning affects more than the purchasing department. Forecasts and replenishment decisions may involve sales, customer service, procurement, manufacturing, warehouse operations, and finance.

Because GoldFinch is built natively on Salesforce, teams can work with connected customer and operational information. This shared environment improves visibility and helps departments coordinate decisions using consistent data.

Key Benefits

Additional GoldFinch Demand Planning features can help organizations:

• Improve forecast accuracy using historical demand
• Account for unusual or nonrecurring transactions
• Apply forecasting methods suited to different products
• Keep planning information current
• Evaluate planning policies using calculated data
• Organize planning responsibilities across teams
• Reduce dependence on disconnected spreadsheets
• Make more timely and informed replenishment decisions

Together, these capabilities provide a stronger foundation for forecasting, supply planning, and inventory management within Salesforce.