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What Sales calculation does Acumatica use in Inventory Planning > Demand forecast Model?

  • September 3, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 16 views

rkenna
Captain II
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Hi Community,

I am trying to setup the Inventory Planning for a Stock Item, and I can’t figure out the moving average. Everywhere I read it just says it calculates based on stock quantities, historical sales, and the service level set, but what is the calculation/ what is it looking at when it comes to Historical Sales?

Is it based on Invoice lines? Sales Order lines?
Is it taking into account different Branches?
Is it taking into account Transfer Orders? Returns? Etc.

 

I cannot find any information other than it saying it looks at Historical Sales, and I know it looks back based on the Periods to Analyze, but what is it analyzing in those periods? Does anyone know.

 

Thanks,

RJ

1 reply

smilner3
Varsity III
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  • Varsity III
  • September 3, 2026

@rkenna Short version: it's not reading orders or invoices. It reads released inventory transactions, summed by day for each item and warehouse. So your history is whatever has actually been issued from stock.

To take your questions in order:

Invoice lines or SO lines? Neither. A sale counts when the inventory issue behind the shipment or invoice is released. Open orders and unreleased shipments aren't in the numbers yet.

Branches? No. It's per warehouse. Branch doesn't come into it.

Transfers? Yes, on the way out. A transfer counts as demand at the warehouse it leaves. Transfers in don't offset anything.

Returns? Yes. Credit memo quantity is subtracted from sales.

What's ignored: drop ships, and manual issues or adjustments entered directly on the IN screens.

Now the periods. They're calendar periods, so months start on the 1st. The period your Forecast Date falls in is skipped, and it looks back the number of full periods in Periods to Analyze. Each period becomes a daily rate (total divided by days, scaled by your seasonality factor). The forecast is just the average of those. A period with no sales counts as zero, as long as the item had sold before it.

Safety stock uses the variance of those daily rates and of your PO receipt lead times, times NORMSINV of the service level. Reorder point is lead time × daily demand + safety stock.

This is from the 2026 R1 code.