← Inventory Forecast

Inventory Forecast — User Guide

How to install Inventory Forecast from the Linnworks Application Store, set it up, and use it to decide what to reorder. Written for the person who does the buying.

The short version

Install from the Linnworks Application Store → create your Inventory Forecast login → answer eight short set-up questions → your first reorder list is ready as soon as your sales history has loaded. The first 30 days are free.

On this page: 1. Install · 2. Create your login · 3. The set-up questions · 4. The first import · 5. Everyday use · 6. Plans and billing · 7. Help

1. Install from the Linnworks Application Store

You need a Linnworks login that is allowed to install applications.

  1. In Linnworks, open Apps → Application Store and search for Inventory Forecast.
  2. Click Install. Linnworks lists what the application may do — for example read your products, stock and orders, and create purchase orders. Approve it.
  3. Linnworks sends you straight on to Inventory Forecast to create your login (next step). Behind the scenes we start loading your products and sales history at the same moment.

2. Create your login

Your Inventory Forecast login is separate from your Linnworks login. The page you arrive on after installing already knows which Linnworks account it belongs to.

  1. On the Register tab, enter your email address and choose a password.
  2. We email you a six-digit code. Type it in.
  3. Read and accept the Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Data Processing Agreement (links at the bottom of this page).

The link you arrive on can be used once, and lasts 7 days. If you close the page before finishing, email support@englander.ai and we will send you a fresh one.

Colleagues get their own logins — invite them from the Team page once you are in. Each email address belongs to one company.

3. The set-up questions

The first time you sign in, eight short screens ask about the few things that genuinely differ between businesses and change your orders. Each one explains why it matters and what it changes. Everything you answer can be changed later under Settings.

Where your orders come inThe Linnworks location your orders are picked from. Its stock is the stock the forecaster counts as yours, and every suggested order tops it up.
Other locations that sell for youTick any other location that can also fulfil a sale — a second warehouse, a shop, a supplier whose stock you list. Their stock is never counted as yours; ticking them stops days you had none yourself (but could still sell) being treated as lost sales.
How long orders take, and how far ahead to coverYour usual lead time in days, and how many days of stock each order should cover. You can set different values per supplier later.
Out of stock with no recent salesWhether to suggest a small minimum for a product you have none of, even when its recent sales are zero — so it has a chance to sell again. “Off” is a perfectly good answer.
What should lift an orderFour signals, each on or off: Seasons (stock up ahead of a product’s own busy months), Events (Christmas, Black Friday, Easter and the like — switch it on and tick the events that matter to you), Weather (shows which products follow the weather; it does not change orders until it has proved itself) and Trend (a small nudge when the last two weeks beat the two before). Only the strongest applies to a product — they never stack.
Sales to leave out of the averageDays that are nothing like normal, such as a Black Friday sale. Each can be a fixed date or follow an event that moves each year. Those days still count in your reports, and the Events signal still learns from them — they are only left out of the everyday sales rate.
Lines worth bringing into your own stockOnly asked if you ticked other locations: at how many sales a year a line sold from elsewhere is worth holding yourself. It feeds a report; it never orders.
ReportsOptionally, a weekly reorder list by email every Monday at 8am. More schedules can be added under Automations.

4. The first import

After installing we load your products, stock and up to 24 months of sales history from Linnworks. A small catalogue takes minutes; a very large one can take a few hours. You can close the tab — it carries on without you. From then on everything refreshes automatically every night.

5. Everyday use

Replenishment — what to order

The main list: every product that needs ordering, how many, and by when, worked out from its own sales rate, your lead time and how far ahead you want to be covered. Filter it by supplier, stock status or any Linnworks extended property (brand, for example). Click a product to see why: its sales history, the forecast, any season or event lifting it, and the numbers behind the suggested quantity.

Create purchase orders

Tick the lines you want and click Create PO. Inventory Forecast creates a draft purchase order in Linnworks for each supplier, with quantities and costs filled in — you review and send it from Linnworks as usual. Stock already on order in Linnworks is taken off the next suggestion, so nothing is ordered twice.

Suppliers

Set each supplier’s lead time and cover. Suppliers you leave alone use the defaults from set-up.

Forward Planner and Reports

The Forward Planner shows what you are likely to need over the coming weeks and months, product by product. Reports cover sales and margins (margins are worked out without VAT) and Worth bringing in.

Automations — lists by email

Schedule a reorder list to be emailed to you or straight to a supplier — for example every Thursday at 6am, one supplier, only the lines you sell on a particular channel. The email always matches what the Replenishment page shows for the same filter.

Help inside the app

The Help button at the top of every page replays a short guided tour of that page.

6. Plans and billing

The first 30 days are free, with every feature. After that you choose a plan in Linnworks: Apps → My Applications → Inventory Forecast → Subscribe. Linnworks collects the payment. One number decides your plan — the number of products synced — never your turnover.

Starterup to 5,000 products — £99 a month + VAT
Standard5,001 – 15,000 products — £169 a month + VAT
Growth15,001 – 40,000 products — £249 a month + VAT
Scale40,001 – 100,000 products — £399 a month + VAT
Large100,001 – 200,000 products — £599 a month + VAT
Enterpriseover 200,000 products — email hello@englander.ai

Every plan includes every forecasting and ordering feature and unlimited users. The Repricer is a separate add-on. How and when a plan can change is set out in the Terms.

7. Help

I closed the page before creating my login

Email support@englander.ai from the address you want to use and we will send a fresh link.

“This login is already linked to a company”

Each email address belongs to one company. To join a colleague’s account, ask them for an invite from the Team page; to set up a separate company, use a different email address.

I uninstalled by mistake

Install it again from the Application Store. It reconnects to your existing Inventory Forecast account — same login, same data, same settings.

Anything else

Email support@englander.ai. Tell us your company name and what you were doing; a screenshot helps.

Privacy & terms

Terms — Inventory Forecast · Privacy Policy · Data Processing Agreement · Sub-processors