Distribution, Financial Model, FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods), Retail

Dashboard, Demand, Excel, Forecasting, Google Sheet, Inventory, Inventory Management, Supply

Know every week what to reorder, how much and from which supplier.

The Wholesale Inventory Planner & PO Optimizer is an Excel template built for wholesale distributors with 50 to 300 SKUs and up to 20 suppliers. You enter your suppliers, products and weekly sales (or a movement log); the planner calculates a complete inventory policy for every SKU and turns it into purchase orders by supplier.

What it does

Status per SKU: Order now, Order soon, OK, Excess, No movement or Inactive, with plain-language warnings.
Suggested order: order-up-to level minus inventory position (on hand + on order), in full cases and never below the supplier MOQ.
Inventory policy per SKU: demand, safety stock, reorder point, order quantity and order-up-to level, following a standard min-max system with periodic review.
Purchase orders by supplier: which suppliers need a PO this week, whether it reaches the supplier minimum and free freight, and the PO lines ready to copy into your email or ERP.
Cash view: Min / Mid / Max stock per SKU in units, money and days, so you can see how much working capital the policy needs.
Shelf life: the lot is capped so stock sells before it expires, with an alert when the supplier MOQ is too large.

Two versions

Basic (USD 29): everything above, with service levels by ABC class and a time buffer for erratic items.
Pro (USD 59): adds service levels set by each SKU’s margin, a gamma model for erratic demand, automatic capping of one-off sales spikes, EOQ, expected fill rate, ABC-XYZ classification and a Dashboard with inventory value, target, excess, turns and the policy band.

How to use it

Set it up once in about 30 minutes: review 7 basic settings, list your suppliers (lead time, minimum order, free freight) and your products (cost, price, MOQ, case pack). Then, every week, paste last week’s sales, open Purchase Orders, pick a supplier and place the order. Record what you ordered so it is not suggested again.

Built on standard inventory theory

The core formulas follow Chopra & Meindl (Supply Chain Management) and Heizer & Render (Operations Management), consistent with the ASCM CSCP body of knowledge. Every formula is visible; a Method sheet explains each calculation and marks which values are practical rules or typical defaults you can edit. All calculations were tested against a separate step-by-step recalculation, including edge cases and a 300-SKU data set.

Technical details

Excel 2010 or later and Google Sheets; no macros, no locked cells, no hidden sheets.
Detailed calculation columns are grouped (click [+] to expand) to keep the main view simple. All formulas are visible and unlocked.
Any currency; comes loaded with a fictitious sample distributor so you can explore before entering your data.
Includes a PDF user guide (8 pages Basic, 9 pages Pro) with a worked example.

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