What is inventory planning software?

Inventory planning software uses your sales history, lead times and stock levels to decide what to buy, how much and when. It forecasts demand, sets a safety stock and a reorder point for each item, and suggests orders for a person to approve.

You will also see it sold as inventory optimization software or replenishment planning software. The labels overlap. The useful test is whether a tool recommends a decision or only records what happened.

Inventory planning vs inventory management

	Inventory management	Inventory planning
Main job	Records what you have and where	Decides what you should have
Typical tools	ERP, warehouse system, point of sale, barcode apps	Forecasting and replenishment tools
Looks at	Today and the past	The months ahead
Output	Stock counts, transactions, pick lists	Reorder points, safety stock, suggested orders
Goes wrong when	Counts are wrong	Demand history, lead times or rules are wrong

You need the first before the second. A planning tool is only as good as the stock counts it receives, so fix unreliable counts before you buy anything.

What good inventory planning software should do

• Forecast each item and show the error, so your team can judge how far to trust it.
• Treat items differently. A steady, high-value part needs different rules from an erratic, cheap one. See ABC-XYZ classification.
• Set safety stock from real variability in demand and lead time. See the safety stock formula.
• Set reorder points by item and location, not one rule for the whole company.
• Use the lead times suppliers really deliver, measured from your purchase orders.
• Respect supplier minimums and freight breaks when it builds an order.
• Move stock before buying more, when another location has spare units.
• Find excess and dead stock, with the cash tied up in it.
• Explain every suggestion, so a buyer can check the reason.

Signs you are ready for it

• Reorder points are years old, or were set by feel.
• Updating the planning spreadsheet takes days, so it rarely happens. See the signs you have outgrown spreadsheets.
• You run out of the items that matter while cash sits in slow ones.
• Different people get different answers to “how much should we hold?”

With a small catalog, simple rules may be enough. Min-max inventory levels and our free calculators are a good way to start, and fill rate will tell you whether they are working.

How to choose

1. Load a real export of items, sales, stock and open orders. Sample data always looks good.
2. Ask for a backtest. See what the tool would have forecast for last year, compared with what really sold.
3. Check the awkward cases: past stock-outs, one-off spikes, promotions, new items and phase-outs.
4. Check how orders get back to your ERP, and how often data comes in.
5. Check item and location limits against your catalog and your plans to grow.
6. Count the full cost, including setup and weekly staff time. See what supply chain software costs.

By type of business

• Distributors: inventory management software for distributors
• Manufacturers: inventory software for manufacturers and MRP software
• Retailers: inventory management software for retail stores

Where the Statadventure Optimization Lab fits

The Optimization Lab is inventory planning software that works alongside your ERP, from Excel or CSV files or a live connection. Its replenishment planner works out the forecast method that predicts best, safety stock, reorder points, suggested orders and transfers for every item at every location. Spare stock at another location is moved before anything new is bought.

The replenishment planner is on Planner, at $850 a month for up to 2,500 items and 3 locations, and on Growth, at $1,947 a month for up to 15,000 items and 10 locations. Basic, at $297 a month, includes inventory policy and the shortage radar. See the full comparison.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between inventory planning and inventory optimization?

The terms are used almost interchangeably. Planning means setting future stock levels and orders. Optimization means those numbers are calculated to balance service against cost, instead of being set by rule of thumb.

Do I need inventory planning software if I have an ERP?

Not always. Many ERPs hold reorder points and run MRP, but leave someone to keep the numbers current. Planning software earns its place when you have too many items to keep current by hand.

How much sales history does it need?

Twelve months is a workable minimum. Two years or more lets a tool see seasonality and test its forecasts against months it did not use.

How much does inventory planning software cost?

Netstock publishes a starting price of $900 a month, and the Statadventure Optimization Lab runs from $297 to $1,947 a month with users included. Setup and weekly staff time come on top, and many vendors quote only on request.