Managing demand planning in Recurrency is all about efficiency and confidence. Our workflows are designed to help you review and adjust recommendations quickly, while still giving you the flexibility to make overrides where your business context calls for it.
This guide walks you through how to handle different types of items, from low‑maintenance SKUs to new and sparse demand patterns. You’ll learn what inputs drive our recommendations, when to trust Recurrency, and when it makes sense to step in with manual adjustments.
Low‑Maintenance, High‑Confidence Items
These items require little to no configuration and are where Recurrency performs best in bulk. You can confidently accept most recommendations while making small, targeted adjustments when needed.
Key Inputs to Review:
Lead Time: Calculated from your purchase order history. Override if you know of delays or updated supplier timelines.
Safety Stock: Recurrency uses a priority system: manual override → ERP value → Recurrency default. Adjust if you want extra buffer.
Stock Floor: A minimum you set yourself—we’ll never recommend stocking below this level.
Tips for Efficient Review:
Filter by suppliers, product groups, or other key fields.
Start with high‑priority suppliers or products.
Make minimal edits—primarily accept min/max recommendations in bulk.
If a forecast looks off, flag it for exclusion and leave a note for our team.
Want to see this in action? Watch these videos on reviewing low‑maintenance, high‑confidence items inside Recurrency.
High‑Demand Patterns (Erratic, Sporadic, Unstable)
Items with more than six months of annual demand, but with varying predictability.
Understanding the Patterns:
Erratic: Large fluctuations in quantity, but consistent timing between orders.
Sporadic: Small quantity changes, but irregular timing.
Unstable: Large fluctuations in both quantity and timing.
When to Override:
One‑time bulk orders that skew the forecast
Seasonality shifts you know about
Forecasts that don’t match reality
How to Override:
Go to Demand Planning → Planning tab.
Select Erratic, Sporadic, or Unstable demand patterns.
Open the item’s side panel and review Usage & Forecasts.
Adjust forecasts flagged as outliers.
Remove spikes under Usage Lines → Recommended Outliers.
Save changes. Overrides will remain active until you clear them.
Check out these videos on handling high‑demand patterns to see exactly how to make these adjustments.
Use the same principles when it comes to items with a high demand pattern and medium predictability:
Low Predictability Items
These are the trickiest to plan, requiring the most hands‑on review.
Actions You Can Take:
Adjust Safety Stock: Increase or decrease buffer to match business needs.
Override Forecasts/Usage: Helpful when upcoming changes aren’t yet reflected in data.
Resolve Min/Max Differences: Review items where Recurrency’s min/max differs greatly from ERP values. Sort by largest deltas first.
Custom Overrides:
Set Custom Min/Max in the side panel.
Choose an “exclude for” timeframe so Recurrency won’t keep flagging the item during your review window.
Watch these videos on low predictability items to learn how to review and override these effectively.
New Items
Items created in your ERP or with first usage in the last six months. Since they lack history, forecasts are less reliable.
Best Practices:
Identify New Items: Unhide “Created” and “First Usage Date” columns.
Use Usage Inheritance: Assign demand from similar items to guide forecasts. (Bulk setup is possible—ask your CSM!)
Accept Recurrency's Recommendations or Assign Custom Values:
If Recurrency's recommendations look right, accept them. Keep in mind, Recurrency is only working with the demand history available. Tweaks may be needed to safety stock, lead time, order cycle, or forecasts.
If you want more control, set custom min/max values and exclude the item for a period of time to let usage build up and influence Recurrency's forecasts.
See the video on new items for a walkthrough of usage inheritance and setting min/max values:
No Demand Items
Items with no usage in 12 or more months will be classified as No Demand. Recurrency will recommend zeroing out the min and max values for these items.
Best Practices:
Identify No Demand Items: Filter demand pattern for No Demand
Stock Floors: For No Demand items that you must keep stock for, due to a supplier agreement or other reasons, use a stock floor to assign the minimum value you need to have on hand.
Consider Stockable Status: If you have no need to plan for items with No Demand, change them from Stockable to Non-Stock in your ERP. This will remove them from Recurrency Planning.
Accept Recurrency's Recommendations or Assign Custom Values:
Generally, Recurrency's recommendations for No Demand items should be accepted. However, if you have a need to stock an item with No Demand, apply custom min/max values and exclude.
Check out this video on No Demand items:
Sparse Items
These “sometimes movers” are managed using a months‑of‑demand approach. Most recommendations can be trusted, but a review may be worthwhile when behavior changes.
Tips for Review:
Add Projected Inventory Change and sort largest → smallest.
Add Unit Cost and sort highest → lowest to prioritize expensive items.
Pay special attention to supplier constraints or items trending up/down.
Step‑by‑Step Workflow:
Review the recommendation.
If it looks right: accept.
If not: review usage and grid settings.
Decide whether to override min/max OR adjust lead time.
Accept the updated recommendation.
Check out these videos on Sparse Items:
Adjustment Scenarios
1. Max Recommendation is Too High
Issue: Max recommendation is higher than necessary.
Action: Decrease the Safety Stock.
Impact: Lowering the Safety Stock will reduce both the Max and Min recommendations, optimizing inventory levels.
2. Max Recommendation is Too Low
Issue: Max recommendation is lower than required.
Action: Increase the Safety Stock.
Impact: Raising the safety stock will increase both the Max and Min recommendations, ensuring adequate stock availability.
💡 Note: For consistent Max issues, review the EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) settings, which apply company-wide. If Max values are consistently too high, it may indicate the EOQ settings need to be updated.
3. Lead Time Needs Updating
Issue: Lead time is outdated or incorrect based on supplier information.
Note: Overriding Lead Times should only be done in specific circumstances. For most cases, we recommend keeping Lead Times dynamic and utilizing Recurrency's Smart Lead Times to ensure accuracy and flexibility in your inventory recommendations.
Action: Override the lead time.
Impact: The lead time will remain overridden until manually switched back to Recurrency Smart settings. This adjustment can improve the accuracy of recommendations.
4. Mins Too High or Too Low
Issue: Min values are not aligned with your needs.
Action: Adjust the Order Cycle to impact only the Min values.
Decide whether to lower or raise the Min values at the supplier-location level.
Increase Order Cycles: This will increase Min values.
Decrease Order Cycles: This will decrease Min values.
For specific overrides that should not impact purchasing behavior, use the override order cycle option.
Impact: This adjustment changes only Min values, leaving the Max values unaffected.
5. Min/Max Overrides
Issue: Custom Min/Max values are needed for specific items temporarily or permanently.
Action: Accept a custom Min/Max and exclude the item from review for a set period (e.g., 1 month).
Use this option to ensure Recurrency brings the item back to your attention after the exclusion period.
Impact: The item will be excluded from the Needs Review list for the defined period, ensuring Recurrency brings it back to your attention when the exclusion expires.
Final Thoughts
Recurrency does the heavy lifting to generate accurate recommendations, but your input ensures they’re always grounded in the realities of your business. Use bulk actions to save time, apply overrides when you have extra context, and focus reviews where they matter most—on exceptions, high‑value items, and new or unpredictable demand.
Happy planning!