Building a Planning Basket
Once you've decided which demand you want to act on, you gather it into a basket — a working list you build up and then act on all at once. Think of it like the shopping basket you fill as you walk the aisles: nothing is bought while it's in the basket, so you're free to add, remove and rethink until it looks right. When you're happy, you act on the whole basket in one go.
This page explains how to fill a basket and the choices you make for each line. Turning the basket into real orders is covered in Raising orders.
Availability depends on your plan and your role.
What a basket is
A basket is simply a list of the things you've decided to source, held in one place while you plan. You add demand to it from your review of what's needed, and for every line you answer one question: are you going to buy this, or make it yourself?
Because nothing happens until you act on the basket, you can take your time. Add a few lines, change your mind, split one across two suppliers, come back tomorrow — the basket waits for you. It only becomes real orders when you choose to raise it.
The one choice per line: Buy or Make
Every line in the basket has a direction — Buy or Make. This is the heart of planning: for each thing you need, you decide whether it comes from a supplier or from your own workshop.
| Direction | Choose it when… |
|---|---|
| Buy | Someone else supplies the finished thing — you're purchasing it in. |
| Make | You produce it yourself, following one of its production routes. |
Pick the direction, then fill in the few details that go with it, described below.
When you Buy: back-to-back or drop-ship
If you're buying a line, you choose how the goods reach your customer. There are two ways, and the difference is simply whether the goods pass through your own warehouse.
| Way to buy | What happens | Choose it when… |
|---|---|---|
| Back-to-back | You buy it in, receive it into your warehouse, then ship it to your customer. | You want to check, store or combine the goods before they go out. |
| Drop-ship | The supplier ships it straight to your customer — it never touches your warehouse. | You want the fastest route and don't need to handle the goods yourself. |
Then, for the buy line, you pick the supplier and set the expected price — what you expect to pay. This is your planning figure; you'll get a chance to confirm it before anything is committed.
Splitting one line across suppliers
Sometimes no single supplier can give you everything, or you want to spread an order. A single buy line can be split between two or more suppliers — for example, 60 units from one supplier and 40 from another. You set how much goes to each, and each share carries its own supplier and expected price. When you later act on the basket, each supplier's share becomes its own order.
When you Make: route and planned start
If you're making a line yourself, a work order will be raised for it — so the line needs the two things every work order needs:
- Route template — the Work Order Process that makes this product. Only active routes for the product are listed; if there's just one, it's filled in for you.
- Planned start — the day the production run starts.
You set both when you add the line with a Make quantity, or later from the basket with Set route and start on the line. The basket then shows Route: and Starts: under the line, and Change route or start lets you adjust them until the run is raised.
A Make line without both shows "Needs a route template and a start date before it can be raised" and won't be raised until you fill them in.
The dates that follow from the start
- The run is due on the sales order's due date.
- Its materials are needed by its planned start. If the start you pick is later than the date the order needs the goods, you're warned: "This starts after the order needs it" — and the run will be refused when you raise it unless you move the start earlier.
- Purchase orders and sub work orders raised for those materials get the run's start date as their needed-by date — never earlier than today.
What a Make line needs comes from its route, not from a BOM. If the product has no active route yet, add a Work Order Process for it first.
What does this need? — planning the components
Choosing to make something raises a question: do you have the parts? On a Make line, click What does this need? to open the component plan.
- It starts by naming the route it planned from — Planned from route: followed by the route's name.
- It lists the route's input materials multiplied by the quantity you're making. Items that an earlier stage of the same route makes are skipped — they're made along the way, not bought.
- Each component shows what to do: Buy, Make (for items that have an active route of their own) or Covered from stock.
- Click + Add on a component to add it to the same basket. It arrives as its own line, where you decide Buy or Make just like any other — and if you make it, open its What does this need? to plan the next level down. The plan goes one level at a time.
If the plan can't be worked out, the panel says why and points you to the fix:
- No route chosen yet — choose one with Set route and start on the line, or add a route template for the product.
- The route lists no input materials — use Add input lines to the route to open the route and add them to its stages.
A worked example
Say a customer needs 100 finished units and you have none in stock. In your basket you might:
- Set the finished product to Make, choose its route and planned start, then open What does this need? and add its components to the basket.
- One component you set to Buy, drop-ship it, pick a supplier and an expected price.
- Another component you set to Buy, but split it — 60 from your usual supplier, 40 from a backup — and give each an expected price.
- A third part you already make in-house, so you set it to Make too.
Nothing has been ordered yet. The basket now holds the whole plan, ready to become real orders when you say so.
Related guides
- Demand planning — how the whole planning flow fits together
- Reviewing demand — deciding what needs acting on before you build a basket
- Raising orders — turning your basket into purchase orders and work orders
- Work Order Process — the route a Make line follows, and where its materials come from
- Production — how making your own goods works
Need help? Contact support at support@bizconnekt.com