Watch the system actually run.
Working planning tools, not mockups — and the reasoning behind them. Start with the unit plan walkthrough if you only have time for one.
One month, start to finish.
The monthly cycle on a real open-to-buy: close the month on actuals pulled from SQL, re-forecast off what actually happened, and save the plan where the rest of the business can read it — then read the open-to-buy and turn it into receipts. Watch them in order; each one picks up where the last ended.
Closing August open-to-buy
One command finds the workbook, asks which forecast to measure against, then pulls the actuals from SQL and audits them until everything ties. The rest is reading what changed — August against the last forecast, and against last year.
Defining a forecast method
Rebuilding the forecast on those actuals, including asking which method and sales basis a volatile category should use and getting a reasoned answer. A run also fails mid-demo because the workbook wasn’t saved — which is the guardrail doing its job, on camera.
Saving the plan to SQL
The plan saves as a named snapshot in the database, so Power BI reads the same numbers the planner just approved — plan against working plan, receipts against on-order. Ends on the Movers tab: the biggest sales and inventory swings, without hunting for them.
What the open-to-buy is saying
With the forecast saved, the receipt side begins: reading the open-to-buy section to see where the plan is over, where it’s short, and which categories need attention first.
A forecast check: men’s joggers
A second look at one category’s forecast before it drives a buy — checking the men’s joggers numbers against what the history supports.
From forecast to receipts
Turning the forecast into the buy: the open-to-buy suggests what to add or cut by month, and the chosen suggestions are applied to the receipt plan.
The things I build.
Claude Unit Plan Demo
The full unit planning system end to end — from an empty template to a costed, size-broken buy that reconciles against a top-down budget.
Claude, Excel And SQL…Oh my!
The layer underneath the plan: how the database, the spreadsheet and the tooling fit together so the numbers refresh from source instead of being rebuilt by hand each season.
Core Forecast Tool
A short look at forecasting core and replenishment product — the part of the assortment that behaves nothing like seasonal newness and shouldn't be planned as if it does.
How to Build a Retail Success Index
Building a single composite measure of how a style actually performed, rather than arguing about which one metric to look at first.
How I think about the numbers.
WOH, WOS, WOC???
Weeks on hand, weeks of supply, weeks of cover — three measures people use interchangeably that answer genuinely different questions. Which one you pick changes the buy.
LADDER PLANS SUCK!
The case against ladder plans, and what to do instead. Opinionated, and worth watching if your team still builds them out of habit.
Big promotional weekend impact on core replen
What a major promotional weekend does to replenishment demand downstream, and why planning core off an unadjusted average gets it wrong in both directions.
AGED INVENTORY! OH MY!
Ageing inventory on receipt age rather than on velocity — and why aged stock is a re-use question before it is a markdown question.
Plans and forecasts: bridging risk gaps
A plan and a forecast are not the same document and should not be reconciled as though they were. Where the gap between them lives, and how to read it as risk.
Do you get this?
A one-minute test. Two choices showing the same weeks on hand are not in the same position — and if that isn't immediately obvious, it's exactly the gap this practice exists to close.
Want a proper look?
I'll take you through the live tools and reports myself — you steer, and ask whatever you want as we go.