Demand Planning provides three primary views:

The Planning view is the default Demand Planning workspace. Most of the functionality described in the Cleansing Sales History and Forecast Refinement articles is performed in this view.

The Multi and Stats views provide additional perspectives for reviewing distributed values and evaluating forecast performance.

Switching views changes how the current planning scope is presented. It does not change the selected hierarchy or underlying demand.

The Planning view is the default Demand Planning workspace.

It displays historical demand, forecast measures, and planning periods in the Planning table, with corresponding information presented in the graphs.

Most demand preparation and forecast refinement activities are performed in this view, including:

Values can be adjusted individually or across multiple selected cells within the Planning table.

➜ For detailed instructions, read: How To: Adjust Values in Demand Planning

The Multi view displays multiple members from the next hierarchy level at the same time.

This view is particularly useful after a value has been adjusted at a higher hierarchy level. It shows how the higher-level value has been distributed across the members beneath it.

For example, when a Promotion is entered at a location level, the value is distributed across the applicable items or customers below that location. The Multi view displays this distribution in separate rows, making it easier to review and refine the result.

Forecast Adjustments may be displayed by default, but another available measure can be selected through the configuration settings.

The table refreshes to display the selected measure across the members at the next hierarchy level.

Add a concise baseline explanation of working with this and a link to the universal editing article.

Values displayed in the Multi table can be adjusted individually or across multiple selected cells. The same general editing controls used in the Planning table are available in this view.

Selecting a hierarchy member from the Multi table changes the planning context to that member for more detailed review.

➜ For detailed instructions, read: How To: Adjust Values in Demand Planning

The Stats view provides analytical information about forecast performance.

The hierarchy and planning scope remain unchanged when moving from Planning to Stats. The same items, locations, customers, or other hierarchy members remain selected, but the perspective changes from forecast editing to performance analysis.

Stats measures are informational and cannot be edited. The Cover Forward period is the only adjustable element in this view.

Forecast History shows how the forecast for a future period changed across successive planning cycles.

The waterfall table is structured as follows:

Reading down a column shows how the forecast for that period changed as new information became available.

A stable progression indicates that the forecast remained relatively consistent. Frequent or substantial changes may indicate reactive forecasting, late-arriving information, or unstable demand.

The Now line separates historical demand from future forecast periods in both the chart and waterfall table.

Forecast performance is evaluated within the Cover Forward window.

Cover Forward represents the future demand period that directly influences current replenishment decisions. It is determined by:

For example, a product with a two-month Lead Time, a one-month Order Cycle, and one month of Safety Cover has a four-month Cover Forward period.

The forecasts created within this window are evaluated because they were available when the relevant replenishment decisions were made and could therefore influence actual orders.

Forecasts created before an item entered the Cover Forward window had not yet influenced replenishment decisions and are not evaluated in the same way.

The Stats view includes several measures that help evaluate forecast quality.

For each future period, the forecasts created during the Cover Forward window are averaged to produce the Average Forecast, displayed in the Avg FC row.

This value represents the forecast available to support replenishment decisions during that period.

The Average Forecast is compared with actual demand in the History row.

The difference is displayed as Variance:

Variance indicates whether demand was over-forecast or under-forecast during the Cover Forward window.

Forecast Bias shows whether forecasts consistently overestimate or underestimate demand.

Because Bias measures the direction of forecast error, a persistent result may indicate a systematic forecasting tendency that requires review.

Forecast Risk reflects how volatile or unpredictable demand has been relative to the forecast.

Forecast Bias identifies the direction of forecast error, while Forecast Risk reflects the level of uncertainty.

The corresponding Cover Forward period from the previous year is highlighted in the Stats view.

This provides historical context for the current planning decision by showing how the same periods behaved previously. The comparison helps assess whether the current forecast:

The chart provides a visual summary of how forecasts changed over time.

The shaded band represents the range of forecasts created for each period:

A narrow band indicates that forecasts remained relatively consistent. A wider band, as indicated in the image above, indicates that forecasts changed significantly as new information became available.

Cover Forward is the only adjustable element in the Stats view.

Changing the Cover Forward value changes the evaluation window used to assess forecast performance. It does not edit forecast values or historical demand.

The Stats view connects previous forecasting decisions with their outcomes.

Forecast History, Average Forecast, Variance, Bias, and Forecast Risk help identify:

These insights provide feedback for future forecast refinement and support continuous improvement across planning cycles.

The Analysis view in the Stats tab provides a structured overview of Forecast Risk or Forecast Bias based on the current hierarchy selection.

To use the Analysis view:

This view helps identify where the most significant risk or bias is concentrated, allowing planning effort to focus on the areas with the greatest potential impact.

Each view supports a different planning activity.

Moving between views changes only the planning perspective. The selected hierarchy and underlying demand remain unchanged.

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