Use forecasts
The Sales and Inventory Forecast extension uses Azure AI to predict future sales based on your sales history to help you avoid inventory shortage.
Occasionally, the Forecast tab in Business Central displays the following message.
This message means that not enough historical data is available to help predict future sales. You need at least five periods of historical sales to predict future sales.
To solve this problem, you need to create and post new transactions for the item. For example, you could use the Item Journal page to create and post new lines of type Sales. The following steps show how to create a new item.
Select the Search for page icon, which opens the Tell Me feature, enter Items, and then select the related link.
On the Items page, select New.
In the Select a template for a new item pop-up window, select a template, such as Item.
Enter a Description for a new item, such as Special Desk Chair.
The Forecast FactBox will show the following message.
Select Process > Item Journal.
In the Item Journal page, enter the information that is shown in the following image.
Select Post/print > Post.
Select Yes.
Select OK.
Enter six lines on the Item Journal page, and make sure that you use at least six different dates in the Posting Date field, in five different periods, and then use a pattern for the Quantity field that can be used for predictions.
Select Post/print > Post.
Select Yes.
Select OK.
Open the Sales and Inventory Forecast Setup page.
Select New > Update Forecast.
Wait a couple of minutes for the forecast to complete.
Open the Items page.
The Forecast FastTab will look similar to the following image:
Open the Item Journal page again and then add the following lines:
Select Post/print > Post.
Select Yes.
Select OK.
Open the Sales and Inventory Forecast Setup page.
Select New > Update Forecast.
Wait a couple of minutes for the forecast to complete.
Open the Items page.
The Forecast FastTab will now look as shown in the following image.
Now, when you choose the item on the Items page, the chart in the Forecast pane will show the estimated sales of this item in the coming period. With this method, you can determine if the item is likely to run out of stock soon.