One of the most important concepts in Confido is the difference between the Sales Forecast and the Demand Plan. These are two distinct but interconnected views of volume, built by different teams for different purposes.
1.1 The Sales Forecast (Sales Read)
The Sales Forecast is built by the commercial team — account managers, sales leaders, and trade planners. It is grounded in in-store consumer performance: what is scanning through the register, how many stores are carrying each item, and what lift promotions are generating.
The Consumption Sales Forecast is bottom-up for customers for whom Point-of-Sale (POS) data is available. It is built from:
A baseline consumption forecast (store counts × base velocity, by retailer and item)
Promotional lift layered on top of the baseline
New distribution opportunities (confirmed and unconfirmed)
Shippers, displays, and seasonal activities
The Depletion forecast is another independent forecast that is generated by distributors for which depletions data is available (e.g. KeHE and UNFI). The Ship-To Sales Forecast is directly linked to the consumption and the depletions forecast through a buy-in delay that lags consumption/depletions timing to estimated shipment timing. It can be modified in settings → Forecast settings.
Additionally, customers listed as Direct Order Forecasting (where no POS data exists and data does not need to be lagged) appear under the Shipment Sales Forecast. Customers can be set to Direct Order Forecasting under Settings → Forecast Settings.
The output of the Shipment Forecast is what Confido calls a ‘sales read’ — a comprehensive view of expected volume from the bottom up, rooted in in-store signals. It flows into the Demand Planning workspace as an opinion line called the Sales Forecast, alongside other elements from the commercial side — such as Promotions, Pipefills, and Discounts — that flow through as their own distinct layers. The connection can be refreshed at any point through refresh triggers at each level (Product, Family, or Total Set). You can determine the sales forecast that you would like to sync over to the demand planning module by selecting the version under Demand Plan General Settings → Data Source.
Sales version to sync  | Sync at individual product level 
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Full Sales Forecast Sync 
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1.2 The Demand Plan (Demand Forecast)
The Demand Plan is owned by the demand planning team. Typically, the demand plan is built to develop an independent understanding of the unconstrained demand for a product. It is built at the shipment level and is used to drive production planning, inventory management, and supply chain decisions.
The Demand Plan may:
Use the Sales Forecast (especially for new items or new distribution where no shipment history exists)
Use a statistical model that is based on historical shipment data (for mature, steady-state customer/product combinations)
Use an uploaded forecast as a base — for instance, when a buy plan from a retailer is available
Combine both — through multi-horizon strategy which allows you to run a sales baseline + statistical baseline for a determined period.
To upload a dedicated forecast click the “Upload Forecast” button on the top right. You will be asked to give the forecast a name and will be guided through an upload editor that ensures critical fields such as Customer, Product and Dates are present in the upload file.
Important: The Sales Forecast and Final Demand Plan can show different numbers — this is expected and correct. The Sales Forecast represents what the sales team hopes to sell — their opinion built from in-store signals and commercial assumptions. The Demand Plan is the independent plan the brand thinks it will actually sell on an unconstrained basis. The Sales Forecast is one input among several for decision making. |