Overview
Annual Operating Plan (AOP) planning in Confido is built Scenarios.
Scenarios let you build account-level plans quickly, without managing every SKU, store count, and promotion date from scratch. Instead of a full bottom-up build, you work at a higher level: set your baseline distribution assumptions, sketch out a promotional calendar, and let Confido calculate your projected revenue and trade spend in real time.
Once you've built scenarios across your accounts, you can roll them up into a single company-wide view and, when you're ready, merge everything into a live forecast version that becomes your official AOP in Confido.
The typical workflow looks like this:
Build one or more scenarios per account
Compare scenarios against each other and against your targets
Roll up across all accounts into a company-wide plan
Merge into a live forecast version
How Targets Connect to Scenarios
When you're inside a scenario, you can toggle a comparison against your target version to see how your bottoms-up scenario stacks up against your top-down goals. This comparison updates in real time as you make changes to the scenario.
You can also compare targets against any forecast version in Trade Summary → Compare Versions.
Building Scenarios
Scenarios live inside Account Planners. Each scenario is an account-level annual plan built from three inputs: a base forecast, distribution changes, and a promotional calendar.
Accessing Scenarios
Navigate to Sales → Account Planner, select an account, and click the Scenarios tab on the far right.
Creating a Scenario
Click Create Scenario and fill in the basics:
Name — e.g., "Target," "Conservative," "Aggressive"
Fiscal Year — defaults to the current planning year
Tags — Base, Conservative, Aggressive, or custom tags to help organize across accounts
Step 1: Initial Products
Confido pre-selects SKUs that have a positive store count at the start of the planning year. In most cases you won't need to change this. If you're planning to introduce new SKUs before the year begins, add them here.
Products are grouped by Product Family by default, which reduces the number of inputs you need to manage. You can ungroup to the SKU level if you need more granularity, but this isn't necessary for most AOP scenarios.
Step 2: Base Forecast
For each product family, enter three inputs:
Field | What it means |
Initial Stores | Store count at the start of the year |
Weekly Base Velocity | Expected weekly sales per store |
Velocity Growth % | Linear growth applied across the year (optional) |
Confido pre-populates these from your existing forecast data. You often won't need to touch them unless you're building an aggressive or conservative variant.
Editing at the product family level applies the change to all underlying SKUs. Editing at the SKU level (when ungrouped) gives you more precision.
Step 3: Distribution Changes
Use this section to model any store count changes during the year — expansions, discontinuations, or new product introductions.
Expansions
Select the SKUs being expanded
Click Add Distribution
Set the effective date and number of additional stores
Adjust Likelihood % if you're not certain (e.g., 50% likelihood halves the weighted store count)
Optionally add a Slotting Fee or Free Fill amount — these flow automatically into your trade spend
Discontinuations
Select the SKUs being discontinued
Click Discontinue
Set the effective date
Leave Store Changes blank for a full discontinuation, or enter a number for a partial discontinuation
New Products New products don't have historical data, so you'll need to enter a base velocity manually. Once entered, configure the expansion the same way as above. New products start at zero stores and activate on the specified date.
Step 4: Promotional Calendar
The promotional calendar is where most of your trade spend gets planned. The key simplification here is that you enter number of weeks on promo rather than specific dates — Confido uses an average week to calculate an approximate spend figure.
Standard Promotions
Select one or more product families
Click Promo
Enter:
Weeks on Promo — total promotional weeks for the year
Rate — per unit promotional rate
Flat Fee (optional) — e.g., an advertising fee tagged to this event
Lift % (optional) — expected sales uplift during the promotion
Target Unit Price (optional) — retail price, used to calculate retailer margin
Reason — spend category (e.g., Scans)
Year-Round Support (EDLP / Merchandising) For programs that run all year, use Additional Support instead. You only need to enter the rate — no weeks needed since it's continuous.
Importing from the Prior Year
Click Generate Promotions to pull your current year's promotion calendar forward automatically. This imports weeks, rates, lift, and retail pricing as a starting point. Useful if your promotional strategy will be similar year over year.
Analyzing & Comparing Scenarios
As you build, Confido calculates your metrics in real time in the right panel:
Revenue — based on unit pricing and forecast volumes
Trade Spend — aggregated across all promotional activity
Trade Rate — promotional intensity as a percentage of revenue
Net Sales — revenue minus trade spend
Comparing Against Targets or Prior Year
Use the comparison toggle at the top of the scenario to switch between:
Active forecast version — how does this scenario compare to what you currently have planned?
Target version — how does this scenario compare to your top-down goals?
Comparisons are available at the product family level and individual SKU level.
Comparing Multiple Scenarios
From the Scenarios tab inside an account, you can view all scenarios side by side. Drag to reorder them for easier comparison. Use the filter to focus on a specific spend reason (e.g., Scans only).
Scenario lifecycle options:
Mark as Primary — flags the scenario your team is aligned on; used later in the company-wide rollup
Draft mode — keeps a scenario private until you're ready to share it
Copy — duplicates a scenario as a starting point for a new variant
Company-Wide Rollup
Once scenarios are built across accounts, you can roll them up into a single company-wide AOP view.
Accessing the Annual Plan Builder
From the Account Planners main list view, click Actions → Build Annual Plan.
Selecting Scenarios Per Account
The Annual Plan builder shows all your accounts. For each one, you have three options:
Use primary scenario — defaults to whichever scenario you marked as Primary
Choose a specific scenario — click Edit to see all scenarios for the account and select one
Carry forward active forecast — for tail accounts where you don't need a full scenario, this uses your current forecast version as-is
Exclude — toggle off accounts not included in this year's plan
Previewing Rolled-Up Metrics
Click Next to see the company-wide rollup. Metrics are broken out by planning group and can be viewed at the revenue, trade spend, and net sales level. You can export this view for stakeholder review.
Merging to Forecast
Once you're satisfied with your rollup, the final step is converting your scenarios into a live forecast version — your official AOP in Confido.
During the merge, you'll be prompted to add specific promotional dates for any promotions that were planned by weeks rather than dates. This is the step where your high-level scenario becomes a fully detailed forecast with a complete trade calendar.
After the merge, your AOP forecast version is available across:
Sales Forecast — as a reference version you can compare against actuals
Trade Calendar — showing your full promotional plan for the year
Trade Summary → Compare Versions — for ongoing variance tracking against targets
Have questions about AOP planning in Confido? Reach out to your Customer Success contact.