Summary
Fixed productions are planned in advance; variable production is planned on the same day, once you can see how sales are actually going. It's an intraday top-up - Edify looks at what's sold so far, adjusts the forecast for the rest of the day, and recommends how many more of each recipe to make.
You plan it from the Production page: select Set VP, review the recommended quantities, and save.
⚠️ Variable production only appears once it's enabled for the site. Turn it on with Enable variable production in the site's production settings - see Production Settings for Sites.
Planning a variable production
Open the Production page and make sure today's date is selected - variable production is planned on the day.
Select Set VP in the bottom bar. The Variable production planner opens.
Review the auto-filled quantities in the VP column, adjusting them with the – and + steppers where needed. Rows you change are highlighted, and a differ from suggested flag at the top shows how many you've moved away from the recommendation.
When you're happy, select Save VP plan.
Select Plan benches to move on to bench planning for the variable production.
The VP planner table
The VP planner tab shows, for each recipe, how the day is tracking and what the recommended top-up is:
Column | Explainer |
Carry over | Quantities brought forward that count towards what's available. |
P1 / P2 | Quantities already produced in each fixed production. |
Sold | The number sold so far today. |
Available | The number still available to sell, including items made via On Demand. |
Forecast | The initial forecast sales for the day. |
Adjusted | The forecast updated for intraday sales performance (see below). |
Closing | The number needed for the recipe's closing range, where one is set. |
VP | The recommended variable production quantity, auto-filled from the figures above. Edit here. |
The Total row at the bottom shows the projected sales value and the total VP quantity.
How the adjusted forecast works
Edify continuously updates the forecast through the day based on actual sales. It compares your real sales against the initial forecast for the hours that have completed, then adds or subtracts the difference from the remaining forecast so you make enough to meet demand. For example, if you were forecast to sell 6 items in an hour but sold 7, it adds 1 to the adjusted forecast.
Both the Forecast and Adjusted columns are shown side by side so you can see how sales are tracking against the original plan.
Check the Hourly sales breakdown tab for live sales in the current hour if you need to make an immediate call.
⚠️ The adjusted forecast only updates on completed hours. This stops short-term swings within the current hour from skewing it - if you're forecast to sell 6 items between 11:00 and 12:00 but have sold none by 11:30, the forecast isn't dropped, because those sales may still come before noon.
Hourly sales breakdown
The Hourly sales breakdown tab breaks each recipe's sales down by hour across the day - actual sales for the hours that have elapsed, and forecast for the rest. Use the Sales / vs forecast toggle to switch between the raw hourly numbers and how far actual sales differ from what was forecast for each hour, so you can see at a glance where you're over or under.
Because the forecast keeps adjusting on completed hours, you can return to the VP planner at the end of the day to see what the final adjusted forecast was - even after your VP numbers have been set.