Quick Summary: Look Forward Days instructs the app to pull future recommended orders forward into today’s order schedule. It is used to protect items from stockouts caused by long review cycles or known supply interruptions such as supplier shutdowns.

What Are Look Forward Days?

The Look Forward Days parameter tells the system how many days into the future it should scan for order recommendations.

Default = 1 day, meaning only orders needed today are recommended.
Higher values consolidate upcoming recommendations into the present, allowing you to act ahead of schedule.

By increasing this value, the app effectively “looks ahead” to pull future replenishment needs into today’s order schedule (thus temporarily extending the cover forward period)

➜ For more on this topic, read: Cover Forward Period Explained

Why This Feature Matters

Using Look Forward Days enables proactive replenishment planning. It helps you stay ahead of supply risks, avoid stockouts, and better align ordering activity with business operations.

Managing Supplier Shutdowns

This is the most common use for the feature.

When a supplier will be closed for a holiday or scheduled shutdown (for example, Chinese New Year), set the Look Forward Days equal to the number of days they will be unavailable.

This ensures your order quantity is large enough to cover all demand during the period when that supplier cannot deliver.

Handling Infrequent Order Reviews

If you do not review orders for a particular supplier daily, you risk stockouts between reviews.

Using Look Forward Days prevents this by pulling forward orders that would otherwise be triggered before your next scheduled review.

This ensures critical replenishment signals are not missed, even if reviews occur infrequently.

➜ For more on this topic, read: Order Frequency (Review Period) Explained

However, a better solution that prevents creating excess stock is using Top-Up Orders.

➜ For more on this topic, read: Top-Up Orders Explained

The Impact on Inventory Levels

Using this feature intentionally increases inventory temporarily, since future orders are brought into the present.

This creates a planned and controlled rise in stock, which is usually preferable to the alternative, a stockout and lost sales.

However, increasing the value simply to reduce ordering workload (for example, setting 60 days without justification) will create unnecessary excess stock. This excess is costly, difficult to store, and generally unacceptable to warehouse and finance teams.

Look Forward Days vs Top-Up Orders

Feature	Look Forward Days	Top-Up Orders
Primary Purpose	Time-Based Risk Mitigation. Designed to bridge a known gap in time where ordering is impossible (e.g., Supplier Shutdowns).	Logistics Optimization & Gap Filling. Designed to fill capacity (containers), meet value thresholds (discounts), or ensure availability between reviews.
How It Works	Scans future demand and recommended orders, then consolidates them into the present. Temporarily extends the cover forward period.	Ignores the Reorder Point trigger and orders only the shortfall needed to reach the Order Up To level.
Best For	Supplier shutdowns or holidays (for example, Chinese New Year).	Infrequent review periods (a better alternative to Look Forward Days when the goal is avoiding excess). Container filling. Reaching supplier discount or minimum value thresholds.
Pros	Prevents stockouts when supplier availability is limited. Ensures coverage through predictable supply gaps.	Does not intentionally create excess stock. Only raises stock to the Order Up To Level, not a full replenishment cycle. Useful for filling containers or reaching a discount point.
Cons	Creates intentional excess because orders are brought forward into today.	May be rounded up significantly if Minimum Order Quantities or Order Multiples apply. Does not bring in a full replenishment cycle, which may weaken the planned ordering rhythm if used frequently. May result in small quantaties of certain items being brought in, which isn't worth the order handling and admin time.
Not Recommended When	Used as a shortcut to avoid order reviews. Used to extend review intervals artificially.	Supplier constraints are large (MOQ or OM). Used excessively as a substitute for proper Replenishment Cycle settings.

How To Use and Set Look Forward Days

➜ Read: How To: Use and Set Look Forward Days

⚠️ Watchouts

Unjustified high values create excess: Pulling future orders into today increases inventory intentionally; large values used simply to avoid reviewing orders will create unnecessary excess.