Quick answer
To forecast inventory with Unleashed, use its stock-on-hand, purchase-order, and cost data as the system of record, project demand by SKU, and time reorders to lead times and safety stock. Connecting Unleashed to a live financial model turns that operational data into a forward plan tied to cash.
What Unleashed brings to inventory forecasting
Unleashed is an inventory-management platform favored by brands that manufacture or assemble. It tracks stock on hand, bills of materials, landed costs, and purchase orders, with strong support for production and true landed-cost visibility.
For a brand with a bill of materials, Unleashed is where component and finished-goods inventory truth lives, along with the landed costs that let a forecast speak in cash. The financial model projects finished-goods demand forward and plans both production and purchasing against it.
| Unleashed data | What it drives in the forecast |
|---|---|
| Stock on hand + BOM | Finished goods and component coverage |
| Landed costs | Cash value of the inventory plan |
| Purchase orders | In-transit and committed cash |
| Production data | Lead time from components to finished goods |
How the forecast is built
With a system of record feeding clean stock and purchase-order data, inventory forecasting becomes a matter of projecting demand by SKU, comparing it to what is on hand and on order, and timing the next purchase to lead times and a safety-stock buffer.
Formula: Weeks of supply = current on-hand units / average weekly demand. It flags stockout risk when it drops too low and trapped cash when it climbs too high. Reorder point = (average daily demand x lead time in days) + safety stock.
The discipline is to forecast at the SKU level, because you buy and stock out at the SKU level, then roll the plan up into cash. A blended forecast cannot tell you how many of each item to order.
Rule of thumb. Let Unleashed own the truth about what you have and what is on order, and let the forecast own what happens next. Clean current data is what makes a forward plan trustworthy.
From Unleashed data to a cash-aware forecast
A forecast is only as good as the data behind it and only useful if it connects to cash. Drivepoint pulls Unleashed data through its Unleashed integration into a live, Excel-native model, then turns on-hand and open-order data into forward weeks of supply, reorder timing, and the cash each purchase order will consume.
Because inventory is the largest use of cash for most consumer brands, every reorder is checked against runway, not just demand. That is the same connected approach that let Oats Overnight tie demand timing to a capacity decision worth $4M in EBITDA. For the underlying method, see our guide to inventory cash flow planning.