The quick answer
Go to Lists > Supply Chain > Control Tower Dashboard and look at the Predicted Risks portlet. Open a Late Purchase Orders tile, expand the purchase order on Supply Chain Predicted Risks to read its Recommendation and Insights, then select View Current Snapshot to see the item's supply and demand by date. The walkthrough reads the prediction only. It does not add a simulation or change the purchase order.
The screenshots use fictional sample data. The order, item, vendor, dates, quantities, and percentages are examples, not expected results, and your tab names, counts, and labels will differ.
Before you start
Enable Supply Chain Control Tower and Supply Chain Predicted Risks at Setup > Company > Enable Features, and accept the terms page if your account shows one. Check Include in Control Tower on the relevant locations, and give your role the feature-specific access it needs to the dashboard, snapshots, items, locations, and orders. Each purchase order line needs an expected receipt date, the order must not be excluded from predicted risk, and the item and order must fall inside the snapshot's horizons. Intelligent predictions use completed order history. With too little history, NetSuite can fall back to the predicted days late and confidence on the vendor record or in the Control Tower preferences. A new order is generally evaluated the day after it is created, after the next prediction process. Labels and columns here are from a NetSuite 2026.2 example account and can differ by release, role, and portlet version.
01. Open the Control Tower Dashboard
Go to Lists > Supply Chain > Control Tower Dashboard. Review Alerts, Key Performance Indicators, and the Predicted Risks portlet. The Late Purchase Orders tab shows a count and tiles with a Likelihood, an Item, and a Date. Tabs for late transfer orders and late sales orders sit beside it.
02. Open the late purchase order risks
Select the Late Purchase Orders tile for the order you want to review. In this example, that is the first tile. Supply Chain Predicted Risks lists Order #, Item Number, Location, Quantity, Date, Vendor, Days Late, and Confidence for each at-risk order. In this example, PO5127 is for item VB-310 at Columbus: 64 units due 2026-11-04 from Alder Ridge Supply, 4 days late with 79.35% confidence.
03. Read the recommendation and insights
Select the expand icon beside PO5127. The Recommendation here is to reschedule the purchase order 4 days earlier, and Insights repeat Days Late, Confidence, Quantity, and Vendor. Treat these as predictions from past vendor performance, not promises. Likelihood is described as the probability that the order misses its date, and Confidence as the confidence in the prediction. Check your account's help for the exact definitions before you rely on either percentage.
Use the pager's next arrow to read the second recommendation. In this example it suggests considering a change of vendor to Harlan Metals, and the Insights cards change to the values shown for that alternative. Recommendations vary by order, vendors, and prediction data. Use the previous arrow to return to the first recommendation. Recommendations are advice. Add Recommendation to Snapshot creates a what-if simulation. By itself it does not change the purchase order, and authorizing or implementing a simulation is a separate later step. This walkthrough does not select it.
04. View the current snapshot
Select View Current Snapshot. On the Supply Chain Snapshot for VB-310, note the Date Run, Past Horizon Date, and Future Horizon Date. In the sublist, scroll right if the Transaction and Status columns are off-screen, then find the PO5127 row: Supply Quantity 64 on 2026-11-04 with status Purchase Order:Pending Receipt. Read the rows for this item and location in date order. The Inventory Balance is 15 before the purchase order, 79 after it, and 9 after the work order demand of 70 on 2026-11-06. As a reading aid, not a NetSuite calculation: if the order arrived 4 days after 2026-11-04, that demand would fall before the receipt.
A snapshot is not a live inventory view. Its balances reflect the data when it was generated or refreshed, shown as Date Run. The Add links in the Simulation column and the Manual Simulation button create what-if records. This walkthrough adds no simulation because it never selects one of them, and it ends with the snapshot open and the purchase order unchanged. A negative Inventory Balance in a snapshot is a projected shortfall, not an instruction to order that exact quantity.
Check the result
- The Supply Chain Snapshot for the item is open.
- The purchase order row shows its Supply Quantity, date, and status.
- You can read the Inventory Balance before the purchase order and after the next demand row.
- You have not added a simulation, and the purchase order is unchanged.
Common questions
How do I find purchase orders that are likely to arrive late?
Open the Control Tower Dashboard and use the Late Purchase Orders tab in the Predicted Risks portlet. Select the tile for the order you want, and Supply Chain Predicted Risks lists each at-risk order with its predicted Days Late and Confidence. The features, location setup, line-level expected receipt dates, and prediction processing described above must be in place first.
Does Add Recommendation to Snapshot change my purchase order?
No. It creates a what-if simulation on the item's snapshot and does not modify the source purchase order. Authorizing or implementing a simulation is a separate later action that follows your account's workflow.
What do Days Late, Likelihood, and Confidence mean?
Days Late is the predicted number of days past the applicable date. Likelihood is described as the probability that the order misses that date, and Confidence is the confidence in the prediction. They are different measures, so check your account's help for the exact definitions.
Why is my Predicted Risks portlet empty?
Common causes are that the features or terms acceptance were not completed, the role lacks access, the portlet is not on the dashboard, the location is not included in Control Tower, the purchase order line has no qualifying expected receipt date, the order is excluded from predicted risk, prediction processing has not run, or there is too little history and no vendor or default risk values.
Are predictions available the day after I create an order?
Generally, after the next prediction process, which usually means the following day. It is not an immediate guarantee.
Is a snapshot live?
No. A snapshot reflects the transactions and dates included when it was generated or refreshed, shown as Date Run. Generate or refresh it after dates, quantities, or item and location settings change.
Does a negative snapshot balance mean I should order that exact quantity?
No. It shows a projected shortfall under the snapshot's included transactions, dates, horizons, and units. It is not automatically a purchase recommendation.