The quick answer
Open the sales orders first and note each line's Order Quantity and Expected Ship Date. Then go to Transactions > Demand Planning > Calculate Item Demand Plan, choose the subsidiary and location, set Projection Method to Sales Forecast and Projection Interval to Weekly, enter a duration, check the item, and submit. In this example, 8 units due 10/21/2026 and 14 units due 10/29/2026 show up as 8 in the week of 10/18/2026 and 14 in the week of 10/25/2026. Sales Forecast reads forward-looking sales transactions instead of fitting a trend to history.
The screenshots show sample data. Person and operating-company names are fictional. Use your own records and values when following the steps.
Before you start
Advanced Inventory Management and Demand Planning have to be enabled, and your role needs access to the demand planning pages. The item needs to be an inventory or assembly item whose replenishment method is Time Phased at the location you calculate, or it will not appear in the item list. Subsidiary and location choices apply to OneWorld and Multi-Location Inventory accounts. The sales orders should be approved and not fully shipped. The location on the order line, not just the header, has to match the location you calculate. Menu paths can differ by role and enabled features.
Sales Forecast considers qualifying sales orders, estimates, opportunities, item fulfillments, invoices and cash sales, and the rules for each depend on status, dates, rate, location and forecast settings. How each transaction counts differs:
- Sales orders: only approved orders count, for the quantity not yet shipped, dated by the line's Expected Ship Date (the order date when that is blank). A date before the Projection Start Date is not carried into the first week.
- Estimates need an expected ship date and a rate above zero. Opportunities need an expected ship date inside the projection and depend on forecast settings, probability and whether a related sales order, invoice or cash sale exists. Don't assume an opportunity's probability is ignored.
- Item fulfillments, invoices and cash sales can also contribute, using the transaction date and their own eligibility rules.
This guide is a controlled example: two approved sales orders, no other qualifying transactions, no partial fulfillments. Your result will include whatever else qualifies.
01. Check the open sales orders
Start with the numbers the plan should reproduce. Go to Transactions > Sales > Enter Sales Orders > List and open SO3179. On the Items subtab, Brake Caliper Seal Kit at Harbor Warehouse has an Order Quantity of 8 and an Expected Ship Date of 10/21/2026.
Go back to the list and open SO3184. The same item has an Order Quantity of 14 and an Expected Ship Date of 10/29/2026.
02. Calculate the plan with Sales Forecast
Go to Transactions > Demand Planning > Calculate Item Demand Plan. Choose Subsidiary Northbrook US and Location Harbor Warehouse. Set Projection Method to Sales Forecast and Projection Interval to Weekly. Historical Analysis Duration is not needed for Sales Forecast, and the page greys it out here. Projection Start Date fills in as 10/11/2026, the start of the current company week in this example. Check the date that fills in instead of assuming it, because weekly periods line up with the company's first day of the week.
Enter a whole number in Projection Duration. Here it is 4, which means four weekly periods from the start date. Check Brake Caliper Seal Kit in the item list and choose Submit.
If a demand plan already exists for the item and location in that period, NetSuite asks what to do with it. Do Not Overwrite Current Quantities refreshes the calculated values and keeps quantities that were entered. Overwrite Current Quantities replaces them. In this example no prompt appears because no existing plan covers the item and period.
03. Read the weekly demand
Item Demand Plans opens with Brake Caliper Seal Kit at Harbor Warehouse and Sales Forecast under Last Projection Method. Choose View on that row.
Last Calculated Information repeats Sales Forecast, Weekly, a start date of 10/11/2026 and a duration of 4. On the Demand tab, set Start Date to 10/11/2026 so the four weeks are the first rows. The rows are period start dates. The period starting 10/18/2026 shows 8 and the period starting 10/25/2026 shows 14, matching the two orders. The periods starting 10/11/2026 and 11/01/2026 show 0, because nothing else qualifies in this example.
Weekly Calculated is the system's figure and Quantity is the figure planning uses. Editing Quantity creates a planner override and keeps the calculated value; what a recalculation does to it depends on the overwrite choice above. The plan does not change the sales orders, and it does not create supply. It is a static calculation, so calculate again if an order's quantity, ship date or fulfillment changes.
Check the result
- Last Projection Method on Item Demand Plans is Sales Forecast for the item and location.
- The period containing each order's Expected Ship Date carries that order's unshipped quantity: 8 and 14 here.
- Periods with no qualifying transactions show 0 in this example, and an order does not appear before or after its ship date.
Common questions
What does the Sales Forecast projection method use?
It uses forward-looking sales transactions. Approved sales orders count their unshipped quantity on the line's Expected Ship Date, or the order date when that is blank. Qualifying estimates, opportunities, item fulfillments, invoices and cash sales can also count, under their own rules for status, dates, rate and related transactions. Linear Regression, Moving Average and Seasonal Average project from history instead.
Why is Historical Analysis Duration disabled?
Sales Forecast does not look at history, so the field is not required. The page greys it out in this example. The other methods need it.
Why does a week with a sales order show 0?
Check that the order is approved and not closed, cancelled or fully fulfilled; that its Expected Ship Date is not blank, before the Projection Start Date, or outside the projection duration; that the item and location on the order line match the plan; and that the item still has the Time Phased replenishment method. Then calculate again, because the plan is static and a changed order, a partial fulfillment or a different start date gives a different result.
What is the difference between Weekly Calculated and Quantity?
Weekly Calculated is what the system projected. Quantity is the figure planning uses, and a planner can overwrite it. Do Not Overwrite Current Quantities keeps entered quantities when you recalculate. Overwrite Current Quantities replaces them.
Does the plan change my sales orders or create purchase orders?
No. It records projected demand and nothing else. In classic time-phased planning, the item's Demand Source decides whether supply planning uses the demand plan, open orders, or both. In MRP, the supply plan definition's demand source type for the location decides, and the item must be in the plan's scope. After you recalculate a plan for MRP, refresh the Planning Repository and run MRP.
Where does the Projection Start Date come from?
It fills in after you choose the interval. In this example it is the start of the current company week, 10/11/2026 with a Sunday first day of week. Check what fills in on your page. The duration counts intervals from that date, and a transaction dated before it is not carried into the first period.