SoStocked Workflows Guide

This guide covers the most commonly used inventory forecasting workflows in SoStocked.

Forecasting can get complex quickly, with a lot of variables to consider, and different businesses needing different approaches.

This guide is here to help you make sense of it all, apply best practices, and set up your forecasting, lead times, and workflows in a way that actually works for your business.

Use it as a reference as you build and refine your setup.

GETTING STARTED

1. If you are new to SoStocked, please schedule your free one-on-one onboarding call here. 
2. Download and save the following onboarding checklist. Make notes and go over this with your Onboarding Specialist on the call. 
3. Make sure you and your team have gone through the onboarding start-up tutorials here. These modules cover 90% of the basic use of our tools in the proper sequence.
4. If you need to invite additional team members to your account, or if you need to link multiple accounts together, go here.

SUPPLIER TO AMAZON FBA

This is the most basic workflow. In this workflow, you are ordering new inventory from a supplier or manufacturer and then sending it directly to FBA. You are not utilizing any 3PL warehousing or the Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) program.

1. Organize your products so you only see products you want to track and forecast for.
2. Upload Units per Carton, MOQs and any other relevant data SoStocked should know using the bulk upload.
3. Group your products by Regions if applicable, this includes NARF, PAN-EU and EFN.
4. Create or edit your Suppliers so they are available to assign to your products.
5. Assign your products to the appropriate suppliers and warehouse/s. Amazon AWD products are automatically assigned to AWD in SoStocked.
6. Create and assign lead times for each supplier, covering the full timeline from production through freight options, and finally to FBA.
7. Set up your forecast preferences and adjustments.
   1. Pay special attention to this tutorial on Forecast Order & Transfer Schedule Options (As Needed) to learn how min-max stock works and how the various lead time workflows work.
8. Reconcile any Inbound Amazon Shipments if they are appearing as requiring reconciliation.
9. Add any Purchase Orders already in production that we need to account for as Inbound Inventory. 

SUPPLIER TO WAREHOUSE (3PL/AWD) TO FBA

In this workflow, you are ordering from a supplier or manufacturer and then shipping that new inventory to a warehouse, or 3PL, or AWD. The inventory is held at this warehouse for a period of time that is determined based on your forecast settings. Then the inventory is drip-fed to FBA based on your transfer schedule and min-max FBA settings. 

1. Organize your products so you only see products you want to track and forecast for.
2. Upload Units per Carton, MOQs and any other relevant data SoStocked should know using the bulk upload.
3. Group your products by Regions if applicable, this includes NARF, PAN-EU and EFN.
4. Create your warehouse or 3PL as a vendor in SoStocked so that inventory for these products can be virtually stored in the system.  If you are using Amazon AWD, the Amazon AWD warehouse will be automatically created, and inventory levels will be pulled in.
5. Assign your products to the appropriate suppliers and warehouse/s. Amazon AWD products are automatically assigned to AWD in SoStocked.
6. Create and assign your lead time for each supplier.  This lead time will start with production, typically have ocean freight then ground freight, then stop at a warehouse or Amazon AWD. Make sure to select the correct warehouse for that supplier and region.
7. Create Transfer times for your Warehouse/s accounting for the time it takes from the Warehouse or Amazon AWD to FBA.
8. Upload your existing Warehouse Inventory levels using our bulk upload or in app. Note that SoStocked will update your AWD inventory levels as part of our Integration with Amazon AWD.
9. Set up your forecast rules and adjustments. Since you have added a warehouse into the workflow, you will also need to set up your min-max warehouse stock numbers.
   1. Pay special attention to this tutorial on Forecast Order & Transfer Schedule Options (As Needed) to learn how min-max stock works and how the various lead time workflows work.
10. Reconcile any Inbound Amazon Shipments if they are appearing as requiring reconciliation.
11. Add any Purchase Orders already in production that we need to account for as Inbound Inventory. 

SUPPLIER THROUGH WAREHOUSE (3PL) TO FBA (PASS-THROUGH)

In this workflow, you order inventory from a supplier or manufacturer and ship it through a warehouse or 3PL for processing (e.g. bundling, kitting) before sending it directly to FBA. The key distinction is that there is no storage at the 3PL — inventory only passes through the warehouse.

This differs from the “Supplier to 3PL” workflow, where inventory is received and stored at the 3PL before being drip-fed to FBA. In the pass-through workflow, inventory moves straight through the 3PL without being held.

Because storage is bypassed, Order Schedule warehouse min-max rules do not apply. The system therefore calculates order quantities using FBA min-max settings only.

1. Organize your products so you only see products you want to track and forecast for.
2. Upload Units per Carton, MOQs and any other relevant data SoStocked should know using the bulk upload.
3. Create your bundles, multi-packs or kits if applicable.
4. Group your products by Regions if applicable, this includes NARF, PAN-EU and EFN.
5. Create your warehouse or 3PL as a vendor in SoStocked
6. Assign your products to the appropriate suppliers and warehouse/s.
7. Create and assign your lead time for each supplier.  This lead time will start with production, typically have ocean freight then ground freight, then go through a warehouse for a day or two, then more ground freight and end at FBA.  
8. Set up your forecast rules and adjustments. Since you are moving through a warehouse, the system will NOT use your warehouse min-max numbers, but will calculate your order quantities based on your FBA min-max and "Transfer Schedule". Make sure to see this workflow in action on this tutorial so you understand how it works.
9. Reconcile any Inbound Amazon Shipments if they are appearing as requiring reconciliation.
10. Add any Purchase Orders already in production that we need to account for as Inbound Inventory. 

SUPPLIER TO AWD TO FBA

This workflow is exactly the same as the SUPPLIER TO WAREHOUSE (3PL) TO FBA, as Amazon AWD acts as a warehouse in SoStocked. See that workflow above. The only difference is that you do NOT need to upload your AWD inventory levels, as these are provided by Amazon's API.

SUPPLIER TO WAREHOUSE (FBM)

In this workflow, you are ordering from a supplier or manufacturer and then shipping that new inventory to a warehouse, or 3PL. The inventory is held at this warehouse and sold by Amazon, but fulfilled by the seller via the 3PL warehouse staff.

In this workflow, SoStocked cannot "see" when inventory "moves" out of the warehouse (fulfilled orders) because we do not have an API into your warehouse software. So it is very important that you as the SoStocked account manager update your 3PL inventory levels periodically via bulk upload.  

If this warehouse is supplying both FBA and FBM (merchant fulfilled) orders, then some of your forecasts will have the SUPPLIER TO WAREHOUSE (3PL/AWD) TO FBA workflow, and others may use this workflow.

1. Organize your products so you only see products you want to track and forecast for.
2. Upload Units per Carton, MOQs and any other relevant data SoStocked should know using the bulk upload.
3. Group your products by Regions if applicable, this includes NARF, PAN-EU and EFN.
4. Create your warehouse or 3PL as a vendor in SoStocked so that inventory for these products can be virtually stored in the system.  
5. Assign your products to the appropriate suppliers and warehouse/s.
6. Create and assign your lead time for each supplier.  This lead time will start with production, typically have ocean freight then ground freight, then stop at a warehouse. Make sure to select the correct warehouse for that supplier and region.
7. Upload your existing Warehouse Inventory levels using our bulk upload or in app.
8. Set up your forecast rules and adjustments. Since you have added a warehouse into the workflow, you will also need to set up your min-max warehouse stock numbers.
   1. Pay special attention to this tutorial on Forecast Order & Transfer Schedule Options (As Needed) to learn how min-max stock works and how the various lead time workflows work.
9. Reconcile any Inbound Amazon Shipments if they are appearing as requiring reconciliation.
10. Add any Purchase Orders already in production that we need to account for as Inbound Inventory.
11. Track FBM (fulfilled-by-merchant) sales in SoStocked by deducting those orders from your warehouse inventory to keep your 3PL stock accurate before forecasting.

Managing your account with confidence

Now that you’ve worked through the relevant workflow tutorials, you’re ready to take ownership of your account.

As you start managing your account, keep the SOP checklist and best practices nearby to guide what you do each week, month, and quarter. Sticking to these routines will help you stay on top of your inventory and spot issues before they become problems.

Be sure to check out the How to Create Dashboards and Reports tutorial — it’s a game-changer for finding and making the most of the valuable data in SoStocked.

SoStocked gives you three different unique Forecast exports to track Sales, Replenishment and Performance.

Happy Forecasting!