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What this page is for

This is your product master data — one row per product, where a product is one SKU (Stock Keeping Unit, the identifier for a single sellable or usable item). It is a spreadsheet-style table you can filter, edit inline, and import or export in Excel. The fields here are the foundation for everything downstream. They tell Spherecast how to forecast a product, whether and how to reorder it, and how to judge its expiry risk. Get these right and the rest of your planning follows.

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What you can set

FieldWhat it means
TitleThe product name. Editable only for products created in Spherecast, not for ones synced from your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system — your company’s system of record).
SKUThe stock-keeping identifier. Read-only.
TypeDummy = created manually in Spherecast; Actual = imported from your ERP. Only Dummy products can be edited or deleted.
CategoryThe product’s category.
ABCThe ABC class (A, B, or C) based on the product’s forecasted revenue share for the next 6 months — roughly the top 5% are A, the next 15% are B, and the rest are C. Drives service levels.
ActiveWhether the product is actively sold (finished goods) or used in production (components). Turning it off removes it from planning.
ReplenishableWhether Spherecast generates reorders for it.
LTOLimited Time Offer — available for a limited period only. Not included in baseline forecasts and not replenished.
AssigneeThe planner responsible for the product.
What to recommendWhich order type Spherecast generates: Just POs (turnkey purchased goods), Just WOs (in-house production), Just Assemblies (in-house kitting), WOs + POs (co-man production), or Assemblies + POs (co-packing).
Launch date / Phase-out dateWhen the product starts / stops selling.
Phase-out targetThe inventory target to hit in the discontinuation week: Depletion (run down to zero) or Safety stock.
Order cycle (days)How often the product is reordered.
Shelf life (days)Days from production to expiration. Drives expiry risk.
Sell-by daysThe product must be sold at least this many days before it expires, or it is flagged at-risk.
Handling lead time (days)Days from receipt until the stock is available to use. Overrides the warehouse default.
Stock unitThe base unit the product is tracked in.
Purchase unitThe unit the product is ordered in.
Demand plan unitThe unit demand is planned in, then translated back to the base unit for supply.
Items / weight per packPackaging: how many items and how much weight in a pack.
Items / weight per palletHow many items and how much weight on a pallet.
FTL (pallets)Full Truckload — the number of pallets per truck.
Truck typeReefer (refrigerated) or Dry.

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How it affects planning

ABC sets service levels, which shape safety stock. Replenishable, What to recommend, and Order cycle decide whether and how orders are proposed and in what rhythm. Launch and Phase-out dates bound the selling window, and the Phase-out target governs how you wind a product down. Shelf life and Sell-by days feed expiry risk, while the unit and packaging fields translate plans into orderable, shippable quantities.

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Step by step: set up a manually created product

  1. Add a new product (its Type is Dummy, so it stays editable).
  2. Fill in Title, Category, and an Assignee.
  3. Set Active and Replenishable on, and pick What to recommend.
  4. Enter the units and packaging so quantities translate correctly.
  5. Add Shelf life and Sell-by days if the product can expire.

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Example

A refrigerated finished good is Active, Replenishable, class A, recommends Just POs, has a 180-day shelf life, 30 sell-by days, ships as a Reefer truck at 26 pallets to a Full Truckload. Spherecast now forecasts it, proposes purchase orders on its order cycle, and flags it when stock nears its sell-by window.
Tip: Set the Safety buffer and Sourcing suppliers next, choose where it stocks on Stocking, and organize products with Groups.