> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.spherecast.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Channels

> Model each sales channel as a demand source that feeds forecasting, and map channels to products and warehouses.

## What this page is for

A **channel** is a sales channel — a place demand comes from. That could be a marketplace, a retailer, a B2B (business-to-business) account, an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) partner, or your own direct sales. You model each channel here so the engine knows where demand originates and can forecast it.

> Your company may have renamed "Channels" to a term that fits your business. The setup works the same whatever the label says.

## Key attributes

| Attribute               | Plain meaning                                                                                                                                                             |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name**                | The channel.                                                                                                                                                              |
| **Type**                | **Dummy** — a Spherecast-native placeholder for a channel that isn't syncing yet. **Actual** — a real channel synced from your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system). |
| **Sell-by days**        | Days before expiry by which product must be sold in this channel. Can be overridden per product.                                                                          |
| **Sales rep**           | The person who owns the account.                                                                                                                                          |
| **Forecasting enabled** | Whether this channel is included in forecast runs.                                                                                                                        |
| **Active**              | Whether the channel is in use.                                                                                                                                            |
| **B2B**                 | Marks the channel as a business-to-business account rather than direct-to-consumer.                                                                                       |

## How channels map to products

A channel doesn't sell everything — it sells the products you link to it. That link is called an **eligible product** (a product-to-channel connection), and it carries the per-channel details that shape demand:

| On the product-channel link          | Plain meaning                                                          |
| ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Launch date**                      | When the product starts selling in this channel.                       |
| **Phase-out (discontinuation) date** | When the product stops selling in this channel.                        |
| **Royalty**                          | Flags the product as carrying a royalty in this channel.               |
| **Planning status**                  | Where you are in setting it up: Untouched, In progress, or Done.       |
| **Demand profile**                   | An optional seasonality shape applied to this product in this channel. |

## Dummy to real transitions

Before a real channel is connected to your ERP, you can plan against a **Dummy** placeholder so forecasts aren't blocked. Once the real channel starts syncing, a **Dummy → real** transition rewires the forecasts from the placeholder onto the real ERP channel — so the demand history and plan you built carry over instead of being lost.

## How it affects planning

Each channel with **Forecasting enabled** contributes its demand to forecast runs. **Launch** and **phase-out** dates control when a product's demand turns on and off in that channel, so new items ramp up and discontinued ones wind down on schedule. The **demand profile** bends that demand into a seasonal shape. And because a channel is tied to the warehouse(s) that fulfill it — the **sales** flow — the engine knows which stock covers that demand.

## Step by step: set up a channel

1. Open **Settings → Supply chain network → Channels** and add the channel.
2. Set **Type** (Dummy or Actual) and turn **Forecasting enabled** on if it should feed forecasts.
3. Set **Sell-by days**, **Sales rep**, and the **B2B** flag as needed.
4. Add **eligible products** and set each one's **launch** and **phase-out** dates.
5. Attach a **demand profile** where a product is seasonal. See [Demand profiles](/demand-profiles).
6. Confirm the channel is tied to the warehouse(s) that fulfill it (the sales flow).

## Example

You launch a new SKU on a marketplace channel before your ERP is connected, so you plan it against a **Dummy** channel with a launch date of March 1 and a summer **demand profile**. When the marketplace integration goes live, the **Dummy → real** transition moves those forecasts onto the real ERP channel automatically, and planning continues without a gap.

> **Note:** This page is the network-setup view of channels — how they are modeled. The day-to-day demand-side view lives in the [Channels management table](/channels). See also [Markets](/markets) and [Products, SKUs & BOMs](/guide/network/products-skus-boms).