> ## 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.

# Scenarios & what-if

> Test changes to your plan in an isolated copy, then compare the results against your live plan.

## What this page is for

A **scenario** is a safe copy of your plan. It duplicates the current plan so you can test how a change plays out **without touching your live data**. You make your what-if edits inside the scenario, look at the results, and only act on the real plan once you're confident.

This matters because a supply plan is connected: pull one order in, and coverage, alerts, and later recommendations all shift. A scenario lets you try that move in a sandbox first, compare it to where you stand today, and keep the two cleanly apart.

## What a scenario copies

Creating a scenario clones the records that drive reordering into an isolated copy tagged to that scenario. Your live plan stays untouched and is called the **base** (or baseline). The copied records are:

| Record                    | What it is                                         |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **Purchase orders (POs)** | Orders you place with suppliers to buy product in. |
| **Transfer orders (TOs)** | Stock moving between your own warehouses.          |
| **Work orders (WOs)**     | Builds that turn components into finished goods.   |
| **Shipments**             | The inbound deliveries tied to those orders.       |

Because the scenario has its own copy of these, anything you change inside it — dates, quantities, which orders exist — affects only the scenario.

## How it works

Once a scenario is created, you work "in scenario": the app shows you that copy instead of the live plan. From there you can make **what-if changes** — pull orders in, push them out, or restrict the plan to certain products — and watch how the numbers respond.

The real value comes from the **comparison against the baseline**. Side by side, the comparison shows you:

* **Changes in alerts** — which stockout or expiration warnings appear or disappear under your changes.
* **Changes in your key metrics over time** — how coverage and inventory move period by period versus today.
* **Changes in the next recommended purchase order per product** — how your what-if shifts the very next reorder Spherecast would suggest.

Reports and dashboards can also be viewed **in scenario**, so you can read the same familiar screens against your what-if numbers rather than the live plan.

## Example

A planner wants to see what a three-week supplier delay would do. They create a **"Port strike"** scenario, push the affected purchase orders out three weeks inside it, and open the comparison. The scenario surfaces two new stockout alerts and a shift in coverage in November — none of which touched the live plan. Now the planner knows exactly which products to protect before committing to anything.

## Where to go next

* [Creating a scenario](/guide/scenarios/creating-a-scenario) — walk through the create modal step by step.
* [Supply planning](/guide/supply-planning/overview) — the grid where you make and read what-if changes.
* [Demand](/demand) — the expected outflow your scenario plans against.

> **Tip:** Treat scenarios as disposable. Spin one up to answer a single question — "what if this supplier slips?" — compare it to the baseline, act on what you learn, then delete it. The clean separation from your live plan is the whole point.