> ## 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.

# Overview

> What Spherecast is, who it's for, and how to find your way around the guide.

## Welcome to Spherecast

Spherecast is an end-to-end demand and supply planning platform. It connects to your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system — your company's system of record for inventory, orders, and sales), builds a digital model of your supply-chain network, forecasts demand, and recommends what to replenish and when.

Those recommendations come in three forms, matching the three ways you get product where it needs to be:

* **Purchase orders (POs)** — buy from a supplier.
* **Work orders (WOs)** — manufacture a finished good from its components.
* **Transfer orders (TOs)** — move stock between your own warehouses.

The goal is simple: keep the right amount of the right product in the right place, without tying up cash in overstock or getting caught short.

## Who it's for

| Role                      | What they own in Spherecast                                      |
| ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Demand planners**       | The forecast — what you expect to sell, by product and place.    |
| **Supply planners**       | Replenishment and inventory — keeping supply matched to demand.  |
| **Managers & leadership** | Approvals, the agreed consensus number, and executive reporting. |

External suppliers can be given a restricted view — they see only their own supply plan and the product groups you share with them, nothing else.

## What you can do in Spherecast

* See your inventory health at a glance and jump straight to what needs action.
* Build and refine a demand forecast, from a top-down goal down to a final agreed number.
* Turn that forecast into a time-phased supply plan with order recommendations.
* Review, approve, and send purchase, work, and transfer orders to your ERP.
* Model what-if scenarios safely, before committing to a plan.
* Report on service levels, inventory value, cash needs, and supplier spend.

## How the app is organized

A quick tour of the main areas — each has its own detailed pages later in this guide:

* **Cockpit** — your daily home. Top-line KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) plus an [Exceptions](/guide/home/exceptions) queue of things that need your attention. Start here every morning. See [Cockpit KPIs](/guide/home/kpis).
* **Demand planning** — where the forecast lives: [Targets](/guide/demand-planning/targets), the [Baseline forecast](/guide/demand-planning/baseline-forecast), and the S\&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) grid where you [review and adjust](/guide/demand-planning/filter-and-display) it.
* **Supply planning** — the time-phased [plan](/guide/supply-planning/overview) and the order recommendations it produces.
* **Transactions** — your [purchase orders](/guide/supply-planning/purchase-orders), [transfer orders](/guide/supply-planning/transfer-orders), and [work orders](/guide/supply-planning/work-orders).
* **Views & reports** — [custom views](/custom-views) you save yourself, plus pre-built analytics like the [Planning overview](/guide/reports/planning-overview).
* **Settings** — the setup behind it all: [products](/general), your [supply chain network](/guide/network/overview), [integrations](/integrations), and [data alerts](/data-alerts).

Alongside these, an **Inbox** collects your tasks and notifications, and a global **search** jumps you to any product, order, or page.

## Where to start

New to Spherecast? Take these in order:

1. **[Quickstart](/getting-started/quickstart)** — find your way around and get productive fast.
2. **[Key concepts](/getting-started/key-concepts)** — the handful of ideas and terms that make everything else click.

Then see how it comes together in a real workday with the three walkthroughs: [Demand planner](/day-in-the-life/demand-planner), [Supply planner](/day-in-the-life/sup), and [Manager](/day-in-the-life/manager).

> **Tip:** You don't need to read this guide cover to cover. Skim the Quickstart, then follow the "day in the life" page that matches your role — and come back to the User Guide for the details when you need them.