3 Reference Curves

The Reference Curves workbook is used to create reference curves, which are used to spread unit sales to week in the Item Planning workbook. Reference curves are based on percent-to-total sales, and they shrink or stretch to fit the defined regular or promotional sales period. In Item Planning, reference curves are used only for regular and promotional sales periods, unlike Assortment Planning which uses them for the entire lifecycle of an item.

Building the Reference Curves Workbook

To build a Reference Curves workbook, perform the following steps:

1. Click the New icon in the toolbar.

2. The New Workbook dialog box appears. On the Item Planning Administration tab, select Reference Curves and click OK.

   Figure 3-1 New Workbook Dialog Box

   
   

3. The Reference Curves Wizard appears at the Select Products step. Select the products you want to create curves for and click Finish.

   Figure 3-2 Reference Curves Wizard: Select Products

   
   

The Reference Curves workbook is built and opens at the Maintain Curve Profiles Worksheet.

Maintain Curve Profiles Worksheet

The Reference Curves workbook has one worksheet, Maintain Curve Profiles. Use this worksheet to create sales curves to be used in the Item Planning workbook. These curve profiles are based on a percent-to-total sales. Regardless of weeks in the curve, the curves shrinks or stretches to fit the defined regular and promotional sales period.

Figure 3-3 Maintain Curve Profiles Worksheet

Perform the following steps to create curve profiles.

1. Ensure that all[Calendar] is shown in the Calendar hierarchy.

2. In the intersection of the Sales Curve Label measure and the all[Calendar] dimension, enter the label of the curve profile. This label is displayed in the Item Planning workbook.

3. Starting in Week 01, enter the percent-to-total sales percentage in the weeks of the curve profile. The number of defined weeks is up to you.

   
   

   Note: You must start the curve in Week 01 for the curve to be able to shrink or stretch to fit the defined regular and promotional sales period.

   
   

4. Click Calculate. The all[Calendar] percentage is calculated based on the percentages in the defined weeks.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for additional curve profiles.

6. When finished, save and commit the workbook.

Table 3-1 lists the measures in this worksheet.

Table 3-1 Maintain Curve Profiles Worksheet Measures

Measure	Description
Sales Curve Label	Enter a label for the lifecycle curve. This label is displayed in the Item Planning workbook.
Sales Curve %	Enter percent-to-total sales percentage in the weeks of the curve.

Use the graph view to see how the curves look over the sales period (Figure 3-4).

Figure 3-4 Reference Curves

Next Steps

After you have created reference curves, build the Markdown Parameters workbook to create promotions and clearance cadences.