6 Middle Out: Plan Approval

The last tab in the middle out workbook is the Submitted Plan Review / Approval tab. This is where the middle out user approves or rejects the plan that was created by the bottom up user.

Submitted Plan Review / Approval Tab

After the bottom up user submits a plan, the middle out user can review the plan and approve or reject it in the Submitted Plan Review / Approval tab.

To see the bottom up user's plan, either build a new workbook or open an existing one.

If you open an existing workbook, you must refresh it to see the bottom up user's plan. To refresh a workbook, click the Refresh option in the File menu.

Figure 6-1 Refresh Option

The following sections describe the worksheets available under the Submitted Plan Review / Approval tab:

Review Submitted Plan Worksheet
All Measures Worksheet
Approve Plan Worksheet

Review Submitted Plan Worksheet

After the bottom up user has submitted the plan, you can review the details of the plan at the Review Submitted Plan worksheet.

There are four measure profiles you can use to review the plan:

Default
Review Submitted Plan Units
Review Submitted Plan to Current Plan
Review Submitted Plan to Original Plan

Figure 6-2 Review Submitted Plan Worksheet, Default Measure Profile

The following table lists the measures available on this worksheet.

Table 6-1 Review Submitted Plan Worksheet Measures

Measure	Description
MO Tgt Sales R	The middle out target for sales.
Wa Sales R	The Waiting for Approval sales.
MO Tgt Markdown R	The middle out target value for markdowns.
MO Tgt Markdown R%	The middle out target for markdown rate.
Wa Markdown R	The Waiting for Approval target value for markdowns.
Wa Markdown R%	The Waiting for Approval markdown rate.
MO Tgt Shrink R%	The middle out target for shrink for the period, expressed as a rate.
Wa Shrink R%	The Waiting for Approval shrink rate.
MO Tgt BOP Inv R	The middle out target for beginning of period inventory.
Wa BOP Inv R	The Waiting for Approval beginning of period inventory.
MO Tgt Receipts R	The middle out target value for receipts.
Wa Receipts R	The Waiting for Approval value for receipts.
MO Tgt Receipts MU %	The middle out target markup percent for receipts, expressed as a percentage of markup to net sales.
Wa Receipts MU %	The Waiting for Approval markup percent for receipts, expressed as a percentage of markup to net sales.
MO Tgt EOP Inv R	The middle out target for end of period inventory, expressed in retail value. The period can be a week, month, or any other calendar period.
Wa EOP Inv R	The Waiting for Approval end of period inventory, expressed in retail value. The period can be a week, month, or any other calendar period.
MO Tgt CMU %	The middle out target for cumulative markup percent. It is cumulated for the same period last year. It corresponds to the start week of the workbook until the current week.
Wa CMU %	The Waiting for Approval target for cumulative markup percent. It is cumulated for the same period last year. It corresponds to the start week of the workbook until the current week.
MO Tgt Cum Avg Inv R	The middle out target for average cumulative inventory value, expressed in retail value, cumulated from the start of the season.
Wa Cum Avg Inv R	The Waiting for Approval average cumulative inventory value, expressed in retail value, cumulated from the start of the season.
MO Tgt Cum Turn R	The middle out cumulative inventory turns (retail) target. It is cumulated from the start week of the workbook.
Wa Cum Turn R	The Waiting for Approval cumulative inventory turns (retail). It is cumulated from the start week of the workbook.
MO Tgt Sell Thru R%	The middle out target for sell through value, expressed as a percentage of sales to the total receipts and beginning inventory.
Wa Sell Thru R%	The Waiting for Approval target for sell through value, expressed as a percentage of sales to the total receipts and beginning inventory.
MO Tgt Forward Cover R	The middle out target number of weeks of forward cover for the period. Using the retail values sales of future weeks, this measure indicates how many weeks of sales can be fulfilled with the ending inventory of the period.
Wa Forward Cover R	The Waiting for Approval target number of weeks of forward cover for the period. Using the retail values sales of future weeks, this measure indicates how many weeks of sales can be fulfilled with the ending inventory of the period.
MO Tgt Gross Margin	The middle out target for gross margin.
MO Tgt Gross Margin %	The middle out target for gross margin rate.
Wa Gross Margin	The Waiting for Approval target for gross margin.
Wa Gross Margin %	The Waiting for Approval target for gross margin rate.
MO Tgt GMROI %	The middle out target gross margin return on inventory.
Wa GMROI %	The Waiting for Approval target gross margin return on inventory.

After you have finished reviewing the Wa plan, continue to the Approve Plan Worksheet.

All Measures Worksheet

The All Measures worksheet contains all the measures contained in the workbook; however, only the Wp Sales R measure is visible in the default measure profile. The purpose of this worksheet is to allow you to create a view of workbook measures that you may not be able to view all at once in other worksheets.

Figure 6-3 All Measures Worksheet

The following table lists the measures available on this worksheet.

Table 6-2 All Measures Worksheet Measures

Measure	Description
Wp Sales R	The planned sales retail value.

Approve Plan Worksheet

After you have reviewed the submitted Wa plan, approve or reject it in this worksheet.

Figure 6-4 Approve Plan Worksheet

In the Wp Approval measure, select one of the two options: Approve Plan or Reject Plan.
In the Wp Approval Info measure, enter any useful information about the plan or your approval decision. This step is optional.
Click the Approve/Reject option in the Planning Actions menu, as shown in Figure 6-5.

Figure 6-5 Planning Actions Menu: Approve/Reject
A success message appears. Click OK to close it.

Figure 6-6 Success Message: Approve/Reject

The worksheet is refreshed and the approval or rejection information is populated in the measures, as shown in Figure 6-7.

Figure 6-7 Approved Plan

Commit Wp Measures

If you want to commit your working plan (Wp) measures to the database, you need to perform a separate commit in addition to commit that occurs when you approve the plan. For more information about committing, see the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server Administration User Guide for the Classic Client.

To commit your Wp measures, perform the following steps:

In the workbook that you have published the targets, click a Commit option in the File menu.

Figure 6-8 Commit a Workbook