2 Getting Started

System Options

System options are used to control behavior in Allocation, configure the duration that historical events will be retained, and provide some defaulting for new events. The first time that Allocation is opened after provisioning, these options should be configured in order to ensure that the solution works with the desired behavior.

Foundation

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
End of Week Day	No	No		Indicates the day to be treated as the end of the week. Any weekly rollups performed during need calculations are based on this setting. For accurate results, this needs to be in sync with the setup within the Merchandising system. Valid values are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
Display Item Location Warning	No	No	Checked	Indicates whether a warning message needs to be displayed when the user selects an invalid item/location combination. Usually, notifying an allocator about invalid item/locations combinations is important so that they can take necessary steps to rectify them before proceeding with the workflow. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Auto Update Location Group	No	No	Checked	Indicates whether location groups need to be updated for worksheet allocations. In cases where a location group undergoes modifications within the Merchandising system, for example stores that were added to or deleted from the group, the allocator would be alerted of such changes on accessing an allocation making use of the modified location group. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Size Profile Validation Levels	No	No		Indicates the levels at which the validation should be done. One or more of the following can be selected for this option: department, class, subclass, parent, and/or parent/diff. This should be set to the merchandise hierarchy levels where you are managing size profile data.
Use Sister Store Demand	No	No	Checked	Indicates whether the need of a like store can be used during the allocation calculation. If this is set to checked, then Allocation will use the sister store's need when the records don't exist for a store. If this is set to unchecked, Allocation uses the sister store's need when the records don't exist for a store or when there are existing records but with zero need. This provides the allocator with the option to use item sales data from a like store in case of no existing records or for a new store that may not have sufficient demand history.
Consider On Order In Stock Calculation	No	No	Checked	Indicates whether on order against open purchase orders are considered while calculating item stock on hand. If this option is checked, then on order quantities against open purchase orders are considered while calculating stock on hand for the items in the order. This setting is taken into consideration while analyzing the net need quantity generated for a store by the calculation algorithm.
Location Statuses to Exclude	No	No		Indicates the item/location relationship statuses that should be excluded from allocations. Check those statuses that you wish to have included, in addition to active, which is always included. Valid values are Inactive, Non-Ranged, Deleted, and/or Discontinued. Defining the set of invalid relationship status through this system option removes an additional overhead of having to individually examine each allocation and manually remove invalid item location combinations.

Pricing (Foundation)

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
Link Promotions	No	No	Unchecked	Indicates whether or not allocators can link promotions with an allocation during the creation process. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Display Future Retail	No	No	Unchecked	Indicates if allocators will be allowed to view the future unit retail for items present in an allocation. Valid values are checked or unchecked.

What If

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
What If Summary Default Action	Yes	No	Create PO	Indicates the default action on the What If Summary workflow. Valid values are Create PO or Update PO.
Location Statuses to Exclude	No	No		Indicates the item/location relationship statuses that should be excluded from What If type allocations. Check those statuses that you wish to have included, in addition to active, which is always included. Valid values are Inactive, Non-Ranged, Deleted, and/or Discontinued. Defining the set of invalid relationship status through this system option removes an additional overhead of having to individually examine each allocation and manually remove invalid item location combinations.
Default Import Warehouse	Yes	No		Indicates the default warehouse to use for import-based purchase orders created out of What If allocations. This should be a non-finisher virtual warehouse. It needs to be noted here that this warehouse would be considered only in cases where the destination stores do not have a designated default delivery warehouse in the Merchandising.
Import Warehouses	Yes	No		Indicates the set of warehouses to be used for import based purchase orders. If there is more than one What If import warehouse, you can separate multiple warehouse IDs by comma. Valid warehouses are non-finisher virtual warehouses.
Default Warehouse for Bulk Orders	Yes	No		Indicates the non-finisher virtual warehouse ID for bulk non-import PO creation in What If allocations. It needs to be noted here that this warehouse would be considered only in cases where the destination stores do not have a designated default delivery warehouse in the merchandising system.
Item Source Query Level	Yes	No		Indicates the item source tier query level used for What If allocations. Valid values are Department (D), Class (C), Subclass (S), or Item (I). This system option should be set to the highest level that you will be doing item queries while creating a What If allocation.
Consider Future Available	No	No	Unchecked	Indicates whether or not to consider future available inventory for What If allocations, or current stock on hand only. Setting this value to checked gives allocators the ability to see inventory likely to be delivered within the time horizon of the allocation at the locations being covered by the allocation. The order quantity is optimized as a result of this. It also attempts to safeguard against over-allocation and markdown scenarios. Valid values are checked or unchecked.

Thresholds (What if)

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
Location List Threshold	Yes	No	99	Indicates the maximum number of location lists that will be returned in a list of values.
Item Search Maximum Row Count	No	No	300	Indicates the maximum number of items that will be returned by an item search.
Allocation Retention	No	No	50	Indicates the number of days that allocations not linked to an allocation in Merchandising will be retained in Allocation based on the last modified date of the allocation.
Worksheet Retention	No	No	50	Indicates the number of days worksheets that are not linked to an allocation in Merchandising will be retained in Allocation.
Calculation Log Path	Yes	No		Indicates the directory path that holds calculation .dat files used by Allocation. Changes to this system option will require a restart of Allocation to take effect.

Functional

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
Bayesian Sensitivity Factor for Plan Re-project	No	No	0.3	Indicates the plan sensitivity value used while using the Plan Re-project policy. Valid values are any number between 0-1, with one digit of decimal precision.
Default Release Date	No	No		Indicates whether or not a default release date will be calculated on an allocation. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Default Auto Quantity Limits	No	No	Unchecked	Indicates whether or not a default auto quantity limit will be used when calculating allocations. Valid values are check or unchecked.
Display Secondary Description	No	No	Unchecked	Indicates whether to display a secondary description for a store or supplier. This is intended to be used for supplemental information about these entities to assist in sorting a list or searching. It is commonly used for Japanese language speakers. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Allocate Across Legal Entities	No	No	Unchecked	Indicates whether or not an allocation will be allowed to cross legal entities. If checked, then an allocation cannot cross legal entities, based on either transfer entity or set of books, based on the Merchandising configuration. If unchecked, then an allocation can cross legal entities.
Enforce Break Pack Functionality	No	No	Checked	Indicates whether or not allocations can break packs in the warehouse. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Default Presentation Minimum	No	No	Checked	Indicates whether or not presentation minimums, or the minimum amount of stock that should be on the sales floor at a store, should be defaulted into the Quantity Limits setup page. This also impacts the default setting of the Auto Quantity Limits check box in the Quantity Limits tab on the Policy Maintenance page. Valid values are checked or unchecked.
Limit SKU Overage	Yes	No		Indicates the Limit SKU Overages value This value is used in Fashion allocations to limit the maximum number of SKU's that the calculation engine can allocate on a per SKU basis.
Default Calculation / Order Multiple	No	No		Indicates the default store calculation multiple used when allocating. Valid values are Each (EA), Inner (IN), Case (CA), or Pallet (PA).
Default Source Type for Item Search Page	No	No	Warehouse	Indicates the item sources that will be checked by default in the Item Search page. Valid values are Allocation (A), Bill of Lading (B), Purchase Order (P), Advanced Shipping Notification (S), Transfer (T), or Warehouse (W).
Rule Type for Need Display in Allocation Maintenance	Yes	No	Plan	Indicates the rule type for which the need value is displayed in the Allocation Maintenance page. Valid values are Plan of Forecast.
Distribution Method for Quantity Limits in Location Groups	Yes	No	Copy	Indicates the method of splitting quantity limits across individual stores in a location group. Valid values are Spread or Copy.
Validation Level Pack Ranging	Yes	No		Indicates the level at which pack ranging to destination locations is performed - Pack (P) or Component (C). If Pack is selected, then you can plan and execute pack ranging at the pack level. If Component is selected, then each unique component of the pack must be ranged to the location on the allocation in order for the pack to be allocated.
Prioritize Default Sourcing Location	No	No	Unchecked	Determines whether or not the default sourcing locations for the set of destination stores/warehouses should be considered while fulfilling demand.

Thresholds (Functional)

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
Days Before Release Date	No	No	3	While creating a purchase order from a What If allocation, this option defines the number of days before the release date on the allocation as the not before date on the purchase order.
Days Before Release Date for Scheduled Allocation	No	No		Indicates the number of days beyond the current date that would be set as the release date of a child allocation. While creating a child allocation during the schedule batch run, the system adds this defined day count to the current date to determine the release date on the child allocation.
Maximum Item Description Display Length	Yes	No	30	Indicates the maximum length to be used for display of item descriptions in the Allocation user interface.
Maximum Item for Display in User Selection	No	No	300	Indicates the maximum number of items that would get displayed per alternative hierarchy selected by the user.

Operational Insights

System Option	Optional?	Re-configuration Restricted?	Default Value	Description
Order Allocation Time Threshold	No	No	0	Indicates the number of days before the not after date on a purchase order that you expect to have your orders allocated. Orders not fully allocated by this number of days will display a warning symbol next to the purchase order number indicating urgency and helping the allocator organize their work.
Order Threshold	No	No	0	Indicates the percentage of a purchase order that must be allocated in order for the purchase order to be considered fully allocated. For example, if this is set to 80%, then it will be shown as fully allocated in the Purchase Order Arrivals report tiles if at least 80% of the order has been allocated. Any value less than 100% would be assumed to be a standard warehouse hold back quantity for purposes of this report.
Need Calculation Type	No	No	F	Determines whether the Allocated to Plan/Forecast Need contextual report displays plan or forecast data. Valid values are Plan (P) or Forecast (F).