How You Work in a Planning Cycle

After you create and configure your planning cycle in Sales and Operations Planning, open it to monitor the progress of your activities and tasks. You can see where you are in the planning process and create action items, if needed.

You can see how many steps have completed, as well as the time to get work done to close a task.

When you open a planning cycle from the Sales and Operations work area, you will see only the review tabs for which you have participants and tasks assigned. For example, you have no participants assigned for the Executive Review, so the Executive Review tab does not appear when you open the planning cycle. If needed, you can modify the planning cycle and add participants and tasks for the Executive Review.

The tabs for a planning cycle are:

• Overview

• Product Review

• Demand Review

• Supply Review

• Financial Review

• Executive Review

• Notes

You can access the Overview and Notes tabs and the tabs for the stages in which you are a participant. For example, a demand planner might be a participant in the product, demand, and supply reviews but not for the financial or executive reviews.

The Overview tab displays an overview of the overall Sales and Operations process where you can monitor progress to date. The Overview tab also provides a timeline, list of assigned tasks, and participants. You can filter the Worklist and Timeline sections by review phase, such as Supply Review.

The Product Review, Demand Review, Supply Review, Financial Review, and Executive Review tabs all have the same user interface. Each tab contains editable lists of planning activities, tasks, and action items. Each task is associated with an owner, due date, and status.

Each review type displays the following panes:

• Planning Activities: Displays the list of activities and tasks for the review process. This list is editable, so you can insert additional tasks when needed.

• Action Items: Lists action items assigned during the review process and their status. Each task has an owner, assignee, due date, and status. Action items can have a link to a relevant dashboard or report to carry out each task.

• Decision Items: Displays a list of recommendations and alternatives to consider for discussion in an upcoming review meeting. You can escalate the decision items from the review stage. If you cannot make a decision about the item, you can defer the decision and push the decision item out to a later stage.

The Notes tab is where you can document and communicate important information. For example, use Notes to document why there was a change to the plan or record decisions and assumptions that led to those changes. In Sales and Operations Planning, you can associate notes with objects, such as product categories. With such documentation, you can understand why decisions were made and who made them.

To open a planning cycle:

1. In the Navigator, click the Sales and Operations Planning work area link.

2. In the Tasks panel drawer, click the Open Planning Cycle link.

3. In the Open Planning Cycle dialog box, select a planning cycle.

4. Click OK. Your planning cycle opens on the Edit Plan page.