Free Inventory Planning Template
A simple per-SKU planner that works in weeks. Enter lead time, weekly demand, and the safety stock you want to hold; it gives you the reorder point, weeks of cover, and which SKUs to reorder, with a suggested order quantity that respects your MOQ.
Drop your email to download. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
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Sample populated view of the template
What’s inside the template
The planning maths most brands run in a spreadsheet, kept simple and pre-wired. Edit the inputs; the outputs recalculate.
14-row per-SKU planner
Inputs: lead time in weeks, average weekly demand, safety stock in weeks of cover, MOQ, and current stock. Three pre-filled examples show the shape.
Computed columns
Safety stock in units, reorder point, weeks of cover, a reorder status for every SKU, and a suggested order quantity rounded up to your MOQ.
Safety stock in weeks, not statistics
You choose the buffer in weeks of cover per SKU, which is how Lumina sets it. A buffer in weeks scales with demand automatically; no Z-scores or standard deviations needed.
Summary, how it works, and tips
SKU count, how many SKUs to reorder, lowest cover, total suggested order, a plain-English guide to every column, and practitioner tips built into the file.
How to use the template
Five steps from download to a planning conversation. The formulas do the maths so you can’t fat-finger a reorder point under pressure.
- 1
Download the template
Drop your email and the file downloads. Opens cleanly in Excel, Google Sheets, and Apple Numbers, with the formulas working.
- 2
Add a row per SKU
Fill in the input columns: SKU, description, supplier, lead time in weeks, average weekly demand, safety stock in weeks, MOQ, and current stock. Three worked examples are pre-filled to show the shape.
- 3
Choose your safety stock in weeks
Start with 2 weeks for steady sellers and 4 or more for volatile SKUs, long lead times, or hero products you can't afford to run out of. Give the tail less.
- 4
Read the computed columns
Safety stock in units, reorder point, weeks of cover, status, and suggested order quantity all recalculate. Status reads REORDER NOW when stock is at or below the reorder point, and OK otherwise.
- 5
Work the reorder list, and recompute quarterly
Sort by Status, or by weeks of cover ascending, to find the SKUs closest to running out. If a SKU's weeks of cover is below its lead time, you'll run out before a new order can land. Demand and lead times drift, so re-pull inputs and recompute at least once a quarter.
Why every scaling brand should have a per-SKU plan
An inventory plan is the document that turns a forecast into a buy. Without it, replenishment becomes a weekly improvisation against intuition, and the inevitable expensive mistake, a stocked-out hero SKU or an overstocked slow mover, happens about once a year for most brands. With it, the maths is auditable: who decided the buffer, what lead time was assumed, what the reorder point is.
The cost of holding a plan in a spreadsheet (this one) is roughly zero. The cost of not having one is a bad quarter a year. For scaling brands, the return on having any plan at all is asymmetric.
For the underlying concepts, see the glossary entries for safety stock, reorder point, weeks of supply, lead time, and MOQ. If you’d rather size safety stock statistically from demand and lead-time variability, the safety stock calculator does that.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the inventory planning template?+
A single-sheet planner with 14 SKU rows. You enter lead time in weeks, average weekly demand, the safety stock you want in weeks, MOQ, and current stock; the template works out safety stock in units, reorder point, weeks of cover, a reorder status, and a suggested order quantity for each SKU. Three example SKUs are pre-filled, plus a summary, a plain-English guide to every column, and tips. Opens cleanly in Excel, Sheets, and Numbers.
How is safety stock set?+
In weeks of cover, chosen by you per SKU, and converted to units by multiplying by weekly demand. That's how Lumina sets it too: a buffer in weeks scales with demand automatically, where a fixed unit count goes stale the moment sales shift. Start with 2 weeks for steady sellers and 4 or more for volatile SKUs, long lead times, or hero products. If you want to size the buffer statistically from demand and lead-time variability, the safety stock calculator does that and you can type the result into the weeks column.
How is the reorder point worked out?+
Weekly demand multiplied by lead time, plus the safety stock. When current stock falls to that level, it's time to order, because what you have left will cover the lead time and the buffer, and no more.
How is the suggested order quantity worked out?+
When a SKU's status is REORDER NOW, the suggested quantity is enough to cover demand over the lead time plus the safety stock, minus what you already hold, rounded up to the supplier's MOQ. It's a starting point, not a PO: check it against pack sizes, cash, and anything already on order.
How many SKUs does the template handle?+
Fourteen rows are pre-wired. To extend it, select the last plan row and drag-fill down to add as many SKUs as you need. The maths is per row, so there's no upper limit beyond the spreadsheet's own.
What if my MOQ is far higher than I need to order?+
Then the supplier's minimum, not your demand, is deciding your batch size, and you're financing their production planning. Common with offshore manufacturers. Use the gap between the suggested quantity and the MOQ as a negotiation lever (a lower MOQ at a slightly higher unit price often beats months of tied-up cash), or consolidate SKUs from the same supplier onto one PO to clear the minimum.
When does the template stop being enough?+
When you have more than around 100 SKUs, when the SKUs sell across multiple channels with different demand patterns, or when cash flow is driving PO timing as much as stock-on-hand. At that point the single sheet becomes the bottleneck, and a planning system that runs the same logic continuously across the catalogue, like Lumina, pays for itself fast.