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Sherpa Inventory Forecasting prompts

This guide contains ready-to-use prompts for managing inventory with Sherpa AI.

Updated over 2 months ago

If you do not have Inventory Forecasting, you won't be able to run these prompts. Reach out to [email protected] if you'd like to talk about Inventory Forecasting.

Sherpa AI for Inventory focuses on current inventory status and future forecasting. It answers "what do we have now?" and "what will we need?" using forward-looking metrics like days of cover, forecast demand, and reorder points.

In this guide:

  1. Start here

  2. What should I reorder?

  3. What's at risk of stocking out?

  4. What's tying up my cash?

  5. How is demand changing?

  6. How are my locations performing?

  7. What's my overall inventory health?

  8. Power user prompts

Prompt examples

Pro tips

  • Replace [bracketed text] with your actual values - For example, change "[Location]" to "Warehouse A" or "[Product]" to "Blue Sneakers"

  • Combine prompts for deeper analysis - You can ask Sherpa follow-up questions to drill down further

  • Ask Sherpa follow-up questions - Sherpa remembers context from your conversation, so you can refine and expand on previous queries

Start here

New to using Sherpa for inventory? These prompts solve the most common questions:

  • "What products need reordering right now?"

  • "Which products will stock out in the next 14 days?"

  • "Show me all products in 'risk' status"

  • "What's my current summary of inventory health by SKU count?"

  • "Which products have excess inventory right now?"

What should I reorder?

Quick reorder checks

  • "Calculate recommended reorder quantities for all 'at-risk' products"

  • "Generate reorder suggestions for products with less than 20 days of cover"

  • "What's the total reorder quantity needed across all products?"

  • "Show me reorder recommendations considering MOQ for [product name]"

  • "What's the min quantity needed for the next 24 days for SKU [number]?"

Factoring in what's already coming

  • "Which products still need reordering even after incoming stock is received?"

  • "Find products with reorder recommendations but already have incoming stock"

  • "How will my days of cover change after incoming stock arrives?"

  • "Show current vs projected days of cover including incoming inventory"

Lead time considerations

  • "Which products will stock out before their next shipment arrives?"

  • "Calculate reorder points based on lead time and daily sales forecast"

  • "List products where incoming stock won't arrive in time to prevent stockout"

  • "What's the estimated time needed for SKU [number] to be delivered to warehouse?"

What's at risk of stocking out?

Identify low stock

  • "Which products have less than 15 days of cover?"

  • "Show me products below reorder point"

  • "List all stockout and at-risk products"

  • "Which high-demand products (A class) are running low?"

Assess the impact

  • "What's the revenue exposure from low stock products?"

  • "Calculate potential lost sales from current low stock situations"

  • "Rank stockout risks by revenue impact"

  • "Show top 10 critical actions: stockouts in A class products"

Predict what's coming

  • "Which products will move from 'healthy' to 'risk' in the next 2 weeks?"

  • "When will each 'at-risk' product stock out if not reordered?"

  • "Project inventory health status 30 days from now based on current forecast"

What's tying up my cash?

Find excess inventory

  • "Show me products with more than 90 days of cover"

  • "What's the total value of excess inventory?"

  • "List excess stock by location"

  • "Which A class products are in excess status?"

Understand the cost

  • "Calculate holding cost for all excess inventory"

  • "Which product categories have the highest excess rates?"

  • "Find products with lowest unit cost but highest days of cover"

  • "Rank excess inventory reduction opportunities by holding cost"

Plan to clear it

  • "Calculate months to clear excess inventory at current average quantity per month"

  • "Forecast when excess products will normalise to healthy levels"

  • "Identify products with declining sales trends that also have excess inventory, calculate how long until they reach healthy levels at current burn rate"

  • "Calculate total gross profit loss if I markdown all excess inventory by 20%"

How is demand changing?

Check forecasts

  • "Show me daily sales forecast for SKU [number] for the next 30 days"

  • "What's the monthly inventory forecast for all A class products?"

  • "Give me the inventory forecast for the next 3 months at monthly granularity"

  • "Compare forecast sales: Product A vs Product B for next month"

Spot trends

  • "Find all products with 'increasing' trend but declining sell-through rates"

  • "Show products where quantity trend and gross sales trend don't match"

  • "Which products have increasing sales trends but low stock levels?"

  • "List products with excess inventory AND declining sales trends"

Learn from the past

  • "Why was our forecast so off for [product name]?"

  • "What can we learn from products where forecast was accurate?"

  • "Compare base and adjusted monthly forecasts for all products"

How are my locations performing?

Compare stock levels

  • "Compare current inventory levels between [location A] and [location B]"

  • "Which location has the highest on-hand inventory value?"

  • "Show me inventory distribution by location for [product name]"

  • "What's the total company-wide inventory for each product?"

Compare health

  • "Show inventory health breakdown by location"

  • "Which location has the most products in stockout status?"

  • "Compare excess inventory levels across all locations"

  • "Which location has the best inventory health distribution?"

Location-specific actions

  • "Show me reorder needs by location"

  • "Show me days of cover for products at [location name]"

  • "List all products stocked in multiple locations and their quantities"

What's my overall inventory health?

Get the snapshot

  • "Give me a count of products in each health category"

  • "What percentage of my inventory is in each health status (stockout, risk, healthy, excess)?"

  • "Provide current summary of inventory health then tell me the top 5 products in each category"

  • "Show me all A class products that are also in 'risk' status"

Find anomalies

  • "Show me anomalies: high forecast but low current stock"

  • "List products with conflicting signals like high sales but excess inventory"

  • "Find outliers: products with metrics significantly different from portfolio average"

  • "What products are at the boundary between 'healthy' and 'risk' status?"

Dig into specific products

  • "Provide me details in forecast inventory for SKU [number]"

  • "Why is my days of cover so low for SKU [number]?"

  • "Provide the forecast horizon, average lead days, excess threshold, new product grace period and min units to buy for SKU [number]"

Power user prompts

These combine multiple data points for complex analysis:

  • "Show me all products in 'risk' status with less than 25 days of cover, calculate required reorder quantities considering MOQ and incoming stock, then rank by revenue impact"

  • "Find items with >13 days cover + <20% sell-through + Class B or C"

  • "Show products that are Class A + Excess + Increasing Trend"

  • "Prioritise reorder recommendations by revenue impact + stockout risk + lead time"

Check out the Advanced Inventory Forecasting prompt library to see what else you can ask Sherpa!

Where to go next

Related Articles
Inventory Forecasting
Introduction to the SMART framework
20 most popular prompts
Sherpa AI for Category, Product, Brand, Collection Analysis
Sherpa AI prompts: Inventory Forecasting (advanced)
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