Reports and forecasts use the same data
ToolPlex uses the same definitions for products, stores, sales, and inventory across reporting and forecasting.
Client work · Apparel
A reporting and planning system for an apparel company.
The client is an established apparel company that has operated for decades and supplies a nationwide retail network. The work began with data and reporting problems in its ERP and Tableau setup. It later expanded into demand forecasting and is now moving into inventory planning. Today, teams use ToolPlex for 32+ operational reports and demand forecasts, all built on ERP data refreshed and checked every night.
- Industry
- Apparel retail and distribution
- Work covered
- Data, reporting, and forecasting
- Current status
- Core system in production
- Prepared by
- Ronnel Boettcher · August 2026
32+
operational reports, with more being added
19 of 20 users
used AI Chat in their day-to-day work
20% → 14%
store-level forecast error in completed historical tests
The reporting system and forecast pipeline are live. Usage figures come from ToolPlex activity records through mid-August 2026. Forecast results shown here come from historical periods held back for testing and are kept provisional until the underlying sales data has had time to settle.
The starting point
Important reports were slow and unreliable.
The company already had years of sales, inventory, purchasing, and production data in its ERP. It also had Tableau dashboards and spreadsheets built for different teams. The problem was not a lack of data. It was that each report had its own query, date logic, and product definitions.
Tableau was querying complex database views over large operational tables. Some important reports took several minutes to load, timed out, or crashed in the browser before returning a result. Other reports needed their month lists updated by hand.
Before adding forecasts, ToolPlex fixed the data behind the reports. Reporting and planning now use the same checked data.
How the system works
From ERP data to reports and forecasts.
ToolPlex copies ERP data every night, prepares the reports in advance, and checks the results before publishing them. Reporting and forecasting use the same definitions for products, stores, and sales.
Your systems
ERP system
Sales · Inventory · Production
Existing reporting
Tableau · Report logic · Business definitions
Planning inputs
Products · Stores · Sales history
ToolPlex
data connections + software
Outputs
32+ reports
Weekly forecasts
Exports
AI Chat
In production
What teams use today.
ToolPlex maintains the system and adds new reports and planning tools as the work expands.
- Nightly ERP refreshes and automated data checks
- 32 operational reports, with more being added
- Weekly forecasts with ongoing accuracy tracking
Why forecasting matters
Decide what to make and where to send it.
The company plans inventory across a nationwide store network. Its previous method leaned heavily on what sold during the same period last year, which made changing demand and new products difficult to plan. ToolPlex gives the team a forecast for each product and a recommended allocation for each store.
How we measured it
A good company-wide total is not enough if the wrong products go to the wrong stores. We compared both methods with completed sales for each product and store.
- 01
Choose a past month
Use a month after all its sales have been entered.
- 02
Use only what was known then
Run the forecast without using any data from after that month began.
- 03
Compare with actual sales
Compare ToolPlex and the previous method with what each product later sold in each store.
- 04
Repeat every month
As new sales arrive, the dashboard shows whether ToolPlex is still beating the previous method.
What the tests showed
Forecast error at store level fell from about 20% to 14%.
We do not finalize recent months until all sales have been entered. That keeps incomplete data from distorting the comparison.
What happened next
The work expanded across the company.
Used across the business
ToolPlex has recorded activity across 25 weeks. In July, 13 employees used 95 different operational reports and dashboards spanning merchandising, warehouse, online sales, quality control, forecasting, raw materials, and production.
Forecast accuracy is checked every month
As sales arrive, the accuracy dashboard compares each forecast with the previous method. Missing data and unusual results stay visible.
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