Buying question for you data people...

Let’s say I had, in a database, item numbers and three-year sales histories. I have this in my ERP database (where I’m getting the data) but their reporting functions suck, unless I call to get a custom query. It will be easier to throw something together in PHP on a web server I have here in the building.

I’m looking at getting us through the next couple three months in a department. I’ve been sort of manually looking at numbers, and making some kind of educated guess on what I’ll need, how much is in a unit, and declaring “This is the number.”

Would this be smart: Get the average for March, April, May, and June sales for each item in the department, figure the number of units of each item, and have my PHP offer up a number? I’d check the first few times and tweak, but I’d really like to start automating in this area. Our ERP only has a minimum quantity alert, but doesn’t take into account Maine is seasonal, so my minimums in January are radically different than they’d be in July.

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@Craig_Parker Have you considered upgrading your ERP and getting the best-of-breed ERP for your needs? I’d bet some of the ERPs on market today have the reporting and automation you are looking for.

@David_Hoglund Do you have any advice on what is the best ERP for a retail lumber yard?

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The best one would be one that has a db I can query at will. LBMLiftoff seems best at the moment. ECi’s last flagship product also had a MySQL backend I could query, but they bought Spruce and EOL-ed the other one. I’m not looking for built in reporting necessarily, just the ability to write my own and maybe script them.
I’m looking at Apache OFBiz, and a couple others that aren’t necessarily lumber specific, but I’d have to make sure they would handle UOM (MBF, CLF, etc.)

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