You can use CSV file templates to load monthly sales demand figures and set stock strategies for many products and warehouses at once; useful for bulk-editing existing forecasts or migrating forecasts as part of onboarding to Unleashed. After import, Advanced Inventory Manager (AIM) calculates your upcoming replenishments based on your strategy, forecast demand, and open transactions.

🤓 Tip: Familiarise yourself with AIM Forecasting in the UI before working with CSV files, this will help you understand the process and the settings involved.

Tutorial Video: Bulk Forecasting

What you can import

Not all forecast settings are available via import. The table below shows what is and is not supported.

Feature	Available via import?	Template
Forecast range	Yes: Controlled indirectly by the number of demand months included	Demand
Fill forecast	No	N/A
Enter demand manually	Yes	Demand
Configure history	No	N/A
Strategy: Stock Days	Yes	Strategy
Strategy: Manual	No	N/A
Min days of stock	Yes	Strategy
Max days of stock	Yes	Strategy
Lead days	Yes	Strategy
Fix replenishment dates: min stock (default)	Yes	Strategy
Fix replenishment dates: interval purchasing	No	N/A
Minimum order quantity (MOQ)	Yes	Strategy
Use default supplier MOQ	Yes	Strategy
Increment (batch) size	Yes	Strategy
Plan production - link components	No: Must be enabled in the UI. Importing new forecast data will trigger a recalculation of existing production plans.	N/A

Before you start

Check the following before importing:

Any product or warehouse you are importing forecast data for must have been in Unleashed for at least 2 hours; this ensures it has synced successfully into AIM.
If a forecast is not active, you need to import a Stock Strategy file to create an active forecast.
If you import only a strategy file and no demand file, the forecast will be active, but replenishments will only cover open transactions already booked in the system.
You can upload the demand and strategy files together or separately. If you are happy with your strategy, you may only need to regularly update your demand forecast.
Importing a forecast does not create an entry in the Review tab. To set a review reminder, save the forecast in the UI.
You can import up to 100 files per day.
The maximum file size is 20 MB for the Demand template (147k–776k rows) and 5 MB for the Strategy template (30k–200k rows), depending on product code and description length.
Some settings cannot be set via import, such as interval purchasing and manual strategies. Importing a strategy will revert these to Replenish at min stock and Stock Days strategy. However, if you have an active forecast using these settings, you can import forecast demand without affecting the strategy.
You can link the minimum order quantity (MOQ) to the default supplier of a product. If the MOQ is empty, the import will fail and generate an error for that product.
If you export forecast demand to CSV, the file will include past months. Remove these rows before importing - rows with dates in the past will generate errors.

🤓 Tip: Use Export Forecast Demand and Export Forecast Strategies to save a snapshot of your forecasts. Keep these files so you can restore previous settings if needed.

How to bulk import and export AIM forecasts

Step 1: Open Import/Export Forecasts

To open the import and export panel:

Go to the AIM Insights dashboard.
In the top right, click the Import dropdown.
Select Import/Export Forecasts.

📌 Note: The same dropdown has an Import Historic Sales Data option. This is useful for new customers looking to migrate their sales history into Unleashed, populating demand history in AIM and Business Intelligence reporting.

Step 2: Get your template

You have two options for getting your template files:

Download Templates: Downloads blank Forecast Demand and Stock Strategy files with the correct column headings.
Export existing data: Downloads pre-filled templates with data currently set up in AIM. Use Export Forecast Demand and Export Stock Strategies to download these files, so you are editing or adding to existing data rather than starting from scratch.

Step 3: Fill in your file

⚠️ Important:

Take note of the required fields for each template.
If the importer encounters an error with a line, it will attempt to skip that line and process the remaining lines.
Files must be saved as .csv.

Forecast Demand file

Column *Required fields	What goes in it
Product Code*	The product's code in Unleashed
Warehouse Code*	The warehouse code, found in Settings > System Settings > Warehouses
Month YYYY-MM*	The forecast month, e.g. 2026-08
Sales Forecast*	The forecast quantity for that product, warehouse, and month

Example:

Product Code, Warehouse Code, Month YYYY-MM, Sales Forecast
ABC123, MAIN, 2026-08, 4600
ABC123, MAIN, 2026-09, 3600
ABC123, MAIN, 2026-10, 2400
XYZ789, MAIN, 2026-08, 1200
XYZ789, MAIN, 2026-09, 1400

Stock Strategy file

Column *Required fields. One row per product/warehouse combination.	What goes in it
Product Code*	The product's code in Unleashed
Warehouse Code*	The warehouse code
Min Days*	Minimum days of stock to hold
Max Days*	Maximum days of stock to hold
Lead Days*	Supplier lead time in days
Min Order Qty	Minimum order quantity
Sync MoQ to Default Supplier	Y or N: Use this to control the MOQ using the product's default supplier setting. If the setting is not found, the import will generate an error for that product.
Batch Increment Size	Sets the quantity step that replenishments increase by. Useful if your supplier requires orders in multiples of a number or pack size.

Example:

Product Code,Warehouse Code,Min Days,Max Days,Lead Days,Min Order Qty,Sync MoQ to Default Supplier,Batch Increment Size
BBTA001,HQ,5,20,7,,Y,2

Step 4: Upload and submit

To upload your completed file or files:

Under Import Demand and/or Import Strategy, click Choose File and select your file.
Click Submit.

Step 5: Check the import ran cleanly

The import runs as a background job. To check its status:

Open Tasks in the left-hand navigation.
Look for BI Forecast Data Import.
Click into it to see row counts and status for the Demand and Strategy portions separately.

Status	Meaning
Pending	Still processing
Completed	All rows applied successfully
Failed	Some or all rows did not complete - open the task for details on each row that failed.

Status examples for importing AIM forecasting

Export historic actuals

The Export Historic Actuals button gives you past forecast and actuals figures side by side. This is a read-only reference file and cannot be imported. Use it to investigate the accuracy of your past forecasting, or as source data when building a new forecast demand import file.

Import logic

When importing a new or existing forecast, the following logic is applied:

Setting	Condition	Result
Forecast status	Forecast already exists	Retains existing status
Forecast status	No existing forecast	Set to Active if strategy also imported; otherwise set to Inactive
Lead days	Production demand enabled	Set to 0 — production duration is used instead
Lead days	Production demand not enabled	Set to imported value
Min and max days	—	Set to imported values
Purchase interval	—	All related values (enabled, interval, start date) reset to default. Imported forecasts use Reorder at min stock.
Min order quantity	Value imported	Set to imported value; Use default supplier MOQ set to N
Min order quantity	No value imported and Sync MoQ to Default Supplier = Y	Use default supplier MOQ set to imported value
Batch size	Value imported	Set to imported value
Batch size	No value imported and new forecast	Set to 1

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Task shows Warning	Some rows didn't apply	Open the task detail and check row counts against what you submitted. Check for typos in product or warehouse codes
A product's forecast isn't active after import	Only the demand file was imported, not strategy	Import a Stock Strategy file for that product/warehouse to activate the forecast.
A product is missing from the import entirely	Product was added to Unleashed less than 2 hours ago	Wait 2 hours and re-import
File is rejected on upload	Wrong file format, or file exceeds 100MB	Save as .csv; split large files into smaller batches
Some values did not update as expected	Blank cells in the file, or rows out of sequence	Blank cells do not overwrite existing values by design. Check that demand rows are grouped by product/warehouse and in chronological month order.
Imports are no longer accepted	You have exceeded 100 imports within 24 hours	Wait for the 24-hour timeout to expire. Consolidate forecasts to import together to avoid reaching the limit.

🤓 Tip: If you cannot identify the issue with your CSV file, open it in a text editor such as Notepad++. This shows the raw text and can reveal problems such as extra commas creating unexpected columns, a common issue when a cell is edited in Excel and then cleared.

Frequently asked questions

Can I import demand for a new product before importing a strategy?

Yes. Provided the product has been synced into AIM, you can import forecast demand without importing a strategy. No replenishments will be generated until the forecast is active.

What happens if I only import a strategy file with no demand?

The forecast will activate, but without any demand it will only plan replenishments around open transactions in the system. This can be useful if you do not want to forecast demand but do want to consolidate replenishments to supply sales scheduled over a period.

Can I export my existing data, edit it, and re-import?

Yes, this is the recommended approach for bulk edits. Use Export Forecast Demand or Export Stock Strategies rather than starting from a blank template.

Can I import only a demand file?

Yes. As the strategy dynamically calculates stock holding requirements, you can set a strategy once and then primarily import demand updates as needed.

Does this work with production demand?

You cannot enable production demand via import, but you can import forecast data for a forecast that already has production demand enabled in the UI.

Can I use advanced settings such as interval purchasing or manual strategy?

No. These settings are not available via import. When a strategy is imported, min, max, and lead days are set, and replenishments are configured to trigger when forecast stock levels reach the quantity equal to demand over the following min days.

Import and export AIM forecasts in bulk