Purpose

The purpose of this article is to outline the Managed Station Forecasting feature for Office Coffee Service (OCS).
 

Process

This automates the order creation process for Managed Locations in the Stock App. When a driver or salesperson opens a future order for a station flagged as a "Managed Location," the app now automatically pre-loads a starting list of products and quantities. This eliminates the need to manually add every item for every visit.

• Please Note: This applies only to managed OCS stations where forecasting has been enabled.
• If forecasting is enabled for a station but the station does not have enough completed invoice history to meet the company setting, the system uses the station’s default order. (Company setting of 3 previous invoices, the station only has 2 invoices so far)

1. Navigate to Company Settings > Route Planning.

   'Number of Historic Services for Forecast (OCS)' will show the number of invoices the service will average from. The default value is 3.
   

2. Navigate to the desired OCS Station to enable forecasting for. Click the 'Enable OCS Forecasting' check box on the left side. Please note: This station must be a Managed Location.
   
3. The feature is now enabled for the Station.
    

Driver Side

All pre-loaded items remain fully editable and products automatically reflect the station's current price tier at the moment the order is opened.

1. Open a future order for a Managed Location in the Stock App.
    
2. Review the pre-loaded product list and quantities.
    
3. Adjust quantities, add new items, or remove products as needed.
    
4. Save or submit the order as usual. 
    

Forecast Previews

• OCS / Create Order Screen
  
• Route Planning Screen / Add a Station to a Route
  • Click 'View/Modify Order'
    
• Smart Routing Screen (if Smart Routing is enabled)
  
  • Click 'View/Modify' to show more.
    

OCS Route Scheduler - Order Selection by Service Date

OCS Route Scheduler automatically pre-selects orders for a planning date. The feature now uses Requested Service Date, not order ID, and it automatically prioritizes the oldest matching order when more than one order exists for the same location and date.

This update aligns the VMS route planning flow with daily operational needs by defaulting the order selection to match the selected planning date, reducing the need for manual order identification and selection.
 

Standard Routing Example

In this example, the planning date is July 18th 2026, so the order with a requested service date of 7-18-26 is already pre-selected.

This works for multiple orders. In the image below, the planning date is July 20th 2026, so the 2 orders with that requested service date are already pre-selected.

Smart Routing Example

Smart routing order selection by service date works essentially the same as standard routing, but smart.

In this example, the planning date is July 17th 2026, so the order with a requested service date of 7-17-26 is already pre-selected.

Product Eligibility

• A product can appear in the forecast only if it is currently available in the station’s price tier when the forecast is generated.
   
• Products that appeared in historical invoices but have since been removed from the station’s current price tier are excluded from the forecast.
  • Products that are in the station’s current price tier but have no historical invoice activity are also excluded from the forecast.
     
• The forecast does not combine with the default order to fill in missing products. If a product has no qualifying forecast history, it does not appear in the forecast, and the driver can add it manually if needed.