Open-to-buy that’s still right on Wednesday.
Calculate OTB live off real sell-through, and commit the buy against a number the forecast and finance both agree with. Off the six-month spreadsheet, from forecast to purchase order.
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What are you actually open to buy this month?
Put a real category in. The open-to-buy falls out of the plan the way it should — sales and markdowns forward, stock and on-order netted off. It starts on a worked example; change the numbers to yours.
Room to buy about $70,000 at retail — roughly $28,000 at cost to place against new receipts this month at a 60% markup. Your numbers, illustrative.
The formula, in plain numbers.
Open-to-buy is the budget you have left to spend on new receipts for a period, after the plan accounts for what will sell, what you’ll mark down, the stock you’re holding, and what’s already on order.
- + planned end-of-month stock
- + planned sales
- + planned markdowns
- − stock on hand now
- − merchandise already on order
Spend it at cost: multiply the retail OTB by your cost complement (1 − markup). A $70k retail OTB at 60% markup is about $28k of purchase orders.
$70k of retail open-to-buy, roughly $28k of purchase orders at a 60% markup. Overbought categories come out negative — the signal to cancel, push receipts, or plan markdowns.
Where the OTB spreadsheet stops.
- 01ThenSales and receipts re-keyed from the ERP by hand each week.Sales, receipts and on-order flow from your ERP — nothing re-keyed.
- 02ThenThe OTB is true on Friday and stale by Wednesday.OTB recalculates live as sell-through and receipts move.
- 03ThenThe forecast lives in one file, the OTB in another; they disagree.One number drives the forecast, the plan and the buy together.
- 04ThenOverbuy shows up as markdowns and underbuy as stockouts — after the fact.Over- and under-buy are flagged before the PO locks, not after.
- 05ThenOne workbook per category; the roll-up never quite ties.Every category rolls into one reconciled plan that ties.
OTB that moves with the demand it’s built on.
The reason the spreadsheet goes stale is that the OTB is downstream of a forecast that keeps changing. Tightly holds the demand forecast, the receipt plan and the open-to-buy on one surface, so when sell-through moves, the OTB moves with it and the buy is written against a number the buyer and the CFO both trust.
- OTB reconciled live across the forecast, the plan and receipts.
- Depth sized to SKU- and size-level demand, not a blanket split.
- Markdown headroom modelled before the season, defensible to finance.
- Approved buys write back to your ERP as purchase orders.
“Everyday Denim is running +9% vs plan; Merino Layers −12%. I can move $84k of open-to-buy from Wool into Denim for next week’s PO — approve?”
The open-to-buy workbook.
A working OTB sheet set up the way it should be before the spreadsheet becomes the bottleneck: planned sales, markdowns, stock and receipts by month and category, with the OTB linked and falling out of the math. Paste a real category in and read it against your own numbers.
Excel workbook. Free — a work email gets it to you.
Open-to-buy, answered.
What is open-to-buy (OTB)?
Open-to-buy is the budget a buyer has left to spend on new inventory for a period, after accounting for planned sales, planned markdowns, the stock already on hand, and merchandise already on order. It keeps the buy inside the financial plan — so you don't overbuy into markdowns or underbuy into stockouts.
How is open-to-buy calculated?
OTB at retail = planned end-of-month stock + planned sales + planned markdowns − stock on hand now − merchandise on order. To spend it, multiply the retail figure by your cost complement (1 − markup): a $70,000 retail OTB at a 60% markup is about $28,000 of purchase orders.
Is OTB calculated at cost or at retail?
The formula is usually run at retail, because sales, markdowns and stock are planned at retail. Buyers then convert the retail OTB to cost using the initial markup to know how much they can actually commit on purchase orders. Tightly shows both.
How often should OTB be recalculated?
As often as the inputs move. In a spreadsheet that's a weekly manual rebuild, which is why the number is usually a few days stale. Tightly recalculates OTB live as sell-through, receipts and on-order change, so it's current when you're writing the buy.
Can Tightly replace our open-to-buy spreadsheet?
Yes. Tightly holds the receipt plan, the demand forecast and the OTB calculation on one connected surface, fed from your ERP, EDI, POS and WMS. Most teams move off the six-month workbook entirely and write approved POs straight back to the ERP.
What's the difference between open-to-buy and a merchandise financial plan?
The merchandise financial plan (MFP) is the full top-down plan — sales, margin, inventory and receipts by category and month. Open-to-buy is the receipts control that falls out of it: how much you're free to buy this period. OTB is a number inside the MFP, and Tightly keeps them reconciled.
Does OTB work for a DTC brand, not just wholesale?
Yes. The math is the same whether you buy for stores, a webstore, marketplaces or wholesale. What changes is that each channel needs its own demand signal, which is exactly what a connected plan gives you instead of a blended average.
Open-to-buy you can trust all season. Bring one category.
There’s nothing to rip out — Tightly runs on your ERP, EDI, POS and WMS. Give us 30 minutes on one category and we’ll show your OTB moving with real sell-through.