The receipt budget, reconciled live.
OTB is the seam between the MFP, the line plan and evergreen replen. Tightly holds those three on one model, so the receipt budget flexes with the MFP and gates every commit before it breaches.
Open to buy
What's left to spend, by class and month — at cost. Planned receipts draw down as buys commit.
Why open-to-buy is where margin leaks first.
Full-price sell-through gap between retail leaders and the industry — most of it down to how they act on the forecast.
Source: Incisiv × WRC × Anaplan 2026
Share of unplanned markdown cost attributed to upstream buying and forecasting decisions, not in-season demand.
Source: Coresight industry research
Face the Future's full-price sell-through gain after OTB reconciled live to the forecast.
Source: Audited customer outcome
What breaks before open-to-buy runs to plan.
Three steps from forecast to an envelope you can commit against.
Reconciled to forecast and MFP
OTB lives on the same model as forecast and plan. Forecast moves OTB live; a commit draws OTB down in real time.
Overspend flagged before commit
Cells projected to overshoot surface on the trading view before the buy goes through, with the dollar impact called out by category.
Reserve & free envelope tracked
In-season reserve held at policy (typically 40%). Free envelope, committed and reserve all tracked separately.
The buy budget, drawn down live.
What’s left to spend, by class and month — planned receipts draw down as buys commit.
| Class | Committed → open | Committed | Received | Open-to-buy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wide-Leg Pants | $2.9M | $1.3M | −$302k | Over | |
| Swim | $1.8M | $0.9M | $180k | Tight | |
| Knitwear | $2.1M | $1.1M | −$120k | Over | |
| Tops & Tees | $2.4M | $1.2M | $1.6M | Open | |
| Dresses | $1.1M | $0.6M | $0.9M | Open |
What changes once open-to-buy moves with the plan.
One reconciled OTB, live
Forecast, plan, on-order and receipts in one view. The OTB reconciles every time a sale lands, an order moves or a markdown is taken.
Rebalance in clicks, not days
When demand moves, Tightly proposes the OTB shift across categories and channels. Approve and it cascades to the receipt plan, the purchasing, the allocation.
Sees what's actually arriving
Supplier slip-ups and EDI status feed the OTB live, so the buyer knows what's landing this week, not what was on paper four weeks ago.
Holds finance to the same number
The buyer and the CFO look at the same OTB. The manual reconciliation in shared spreadsheets — the reconciliation tax — goes away.
Meet your Buying agent
Keeps every buy within open-to-buy and chases the PO once it's raised — within the limits you set.
Meet the agentsRe-forecast ready — 3 categories have drifted from plan this week. Want me to stage the moves for your review?
“Used to find out about overspend at month-end. Now we see it before the PO is raised. Same team, same suppliers — we just stopped committing money we didn't have.”
Full-price sell-through (audited)
The OTB you run today, and the one Tightly delivers.
OTB lives in a spreadsheet, rebuilt once a month from the ERP. You commit buys against last month’s number — by the time the overspend shows, the PO is already placed.
OTB draws down live as buys commit. Overspend is flagged before the PO, and the 40% reserve is held by policy — no month-end surprises.
Open-to-buy is one part of the connected plan.
Financial planning
MFP and OTB share one model. A plan change moves the envelope live.
Allocation
Buy proposals stage against OTB — never propose a commit you can't fund.
Demand forecasting
OTB sized against forecast demand, not last year's receipts.
Does OTB tie back to the MFP live?
Yes. The MFP is the envelope; a revision to planned sales, markdowns or EOP inventory flows straight through to the OTB the line plan and evergreen replen consume — no re-keying, no drift.
How do you stop the line-plan build breaching the envelope?
As buyers commit style depth into the line plan, running consumption is shown per month × class × channel. A commit that would push a month over the envelope is blocked at Submit with the dollar impact called out.
Does evergreen replen consume the same OTB?
Yes. Continuity reorders draw the same receipt budget as seasonal, and both are visible on one view — so seasonal buyers see how much replen has already consumed before they commit.
How does the reserve policy work?
Configurable per class. Most teams hold 40% of envelope as in-season reserve, freed in tranches by sell-through trigger. Reserve is a hard gate, not a guideline — overrides need sign-off.
Does Tightly write back to our ERP?
Yes. Approved buys stage to the ERP as POs once the buyer hits Submit. OTB drawdown happens live in Tightly; the ERP becomes the system of record at commit.
Spend control, live. Every buy reconciled against the plan.
There's nothing to rip out. Tightly runs on your existing ERP, EDI, e-commerce and POS. Give us 30 minutes and we'll show it on your own categories.