---
title: How to plan a season on the buying calendar
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/purchasing/buying-calendar
description: Set up seasons, see what your orders commit you to spend each month, and catch supplier change deadlines before they pass.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to plan a season on the buying calendar



**Buying › Buying calendar** shows a season's buy as money: what your purchase orders commit you
to, month by month, and when the cash actually leaves. It reads the orders you already have in
<Ref to="purchasing" />, so there is nothing to copy across.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

* The **Purchase orders** module has to be on. See <Ref to="workspace-admin/modules" />.
* Seeing the calendar needs **View purchase orders and the buying calendar**. Creating and editing
  seasons needs **Edit purchase orders and the buying calendar**. Both start at lead; see
  <Ref to="workspace-admin/permissions" />.

## What is a season? [#what-is-a-season]

A season is a name and a pair of dates, such as Spring 26 running from 1 February to 31 July.
Every purchase order lands in the season its ship date falls in. Create your first season and the
calendar fills in from the orders you already have.

Until then the page reads **No seasons yet**, with a **New season** button.

## How do you create a season? [#how-do-you-create-a-season]

1. Press **New season**.
2. Type a **Name**, then pick when it **Starts** and **Ends**.
3. Under **What you plan to commit each month**, type the amount you mean to spend in each month.
   Leave a month empty if you have not planned it.
4. Press **Save season**.

Give each season dates that sit beside your other seasons rather than over them, because two
seasons cannot cover the same dates.

An empty month reads as "not planned", never as a plan to spend nothing. Fill in only the months
you have actually budgeted.

To change the dates or the plan later, choose the season and press **Edit season**.

## How do you read Money by month? [#how-do-you-read-money-by-month]

Each month of the season gets a row. Three things are drawn on it:

* **Committed**, by the month the goods ship. This is the order total, landing in the month of its
  ship date.
* **Cash out**, by when you pay. This is the same money, moved to the ship date plus the supplier's
  **Pays after shipping** days.
* **Planned**, a marker at the amount you typed for that month.

Beside each month is the amount committed. In a planned month it also says how much is **left**,
or how much the month is **over**, in red.

Above the chart, the season line reads its dates, how many orders it holds and the total
committed. Use the season picker at the top left to switch seasons.

## What do the notes under the chart mean? [#what-do-the-notes-under-the-chart-mean]

They name the orders the chart could not draw, so the totals never quietly leave something out.

* "Not on this timeline" counts orders with no ship date and orders shipping outside every season
  you have set up. Add the ship date, or create the season they belong to.
* "Shown as paid on the day they ship" counts orders whose supplier has no payment terms recorded.
  Set the supplier's **Pays after shipping** to move them to the right month. See
  <Ref to="purchasing/supplier-terms-and-delivery-record" />.
* Orders in another currency get their own line with their own total, kept out of the totals
  above because they are not in your home currency.

Cash that leaves after the season ends still counts as committed. It just has no month on this
chart to fall in.

## What are Vendor deadlines? [#what-are-vendor-deadlines]

The last day each supplier will take a change to an order, soonest first. Each row gives the
revise-by date, the order, the supplier and the amount, and links to the order.

A row marked **ship date already moved** belongs to an order whose ship date has changed since it
was first set. Read those first: a supplier that has slipped once is the one to talk to before the
deadline.

Only deadlines you can still act on are listed. A line under the heading counts how many more have
already passed.

## What does Against last season show? [#what-does-against-last-season-show]

This season beside the season before it, by start date. Each side gives the season's name, the
money committed and the number of orders.

Fairgreen Golf Co. uses it at the start of a buy: if Spring 26 already holds more orders than all
of Spring 25 with three months still to place, the plan needs another look.

## How is this different from the Revisions calendar? [#how-is-this-different-from-the-revisions-calendar]

The **Revisions calendar** button on **Buying › Purchase orders** places each order on a month grid
by its dates. The buying calendar adds the orders up into money per month against your plan. See
<Ref to="purchasing/find-late-orders" /> for the Revisions calendar.

## Can the Agent use the season plan? [#can-the-agent-use-the-season-plan]

Yes. Ask the Agent about a purchase order and it can say how the order sits against the plan
for its ship month, and how much room that month has left. See <Ref to="analyst/stock-suppliers-and-marketing" />.
