Explain This Number lets you ask Tooli why allocation recommended a number. Right-click a planned value on a strategy's Allocation Details tab, and Tooli walks you through the decisions behind it: when the store was due for stock, how much it needed, where the units came from, and how the order was rounded.
Tooli answers from a record of the decisions the allocation engine made while it ran the strategy. It tells you what actually happened in that run, not what usually happens.
Use Cases
Checking a recommended transfer order before you approve or export it
Answering a store's question, such as "Why are we getting 24 units this week?" or "Why didn't we get anything?"
Finding which setting drove a quantity: safety stock, order cycle, minimum or maximum presentation, or the order multiple
Seeing why a store got less than it needed, for example because its source ran out of stock
Before You Start
Explain This Number… appears in the right-click menu when all of these are true:
The feature is on for your organization. It's controlled by a feature flag and is off by default. Contact your Customer Success Manager or Toolio Support to have it turned on.
Tooli is enabled for your organization.
You have EDIT permission on the Allocation module. Answering a question can mean re-running the strategy, so view access isn't enough. See User Management, Roles and Access.
💡 For administrators: availability is controlled by the enableAllocationExplainability feature flag, which is off by default. See Feature Flags in Toolio for how flags work.
Explaining a Number
Go to Allocation > Allocation Strategies and select a strategy.
In the panel below the strategies, open the Allocation Details tab.
Right-click a planned number and choose
Explain This Number….
Tooli opens in a new conversation. It already knows the number you clicked, along with its metric, week, and row, so you don't need to describe them.
The option appears on plan rows, including Act / Plan rows. Rows that show only actuals (Act), last year, or a variance don't have it, because the record explains the plan that allocation produced.
When Tooli Asks to Run the Strategy
Tooli answers from an explain run: a run of the strategy that also records every decision the allocation engine makes. If the strategy has no current explain run (it never had one, it has been run again since, or its settings have changed), Tooli asks before starting a new one.
Pick the option to start the run, or type your answer. The run appears in the Task Manager, and Tooli answers when it finishes. That usually takes a minute or two, longer for large strategies.
An explain run replaces the strategy's recommended transfer orders, just as running the strategy yourself would. Recording the decisions doesn't change the results. If you decline, nothing runs, but Tooli can't tell you which decisions produced the number.
What Tooli Can Explain
Tooli goes through the decisions behind the number in order, using your store and SKU names. Depending on the number, that can include:
When the store was due for stock. Its stock fell below its reorder point. If it never did, Tooli can tell you how close it came.
How much it needed. Safety stock, sales over the order cycle, minimum presentation, and stock already on its way.
Where the units came from. Which source sent them, how much that source had, and when the order ships and arrives.
Why a store got less, or nothing. For example, its source had run out, or the store was left out before allocation started.
Caps and rounding. Cuts to stay under maximum presentation, packs, and rounding to the order multiple, including rounding protection.
Push All. How pushed inventory was split across stores when
Push Allis on.
In the example below, Store-10 had no stock, so it was due for a delivery. It needed only a fraction of a unit, and rounding protection rounded that up to the 1 unit sent from Web+DC.
After the first answer, keep asking in the same conversation. For example:
"Why not more?"
"Why did this store get nothing the week before?"
"Which settings did you use?"
"What are your sources?" Tooli then lists the recorded decisions and settings behind each part of its answer.
If you use Day Level Allocations, you can also ask for the store's stock day by day.
FAQs
Why Don't I See Explain This Number?
Check that the feature is on for your organization, Tooli is enabled, and you have EDIT permission on the Allocation module. The option is only on the Allocation Strategies page: the Allocation Details tab inside Assortment Plan doesn't have it, and neither do rows that show only actuals, last year, or a variance.
Does an Explain Run Change My Recommendations?
It replaces them, the same way running the strategy yourself does, because an explain run is a normal run of the strategy. Recording the decisions doesn't change the numbers: the same data gives the same recommended transfer orders either way.
Can Tooli Explain an Earlier Run?
No. Tooli can only explain a strategy's latest explain run, and each new explain run replaces the record of the previous one. If you ask about an earlier run, Tooli says it doesn't have that record rather than guessing.
Why Does Tooli Say Part of the Record Is Missing?
For very large strategies, Toolio stops recording after a set number of decisions, so later decisions can be missing. Tooli tells you when that happens, and it won't read a missing decision as "nothing happened."
How Do I Report an Explanation That Looks Wrong?
Click the thumbs-down button under Tooli's answer and add a note about what looks off. You can also contact Toolio Support with the strategy and the number you asked about.