When to request
The planner only knows what sales history already contains. Raise a request when you know demand that history cannot see:
- a promotion — Prime Day, a coupon, an influencer push
- a launch — no sales yet, so the forecast has nothing to work from
- a wholesale or bundle order that still ships through FBA
- a listing that must not go out of stock, even if recent sales are thin
Do not use a request to:
- force a SKU that is not in Seller Central restock — Amazon has no listing to inbound to, and that gate cannot be overridden
- ask for the UK marketplace — this tool plans US Amazon only
- change the forecast itself. A request is a one-off input to the next run
Sign in
- Open FBA Optimizer and sign in with the email an admin gave you.
- If this is your first login, you will be asked to change the temporary password under Account before you can continue.
- You land on Requests. That is the only working screen for a listing manager.
Raise a request
On Requests, fill the form at the top and click Request.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| SKU | The child SKU as it appears in Seller Central / Odoo, e.g. MOB1006. Not the parent SKU, not the ASIN. It is stored in capitals automatically. |
| Units | Whole units, at least 1. This is units, not cartons — but the number must fill closed cartons of this SKU (see below). The quantity is a floor: the plan will ship at least this many. |
| Expires in (days) | How long the ask stays available for approval and then for a run. Default is 90 days. Maximum is 90. Leave the default unless you want a shorter window. |
| Reason | Required. Pick one: New launch, Relaunch, Out of stock at Amazon, Low cover at Amazon, Liquidation / discontinued, Promotion, Test or Vine or Other. The reason decides how it ships (see How it ships). |
| Note | Optional, except with Other. Add what the reason does not say, e.g. Prime Day 15–16 Jul or AMZ DOI 9. |
Overriding Don’t Send or FBM Hold
You can request a SKU that is on FBM Hold or flagged Don’t Send. The form will stop and warn you before it is created. Read the warning, then click Request anyway if you still mean it. That confirmation is stored on the request. Once a planner approves it, the next planning run will ship the SKU despite the gate.
- FBM Hold — the SKU is FBM-only. Sending it to FBA is normally an operational error. Override only when that is the intent.
- Don’t Send — the ASIN was excluded (new launch hold, low stock, and so on). Override when that hold should no longer apply to this inbound.
At least this many
Every listing-manager request is a floor. The plan ships at least the units you asked for. If the forecast already wants more, that larger number is left alone. You cannot add units on top of the forecast — that choice is a planner’s, not yours.
Same floor of 100 against a forecast of 500: the plan ships 500. The floor was already met, so nothing extra is added.
Use this for a launch, a promo, or a listing that must not go out of stock, where 100 is a minimum rather than an extra 100 on top of whatever was coming anyway.
Two approved requests for the same SKU add together. If you meant to replace an earlier ask, cancel the old one first.
How it ships
Small parcel is for emergencies only. Your ask goes small parcel (SP) only for what is urgent: the units Amazon needs to stay in stock until the next LTL or AWD shipment arrives, plus 7 days, rounded up to whole cartons. Everything else ships LTL, or AWD for an AWD SKU.
A New launch, Test or Vine or Liquidation / discontinued ask never ships small parcel: all of it goes LTL or AWD. So does a SKU with no forecast. Round units up to whole cartons; if the warehouse does not hold even one closed carton, the run adds nothing and the outcome note says so.
Closed cartons
Inbound here ships full cartons only. A short box cannot go. Before the request is created, the form checks the SKU’s master carton — the same newest non-superseded spec a planning run uses — and offers to round your units up to a closed carton.
Rounding up keeps the floor honest: asking for at least 100 of a 24-unit carton means 120, not 96.
The form then checks today’s warehouse stock, whether or not there is a proposal this week. If it cannot ship it all, it tells you why before you submit: units held for B2B (the B2B floor), or no full closed carton free to ship. You can still request it. It stays pending and ships on a later plan once stock frees up.
What happens next
Each row has a status. Only approved requests influence a plan:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| open | You raised it. A planner has not decided yet. It does not affect the manifest. |
| approved | A planner accepted it. It is live and will be credited on the next run. |
| planned | A run put the requested units on its manifest. Planned on run # links to that run. If the run is archived, the request returns to approved and the run number is hidden, so a later plan can take it. |
| partially planned | Warehouse stock could not cover the full request. The plan includes every closed carton it could (at least one). The outcome note says only that many units were added due to warehouse stock limitations. A closed carton the B2B floor is holding is not added: the request stays approved and the note says the B2B floor holds it. If the floor leaves some cartons, those are planned and the note says the floor holds the rest. |
| sent | Those units showed up on inbound shipments pulled from Odoo. They have left the warehouse (or are on a truck). Archiving the run does not undo this. |
| rejected | A planner declined it, with a note explaining why. It will not ship. Raise a new one if needed. |
| expired / lapsed | The window passed without a run consuming it. It no longer counts. |
| cancelled | You withdrew it. Same as never having asked. |
You can Cancel your own request while it is still open or approved. You cannot cancel one that has already been planned, partially planned, sent, rejected, or cancelled. You cannot approve or reject anyone else’s — that is a planner’s job.
You only ever see your own requests. If a colleague raised one for the same SKU, it will not appear in your list. Only approved requests affect the plan.
Notes from planning
A planner can leave a note on your request without approving or rejecting it. That is how they ask for a missing date, flag a SKU typo, or tell you the units will go on the next run — without having to decide the ask first.
- Notes appear on the request under From planning, with who wrote them and when.
- They do not change the status. An open request stays open, and still does not count in the next run, until someone approves, rejects, or you cancel it.
- A reject or approve can also carry a note; a reject always does. That reason shows in the same place.
If a note asks you to change something, edit the request if it is still open, or cancel and raise a new one. You cannot reply in the same thread — send the SKU back to demand planning, or adjust the request.
Expiry
Every request has a clock. The old spreadsheet tab reached thousands of rows because nothing ever aged out, so a March ask still looked current in September. Here a stale request stops counting on its own.
- Default window is 90 days. Nothing may live longer than 90 days in one go.
- The header counts anything expiring within 7 days, and anything already lapsed.
- Once it lapses it is no longer an input. If the need is still real, raise a new request; do not expect the old one to revive.
Raise the request before the weekly plan, with enough days left that a one-week slip does not kill it.
Reading the outcome
After a planning run, look at Planned on run # and Why / Outcome.
- Planned on run # is the run that put your request on its manifest, shown as #97. An archived run is omitted — that plan will not ship.
- Clicking the number opens the run. You can read the manifest; you cannot start a new run.
- A floor that the forecast already met flips to planned once the forecast quantity is on the manifest — the minimum shipped, so it is not raised again next week. If that quantity did not ship, it stays live.
- When the SKU shows up in inbound shipments pulled from Odoo, status becomessent. That is the warehouse actually having shipped it.
If nothing ships
A request still cannot invent an Amazon listing. When the SKU is not in Seller Central restock, the outcome note says so and nothing ships.
FBM Hold and Don’t Send only block the SKU if you did not confirm the override warning. If you did, and a planner approved the request, the next run will try to inbound it. When warehouse stock cannot cover the request, the run still adds every closed carton it can. If that is at least one carton but less than you asked for, status becomes partially planned and the outcome note says only that many units were added due to warehouse stock limitations.
Other reasons a live request still adds nothing:
- wrong SKU — it must match the child SKU the warehouse and Amazon use
- warehouse stock below one closed carton
- a floor already covered by the forecast (the ask succeeded; extra units were not needed)
- it expired before the run
- a planner rejected it
If the note is still unclear, send the SKU and the outcome text to demand planning rather than raising a second request of the same kind.
Weekly review, Don’t Send and FBM Hold
Every week a planner generates a proposal: what the engine wants to send. Open Listing review to see your SKUs in it, with the stock at FBA, on its way there and in AWD. Leave a quantity as it is, type a different one, or tick Don't send for this week, then press I'm done. SKUs that are New Launch or Overstock/Liquidation are flagged so you can check them first. The final plan waits until every listing manager is done, and uses your quantities.
Pre-Launch SKUs (SellerIndex lifecycle) are different: they are in no plan, proposal included, so they do not show in the review. To send one, raise a request for it on Requests; once approved it shows in the review already set to send, and ships the quantity you asked for.
Don’t Send and FBM Hold are the standing lists, each on its own tab. Don’t Send takes only two reasons: New Launch and Overstock/Liquidation. Margin no longer puts a SKU on it. A SKU must already exist in Seller Central restock to be added, and a planner can read the lists but cannot change them.
What you can and cannot do
Your role exists to raise asks for the SKUs you own, and to keep FBM Hold and Don’t Send current. It is deliberately narrower than a planner’s:
- You can raise requests, cancel your own, read notes a planner left on yours, change your password, read a run that consumed one of yours, and edit FBM Hold / Don’t Send.
- You cannot start a planning run, refresh Odoo inputs, change settings, see other people’s requests, or approve or reject anyone else’s.
That split is the point: a request is an input to the weekly plan, not an instruction to ship. Confirmation on Amazon still happens in Seller Central, by a person.
Ready? Go to Requests and raise the first one.