Seasonal demand planning in food & beverage with ERP forecasting tools

The food and beverage industry is uniquely shaped by seasonality. From increased demand for turkeys in November to heightened beverage sales in summer, businesses must anticipate fluctuations with precision. Failure to plan for seasonal demand can result in stockouts, lost revenue, or excess inventory that goes to waste. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) forecasting tools, such as those offered through Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, and Sage, help food and beverage companies navigate these challenges with data-driven insights and automation.

In the food and beverage industry, poor forecasting has immediate consequences. Stockouts frustrate customers and disrupt schedules, while overproduction drives up storage costs and spoilage. Seasonal demand makes both more likely. Effective demand forecasting in food and beverage prevents these issues by synchronizing purchasing, production, and distribution around expected demand curves.

Today’s AI-enabled ERP forecasting tools bring a new level of precision. Instead of relying on spreadsheets or intuition, systems analyze historical patterns, promotions, and even weather to predict demand shifts. These predictive analytics ERP capabilities enable managers to plan labor, adjust inventory, and prevent costly surprises. With AI demand planning, companies move from reacting to the season to mastering it—reducing waste, protecting margins, and improving service reliability.

Companies that fail to align their supply chains with seasonal fluctuations risk eroding customer trust, damaging profitability, and overburdening production and distribution operations. A modern ERP solution predicts these seasonal trends and provides the operational tools to act on them. 

Seasonal demand variability introduces several challenges unique to the food and beverage sector. Even experienced operations can struggle with issues such as:

• Unpredictable demand spikes: Consumer behavior during holidays or special events can be hard to predict. Sudden demand surges make forecasting complex, risking misalignment of supply and demand if estimates are off.
• Capacity and labor strain: Ramping up production on short notice for a seasonal peak can strain factory capacity and staffing. If not planned properly, facilities may face bottlenecks or require costly overtime and expedited shipping to meet the spike.
• Inventory risks (overstock vs. stockout): Seasonal swings make it tough to keep inventory at optimal levels. Overstocking seasonal products raises carrying costs and spoilage risk, while understocking leads to empty shelves and lost sales opportunities.
• Supply chain coordination: Seasonality affects the entire supply chain. Suppliers must have enough raw ingredients ready, and distributors/logistics partners need to handle higher volumes on tight schedules.

Each of these challenges underscores why robust seasonal demand planning is so important. Food and beverage companies must adapt quickly to seasonal changes while avoiding waste and inefficiency. This is where the right tools make a difference.

Fortunately, modern ERP platforms come equipped with forecasting and planning modules to tackle these seasonal complexities. Rand Group implements leading ERP platforms like Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct, each offering powerful forecasting and planning tools tailored to the complexities of food and beverage operations.

These systems help F&B companies analyze historical trends, incorporate seasonality, and generate data-driven forecasts to guide production, inventory, and distribution decisions. Below, we highlight how these ERP forecasting tools support seasonal demand planning in the food and beverage industry.

Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O) provides advanced, AI-enabled forecasting specifically useful for seasonal demand swings in food and beverage. Its Demand Forecasting module uses machine learning to analyze historical sales, seasonal patterns, and external factors like weather or holidays. The system automatically detects seasonal spikes and adjusts forecasts accordingly. This intelligence helps planners trust that the forecast accounts for known seasonal trends.

Key capabilities of Dynamics 365 F&O for seasonal demand planning include:

• AI-driven demand forecasting: Leverages machine learning to integrate historical sales, macro trends, weather, and other external inputs to project demand under seasonal variation.
• Master planning alignment: Includes forecasts within master planning to generate supply suggestions (procurement and production) that align with forecasted demand and reduce gaps.
• Scenario planning: Lets planners model best-case, worst-case, and most-likely seasonal outcomes to guide contingency decisions before volatility strikes.
• Real-time visibility: Dashboards and built-in analytics enable managers to monitor demand shifts and adjust plans quickly, minimizing disruption
• Collaboration tools: Forecasts and supply plans can be shared with suppliers, logistics teams, and partners to ensure coordinated response across the supply chain.
• Promotion & ingredient variability handling: The system factors in promotional events and ingredient supply changes, embedding them into demand and procurement plans.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud ERP for small to mid-sized organizations, and it offers straightforward and effective demand planning capabilities ideal for growing food and beverage companies. Business Central includes a built-in demand forecast tool that allows planners to generate forecasts based on historical usage and adjust them manually as needed. The ERP then uses these forecasts in combination with its supply planning engine to automate replenishment suggestions.

Key demand planning features of Business Central include:

• Sales forecasting with seasonality: Generates item-level forecasts based on past sales trends, factoring in seasonal cycles and customer patterns.
• Basic demand forecasting & reordering: Out-of-the-box functionality lets users create forecasts from sales or production history, then automatically apply reordering policies (Fixed Quantity, Lot-for-Lot, or Maximum Quantity) to calculate replenishment needs.
• Automated planning worksheets: Combines forecast data, inventory levels, and lead times to recommend what and when to order—ensuring ingredients and materials arrive before seasonal demand peaks.
• Inventory optimization: Automatically maintains reorder points and safety stock levels, reducing the risk of stockouts or excess inventory during fluctuating seasons.
• Capacity planning alignment: Helps sync production schedules with forecasted demand to avoid bottlenecks during high-volume periods.
• Integration with Power BI: Provides advanced analytics and visualizations that make identifying seasonal trends intuitive and actionable.

To extend these capabilities even further, Rand Group developed a Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) app for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central—a purpose-built tool that unifies sales, demand, and operations planning. The app enables food and beverage companies to build AI-powered forecasts with a single click, eliminating guesswork and improving responsiveness to shifting market conditions.

Key S&OP app features include:

• AI-powered forecasting: Instantly generate forecasts that adapt to real-time market dynamics and seasonal shifts.
• Azure-based model training: Sync sales data to Microsoft Azure for advanced predictive model development.
• Scenario planning: Quickly simulate the impact of market or seasonal changes on budgets and demand.
• Mass data updates: Populate forecasts or budgets for multiple items with a single click.
• Excel and Power BI integration: Import, export, and visualize forecasts for deeper analysis and collaboration.

Together, Business Central and Rand Group’s S&OP app deliver a modern, intelligent forecasting ecosystem, empowering food and beverage businesses to stay ahead of seasonal trends and plan with precision.

Oracle NetSuite is a popular cloud ERP in the food and beverage industry, known for its flexibility and scalability. NetSuite’s demand planning and inventory management modules are well-suited to handling seasonal fluctuations, especially for companies that need to scale operations up or down quickly during peak seasons. Being a true cloud solution, NetSuite allows all stakeholders–from procurement managers to suppliers–to collaborate in real time on one set of data, which is invaluable for coordinating seasonal demand plans.

Notable forecasting and planning features in NetSuite include:

• Statistical forecasting models: Supports moving averages, linear regression, and seasonal averaging methods to match different demand profiles (e.g., slowly rising summer beverage demand or holiday spikes).
• Advanced demand planning: Combines historical demand, open sales orders, and seasonality to produce forward-looking demand plans even for products with limited history.
• Supply planning alignment: Generates supply plans (purchase orders, work orders) based on forecasts while factoring in supplier lead times, safety stock, and constraints.
• Promotional / event planning: Enables marketers and planners to inject known promotional lifts or holiday campaigns into the forecast to more accurately reflect reality.
• Real-time cloud visibility & collaboration: Gives stakeholders across functions and geographies instant access to forecasts, inventory, and adjustments—critical during seasonal swings.
• Multi-location inventory & transfers: Forecasts demand per location and triggers transfer orders to balance stock across warehouses or regions based on forecasted needs.
• Automated replenishment workflows: Once forecasts are accepted, NetSuite can auto-generate purchase, transfer, or production orders, reducing manual effort during high-volume seasons.

Sage Intacct is a cloud-based ERP known for its strengths in financial management and FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis), which can be a powerful asset for seasonal demand planning from a financial perspective. Sage Intacct supports the planning process by aligning operational forecasts with financial forecasts–ensuring companies have the budget, cash flow, and reporting in place to execute on seasonal demand changes. Sage Intacct’s focus on budgeting and forecasting helps food and beverage firms maintain clarity on how seasonal demand affects revenue, costs, and profits.

Key capabilities of Sage Intacct to support seasonal planning include:

• Rolling forecasting & scenario modeling: Through Sage Intacct planning or its FP&A integrations, users can run multiple “what-if” scenarios (e.g., conservative, baseline, aggressive seasonal demand) and adjust drivers to see potential impacts.
• Real-time data integration: Forecasting tools sync directly with Intacct’s general ledger and dimension data, ensuring that forecasts reflect actuals and financial trends as seasonality evolves.
• Collaborative financial planning: Multiple stakeholders (finance, operations, sales) can contribute to forecasts and budgets within one platform—with version control and audit trails—avoiding fragmented spreadsheets.
• Automated workflows & approvals: Forecasts and budgets can flow through predefined review and approval processes—so seasonal forecast changes don’t get lost in email chains.
• Financial alignment to demand plans: Operations and supply chain forecasts feed into Intacct’s FP&A layer, helping finance teams align cash flows, cost assumptions, and capital planning to expected seasonal output.
• Integration with extensions & inventory tools: While Intacct does not natively manage full supply chain forecasting, many industry deployments pair Intacct with inventory or demand planning extensions (from the Intacct Marketplace) to deliver combined operational and financial insights.

The right ERP solution is powerful only when implemented and optimized correctly. Rand Group is a seasoned food and beverage ERP partner that works closely with companies to tailor forecasting solutions to their unique business needs. As ERP implementation experts with experience across Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct, we tailor forecasting and planning systems to reflect each client’s unique operations—aligning technology with real-world production cycles, supply chain constraints, and seasonal demand.

Rand Group’s consulting team takes a data-driven, analytics-focused approach to demand planning. Our experts enable AI-driven forecasting tools within your ERP platform to match production with demand more precisely. By configuring the system to analyze historical sales, seasonal trends, and external factors relevant to your business, we help optimize inventory levels, minimize waste, and prevent costly stockouts.

Our services for food and beverage companies include:

• ERP implementation: Our ERP implementation services help deploy platforms purpose-built for food and beverage operations, with forecasting, production, and financial modules configured for your specific business model.
• System integration: Our integration expertise ensures your ERP connects seamlessly with CRM, inventory, and analytics systems to create a unified view of demand, supply, and financial performance across your organization.
• Customization & development: Through customization & development, we extend standard ERP capabilities with tailored features, automation, and integrations that reflect your workflows, product lifecycles, and quality control processes.
• Ongoing support: Our dedicated support services provide continuous system optimization, user training, and maintenance to keep your ERP performing at its best as business conditions and seasonal demands evolve.

Seasonality will always influence the food and beverage industry, but it doesn’t have to disrupt it. With AI-enabled ERP forecasting tools such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct, businesses can anticipate demand shifts, optimize inventory, and maintain consistent performance year-round. Partnering with Rand Group ensures these systems are implemented and configured to meet your specific operational and forecasting needs—turning seasonal volatility into a competitive advantage.

Contact Rand Group today to learn how our food and beverage ERP experts can help you plan smarter, respond faster, and grow with confidence.