Lead times
Lead time = days from when you raise a PO to when the stock is received in your warehouse. Forecasting uses it to tell you when to reorder. Hilal measures it automatically — but you can override per vendor or per SKU when measurement misses.
In this guide:
- See measured lead times
- Understand the calculation
- Override per vendor or per SKU
- Use lead times in forecasting
Step 1: See measured lead times
Go to Vendors → Lead times in the sidebar.
The table shows, per vendor:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Average lead time | Mean across the last 12 months of completed POs. |
| P90 lead time | 90th percentile — the lead time that 90% of POs come in under. Used by forecasting for safety buffer. |
| Last 5 POs | Lead times of the most recent five completed POs (sparkline). |
| Trend | Whether recent POs are faster or slower than the long-term average. |
Click any vendor row for the per-PO breakdown.
Step 2: Understand the calculation
Hilal measures from PO sent date to PO fully received date. Specifically:
- Start: when status flipped to Sent (or Confirmed, if you skipped Sent).
- End: when status flipped to Received.
- Cancelled POs and drafts are excluded.
- Partial receipts use the date of the last receipt that completed the PO.
This means: if a vendor delivers in two batches a week apart, the lead time recorded is to the last batch, which is what forecasting needs.
Step 3: Override per vendor or per SKU
If measured lead time is wrong (atypical recent shipment, vendor is changing terms, you’re trying out a new vendor with no history), override:
- Per vendor — Vendor detail → Lead time override field. Used as the lead time anywhere this vendor appears unless a per-SKU override applies.
- Per SKU — SKU detail → Lead time override field. Used for forecasting and reorder-suggestion logic for that SKU.
Override values appear in italics in the lead-times table to flag they’re not measured.
Step 4: Use lead times in forecasting
Forecasting consumes lead time as the window between now and when restock arrives. Specifically:
- The suggested reorder date is
today + days_of_cover - lead_time. - The suggested reorder quantity uses lead time × daily run-rate × safety factor.
- Forecasting uses the P90 lead time by default for safety; you can switch to the average in Inventory → Settings → Reorder rules.
Troubleshooting
- Lead times look way off after one bad shipment. Forecasting uses 12 months by default, so one bad shipment shouldn’t dominate. If it does, the vendor genuinely is slowing down — confirm with them.
- A new vendor has no measured lead time. Manually override until you have 3+ completed POs.
- Lead time chart on a SKU is empty. SKU has no completed POs through any vendor. Use the per-SKU override to seed it.