Line plan workbook
A free line plan workbook for setting a season’s option counts by category, price tier and drop from receipt units and depth — splitting carryover from newness and checking every cell against factory minimums, mill minimums and the margin target before a style is drawn.
Download the Workbook →What’s inside
- Inputs: season, option counting unit, drops and tier names, plus one row per category — sales plan, planned AUR, sell-through, target IMU and carryover target — with receipt units calculated
- Option Budget: tier units, retail price and target IMU per tier, planned depth and factory minimum, and the resulting option budget, option ceiling and headroom
- Line Plan: carryover and new options by drop for every category and tier, placed depth, planned units as options × depth, and newness per cell
- A check on every cell: depth against the factory minimum, units per fabric buy against the mill minimum, and the tier’s markup at target cost
- Summary: units and options reconciled to budget by category, the plan read by drop and by tier, a units-weighted blended IMU, a flag count and a quote variance test
- Yellow input cells, grey locked formula cells, named ranges, dropdowns and sheet protection with no password
- An illustrative three-category sample that sums — its knit tops category is the worked example in the line plan guide
Who it’s for
Merchandise planners and merchandisers who set the count before design proposes the range. Use it when the category sales plans and margin targets arrive from the merchandise financial plan, again when design’s proposal is reconciled against the plan, and at the line review, where each cell’s count is locked.
How to use it
- On Inputs, state the option counting unit, the number of drops and your tier names, then enter each category’s sales plan, planned AUR, sell-through, target IMU and carryover target.
- On Option Budget, split each category’s receipt units across the tiers — units first — then enter retail price, target IMU, planned depth and the factory minimum per option.
- Read the option budget and ceiling for every tier. The ceiling is a limit, not a target: a tier planned at its ceiling has no room for an option that books short.
- On Line Plan, place carryover options by drop first, then new options, and enter the depth each placed option carries and the fabric buys with their mill minimums.
- Clear the red and amber checks in the plan, then reconcile design’s proposal cell by cell against the same checks rather than against the category total.
- On Summary, confirm units reconcile to budget, run the quote variance test on the tier carrying the most retail value, and set each row to Locked at line review.
The order follows how to build a line plan, which explains each step and why the checks run before reconciliation.
What the sample shows
Every figure in the sample is illustrative — invented for legibility, not a benchmark, and not drawn from any brand.
Knit tops reproduces the worked plan in the guide: 9,000 units, 27 options with 9 carryover and 18 new across three drops, and a blended initial markup of about 60.2% against a 60% target. Woven bottoms and outerwear sit beside it so the roll-ups have something to sum — 17,400 units and 59 options across the season. Four flags are left in on purpose: outerwear’s Best tier is at its option ceiling and its depth sits on the factory minimum, woven bottoms’ Best tier is below its mill minimum per fabric buy, and knit tops passes its margin with 0.22 points of headroom. The quote variance test shows what two markup points lost on the knit tops Best tier does to that pass.
How it differs from the other templates
- This workbook holds the numbers: how many options each category, tier and drop can carry, and whether each of those cells can be bought.
- The line board template holds the picture: one row per style with colorways, an image, price tier and status, for building and reviewing the range by eye.
- The line plan template on retail-plan.com is a single category-level sheet — carryover, new, newness, average price, buy units and planned sales — for when tiers and drops are not planned separately.
Where a spreadsheet plan breaks
Every calculation in the workbook is spreadsheet arithmetic, and one file holds a season comfortably. It stops being a constraint when the line board lives in a second file: a card cut at the line review changes the board and not the count, and the two disagree by the time the buy is built. Keep them reconciled at every review. RetailNorthstar’s Canvas keeps the board, the plan and open-to-buy on a shared data model, so the count the room signs is the count the buy inherits.
The template is a great start — but a spreadsheet board drifts from the plan the moment anything changes. Canvas is a visual line board that stays live against open-to-buy, the assortment, and the buy.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a line plan workbook?
- A line plan workbook is a spreadsheet that holds a season’s numeric line plan: how many options each category, price tier and drop can carry, the planned units behind them, and whether each cell clears its factory minimum, mill minimum and margin target. This one is an Excel (.xlsx) file with separate sheets for inputs, the top-down option budget, the placed plan by drop, and a reconciliation summary.
- How does the workbook calculate option counts?
- Top-down. Receipt units are the sales plan divided by planned AUR and sell-through. Each tier’s option budget is its units divided by the depth an option should carry, rounded down, and its option ceiling is its units divided by the factory minimum. In the placed plan, planned units are options multiplied by depth, and the summary reconciles those units and options back to the budget for every category.
- Are the sample numbers benchmarks?
- No. Every figure in the sample is illustrative, invented so the arithmetic can be checked, and none is drawn from any brand. The knit tops category reproduces the worked example in the how to build a line plan guide. Four flags are left in on purpose so the checks can be read before your own plan raises one.
- How is this different from the line plan template on retail-plan.com?
- The retail-plan.com line plan template is a single sheet at category level: carryover and new options, newness, average price, buy units and planned sales. This workbook works one level down, by price tier and drop, and adds depth, the option ceiling, factory and mill minimum checks, a units-weighted margin check and reconciliation to the receipt budget. Use the category-level template when tiers and drops are not planned separately.
- Does it work outside apparel?
- The method does. The option counting unit on the Inputs sheet can be set to a style-colorway, a style, a shade, a model in a finish or an item, and the tier and drop names are editable. What changes by vertical is what counts as one option and what bounds depth — tooling in footwear, container quantities in furniture, shade ranges in beauty — which the line plan guide covers vertical by vertical.
- Can I change the formulas or add rows?
- Yes. Formula cells are locked so a stray keystroke cannot overwrite them, but the sheets are protected without a password. Unprotect a sheet from the Review menu to add category rows or change a formula, then protect it again. The workbook ships with five category slots, three price tiers and four drops.