Patent ID: 7072843

Claim:
A method for forecasting the sale of goods, comprising: a) at least one computer of an independent supply chain manager receiving data from a plurality of independent point of sale outlets of an independent supply chain utilizing a network, the data comprising amounts of goods sold manually at store locations by the point of sale outlets; b) the at least one computer of an independent supply chain manager checking the data for errors made by the independent point of sale outlets; c) the at least one computer of an independent supply chain manager identifying the errors made by at least one of the independent point of sale outlets including at least one of point of sale set-up error, point of sale entry error, back office error, polling error, and datum item mapping error and logging the errors in a log; d) correcting the data using the identification; e) the at least one computer of an independent supply chain manager transmitting the log to at least one of the independent point of sale outlets utilizing the network; f) the at least one computer of an independent supply chain manager receiving data on amounts of products distributed to the respective independent point of sale outlets; g) tracking the data relating to the sale of goods against forecasted sales on a periodic basis; and h) the at least one computer of an independent supply chain manager generating an alert if a deviation between the data and the forecasted sales exceeds a threshold.