Planogram approval process: review, approve and revise

Help center / Planning shelves

A planogram moves from draft to review to approved. Approval needs its own role permission, so one person can prepare a layout and someone with approval rights signs it off before the store sets it up.

How to approve a planogram

1. Resolve the layout checks.
2. Send the planogram for review.
3. Open it, choose Approve layout, and write the instructions the store should follow. Confirm with Approve & create checklist.

The Approve layout button stays disabled while any layout check is open, and for anyone whose role lacks approval rights.

What approval keeps

Approval saves a snapshot of the shelf: the fixture, every product's measurements, and every placement at that moment. Later edits to a product or fixture do not change an approved version, so the store always sets up exactly what was signed off.

Change an approved layout

Choose New revision to start a new draft version. The previous approved version stays available to the store until the new one is approved. You can export any approved version as CSV or JSON.

The planogram workflow, status by status

• Draft. The only status in which placements can be changed. Add products, move them, and clear the checks here.
• Review. The layout is locked for checking. A reviewer either approves it or chooses Return to draft to send it back for changes.
• Approved. The version is locked and the store works from it. Further changes start a new version.

Each status shows as a badge beside the planogram's name, with its version number, so everyone can see where a layout stands.

Who approves a planogram?

Two permissions in People & roles control the process:

• Edit planograms lets a person create layouts, change placements, request review and manage revisions.
• Approve planograms lets a person publish approved layouts for store execution. It requires Edit planograms as well.

With the preset roles, an Assistant manager can edit layouts and send them for review, while a Manager, Admin or Owner can approve them. You can create a custom role with either permission. A planogram sign off by someone other than its author follows the principle of separation of duty, which splits a task between people so no single person controls it from start to finish.

What to check before you approve

Review is the last chance to catch a problem before it reaches the floor. A short routine:

1. Open Preview to see the whole fixture at once.
2. Compare the drawing against the products the store has in stock or on order.
3. Read each placement note. Notes print on the store checklist, so make them clear to someone who did not plan the shelf.
4. Write the store instructions. Up to 2,000 characters, such as the date the shelf should be set or what to do with products that leave the layout.

If anything needs changing, choose Return to draft rather than approving and revising straight away. It keeps the version history clean.

What happens after a planogram is approved?

The approved version appears in Tasks as a checklist for that store, with your instructions at the top. Each approval creates a fresh checklist with every placement unticked. Anyone with the Complete store tasks permission can tick placements off as the shelf is set, and the Shelf labels button prints one label per placement in shelf order.

Approval does not change inventory. Stock counts stay as they were until someone counts, receives or transfers stock.

Can you edit an approved planogram?

Not directly. An approved version is locked, and the editor says so. Choose New revision to create the next version as a draft, make the changes, and take it through review again.

A worked example: version 2 of a cereal bay is approved and the store is setting it. You start a planogram revision to add a new product. While version 3 is in draft or review, the store keeps working from version 2. Once version 3 is approved, the checklist in Tasks switches to version 3 and starts again from zero.

Planogram version control

Each approved version is a fixed record. The snapshot holds its own copy of the fixture and of every product used, so correcting a product's height in the catalog next month does not reach back into a layout already on the shelf. Previous approved versions are retained in the planogram's release history.

This is the same idea as a baseline in configuration management. A baseline is an agreed state that later changes are measured against, and it changes only through a controlled step.

Export planogram to Excel

Export the approved version as CSV from the planogram's preview, or from the checklist in Tasks. The file opens in Excel or any spreadsheet program, with one row per placement and these columns:

• shelf, sku and product
• x_in, the position from the left edge in inches
• width_in, height_in and depth_in
• facings and capacity_units
• note

Choose JSON instead for the complete snapshot, including the fixture, which suits a backup of one layout or another tool that reads structured data.

Coming soon

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