Creating a Powersports Inventory Plan for Profitable Results: A 12-Month Stocking Guide

When we first published this piece in 2019, it was a video interview with a dealership inventory manager. His advice fit in one line: use the information you have, then make a plan with it. (The original video is no longer available.)

This update is that plan, for the dealer principal, GM or sales manager who decides what to order: what to stock, when, and how much, for new and pre-owned units and the accessories that sell with them.

The weekly side of the job, such as aging bands, floor plan cost per unit and the aged-unit meeting, is in our guide to powersports inventory management best practices. The problems that make planning hard, from seasonality to supply swings, are in our article on powersports inventory challenges and how to answer them.

Start from sales history by category and month

A plan built from a store-wide total will be wrong in every category. Build it from the bottom up.

1. Pull 24 months of unit sales by category (side-by-side, ATV, motorcycle, PWC, snowmobile and any others), new and used separately. Two years lets you spot a one-off month.
2. Split each category by month. Work out what share of the year's sales each month carries. That share is your seasonal pattern.
3. Set next year's forecast for each category from the recent run rate, adjusted for what you know: a new or lost line, a competitor closing, a price increase.
4. Spread the forecast across the months using the seasonal shares.
5. Write down the assumptions. When the forecast misses, you want to know which assumption broke.

NCM Associates, a dealer benchmarking firm, put the starting point plainly in a 2023 PowerSports Business article: "It all starts – like so many other things – with a great annual sales forecast." From that number it sets monthly sales and gross-margin goals "using seasonal trends", then plugs in purchases "to determine monthly turnover."

Worked example: one category (hypothetical numbers)

A store forecasts 120 new side-by-sides next year and spreads them using its own monthly pattern (rounded to whole units). The numbers are made up; use yours.

Turn the forecast into a stocking plan

A forecast says what you will sell. A stocking plan says what you need on the floor to sell it, and so what to order.

Pick a target stock level for each category, for example "enough to cover the next two months of forecast sales". That is an example, not an industry standard: long OEM lead times call for more, a tight floor plan line for less.

Then, for each month:

Deliveries needed = forecast sales + target month-end stock − opening stock

Continuing the example, with 30 side-by-sides in stock at the end of February and an average cost of $16,000 a unit:

The last column matters as much as the unit count. Add it up across categories and you have your planned floor plan balance for every month of the year. Check the peak against your credit line before you place a single order.

Plan around OEM order windows and allocation

You do not control when units ship, so the plan has to be built around the manufacturer's calendar.

• Order windows. Some products are ordered months before the season. BRP's Ski-Doo "Spring Check" program, for example, asks buyers to order a 2027 sled "by March 31st, 2026 for guaranteed delivery", and says models with "X" or "X-RS" in the name are available only during that spring period. A snowmobile plan for next winter is largely set in the spring.
• Allocation and shipment plans. OEMs decide how much to ship, and they change course. In its fourth-quarter 2024 results, Polaris said lower sales came from "planned reductions in shipments as we actively managed dealer inventory in a subdued retail environment." BRP's chief executive said in March 2025 that it was "the first OEM to adjust shipments to reduce network inventory proactively." Ask each of your OEM reps how your allocation is set and what you can change after you order.
• Off-season shipments and interest programs. NCM notes that "the industry norm of interest reimbursement programs helps keep manufacturing normalized in off season months", but that these programs also "mask the true cost of inventory". Units that arrive in the off-season look free until the program ends.
• Customer pre-orders. Units with a deposit are not stock risk. Track sold orders and stock orders separately.

Write each brand's order deadlines, delivery months and interest-program end dates into the calendar below. Where an order would land units after the season, cut it or move it.

Set the mix by price band

Within a category, plan by price band as well as by count. Twenty side-by-sides on the floor are a problem if 12 of them are the top trim and most of your buyers want the middle one.

Compare each band's share of your stock with its share of your sales over the last 12 months:

The figures are hypothetical. Our rule of thumb: when a band's share of stock runs more than about 5 points above its share of sales, slow orders in that band. Run the same check on colors and trims for your fastest models.

Balance new and pre-owned

Used units do not follow the OEM calendar. They come from trades and purchases, and they need reconditioning before anyone can buy them. Plan them anyway:

1. Set a used target for each category, in units and in dollars, from your used sales history.
2. Plan the sources. Expected trades follow your new-unit sales plan, so a busy spring brings trades with it. Decide how many units you will need to buy beyond trades. Our guide to sourcing used powersports inventory covers where to find them.
3. Plan reconditioning capacity. A used unit in recon is stock you are paying for and cannot sell. See our used powersports reconditioning process for a workflow.
4. Check the combined floor plan peak, new plus used, against your line.

Plan accessories to support the units

Accessories should arrive with the units they sell with, not a month later.

• From your deal history, list the accessories most often sold with each of your top 10 models, and stock enough to cover the units planned for the next two months.
• Add seasonal items to the calendar: plows and cabs before winter, water-sport gear before PWC season.
• Give the parts manager the same unit forecast, so both plans match.

The 12-month planning calendar

Here is a starting calendar for a multi-line store with a northern four-season pattern. It is our recommendation, not an industry schedule. Move the rows to match your region and brands, and write each OEM's real dates into it.

For the year-end count, our guide to a dealership inventory audit has a step-by-step method.

What most inventory plans leave out: the exit

The pages that rank for this topic say to forecast demand and order to it. Few say what happens when the forecast is wrong. Weather, a slow economy or a rival's discounts can leave a category with units after its season. BRP reported in March 2025 that its North American snowmobile network inventory rose "due to lower industry retail caused by late snowfall."

So write the exit into the plan before you order:

• A sell-through date for every seasonal category. For example: "PWC stock at or below 5 units by September 30."
• A trigger and an action. "If PWC stock is above 10 units on August 15, move to the end-of-season price on August 16." Decide it in January, when nobody is emotional about a unit.
• A hold rule. If you keep a unit into next season, write down what it will cost: full-rate interest once any program ends, and the risk of it becoming a prior-year model. Groups can add a transfer option to a rooftop with a longer season.

A plan with an exit turns a bad month into a small markdown, not a winter of interest. For units that have already passed their date, see our guide on how to sell aged powersports inventory.

Review the plan every month

A yearly plan only works if someone checks it monthly. In the first week of each month:

1. Compare actual against plan for each category: units sold, units in stock, units on order, month-end dollars.
2. Re-forecast the next three months if any category is more than about 10% off plan.
3. Adjust open orders where the OEM allows: add, cut, change the model, trim or color mix.
4. Check the next 60 days: interest programs ending, order deadlines, model-year arrivals and exit triggers.
5. Record the decisions and the reason for each, and open next month's review with them.

Use turn and days of supply as the scorecard. Our article on powersports inventory turn rate explains how to calculate them and set targets.

Where inventory software fits

Software cannot set your forecast, but it should make the plan easy to check. PSX Ascend's powersports inventory management software helps with the monthly review:

• Aging visibility: which units are fresh, gaining attention, or need a pricing and merchandising decision.
• Pricing and appraisal views that bring unit, market and dealership context together, with people in control of the final price.
• Rooftop comparisons to support transfer decisions across a group.
• Connected data: inventory sits inside the same platform as the CRM and marketing, so vehicle context supports customer conversations, marketing activity and dealership reporting.

You can also see the same inventory management tools on our sister site, PSXDigital's inventory management tools page.

Sources

• NCM Associates, The silent killer: dealers should be implementing inventory management strategies now, first published in PowerSports Business, July 2023.
• BRP Ski-Doo, What is a Spring Check (2027 model-year pre-order page, checked October 14, 2026).
• Polaris Inc., Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2024 Earnings Results, January 28, 2025.
• PowerSports Business, BRP reports Q4 and FY2025 results with 19.7 percent revenue drop, March 27, 2025.