Intake

Intake is counted when goods are received and sellable, not when the PO is dated or the vendor ships — the gap between those dates is lead time, and it lives in the T&A calendar. Phasing intake against the sales curve is the heart of in-season planning: intake that leads demand by the cover you intend to hold keeps the plan balanced, while intake that lags it produces the thin weeks a monthly view hides. Open-to-buy is the control on the same flow — the intake still allowed for a period after what has landed and what is on order.

Intake margin is the margin the goods carry as they land — the gap between cost and initial retail on a period’s receipts, before any markdown. Maintained margin is intake margin less what markdowns later give back, so a season’s margin is decided twice: once at intake, once at the exit.