What it is
The ladder is the live money position of a commitment against its buy envelope, in four terms that tie in cents: declared, held for the chase, open to commit, placed. It is one ladder: the book, the room and the desk's money line read the same position read, so a number checked on one page is the number on the next. Four terms, not three: leaving out the reserve would make open to commit and remaining the same figure under two names.
How Tightly decides it
Every leg is integer cents from the record onward, and each carries both cents and dollars so a reader can re-assert the arithmetic. Declared is the envelope as signed. Held for the chase is the declared reserve less every release against it. Placed is the cost of purchase orders placed against the scope over the window, on the same lines and the same valuation as open to buy's committed figure, split into what has landed and what has not. Open to commit is declared, less held, less placed, and it is signed: once placed spend eats into the reserve it goes negative and is shown, never floored.
Two legs sit beside those four. Reserved is drafted purchase order cost, money already written down and not yet placed; free to commit is open to commit less reserved, and it is the leg the verdict is stated on, because a green computed on room that drafts have already claimed is a green a buyer can spend twice. Remaining is declared less placed. For a rolling commitment the ladder is measured over the current fiscal month, since its envelope is a monthly rate. Across the portfolio, shortfalls are summed and never netted against another commitment's surplus: a pool does not lend.
A leg that cannot be computed comes back absent with its reason, never zero, and a scope the envelope engine cannot bind reads not computed in the compiler's own words. A failed read is a failed read, never an empty position.
The words on the face
The desk's money line, in order: Buying budget · Placed · Open to commit · Buying reserve · Plan need. The last is the plan of record's own need, and it opens Open to buy. While the buy is being worked, three more stops follow Buying budget: Worked buy, Funded and Remaining to plan, the envelope less the reserve less the worked buy, which reads Into the buying reserve or Over the envelope when the buy passes those lines. Where the replenishment engine wants more than is free to commit, two stops close the line: the engine's forward need, Recommended buy, and Funding gap.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Buying budget | The envelope as signed |
| Placed | Purchase order cost placed against the scope, with its share of the envelope |
| Open to commit | Declared less held less placed, with how much of it is drafted |
| Buying reserve | The reserve still held back, with how much has been released |
| Worked buy | The working copy of the buy, at unit cost |
| Remaining to plan | The envelope less the reserve less the worked buy |
| Not computed | A scope or a leg the read could not bind, with the reason |
On All commitments each row carries an Open to commit column, and the head's Envelope and Available figures total the rows in view. A commitment without an envelope reads No envelope declared and measures no money.
What you can do about it
Amend moves the declared rung as a new version. Release the chase moves money from held into open to commit. Add to Bench stages lines that would draw on free to commit without moving it; confirming an order out of Drafted is the one door where a line the ladder cannot fund is refused. Open to buy reads the plan's side of the same money, month by month.
Glossary line
The ladder is a commitment's money position in four terms that tie in cents, declared, held for the chase, open to commit and placed, read from one position read on every page that shows it.