In brief. When headquarters revises demand after a plant has placed orders, the question is not forecast accuracy. Instead, it is who holds the authority to amend purchase commitments after demand changes, and on what evidence. A revised forecast is a planning instruction, while an accepted order binds a third party. Separating the two therefore comes first, before the group cancels anything.

A revised forecast arrives after the plant has committed

A group has headquarters in Austria and a plant in Slovakia. In one quarter the site released orders against the plan from headquarters; in the next, headquarters cut the volumes. As a result, the plan no longer stands and the orders still do. The division of decisions below is hypothetical, however, not a claim about Slovak law.

ZAP SR, the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic, puts Slovak vehicle output at about 1.07 million units in 2025, up 7.7 per cent on 993,583 in 2024, and forecasts 1.02 million for 2026, about 5 per cent lower. In addition, it cut the 2027 forecast from 1.27 million to 1.08 million vehicles. Germany Trade & Invest figures from October 2026 show Slovak automotive new orders down more than 5 per cent in the first half of 2026.

However, the direction of travel is not uniform. Eurostat recorded euro area industrial production down 1.1 per cent year on year in August 2026, while the S&P Global Eurozone Manufacturing PMI reached 52.9 in September 2026 with input buying at its second-fastest rate since May 2022. In other words, plants bought into a recovery while customers cut their order books. CLEPA also reported in March 2026 that 24 per cent of European suppliers expect negative profitability this year, up from 15 per cent.

Separating owned material from excess purchase commitments

The first error is arithmetic. Excess purchase commitments reach headquarters as one exposure figure, implying one cash recovery. In fact they are three positions with different rights, and our analysis of días de existencias pendientes covers stock measurement.

Material already on site

The plant owns the material on site. Management can therefore use, redeploy, sell or write it down, but cannot amend it, because no counterparty decision remains. Under IAS 2, Inventories, it sits at the lower of cost and net realisable value, so only valuation remains.

Outstanding purchase obligations

Orders the plant placed and the supplier accepted, plus call-offs already inside lead time, bind a third party. The revised forecast did not touch them. They are therefore the only items an amendment can reach, and the ones people inside the group call cancelled.

Requisitions the plant has not yet placed

Proposals the plant has not yet issued are the only tranche it can stop alone. Stopping them is immediate and free. However, it is also the smallest position, so a stop instruction rarely produces the figure headquarters expects.

Verify the obligation before changing the instruction

A revised forecast does not by itself establish a cancellation or compensation entitlement. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), 1980, in force for Austria since 1 January 1989 and for Slovakia since 1 January 1993 among the 97 contracting states UNCITRAL lists, states at Article 29(1) that the parties may modify or terminate a contract by mere agreement. Article 29(2) then adds that where a contract requires modifications in writing, the parties cannot otherwise modify it. Whether it reaches a given order remains a question for legal specialists.

The UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts put it from the other side. Article 6.2.1 holds a party to its obligations even where performance becomes more onerous, while Article 6.2.3 treats a renegotiation request as a request, not a right to withhold performance. Similarly, the Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA) recommended purchase conditions let a buyer request modifications within what is reasonable for the supplier. None of this settles purchase commitments after demand changes, so four things belong on the table first:

• the order terms, including any written-modification and call-off clauses
• the group’s own obligations to its customer for that programme
• the supplier’s position on tooling, committed material and batch size
• the timing: what is inside lead time, in transit, or still stoppable

Purchase-order amendment approval: the options and the owner

Retain, defer or seek an agreed amendment

Retaining the commitment avoids a charge, although it means carrying unneeded material, which under IAS 37, Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets, raises a possible onerous contract question. Deferring delivery moves the cash without reducing the obligation and needs the supplier’s agreement. By contrast, seeking an agreed amendment is the only route that reduces the obligation, and the only one needing a counterparty to say yes. Each carries a different charge, so the comparison belongs in front of the authorised owner.

The purchase-amendment record

One document should carry the decision so it survives those who took it. Purchase-order amendment approval holds up to audit only if someone records the reasoning. The record therefore sets out, in order:

1. the demand change, with date and source
2. the obligation, by order and quantity
3. the terms and evidence behind it
4. the options open at that state
5. the counterparty agreement required
6. the approver who signs
7. the amendment they authorise
8. the charges accepted
9. the implementation step and date
10. the cash effect, with evidence

Connecting HQ forecast and plant purchasing authority

The gap between HQ forecast and plant purchasing is not a communication failure. Rather, it is a distribution of decision rights nobody has mapped. Three separate powers govern purchase commitments after demand changes, and they usually sit with three different people.

Only whoever owns the customer relationship, usually a key account owner, can change that commitment. Similarly, only whoever holds the supply agreement can negotiate the supplier amendment, and that may be a group category manager rather than the plant purchasing manager who issued the call-off. Approval of the plant’s revised instruction then rests with whoever the delegated authority or approval matrix names, often a regional CFO, while the group COO or supply chain director carries the consequence.

Neither side is behaving unreasonably. Headquarters sees the customer assumption change first and expects purchasing to follow, while the plant declines to act outside its authority. Both readings are correct, and the route between them is what is missing.

Implementation and proving the cash effect

If the decision has not changed a document, nobody has implemented it. Someone must amend the order as the contract requires, tell the supplier in writing, and update the planning system so the superseded release stops generating call-offs. Until then, the excess purchase commitments stand unchanged.

Finance must then state the cash claim accurately, because improvement on paper often exceeds the bank balance. Under IAS 2, a write-down to net realisable value becomes an expense in the period and moves no cash, while avoided future expenditure reduces a payment nobody has made yet. IAS 7, Statement of Cash Flows, keeps that line visible by confining itself to actual movements of cash, and the IFRS Foundation standards set the distinction. Verification then asks whether the payments due to leave the account have stopped.

The decision on purchase commitments after demand changes

The group is choosing between three positions, each with a cost. It can retain the commitments and fund the material, consuming cash the subsidiary needs elsewhere, or seek amendments and pay the charges, converting an uncertain obligation into a known cost. Alternatively it can defer and hold both open, where most groups sit, because nobody owns the gap between HQ forecast and plant purchasing.

Where the existing finance, purchasing and account owners hold the authority, capability and time, they should conclude this, and our note on interim CFO working capital stabilisation gives that context. However, where the exposure is material and no owner can conclude it, dedicated interim finance or supply-chain leadership can coordinate the route within the authority the group already delegated, reporting in both directions as the Institute of Interim Management’s Code of Conduct describes. CE Interim, part of the Valtus Alliance, works in that position between headquarters and the site.

Preguntas frecuentes

Does a revised forecast cancel an order?

No. A revised forecast is a planning instruction and changes nothing in the supplier contract. Because CISG Article 29(1) provides that the parties may modify or terminate a contract by mere agreement, the counterparty must agree, and any entitlement then depends on the order terms.

Who can approve an amended purchase commitment?

The approver whom the delegation of authority names, usually a regional CFO, acts once the customer-side owner confirms the demand change and the supply agreement holder confirms the supplier position. Purchase-order amendment approval is not the instruction to stop placing new orders, which the plant can issue itself. Treating the two as one decision is therefore the most common error in handling purchase commitments after demand changes.

How should the group assess charges and delivery consequences?

Against the obligation state, not the exposure total. Material already on site carries no charge, placed orders carry one depending on the supplier’s committed position, while unplaced requisitions carry none. The approver therefore needs each option’s charge against the carrying cost and the delivery risk if demand recovers.

Does avoided future purchasing count as cash?

No. Avoided future purchasing reduces a payment nobody has made yet, and under IAS 2 a stock write-down becomes an expense in the period rather than a receipt. A group can report both as improvement, yet neither puts money in the account, so they belong apart from collections.