Know What to Reorder Before You Run Out
Inventory reordering is deciding when to buy more of something and how much - worked out from what you actually sell, not a guess made once and never revisited.
Inventory reordering for small businesses
The problem is rarely one product. It is fifty or two hundred, each selling at a different rate, each with a different supplier and a different lead time, and no realistic way to check all of them by eye before Monday's order goes in. Left unmanaged, reordering becomes either constant fire-fighting on the products that run out, or a habit of over-ordering everything "to be safe" - which quietly ties up cash that could be doing something else.
What is a reorder point?
The reorder point is the stock level at which you should place another order: enough left to last until the new stock arrives, plus a buffer for a supplier running late or a busier week than usual.
It is a level to watch for, not a date on a calendar.
Try the free reorder point calculator for the formula, a worked example, and the difference between a reorder point and plain safety stock.
Reorder point vs minimum stock level
In most small-business use they mean the same thing: the number that triggers a reorder. Some systems draw a distinction - a "minimum" as a hard floor never to be breached, a "reorder point" as the trigger to act - but for a business managing its own stock, one number doing one job is plenty. What matters more than the label is that the number is based on how the product actually sells, not a figure typed in once when the product was added and never looked at again.
How to manage reorder points across hundreds of products
A calculator answers the question for one product at a time, which is exactly right the first time and exactly the wrong tool once the catalogue grows. Recalculating by hand every time a product's sales rate shifts is a job nobody actually keeps up with - which is the real reason minimums set a year ago are usually wrong by now, in one direction or the other.
The fix is keeping the reorder logic against the same data the sales are already recorded in, rather than copying numbers out into a separate sheet that goes stale the day it is saved.
Inventory reordering with StockRoom
Automate works out a reorder point for every product from its own sales history and lead time, shows the working before it changes anything, and sets them all at once with an undo available straight afterwards. Buy then lists exactly what has dropped under that level and how much to order, worked out from how fast each product actually sells - not just what happens to be low today.
Neither one places an order automatically or sends anything to a supplier. Both write down what you asked for, from whom, so nothing is ordered twice and nothing moves without you seeing it first.
What happens if you do not manage reorder points
Two failure modes, and most businesses have lived through both. Running out is the visible one: a customer asks for something that is not there, and the lost sale is obvious the same day. Over-ordering is the quiet one: stock arrives that was not really needed yet, cash that could have paid a bill or bought something else sits on a shelf instead, and nobody notices until it shows up as stock that has stopped moving months later. A reorder point worked out from actual sales, rather than habit or a supplier's suggested minimum order, is what keeps a business out of both.
Lead time is the number most businesses get wrong
Lead time is not how long a supplier says delivery takes - it is how long it has actually taken, including the times it ran late. A reorder point built on the supplier's quoted time with no buffer for the week they were short-staffed or the shipment that missed its slot will look correct until the first time it matters. The honest fix is tracking actual delivery dates against actual order dates for a few orders, rather than trusting the number on the supplier's website.
Seasonal products need their own reorder points
A reorder point worked out from a full year's sales will be wrong in both directions for anything seasonal: too high outside the season, too low just before it starts. The fix is not a more complicated formula, it is recalculating from the right window - the same weeks last year, if the pattern repeats, rather than an average that flattens the peak into something that never actually happens.
Reordering across multiple suppliers for the same product
Some products can be bought from more than one supplier, at different prices and different lead times. StockRoom's reorder point is one number for the product, not one per supplier, because the level at which more stock is needed does not change depending on where it comes from - what changes is which supplier makes sense to order from this time, a decision that still belongs to a person weighing price against how urgently the stock is needed.
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Start free, no cardFrequently asked questions
What is inventory reordering?
Deciding when to buy more stock and how much, based on how fast a product sells and how long it takes to arrive - rather than reacting once it has already run out.
What is the difference between a reorder point and safety stock?
Safety stock is the buffer inside the reorder point, not the whole figure. The reorder point is cycle stock (what you use while waiting for the order) plus safety stock (the cushion for a late delivery or a busy week) added together.
Can inventory reordering be automated?
The calculation can - working out a sensible level from sales history and lead time is arithmetic a system can do for every product at once. Placing the actual order is a decision StockRoom leaves with you: it writes down what to order and from whom, rather than sending anything to a supplier on its own.
How often should reorder points be recalculated?
Whenever sales meaningfully change - a new season, a product that has picked up or slowed down - rather than on a fixed schedule. A level based on stale sales data is often worse than no level at all, because it looks authoritative while being wrong.
Does a new product need a reorder point before it has sold anything?
Not straight away - there is no sales history yet to work one out from honestly. A sensible starting minimum based on the first order quantity is reasonable until a few weeks of real sales exist to calculate from properly, rather than guessing at a lead time and sales rate with nothing behind either number.