Decide what to do next
Automate
The jobs the app should do instead of you.
Three jobs you know you should do and will not do by hand, worked out from movements already recorded. Each one shows every number before it changes anything, and none of them touches a stock level. Working out a sensible minimum for two hundred products by hand is a Sunday nobody gets back; this does it in the time it takes to read the list. Nobody opens a spreadsheet on a Sunday to recalculate two hundred minimums, which is exactly why they never get recalculated without this screen.
For a business with too many products to work out minimums and reorder levels by hand.
What is on it
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Set the minimums
Works out the level each product should never drop below from its own sales, how long suppliers take and the days of stock you want to hold, then sets them all at once.
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Undo straight afterwards
Setting them offers an Undo that puts every minimum back the way it was.
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Counting rota
Every place with stock in it, most overdue first, with how long since it was counted and what is on the shelf. Start a count straight from the list.
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Needs attention
Stock in no place at all, products with no cost, no selling price, no minimum or no barcode, and stock that has not moved in a year, each with the screen that fixes it.
How it works
- Tell it how long your suppliers take and how many days of stock to hold.
- Check the minimums it proposes, then set them all.
- Use the counting rota and the attention list to decide what to do this week.
Read more: Inventory reordering and replenishment
How reorder points work, and why they need revisiting as sales change.
Questions people actually ask
Will any of this change my stock?
No. None of the three jobs touches a stock level. They set minimums, tell you which place is due a count, and list what needs attention. Every number is shown before anything is written, and setting minimums can be undone straight afterwards.
How are the minimums worked out?
From how fast each product has actually sold and how long it takes to arrive, with the days of cover you choose. The screen shows the working for every product before you accept it, and you can change any number by hand afterwards.
What is the counting rota?
The places you keep stock in, ordered by how long it has been since each was counted, with the most valuable first where two are equally overdue. It is the answer to the question that stops most shops counting at all: not when, but which shelf next.
Why three jobs and not more?
Because these are the three that are pure arithmetic on data the app already has: a minimum from sales history, a rota from count dates, a list from missing fields. Automation is only trustworthy where the answer is a fact, not a guess dressed up as one, and StockRoom will not claim to automate a decision it cannot actually make for you.
Does this automatically place orders like a replenishment system?
No. Automate sets the minimums that Buy then uses to work out what is short, and it can rota your counts and flag what needs attention, but placing an order is still a decision you make on Buy, not something this screen does for you. A full automated replenishment system generates and sends purchase orders on its own; StockRoom stops one step earlier, at the numbers, because the sending and the supplier relationship still deserve a human looking at them.
The other tools
- OverviewThe whole business on one screen: stats, graphs and alerts.
- FindWhere everything is, and what you have got.
- ScanPoint the camera at a barcode.
- CountCount a shelf and record what you actually find.
- ReceiveTake a delivery in and record what actually turned up.
- MoveMove stock from one place to another, and know it arrived.
- PickGather an order in the order the shelves are in.
- SellRecord what went out of the door.
- BuyWhat is running out, and how much to order.
- OptimiseWhat is not moving, and what it costs.