An empty shelf on a product people come in for costs you the sale and sometimes the customer. The POS flags products at or below their low-stock threshold; your job is to look at that list often enough and turn it into an order.
Signs you are in this situation
- The Low stock tile in Inventory → Stock is growing, or the Inventory page pops a Low stock: notice for a product.
- Cashiers see Only N left when adding the product at Checkout.
- The product is near the top of Reports → Product Sales by Units Sold and its Turnover Ratio in Inventory Analytics is high.
What to do right now
- Open Inventory → Stock and filter to Low stock. Check On hand against Threshold for each product.
- Open Purchase Orders → New Purchase Order, pick the supplier, then tap Suggest reorder from low stock. The POS adds the products this supplier supplies that are at or below their threshold. Adjust quantities and Save Draft.
- Send the order to the supplier the way you normally do (the POS does not email it). The draft stays in Purchase Orders with status Draft.
- When the goods arrive, open the purchase order and tap Receive Shipment so stock, cost and expiry update together.
- If you can get the product sooner from another source, receive that delivery through Suppliers → Receive Shipment under that supplier.
Decide
| If… | Then… |
|---|---|
| The product is out and the supplier delivers this week | Order now, tell cashiers the date, and suggest a substitute at the counter. |
| The suggestion list is empty for the supplier | The supplier has no products linked at or below threshold. Link the products in Suppliers → Edit → Products supplied, or add lines manually. |
| The product is a best seller but never shows as low stock | Its threshold is probably not set. Contact support to have thresholds set for your key products, and watch Product Sales weekly in the meantime. |
| You are low on many products from the same supplier at once | One purchase order per supplier. Check Inventory Analytics → Turnover to size the quantities. |
Afterwards, and how to prevent it
- Look at the Low stock filter every morning as part of opening the day.
- Link every product to the supplier you actually buy it from; the reorder suggestion depends on it.
- Review Product Sales → By Units monthly and make sure your top twenty products have a threshold that covers the supplier lead time.
- Do not raise thresholds on everything. Too many low-stock alerts and people stop reading them.