Help · Updated 22 October 2026
Reorder list and purchase orders
Set a minimum on each item and the Today / Reorder list shows everything at or below it. The suggested top-up is twice the minimum minus what is on hand, editable before you order, and on Pro the list can become draft purchase orders.
Most small shops reorder from memory, and memory is optimistic. You remember the coffee, you forget the lids, and the lids are the thing that stops the coffee being sellable. A minimum turns that memory into a number the list can check for you, and the list turns the number into a quantity you can order.
Set a minimum on an item
- Open the item.
- Set its minimum stock — the level you do not want to drop below before the next delivery arrives.
- Save. The item now appears on the reorder list whenever its on-hand quantity is at or below that minimum.
Pick the minimum from your delivery rhythm, not from a feeling. If a supplier takes a week and you sell about ten a week, a minimum near ten keeps you covered through the order. If the supplier is next door, the minimum can be small. The number is a decision about risk, and it will change with the seasons; a minimum set once and never revisited is how a shop ends up either overstocked or short.
Where the list lives
The Today / Reorder list shows every item at or below its minimum. It is a working list, not a report: the point is to open it before ordering and close it afterwards, not to read it once a month. Items without a minimum never appear, because there is no line to cross.
How the suggested top-up is calculated
The suggestion is simple arithmetic: twice the minimum, minus what is on hand. The doubling is deliberate. Topping up to exactly the minimum means the item is back on the list the moment one is sold, so the shop orders constantly. Aiming at twice the minimum gives you a buffer to sell through.
| Minimum | On hand | Calculation | Suggested top-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 4 | 20 − 4 | 16 |
| 10 | 10 | 20 − 10 | 10 |
| 6 | 0 | 12 − 0 | 12 |
| 24 | 20 | 48 − 20 | 28 |
The formula knows nothing about pack sizes, shelf space or a supplier's minimum order. That is why the number is editable rather than fixed: the arithmetic gives you a starting point, and you adjust it to what actually fits on the shelf and in the order.
Edit before you order
Every suggested quantity can be changed. Round up to a case, round down because the stockroom is full, or order nothing for an item you are discontinuing. The edit belongs to the order you are placing, not to the minimum, so next week's suggestion is calculated from the same rule again.
Nothing is ordered automatically. The list suggests, you decide, and the order exists only after you make it. That is the right split: a formula cannot see that a supplier is unreliable this month or that a promotion is about to double demand.
Group by supplier
Grouping the list by supplier sorts the items into the orders you are actually going to place. When the list is grouped and opened as draft purchase orders, you get one draft per supplier rather than one draft containing everything. That matches how deliveries arrive: a coffee supplier does not ship lids, and an order that mixes the two has to be untangled by hand.
Grouping relies on the supplier recorded on each item, so an item with no supplier cannot be placed in a supplier group. That gap is a useful signal in itself: the item is either a one-off purchase or its details were never finished.
Copy or share the list
The list can be copied or shared, which covers the shops that still order by message or by phone. Copy it into a message to the supplier, or share it with the person who does the ordering. It is a plain list of what to buy, so it works outside the product as well as inside it.
Sharing is also the honest fallback when a supplier has no ordering system: the list is the order, and the ledger still records what arrives.
Draft purchase orders on Pro
On the Pro plan, the reorder list can be opened as draft purchase orders. A draft is not a commitment: you review the lines and quantities, then send it when it is right. From there the order is received against what actually arrives, which is the part that keeps the stock honest.
- Open the reorder list and check the suggestions.
- Edit quantities where the formula does not fit the shelf or the pack size.
- Group by supplier if you are ordering from more than one.
- Open the list as draft purchase orders — one per supplier when grouped.
- Review each draft and send it.
Receiving a partial order
A delivery rarely matches the order exactly. Receive what arrived; the order stays partial with the balance open, and the rest can be received when it turns up. Over-receiving is reported rather than blocked, because the shelf is the truth and the ledger has to follow it.
This is why the draft, the send and the receive are three separate steps. If they collapsed into one, a short delivery would either close the order early or leave stock that arrived unrecorded. Keeping them apart means the order can be late, partial and still correct.
What it does not do yet
- No demand forecasting. The suggestion is the fixed formula above, not a prediction from sales history. Seasonal demand is your edit to make.
- No automatic ordering. Crossing a minimum adds the item to the list; it does not create or send an order by itself.
- Draft purchase orders need Pro. On Starter the list, the suggestions and copy or share still work, but not draft purchase orders.
- No pack-size awareness. The formula works in the item's unit, so rounding to a case is a manual edit.