Stock
Low-stock alerts and notifications
How the bell warns you about low stock and billing, and how to act on it.
For: Owner, Manager
iTrade watches your stock levels for you. When a product runs low or runs out, a notification appears under the bell at the top of the page, so you can reorder before customers are turned away. Owners and Managers see the bell.
The bell
The bell icon sits in the top bar. A red number on it shows how many notifications you haven't read yet.
- Click the bell to see your latest unread notifications. "You're all caught up." means there are none.
- Click View all to open the full Notifications list, with the date, company, category and message of each one.
- Click Mark Read on a notification once you've dealt with it.
The app has a Notifications tile with the same list.
What you get notified about
| Notification | When |
|---|---|
| Low stock (warning) | A product's stock falls to its Reorder level or below, for example "Sunlight Soap 175g is low on stock (2 left, reorder level 6)." |
| Out of stock (critical) | A product reaches zero or below. |
| New purchase order | Someone, for example a Sales Person, creates a purchase order for you to review. |
| Subscription | Your subscription is about to renew or has expired, a new invoice is ready, or a payment has been received. |
iTrade checks stock levels every few minutes, so a notification can take a little while to appear after a sale.
Alerts clear themselves
You get one alert per product, not a new one after every sale. If a low product then runs out, the same alert is updated and shows as unread again. Once you restock the product above its reorder level, its alert disappears on its own.
Set reorder levels that suit you
The alert is only as good as the product's Reorder level (Stock → Products → Edit). A good level is roughly what you sell between placing an order and the goods arriving, plus a little extra. For example, if you sell 4 a day and deliveries take 3 days, set it to about 15.
Set the Reorder quantity too: it is used when you create a purchase order from low stock.
Acting on low stock
- Open Stock → Products and click Filter: Needs Reorder to see everything at or below its reorder level.
- Click + Purchase Order from Low Stock to start an order with all of them filled in.
- Check the quantities, pick the supplier and save. See Buying stock.
The Stock Report also shows how many products are low or out of stock, and the Dashboard shows how many are out of stock.
A product showing as out of stock when you can see it on the shelf means iTrade's count is off. Check for a delivery that wasn't entered, or do a stock take.