Place orders to your suppliers with ease using purchasing automation tools in SKULabs.
Reliably create purchase orders for hundreds of suppliers in just a few clicks using reorder rules to automate the quantity to order.
Our real-time calculations prevent under and over-ordering helping you keep your store in-stock and your float under control.
One-time setup: your default reorder rule
SKULabs comes with a default re-order rule that won't automate any purchasing for you.
If you want to opt-in to purchasing to keep products in stock and/or backorder, you will need to define your reordering strategy.
This is something you'll set up during your onboarding and from then on you'll rely on this default to automate your purchasing operations in SKULabs. It's always customizable, but it's important to capture your ideal ordering strategy in this onboarding step.
Choose a reordering strategy below.
Go to the purchase order settings page.
In Re-order Rule, enter your chosen re-ordering rule e.g.
(velocity * 30) - free - incomingClick save at the top right of the page.
For recommended re-ordering strategies see reordering strategies below.
Customize per supplier / per category
Your reordering strategy can be temporarily modified whenever you need during the purchasing process.
Start a new PO.
Select a supplier (optional)
Click add items
Filter by item tag (optional)
Click "Filters"
Next to the "Use suggested quantity" option, click "edit rule".
Try any rule you might only want to run for this supplier / these items. e.g.
alert - (free + incoming)
Per-item reorder rules, lot quantity and minimum quantity (MOQ)
Each supplier item can have its own reorder rule, lot quantity and minimum quantity. Use them when a supplier sells an item only in cases or packs, or has a minimum order quantity.
Open the supplier and edit the item in its catalog, or open the item and edit its supplier.
Fill in any of these fields:
Minimum quantity: the smallest quantity the supplier accepts. Your rule reads it as
minimum_quantity.Lot quantity: the pack or case size the supplier sells in. Your rule reads it as
lot_quantity.Re-order rule: a rule for this item only. It replaces the account rule and the rule edited in the PO Filters for this item.
Save.
These values apply to suggested quantities in the PO Add items window. If an item has more than one supplier, select the supplier on the PO (or in Filters) so SKULabs knows which supplier's values to use. Without a selected supplier, an item with several suppliers uses the account rule, and lot_quantity and minimum_quantity are 0.
Lot quantity and minimum quantity do nothing by themselves; use them in a rule. Examples:
Round the 30-day rule up to full cases:
Math.ceil(((velocity * 30) - free - incoming) / (lot_quantity || 1)) * (lot_quantity || 1)Order at least the minimum quantity when stock is needed:
((velocity * 30) - free - incoming) > 0 ? Math.max(minimum_quantity, (velocity * 30) - free - incoming) : 0
The || 1 keeps the rule working for items with no lot quantity. Suggested quantities are always rounded up to whole units, and negative results become 0.
Advanced: Reorder variables
Adjust your accounts rule to suit your reordering strategy with the following variables or view our recommended reordering strategies below.
free: Net available stock (on_hand - reserved).on_hand: Current physical stock.reserved: Stock reserved for open orders.incoming: Stock expected for receiving on open purchase orders.alert: The desired threshold to replenish stock.sold: Total quantity of an item sold based on "# days sold" filter selected on the PO Add items window.velocity: This issold / (days_on_sale || num_days_sold || 1)num_days_sold: The number of days that contained sales in the reporting period. Great for products you always sell out of quickly to help forecast true demand if you were in stock full-time.days_on_sale: This reflects the number of days from the first sale identified within the reporting period and is good for new products that launched within the reporting period which mostly remained in stock throughout the reporting period.days_left: This isfree / velocitybut takes into account incoming POs due to arrive before you stock out.contiguous_free: This isdays_left* velocity. You can use this for a realistic view of the future inventory for this SKU without ever stocking out based on current velocity and incoming POs.num_days: The number of days selected in "# days sold" filter on the PO Add items window.lot_quantity: The Lot quantity set on the supplier item (0 if not set).minimum_quantity: The Minimum quantity set on the supplier item (0 if not set).
Num days / num days sold / days on sale help
If today is January 30th, but I went in-stock on January 15th and had a sale on January 16th, a sale on January 20th, and a sale on January 30th, then with "30 days sold" selected in my filter dropdown:
num_days_sold = 3
days_on_sale = 15
num_days = 30
Note: The replenishment transfer order tool can only utilize a subset of these parameters but reach out to us in chat for help improving your replenishment orders.
Recommended strategies
Every company has different reordering strategies. Here are some common recommendations:
⭐⭐⭐ 30-day sales velocity less existing POs⭐⭐⭐
This is our best recommended reordering strategy.
This sets your target inventory level to 30 days of sales and accounts for currently available inventory and open purchase orders.
The lookback period over which we calculate your sales velocity is customizable during PO creation e.g. use the filter "# days sold" set to 30 if you only want to reference the last 30 days of sales data for your velocity.
This rule safely prevents over-ordering.
🖥️ Rule Code 🖥️
(velocity * 30) - free - incoming
Sixty days less incoming inventory that arrives before stock-out
SKULabs doesn't track supplier lead time or shipping time per SKU, so this rule uses one 60-day window for all products. It reorders 60 days of forecasted sales minus the total inventory you have and the inventory expected by your calculated stock-out date. Make sure your "# days sold" filter matches when creating POs.
This rule can cause over-ordering but is a powerful tool to ignore POs due next year when you're calculating inventory for today.
🖥️ Rule Code 🖥️
(velocity * 60) - contiguous_free
Per-item minimum inventory target mode
Use your item's stock alert levels to set to a desired "minimum inventory target"
Your "minimum inventory target" should be the quantity of stock needed to meet the maximum sales demand over the maximum time it could take for stock to arrive from suppliers.
NOTE: Always account for safety stock, especially with a lean inventory strategy.
🖥️ Rule Code 🖥️
alert - (free + incoming)
Backorder-only mode
Reorder the stock needed to fulfill open orders for out-of-stock products only.
Safe against over-ordering.
🖥️ Rule Code 🖥️
0 - (free + incoming)