An agent that watches your stock, works out what to reorder and how much, and drafts the order for you to approve.

The sale you lose to an empty shelf never shows up in your figures. It just walks out.

Reordering falls to whoever has a minute, and a minute is never enough to do it well. Order too late and the shelf is empty when a customer comes for it, so they buy it somewhere else and you never know the sale existed. Order too much and the cash is tied up in stock that sits, or spoils. Getting it right means tracking every item's sales, its lead time and its season at once, which no one has the hours for, so most reordering is done by guess and by memory.

Your agent reads the stock for you. It takes the on-hand levels from the inventory or point-of-sale tool you already run and how fast each item has been selling from your sales or bookkeeping records, works out when each item needs reordering and how much to bring in, accounting for how fast it moves and how long the supplier takes, and drafts the order for you to approve. What reaches you is a purchase order ready to sign, not a shelf you find empty on a Saturday.

A reorder report tells you what fell below a fixed number. Your agent works out what the right number is.

A stock report flags whatever has dropped under a threshold somebody set once and rarely revisits. That fixed number is wrong most of the year: too high for a slow month, too low the week demand climbs, blind to the fact that one supplier takes two days and another takes three weeks. The report tells you something crossed a line. It does not tell you whether the line was in the right place.

Your agent works out where the line should be. For each item it reads how fast it is actually selling now, how long it takes to arrive, and what the season is doing, and from that it decides the moment to reorder and the quantity to bring in. The question it answers is not "what is below the threshold" but "what will run out before the next delivery can land, and how much should I order so it neither runs dry nor sits."

Three businesses, and the reordering that runs in the background.

A hardware store. A heat wave is forecast, and fans and cooling units will move in days, while the road salt that sold all winter is now dead until autumn. Across thousands of items, the owner cannot re-judge each reorder point against the weather and the calendar. Your agent works out that the fans need ordering now and in quantity, holds the salt, and drafts the order accordingly. The owner knows a heat wave is coming. Only a system watching every item's sales and lead time can say which of thousands to reorder today because of it.

A pet supply store. A staple food is selling steadily and is three days from running out, but the supplier takes two weeks and will not ship below a minimum order. Your agent sees the runway, works out that it has to order now to avoid a fortnight's gap, and sizes the order to clear the supplier's minimum without overstocking a perishable. The owner could not know, item by item, which staples are inside their supplier's lead time this week. The agent tracks the gap between how fast it sells and how long it takes to come.

A café. Milk and beans are perishable, the daily par depends on the weather and the footfall, and a catering order for tomorrow morning has just doubled the demand for both. Your agent reads the par against the booking and drafts today's order to cover the spike without leaving milk to turn by Thursday. The owner knows a big order came in. Working out exactly how much extra milk and coffee it means, against what is already on the shelf and what spoils, is the sum the agent does.

Stock does not run out on a schedule. It runs out at the speed customers happen to buy it.

What is about to run short is a moving thing. It depends on how fast each item is selling this week, what is already on the shelf and in the back, and what is on its way in. Kept by hand, that picture is out of date the moment it is written, which is why the item you were sure you had is the one the customer is standing there wanting.

Your agent keeps the picture current by reading the tools you already run. It takes the stock levels straight from your inventory or point-of-sale system and how each item has been selling from your sales or bookkeeping software, so it knows what is on hand and how fast it is moving. It reads all of your items this way, not the handful someone remembered to check.

It refreshes that read as often as your systems update, so a fast-selling week shows up in the numbers it pulls while there is still time to order, rather than being noticed once the shelf is already bare.

When to reorder and how much are two different sums, and both change with the season.

The right time to reorder an item is not when it hits a fixed number, it is early enough that the next delivery lands before the shelf empties, which depends on how fast it is selling and how long the supplier takes. The right quantity is enough to last comfortably without tying up cash or spoiling, which depends on the same two things plus what the season is about to do. Neither is a constant, and setting both by hand for every item is why it is usually set once and left wrong.

Your agent does both sums, per item, from the numbers in your own systems. It works out the reorder point from the recent sales rate in your sales or bookkeeping records and the supplier's lead time, so the order goes in with just enough runway, and it works out the quantity to cover demand until the delivery after next. Where your calendar shows demand coming, a booking, an event, a large order due, it reads that and factors it in on top of the usual rate, and it adjusts as sales climb into a season or fall out of one. Where an item spoils or a supplier sets a minimum order, it sizes the quantity to respect that.

By the time it drafts an order, both the timing and the amount are worked to this week's demand and this supplier's lead time, not to a threshold set last year.

The purchase order arrives ready to send, grouped by supplier, for you to approve or adjust.

The last step is yours. What the agent brings you is a draft purchase order: what to reorder, how much, from which supplier, and why each line is on it, grouped so you place one order per supplier rather than a scatter of separate ones.

Your agent hands it over the way a good stock manager would bring you an order to sign, with the reasoning behind each line rather than a bare list. You approve it as it stands, change a quantity, drop a line, or send it back. Where you allow it, it can place the approved order with the supplier itself and record that it went. What it never does is send an order you have not seen when something falls outside the rules you set, such as an unusually large spend or a new supplier.

An order that goes in with the right timing and the right quantity is the shelf that is full when the customer arrives and the cash that is not sitting in stock that will not move.

Watches the stock · works out when and how much · picks the supplier · drafts the order to approve

It runs the reorder decision, from the shelf to the draft order, and stops where the sign-off is yours.

• It reads your stock levels straight from the inventory or point-of-sale system you already run, and how fast each item is selling from your sales or bookkeeping records, rather than tracking anything on its own.
• It reads demand you have coming from your calendar, a booking, an event or a large order due, and factors it in on top of the usual sales rate.
• It works out the reorder point for each item from how fast it is selling now and how long the supplier takes to deliver, rather than from a fixed threshold.
• It works out how much to order, enough to last without tying up cash or spoiling, adjusting as demand climbs into a season or falls out of one.
• It respects supplier minimums and lead times, sizing an order to clear a minimum and timing it so the delivery lands before the shelf empties.
• It picks the supplier for each line where you buy the same item from more than one, by your rules on price, speed or preference.
• It groups the order by supplier, so you place one clean order each rather than a scatter of lines.
• It drafts the purchase order with its reasoning shown, why each line is on it and in that quantity, for you to approve or adjust.
• It places the approved order where you allow it, and records that it went.
• It stops rather than guessing when a reorder falls outside its rules, an unusual spend or a new supplier, and brings it to you with what it has already worked out.

Your suppliers, your lead times, your minimums, and how much cover you like to hold

How you reorder is particular to you. The suppliers you use and how long each really takes, the minimum orders you have to clear, how much cover you like to keep on a fast mover, the items you never want to run out and the ones you are happy to let sell through, and the spend above which you want to decide yourself.

Your agent is built against those rules. It reorders the way your own stock manager would if they could watch every item at once, and when your suppliers, your lead times or your preferences change, it changes with you.

Every order is logged with its reasoning, and you decide what it places on its own

Each draft order is recorded with the working behind it: what was running down, how fast it was selling, the lead time it allowed for, and why it chose the quantity and the supplier it did. You can read back exactly why any line was ordered.

You set how much it places by itself. It can draft orders for you to approve every time, or place routine reorders within limits you set and bring you only the large or unusual ones, or hold everything for your sign-off. Where it is unsure, it does not order on a guess. It brings you the draft with what it has worked out, so nothing is bought that you would not have bought.

Who this is for

This suits any business that keeps stock and loses money at both ends of getting it wrong, the empty shelf and the cash tied up in what will not move. Retailers carrying more items than anyone can watch by hand. Food and perishable businesses where a day's over-ordering is spoilage and a day's under-ordering is an empty case. Anywhere with suppliers whose lead times and minimums make timing a real decision. Anyone whose best stock manager is the one who senses what is about to run short and orders it in time.

If the empty shelf is a sale you never see, the reorder before it empties is the thing to build first.