Live stock & minimum levels
The authoritative on-hand number per product and the minimum you set; at or below minimum puts the product on the reorder feed.
Deep dive · Replenishment
How reordering works.
Replenishment is worth real money when it works - so we explain the mechanism instead of calling it magic. The inputs a suggestion uses, how a draft becomes an order, the controls that keep you in charge, and the honest limits of the system today.
What it is
Context-rich replenishment inside your live system.
VFusion is not a standalone forecasting suite; it is replenishment built where your stock, suppliers, prices and orders already live. That means fewer hand-offs: the suggestion, the draft order, the receiving and the payment all happen on the same records - and every number on the draft is a number you can click through and check.
Step 1 · Inputs
What a suggestion is built from.
Only signals the system actually tracks. If it is not on this list, the suggestion does not use it.
Sales movement
Sell-through and days of cover per product, computed from your real sales history.
Supplier price files
Each supplier’s buy price and own article code per product - learned automatically from every previous order and invoice.
Open purchase orders
What is already ordered and what has partially arrived, visible next to the suggestion.
Expiry (FEFO)
Batches and expiry dates with a live countdown, so you see short-dated stock before you reorder more of it.
Cost & margin
Weighted average cost and the current margin per line, visible on the draft before you approve it.
Step 2 · The suggestion
From signal to draft order.
- 1
The reorder feed
Every product at or below its minimum, with a suggested order quantity and the default supplier - one list, updated live.
- 2
Adam drafts the order
Per supplier, Adam assembles a draft purchase order: the supplier’s most-ordered lines, live stock, margins and buy prices prefilled from the price file.
- 3
Timing, learned per product and supplier
Adam continuously learns your stock movement and works out when to buy, so drafts arrive when they are worth your attention - not on a fixed schedule.
- 4
Everything on the table
Each line shows quantity, buy price, margin and the supplier’s own article code. Change any of it - quantity, supplier, price. It is your order.
Step 3 · Controls
Nothing is ever sent without you.
Review & approve
Drafts are drafts. You review, adjust and accept; only then is the order created and emailed to the supplier, with your reference on the PDF.
Permission-gated
Creating and approving orders requires the purchasing right. Users without it don’t even see the button - on web or on the scanner.
Audited end to end
The activity log records who created, approved and received each order; the email ledger keeps what was sent to whom.
Honest receiving
Receive partially or fully; stock adjusts only for what actually arrived, and over-receiving demands explicit confirmation.
Step 4 · Exceptions
The awkward cases, handled in the open.
New products, no history
No sales history means no pretend forecast: you set a minimum, and the reorder feed carries the product until real data accumulates.
Partial deliveries
A half-delivered order stays open for the rest; the part that arrived goes into stock immediately.
Supplier shortages & substitutions
Lines can be edited or moved to another supplier - and the price file learns the new supplier’s codes and prices from the next order.
Abnormal sales spikes
A one-off bulk sale will surface on the reorder feed. The review step exists precisely so you can catch what an algorithm cannot know.
Short-dated stock
The FEFO feed lists everything expiring within your window, so expiry is on the table when you approve the order.
Returns to supplier
Purchase returns are first-class: send goods back and both stock and the books stay consistent.
Current limits
What it does not do (yet).
A short verified list beats a broad vague one, so here is the honest edge of the system today:
- No probabilistic demand forecasting: suggestions come from your minimums, live stock, sales movement and supplier history - not from a seasonal prediction model. If a specialist forecasting suite is what you need, we’ll tell you so in the fit call.
- Promotions and seasonality are yours to judge: the draft gives you the numbers, the review step gives you the wheel.
- Multi-echelon distribution planning (optimizing warehouse-to-warehouse allocation) is not a current capability; stock transfers between locations are.
See it drafted on your own catalog.
Bring your products and suppliers; watch the feed, the draft and the approval happen on data you recognise.