Configure reordering rules

For certain products, it is necessary to ensure that there is always a minimum amount available on hand at any given time. Maintaining a minimum stock level ensures that businesses can meet customer demand without delays, and keep operations running smoothly. It also helps buffer against supply chain disruptions and unexpected spikes in demand. Inefficiencies may arise from inaccurate demand forecasting, supply chain delays, and warehouse mismanagement, all of which can lead to increased operational costs and wasted resources.

Keep highly demanded products in-stock at all times using reordering rules, that trigger a RFQ (Request for Quotation) each time the forecasted stock quantities fall below the minimum. RFQs generated from reordering rules have the vendor, price, quantity needed to reorder, which makes things faster and more convenient.

Important

The Inventory app must be installed to use reordering rules, as it keeps track of stock quantity.

Configure products for reordering

Products must be configured in a specific way before a reordering rule can be added to them.

Starting from the Inventory, Manufacturing, Purchase, or Sales app, navigate to Products ‣ Products and then click New to make a new product. Alternatively, find a product that already exists in the database and click into it’s product form.

Next, on the product form, enable reordering by ticking the Purchase checkbox underneath the Product name field. Then, under the General Information tab, set the Product Type to Goods. Finally, tick the checkbox labeled Track Inventory, and select an option from the drop-down.

Add a reordering rule to a product

After properly configuring a product, a reordering rule can be added to it by selecting the now visible Reordering Rules smart button at the top of that product’s form, then clicking Create on the Reordering Rules dashboard.

Tip

If the Reordering Rules smart button is not visible, click More.

Once created, the reordering rule can be configured to generate purchase orders automatically by defining the following fields:

• Location specifies where the ordered quantities should be stored once they are received and entered into stock.

• Min Quantity sets the lower threshold for the reordering rule while Max Quantity sets the upper threshold. If the stock on hand falls below the minimum quantity, a new purchase order is then created to replenish it up to the maximum quantity.

  Example

  If Min Quantity is set to 5 and Max Quantity is set to 25 and the stock on hand falls to four, a purchase order is then created for 21 units of the product.

• Multiple Quantity can be configured so that products are only ordered in batches of a certain quantity. Depending on the number entered, this can result in the creation of a purchase order that would put the resulting stock on hand above what is specified in the Max Quantity field.

  Example

  If Max Quantity is set to 100 but Multiple Quantity is set to order the product in batches of 200, a purchase order is then created for 200 units of the product.

• Unit specifies the unit of measurement by which the quantity is to be ordered. For discrete products, this should be set to Units. However, it can also be set to units of measurement like Volume or Weight for non-discrete products like water or bricks.

See also

Reordering rules

Manually trigger reordering rules using the scheduler

Reordering rules are automatically triggered by the scheduler, which runs once a day by default. To trigger reordering rules manually, turn on developer mode, navigate to Inventory app ‣ Operations ‣ Procurement: Run Scheduler. On the pop-up window, confirm the manual action by clicking Run Scheduler.

Note

Manually triggering reordering rules will also trigger any other scheduled actions.

Manage reordering rules

To manage the reordering rules for a single product, navigate to that product page’s form and select the Reordering Rules smart button at the top of the form.

To manage all reordering rules for every product, go to Inventory app ‣ Operations ‣ Replenishment. From this dashboard, typical bulk actions in Odoo can be performed such as exporting data or archiving rules that are no longer needed. As well, the Filters, Group By or triple-dotted menu on the form are available to search for and/or organize the reordering rules as desired.