Inventory how-to

How to build an inventory dashboard

A useful inventory dashboard for a small store shows four things per SKU: units on hand, days of stock left, when to reorder, and how much to order.

Short answer: A useful inventory dashboard for a small store shows four things per SKU: units on hand, days of stock left, when to reorder, and how much to order. You can build a basic version in a spreadsheet, or use a tool that already tracks these numbers per variant so you are not updating it by hand every week.

What the dashboard needs to answer

A dashboard is only useful if it answers three questions at a glance: what is low, what to order, and when to order it by. Anything beyond that is decoration. Resist the urge to add charts that look good but do not change what you order this week.

The core columns are: SKU, on hand, daily sales rate, days of stock remaining, lead time plus safety days, reorder point, and suggested order quantity. If you sell on more than one channel, add a column for on-order quantity so you do not double order.

Build it in a spreadsheet first

Start with a simple export of current stock levels and recent sales per variant. Calculate daily sales as units sold over the last 28 days divided by 28. Then calculate days of stock as on hand divided by daily sales. Sort by days of stock ascending so the most urgent items float to the top.

Add a reorder point column using lead time plus safety days multiplied by daily sales. When on hand drops below that number, the row should flag red or move up the sort order. This is manual work, so plan to refresh the sheet weekly, not daily.

Automate the parts that go stale fast

The weak point of a spreadsheet dashboard is that it goes out of date the moment you make a sale or receive stock. If you are updating it by hand more than once a week, it stops being reliable and people stop trusting it. Consider connecting live stock and sales data instead of re-exporting manually each time.

If you have several suppliers with different lead times, keep a separate small table of lead time and safety days per supplier. Reference that table in your reorder point formula rather than hardcoding the same lead time for every SKU.

Keep it to one view per decision

Avoid building one giant dashboard that tries to show everything. A buying dashboard for reorder decisions is different from a dashboard for overall stock value or sell-through. Keep the buying view narrow: SKU, days of stock, reorder point, suggested quantity. Put everything else in a separate report.

Step by step

  1. List every active SKU with current on-hand quantity and unit cost
  2. Pull units sold per SKU over the last 28 days and divide by 28 to get daily sales rate
  3. Add lead time and safety days per supplier, then calculate reorder point as daily sales x (lead time + safety days)
  4. Calculate days of stock as on hand divided by daily sales, and sort lowest to highest
  5. Flag any SKU where on hand is at or below its reorder point
  6. Calculate suggested order quantity as daily sales x (lead time + days of cover) minus (on hand + on order)
  7. Refresh the sheet at least weekly, or connect a tool that updates these numbers automatically

Worked example

Say a store sells a candle that moved 84 units in the last 28 days, so daily sales is 84 divided by 28 equals 3 units a day. The supplier lead time is 10 days and the store keeps 4 safety days, so the reorder point is 3 x (10 + 4) equals 42 units. Current stock is 50 units, so days of stock is 50 divided by 3 equals about 16.7 days, above the reorder point, so no order yet. If stock drops to 40 units, that is below the 42-unit reorder point, and with a target cover of 21 days the order quantity would be 3 x (10 + 21) minus 40 equals 53 units.

How SteadyShelf helps

SteadyShelf already calculates daily sales rate, reorder point, and suggested order quantity per variant, and sends a weekly reorder email so you are not rebuilding a spreadsheet by hand. It does not give you a general-purpose dashboard for stock value, sell-through charts, or per-location views, so for those you will still need a separate report or spreadsheet.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial. Run the numbers now with the free reorder point calculator.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related guides

All inventory how-to guides ยท Inventory glossary

FAQ

Can a dashboard replace placing actual purchase orders?

No. A dashboard tells you what to order and when, but someone still has to turn that into a purchase order and send it to the supplier. Some tools, including SteadyShelf, draft the purchase order from the same numbers and email it to the supplier once you approve it.

How often should the dashboard numbers update?

At minimum weekly, since lead times are usually measured in days and a stale week-old number can mean you miss a reorder point. If sales are volatile or lead times are short, update more often or use a tool that recalculates automatically as sales and receiving data change.

Let SteadyShelf do this math for every SKU

Order-by dates per supplier, seasonal forecasts and draft POs for your Shopify store. $29/month after a 30-day free trial.

Get early access