Asset Giant gives every consumable a reorder level — the minimum stock you want to hold — and raises a low stock alert the moment the quantity on hand drops below it. Type the level once on the item, choose who should hear about it, and from then on the office is emailed the day the screws, cable, PPE or paint run short, while there is still time to order before the next job needs them.
Quantities and reorder levels are recorded on every plan. Low stock alerts are included from the Crew plan.
Two numbers on the item, and nothing else to set up
Every asset has a Quantity on hand and a unit — 42 boxes, 120 rolls, 3 bags (see Track Quantities & Consumables). Beside it sits Minimum stock / reorder level. Leave it blank and the item is never watched; type a number and the item counts as running low whenever the quantity falls below it. Ten boxes with a level of ten is fine; nine is low.
The level is set in three places, so a long register is not typed in by hand:
- On the item — the Core Details card of any asset carries both fields.
- In bulk — select the consumables in your inventory and set one level across all of them at once (see Bulk Actions).
- From a spreadsheet — a column headed Min, Minimum or Reorder is recognised on import and becomes the level on every row (see Import From a Spreadsheet).
Quantities change as they always did — edited on the item, adjusted in bulk, reduced by an invoice that sells stock, or corrected in a stocktake — and the check runs against whatever the quantity is now.
The low stock alert is one plain rule
Low stock is one of the things an alert rule can watch, alongside warranties, test dates and items due back (see Alerts Before a Date Passes). The Alerts tab in Settings already holds a Low stock rule, switched on, so every consumable with a reorder level shows in the app when it runs low; choose who is told and they get an email too. Or write your own:
- What — stock below its reorder level. There is no lead time to choose: the alert fires on the quantity, not a date.
- Which items — every consumable, or only some. Filter by asset type, category, folder, location or status, or hand-pick particular items. “Fixings in the yard” to the buyer and “First-aid stock” to the office can be two rules.
- Who — people on your team, the person the item is assigned to, and up to ten outside addresses such as your supplier or the accounts inbox. An outside address is asked once to confirm before it receives anything.
- Each item, or a summary — an email for each item as it drops, or one daily or weekly round-up at a time you choose. A Monday summary to whoever places the order suits most trades.
- Your own line — a note at the top of every email from the rule: “Order through Travis Perkins account 4471” or “Tell Priya before ordering”.
Each email lists the items that have dropped below their level, with a button that opens each record. When stock is topped up and the quantity is back at or above the level, the alert clears by itself.
Where low stock shows up
- By email — to the people the rule names, per item or as a summary. Anyone can switch their own alert emails off in their Personal Profile without affecting anyone else.
- In the app — a count in the menu, an Alerts page listing every item needing attention, and an Attention needed panel on the dashboard. Read an alert and mark it as seen: it moves to its own tab and stops counting for you, and comes back if the stock is topped up and runs low again.
- In the inventory — the quantity column shows what you hold, on every plan, so a low item is visible even before a rule is written.
Best Practice: Set the reorder level at the quantity you use between one order and the next, plus a margin — if a van gets through four boxes of fittings a fortnight and a delivery takes a week, a level of six keeps a job from stopping. Start with one summary rule to whoever places orders, and add a per-item rule for anything a single site cannot run out of.
Included from the Crew plan
Low stock alerts are part of the Crew plan and every plan above it; quantities, units and reorder levels are recorded on every plan, including Free Forever. Plan detail is in Simple, Scalable Plans; the step-by-step guide is Setting a Reorder Level and Getting Low Stock Alerts.