Using AI Inventory Reorder

What Inventory Reorder does

Inventory Reorder looks at your film roll stock and generic inventory items, compares what's on hand against your reorder thresholds, and projects a run-out date from the last 30 days of usage.

It hands back a ranked list of what to order and how urgently, plus a plain-English headline summarizing the situation.

There's no dedicated "AI Tools" entry in the sidebar anymore. Reach this tool by opening Growth & Marketing from the sidebar (under "Run the shop"), then clicking its AI Tools tab, which loads the AI Tools hub inline (that tab also has an "Open standalone" link straight to /app/ai),

and clicking the "Inventory Reorder" card in the hub's own "Run the shop" section. Plain Cmd+K opens a different feature ("AI Help," a KB-grounded Q&A popup) — it won't take you here, and the Cmd+Shift+K page-search palette doesn't have this tool registered yet either.

Nothing runs automatically when you open the page. The left card, "Burn-rate analysis," just describes what the tool compares — reorder thresholds and recent burn rate on both film inches remaining and item units on hand — until you click Run.

While it's working the button switches to "Analyzing…" and the results card shows "Analyzing inventory…"; before you've run it at all, the results card just says "Run to generate a reorder list."

Reading the results

Once a run finishes, you get a headline sentence at the top of the results card — this doubles as your empty-state message too, so if everything's adequately stocked you'll see a checkmark and a headline saying so instead of a list.

When there is something to reorder, each line shows the item name, an urgency badge (CRITICAL, SOON, or WATCH, color-coded red/amber/blue), whether it's Film or a generic Item, a run-out estimate ("~N days left"), a recommended order quantity, and an italicized reason line explaining why it was flagged.

If the tool can't compute a reliable run-out date for an item, it shows "Run-out unknown" instead of guessing — that's normal for items with little usage history rather than a bug.

Turning suggestions into draft POs

Below the reorder list, a separate "Draft purchase orders" card groups every suggestion by its resolved default supplier so you can generate one PO per supplier instead of clicking through each line individually. This section only appears once there's at least one item to reorder.

Click "Create draft PO" for a supplier group and it calls the same purchase-order creation used elsewhere in SalesThumb, pre-filled with the suggested lines — no additional AI call, so this step doesn't cost anything extra.

The order quantity gets seeded by pulling the first number out of the recommended-order text (e.g., "2 rolls" becomes quantity 2); if that text doesn't parse to a usable number it defaults to 1, so double-check quantities on the PO detail page before sending it to the supplier.

One gotcha worth knowing: film products don't carry a supplier field in the catalog today, so film suggestions always land in a shared "No supplier set" group at the bottom — even if you already have suppliers configured for items.

Once you create a draft PO for a group, the button is replaced with a "View {PO number}" link straight to that purchase order; there's no way to regenerate or undo it from this screen, so any further edits happen on the PO itself.

Every PO created this way is a DRAFT — it still needs your review before you send it, and its notes field is auto-stamped "Auto-drafted from AI Inventory Reorder suggestions." so you can tell later how it originated.

Stub mode vs. live mode

Like other AI tools in SalesThumb, this page shows a badge in the header: "● Live" (green) or "● Stub mode" (amber). Inventory Reorder is a Pro feature.

The status is specific to your shop: it reads Stub when your plan doesn't include the tool or your shop has used its AI allowance for the current 30-day period.

In stub mode a notice under the badge explains which of those applies. If your plan doesn't include the tool, running it returns "Your plan doesn't include this AI tool. Requires Pro or higher." instead of results. If only the AI allowance is used up, the tool still runs, and results include a small "Stub output — set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for live results." note at the bottom of the list (that wording is aimed at developers — there's nothing for you to set) so you don't mistake placeholder data for a real read on your stock.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What does Inventory Reorder actually analyze?

A: It looks at your film roll stock and generic inventory items, compares what's on hand against your reorder thresholds, and projects a run-out date from the last 30 days of usage.

Q: What do the urgency badges mean?

A: CRITICAL, SOON, or WATCH, color-coded red, amber, and blue respectively, showing how urgently that item needs reordering.

Q: What if the tool can't tell when an item will run out?

A: It shows "Run-out unknown" instead of guessing — that's normal for items with little usage history, not a bug.

Q: How accurate is the order quantity pre-filled on a draft PO?

A: It's seeded by pulling the first number out of the recommended-order text (e.g., "2 rolls" becomes quantity 2); if that text doesn't parse to a usable number it defaults to 1 — so double-check quantities on the PO detail page before sending it to the supplier.

Q: Why do all my film suggestions land in "No supplier set" even though I have suppliers configured for other items?

A: Film products don't carry a supplier field in the catalog today, so film suggestions always land in a shared "No supplier set" group at the bottom, even if suppliers are set up elsewhere.

Q: Is Live/Stub mode set per shop, and are draft POs sent automatically?

A: Live/Stub is worked out per shop — it reads Stub when your plan doesn't include the tool (Pro only) or your shop's AI allowance for the period is used up.

And every PO created from this tool is a DRAFT that still needs your review before you send it; its notes field is auto-stamped "Auto-drafted from AI Inventory Reorder suggestions."