Stockday: Forecast & POs

Using Stockday

Stockday tells you what to reorder, how much, and why, then turns that into purchase orders you can send in a couple of clicks. Everything happens inside your Shopify admin, so there's no separate login. If you get stuck, email hello@tekraid.com and someone on the TEKRAID team will help.

Stockday is in the works for the Shopify App Store.

Jump to: Getting started · Home and the Reorder list · How suggestions work · Suppliers and CSV imports · Purchase orders · Shopify transfers · Dead stock and overstock · Low-stock email · Plans and trials · Pro features · Email limits · Data and sync · Support

1. Getting started

Install Stockday from the Shopify App Store and open it from Apps in your admin. On a fresh install, the setup guide on Home takes you through three steps:

1. Connect your store. Click Start import. Stockday reads your products, stock levels and the last 60 days of orders. A small store takes a minute or two, and a big catalog a little longer. You can close the page and come back.
2. Build your first forecast. This starts by itself once the import is done.
3. Review what to reorder. Click See what to reorder to open your Reorder list.

The setup guide, Start import and See what to reorder only appear on a fresh install. If your store has already been imported, you won't see the guide or Start import. Either way, once your first forecast is ready Home shows View reorder list and Draft POs.

You don't have to set anything up first. The guide shows the Defaults we use: your primary location, a 14-day lead time, enough stock for 30 days after a delivery arrives, and 7 days of safety stock. Change any of them later under Settings › Reorder defaults and Settings › Tracked locations. How many locations you can track depends on your plan: 1 on Starter, 3 on Growth and unlimited on Pro.

Moving from Stocky? Do it as part of setup. On Home, the Moving from Stocky? box has an Import from Stocky button. It brings over your suppliers, SKU mappings and past purchase orders from Stocky's CSV exports, so you keep your history and supplier details instead of starting over. More on that in Suppliers and CSV imports.

2. Home and the Reorder list

Home is your daily check-in: what needs reordering today (View reorder list opens the list and Draft POs drafts purchase orders for it), POs waiting to go out (Review drafts), what's arriving this week, your recent purchase orders, and whether your data is current. You'll see "Everything is up to date", or "Data may be out of date" with a Sync details link.

Reorder lists every SKU at your tracked locations, each with a status:

• Out of stock: none left, and it's still selling.
• Reorder now: an order placed today only just arrives in time.
• Reorder soon: you'll reach that point within the next 7 days.
• OK: nothing to do.
• Overstock: more on hand than you're likely to sell for a while (see below).
• No forecast yet: not enough sales history to say.

Search by product, SKU or supplier, or filter by status. Open any SKU to see its forecast chart, its suppliers and the reasoning behind the number. If you track more than one location, the SKU page also shows what each location needs (Growth and Pro plans).

3. How suggestions work

Every suggestion comes with a short line that explains it, like this:

Based on 42 sales in last 30 days + 14-day lead time

That line tells you exactly what went into the number:

• Sales in the last 30 days: net units sold (refunds taken off) at your tracked locations and online. If a SKU hasn't sold, it says "no sales in last 30 days".
• Lead time: how long the supplier takes to deliver. Stockday uses the supplier's lead time for that SKU when you've set one, and your default otherwise.
• Cover (Order enough for in settings): how many days of sales an order should last once it arrives. The default is 30.
• Safety stock: a small buffer for late deliveries or a busy week, either a set number of days of sales or a service level that adjusts to how unevenly a SKU sells.

The suggested quantity covers the sales expected during the lead time and the cover period, plus safety stock, minus what you already have on hand and on order. It's rounded up to the supplier's case pack and minimum order when you've set them. Got a sale or a busy season coming? Add a percentage change for a date range under Settings › Forecast adjustments (Growth and Pro plans).

4. Suppliers and CSV imports

Under Suppliers, click Add supplier and fill in the Name, Email for purchase orders, Lead time (days), Currency and Minimum order (per SKU). Suppliers give each SKU its lead time, cost and case pack, and drafting POs makes one purchase order per supplier.

To add a lot at once, use Import from Stocky (CSV). It takes Stocky's exports as they are, or any CSV with a SKU column, and Download template CSV gives you a file to fill in. The import checks your columns and shows a preview (Rows in file, Ready to import, Rows skipped, Repeated lines combined) before anything is saved. If the file has no SKU column, it tells you so and imports nothing.

5. Purchase orders

Create drafts. On Reorder or Purchase orders, click Draft POs for Reorder now, check the ship-to location, then click Create draft POs. You get one draft per supplier, filled in with the suggested quantities. You can also click Create blank PO and add products yourself, or bring lines in with Import lines (CSV).

If you track more than one location, tick One PO per location (Growth and Pro plans) to get a separate draft for each location, sized by that location's own sales and stock.

Send it. Open a draft, check the lines, then choose one:

• Email PO to supplier sends the PO as a PDF from stockday@mail.tekraid.com, and your supplier's replies come straight to you. On paid Shopify plans you can send from your own domain instead, under Settings › Purchase order email.
• Mark as sent (sent another way), if you'd rather email, call or use a supplier portal yourself. A draft PO has Download PDF and Download CSV right there. Once it's sent, the PO page shows Download PDF and CSV.

Receive it. When the delivery turns up, open the PO and type what arrived into Receive now (or use Scan to receive with a barcode scanner). Click Review and add to stock, check the summary, then click Confirm and add to stock. Stockday adds the units to Shopify inventory at the ship-to location. Deliveries can come in parts, and the PO shows Partially received until everything's in.

Reject. If something arrives damaged or wrong, click Add reasons or backorder units and enter a Reject reason. Those units aren't added to stock. You can also mark units as Backorder with a note.

Close short. If the rest isn't coming, click Close PO (stop waiting for the rest). The PO becomes Closed short and Stockday stops counting the missing units as on order.

Cancel. A PO that's been sent but hasn't received anything yet can be cancelled with Cancel PO.

PO statuses are Draft, Sent, Partially received, Received, Closed short and Cancelled.

6. Shopify transfers

When you send a PO, Stockday also adds it to Shopify as an incoming transfer. The units then show as Incoming in your Shopify admin (Products › Transfers), on product pages and on POS, so your team can see what's on the way without opening Stockday.

The PO page has an Incoming in Shopify box with an Open in Shopify link. When you receive in Stockday, the transfer is received in Shopify too. If you cancel or close a PO, Stockday cancels whatever is still incoming. If Shopify can't be updated right then, the box says so and gives you a Retry button.

The first time, Shopify may ask you to approve the transfer permissions with a banner at the top. Until you do, POs work in Stockday as normal. They just won't show as incoming in Shopify.

7. Dead stock and overstock

Reports › Dead stock and overstock shows where your cash is sitting:

• Dead stock: SKUs with stock on hand and no sales in the last 60 days, ranked by cash tied up (on hand × cost). You can change that to anything from 14 to 365 days in Settings › Reorder defaults, under Dead stock, in the No sales for (days) field. Products added more recently than that window are left out, because it's too soon to judge them.
• Overstock: stock beyond 90 days of demand. For suppliers you order from less often, the line never drops below what one normal order brings in (lead time plus cover), so a delivery you've just received isn't flagged straight away.

The other reports are Low stock, ABC analysis, Inventory value and Shopify's own tools, which points you to the features Shopify's admin already covers, like counts and POS stock lookup.

8. Low-stock email

Under Settings › Low-stock email, Stockday can send your team a short email listing only the SKUs that are out of stock, need ordering now, or will soon. It goes out after the nightly forecast. If nothing is at risk, there's no email.

• Send: Off, Every day or Once a week. For weekly, pick the Day.
• Send to: the addresses that should get it.
• Send a test now shows you what it looks like.

9. Plans and trials

• All plans are billed monthly. There are no yearly plans.
• One 14-day free trial per store. Switching plans during the trial keeps the same end date. Reinstalling doesn't start a new trial: you get whatever days were left, and after that billing starts when you approve a plan.
• Billing goes through Shopify, on your usual Shopify bill. Change or cancel any time under Settings › Plan and billing.
• If your store outgrows its plan, every SKU is still synced and forecast. Only the extra locations wait until you upgrade, and a banner tells you which plan fits.
• Development and partner-test stores use Stockday free, with no limits.

10. Pro features

Stockday Pro adds three tools for working with your suppliers: supplier scorecards, learned lead times and a spend cap. They're all worked out from purchase orders you send and receive in Stockday. Nothing is estimated or borrowed from other stores.

Pro is $299 a month. Starter is $99 a month and Growth is $199 a month. Every plan has the same 14-day free trial, once per store. You can switch plans any time from Plans in the app.

On Starter or Growth you can still open each Pro screen. You'll see a short note about what it does and a preview filled with example data, marked "Example data · locked preview". None of your own numbers are shown there.

Supplier scorecards

What it does. A scorecard shows how each supplier really performs: whether orders arrive on time, how long they take, and how much of each order turns up. You'll find it under Suppliers › Scorecards, and on each supplier's page.

How it's worked out.

• On-time rate. A PO is on time when its first delivery arrives on or before the PO's expected date. There's no grace day, so one day late counts as late. POs without an expected date aren't part of this number.
• Median lead time. The days from when you sent the PO to its first delivery. We show the middle value, so one very fast or very slow order doesn't skew it. You'll see it next to the lead time the supplier promised.
• Fill rate. Units received out of units ordered, on POs that are fully received or closed. Units you rejected don't count as received.
• Short shipments. POs you closed with units that never arrived.
• Cost changes. How often a SKU's unit cost changed from one sent PO to the next with the same supplier, in your store's currency.

A supplier needs 3 received POs in the last 12 months before it gets a score. Until then you'll see "Not enough data" and how many more POs it needs.

Each scored supplier is marked Good or Watch. Watch means fewer than 75% of its POs arrived on time, or its fill rate is below 90%. Rates are rounded down, so 89.6% shows as 89%. A rate just under a line never looks like it's on the line.

A few things are left out so the numbers stay fair: drafts, cancelled POs, POs that were never sent, and POs you only marked as received without changing stock. Purchase history you imported from a CSV file isn't scored either, because it has no sent or delivery dates.

On Starter and Growth. Suppliers › Scorecards shows the locked preview with example suppliers. Each supplier page shows a one-line note and an Upgrade to Pro button instead of the scorecard.

Learned lead times

What it does. Stockday compares how long each supplier really takes with the lead time you set, and suggests a better one when they're different. Lead times drive your reorder points, so a supplier that's slower than you planned for can quietly leave you short. This shows you the real number. You'll find it under Suppliers › Lead times and on each supplier's page.

How it's worked out. For every PO you send and receive in Stockday, we count the days from "sent" to the first delivery. Once a supplier has 4 received POs in the last 12 months, its learned lead time is the median of those days, rounded to a whole day. It uses the same POs and the same rules as the scorecard. We also show the range most of its orders fell in, for example "Most took 13–21 days".

You stay in charge. Nothing changes on its own unless you want it to:

• Automatic updates are off by default. While they're off, you'll see the learned lead time next to yours, and a Use button when they're 2 or more days apart. Choose Use and that supplier's lead time changes. Its SKUs' reorder points are recalculated straight away.
• Turn on automatic updates with one store-wide setting in Settings › Reorder defaults ("Update supplier lead times automatically"). Forecasts and reorder points then use the learned lead time for every supplier with enough history.
• Lead times you set yourself always win. A lead time set on a SKU's page, or on a supplier's SKU, is never changed or overridden.

On Starter and Growth. Suppliers › Lead times shows the locked preview with example suppliers. Settings › Reorder defaults shows the automatic-updates setting greyed out, with "Available on Pro". Supplier pages don't show a lead time card. If you move from Pro to another plan, the setting is kept but paused. Reorder points go back to the lead times you set.

Spend cap

What it does. Set a monthly budget for purchase orders, for the whole store or per supplier. Draft POs then keeps to it, most urgent SKUs first. You'll find it in Settings › Spend cap.

How spend is counted.

• A PO counts when you send it. Drafts don't count until they're sent, though you'll see their total so you know what's coming.
• It counts at its value when you sent it, at unit cost. Rejecting or backordering units when they arrive doesn't lower this month's spend. A cancelled PO stops counting.
• Months follow your store's time zone, so a PO sent at 10pm on the 30th counts in that month.
• Budgets are in your store's currency only. POs from a supplier that bills in another currency aren't counted and aren't trimmed. Stockday tells you which suppliers those are.
• Lines without a unit cost count as zero, and Stockday lists those SKUs so you can add a cost.

When Draft POs would go over. You choose what happens:

• Trim to fit, most urgent first (the default). Out-of-stock SKUs come first, then the ones that run out soonest, then ABC grade (A, then B, then C). Lines are reduced or left out until the drafts fit. Case packs and minimum order quantities are kept.
• Draft everything and warn me. Every suggestion is drafted in full, with a note saying how far over it goes.

Before you draft, the Draft POs window shows what would be trimmed and why. To skip the budget once, tick Ignore the budget this time. Your settings don't change.

Sending is never blocked. If sending a PO would take you over a budget, Stockday asks first and shows by how much. Choose Send anyway and it goes. On a draft that's over, Reduce to fit trims it to what's left.

Per-PO limit. You can also set a limit for a single PO. It's a heads-up only: Stockday shows a note when a PO is bigger. It never splits a PO or stops it from going out.

On Starter and Growth. Settings › Spend cap shows the locked preview with example amounts. Draft POs works as usual, with no budget options and no trimming.

Questions

Do Pro features use data from other stores? No. Every number comes from your own purchase orders and the deliveries you record in Stockday.

Why doesn't my supplier have a score or a learned lead time yet? It needs enough received POs in the last 12 months: 3 for a scorecard, 4 for a learned lead time. POs imported from a CSV file don't count, because they have no sent or delivery dates. Send and receive a few POs in Stockday and the numbers fill in.

Will learned lead times change my settings without asking? Not unless you turn on automatic updates in Settings › Reorder defaults. Even then, lead times you set on a SKU, or on a supplier's SKU, are never changed.

Can the spend cap stop me from sending a PO? No. It asks you to confirm when a PO would take you over a budget, and the per-PO limit is only a heads-up. You can always send.

What happens if I move off Pro? Your purchase orders, suppliers and settings stay. Scorecards, lead time suggestions and the spend cap go back to the locked preview, and Draft POs stops trimming. Automatic lead time updates pause, and come back if you return to Pro.

Something not adding up? Email us at hello@tekraid.com and we'll take a look. TEKRAID, makers of Stockday.

11. Email limits

To look after your suppliers' inboxes and keep everyone's email delivering, there are a few limits, each counted over the last 24 hours:

• 200 purchase order emails per store.
• 3 extra sends of the same PO (resends and retries) after the first one.
• 5 test low-stock emails per store.

If you hit one, Stockday tells you. You can try again the next day, or download the PDF and email it yourself.

12. Data and sync

Stockday reads your products, variants, SKUs, costs, stock levels, locations and orders. For orders, that's the items and quantities sold, never your customers' details. Shopify sends changes to Stockday as they happen, and a nightly check catches anything that was missed. Settings › Data and sync shows when your data last synced and what the nightly check did. Use Re-sync if something looks off.

Shopify shares the last 60 days of orders with apps, so forecasts for long seasonal patterns get better the longer Stockday runs.

When you uninstall, background work stops straight away. Shopify asks us to delete your store's data 48 hours later, and we do. Stockday keeps your shop's domain and the date your free trial started, so each store gets one free trial. Request and access records are kept for 365 days, and they stay after that deletion. The details are in our privacy policy.

13. Support

Email hello@tekraid.com, or use Help inside Stockday to send us a message. You can attach diagnostics there, so we don't have to ask you for details. We're a small team and we answer every message ourselves.

Got an idea? Go to Help › Feature requests. Someone on our team reads every idea, and once we've reviewed it, other stores can upvote it too.

Stocky is a Shopify product. Stockday is made by TEKRAID and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Shopify. We mention Stocky only to help you move your data over.