What the dashboard lists, what each column means, and how a recommendation becomes a purchase order.
The dashboard is one list of everything still in play: what to order, what you have started ordering, and what is on its way. Each row is one supplier, never one product — nobody places one order per SKU.
What the rows are
The Status column tells you what kind of row it is:
- Recommended — the forecast says you should buy from this supplier. Nothing has been ordered yet.
- Draft — a purchase order you created but have not sent. It changes nothing yet.
- Sent, In transit, Partly arrived — orders on their way. Their units already count as incoming, so the forecast stops asking for them.
Rows are sorted in the order you work through them: recommendations first (most urgent date at the top), then drafts, then orders on their way (soonest arrival first).
The columns
- Supplier — who you buy from. Under the name you may also see:
- the order number, on rows that are orders;
- Draft #N already open, when you already started an order for that supplier;
- $X short of the $Y minimum, when the recommendation does not reach the supplier's minimum order value.
- Units — total units across all products in the row.
- Value — what those units cost. A dash means at least one product has no cost, so we don't show a total that would be too low.
- When — means something different depending on the row:
- Order by [date] — the last day to place the order before stock drops below a safe level. In red when you are already late.
- on a 14-day estimate — the date rests on the default lead time, not one you confirmed. See Suppliers and lead times.
- Arrives [date] — expected arrival of an order already sent.
- Was due [date] — the order is late. Chase the supplier.
Turning a recommendation into an order
Click the supplier name on a Recommended row. That creates a draft purchase order with the quantities the forecast suggests, and opens it. Nothing is sent and your stock does not change until you mark the order as sent. See Purchase orders.
If the supplier already has an open draft, the click takes you to that draft instead.
To see which products are in a recommendation, and why each quantity is what it is, open the supplier from Suppliers. The Needs reordering table there lists every product with its quantity, order-by date and the reasons behind it.
The tiles at the top
- Orders to place — suppliers with a recommendation.
- Drafts — purchase orders not sent yet.
- On the way — orders sent and not fully arrived, with their value.
- Late — orders past their expected arrival. Shows Chase when there are any.
Notices you may see
- Worked out [date and time] — when the numbers were last calculated. The forecast runs every night; you can dismiss the notice until the next run.
- Stock levels have not been read yet — the first stock read is still running. Until it finishes, recommendations assume you have nothing on hand, so treat them as an upper limit.
- Limited to 60 days of orders — Shopify has not given the app access to your full order history yet. The forecast works, but it cannot see seasons.
- Finish setting up — a short checklist: give products a supplier, confirm lead times, and add unit costs. Each step makes the numbers more accurate.
What is not on the dashboard
- Products you marked as Ignored.
- Products whose stock Shopify does not track.
- Dead stock — products with stock that have not sold in 90 days. You'll find them in Inventory, filtered by status.
When the list is empty you'll see Nothing pending: every product has enough stock to last until a new order could arrive.
When it updates
The forecast is recalculated every night. Some changes show within seconds: marking an order as sent removes its units from the recommendation right away.