Explained simply

No jargon, no diagrams. Just the idea, the way you'd hear it across the counter.

Picture an assistant with a notebook

Picture an assistant who keeps a notebook of everything on your shelves.

• A customer buys something → the assistant crosses it off the notebook.
• A delivery arrives → the assistant adds it to the notebook.
• At any moment, the notebook tells you what's left, product by product.

That's what "stock" is in the app: a notebook that keeps itself up to date.

What makes a number go up or down

Every line in the notebook moves for a reason, one at a time:

• a sale → the assistant subtracts (a customer took it);
• a delivery → it adds (a supplier brought it);
• a breakage, a gift, a loss → you tell it, and it subtracts (it left the shelf without a sale);
• you count the shelf and type the number → it replaces its number with yours. Not "add", not "subtract": it believes you, exactly.

So a count isn't one more movement — it's a reset of the counter onto reality. And a rule follows from that, one that avoids a lot of surprises: once you've counted, everything that happened before is already inside your number. The assistant will never go back and re-add a delivery from before your count — that would count it twice. Your count draws a line in the sand ("at this moment, there was exactly this"), and the tally starts again from there.

The assistant also writes your order lists

It doesn't just count. It watches what sells and drafts your supplier orders for you. For each product:

• it adds up what your customers have ordered for the days ahead;
• it subtracts what you already have on the shelf (no point re-ordering what's there);
• it doesn't re-order what's already on its way (an order already sent to the supplier).

You get a ready-made list — exactly what's needed, no more, no less.

The little rules the assistant follows

Four rules, all common sense.

1. It orders in time — never late

Each supplier only takes orders on certain days (like the baker: orders on Monday and Wednesday). The assistant works backwards: "the farmer delivers the next day, so to have the goods by Thursday I need to order on Monday." It always aims for the goods to arrive in time — a little early if needed, never late.

Its golden rule: it never orders something it couldn't deliver to the customer in time. Your two order-days a week almost always leave enough room to make it. And if an order comes in truly too late to be restocked in time, it does not force it onto a late delivery (goods arriving after the customer needed them are no help) — it leaves that one aside, for you to handle directly.

2. One list per supplier

It doesn't scribble a hundred little notes. It gathers everything you need from one supplier onto a single order: one list for the farm, one for the cheese dairy, one for the grocer.

3. Products "bought in bulk"

Sometimes several things on your shelf come from one thing bought in bulk. Example: you sell apples by the piece and in a bag, but the farmer only sells them by the crate.

The assistant then uses a "stand-in" product (the crate of apples) that represents all your apples. It adds up what all your apple products need, converts it into crates, and orders crates — never the pieces or bags on their own (the farmer doesn't sell those). And it deducts the apples you already have, in every form.

4. Always whole cases

The supplier sells by the case — you can't order half a case. The assistant always rounds up to the next whole case. And if you've set it a small safety margin, it adds that too, to avoid running out.

Grouped suppliers: one list per farm

Rule 2 deserves a closer look — it's what saves you ten scattered order slips.

Three customers order for Thursday, all from the same farm: the first wants carrots, the second carrots and potatoes, the third eggs. The assistant doesn't write three lists — it makes one, for the farm:

• the two customers' carrots add up onto a single line (not two);
• the potatoes and eggs join the same list;
• and it goes out on the farm's order day (each supplier has its days).

One supplier → one send day → one order that gathers everything. The same product ordered by several customers ends up summed on one line, never scattered.

"Stand-in" products: many forms, one purchase

Back to the apples, with numbers this time. You sell them in three forms — by the piece, in bags of 4, by the kilo — but the farmer only sells by the crate of 20.

The assistant creates a "stand-in" product ("the crate of apples") that represents all your apples, whatever the form. When it prepares the order:

1. it adds up the demand across all forms: 12 pieces + 2 bags (that's 8) = 20 apples;
2. it subtracts the apples already in stock, all forms together: you have 6 → 14 left;
3. it converts to crates (it knows a crate is 20 apples);
4. it rounds up to a whole crate → 1 crate ordered. Never pieces or bags: the farmer doesn't sell those.

The assistant can't see the shop — so it guesses

Here's the point that explains almost everything. The assistant lives in the notebook, not in the shop. It doesn't see the cases arrive or the customers leave. So it assumes:

"The supplier delivery was due today → I'll assume it arrived, and add it."

"The customer order was due today → I'll assume it left, and cross it off."

Nine times out of ten it's right — and it saves you ticking everything off by hand.

When it guesses wrong, you fix it in one click

Sometimes the guess is wrong — a delivery never showed up. That's easy to catch:

• on the Stock page, the "Assumed receptions" list shows everything the assistant assumed it received;
• the "Cancel reception" button removes the stock and puts the order back to pending.

The golden rule: your eyes beat the notebook

If you count the shelf yourself and type the number in, the assistant believes you. Your count always wins over its guesses — it starts again from your number.

A few concrete examples

A simple product — yogurts. Eight customers ordered a yogurt for Thursday, you have five on the shelf. The assistant does 8 − 5 = 3 to order. The supplier sells by the pack of 6 → it rounds up to one pack. (So you're left a little ahead — that's normal.)

A "stand-in" product — apples. Same example as above: 20 apples demanded, 6 in stock, crate of 20 → 1 crate ordered, even though the real need is only 14.

Grouped customers — one farm. Customer A wants 2 lettuces, customer B wants 3 lettuces and a bunch of radishes, both for Thursday and from the same farm. The assistant makes one farm order: lettuces 5 (a single line), radishes 1. It goes out on the farm's order day.

The number that "moves on its own". Tuesday morning, the app assumes the scheduled yogurt delivery arrived → the number goes up by 12. Except the supplier delivered nothing. You open "Assumed receptions" on the Stock page, click "Cancel reception", and the number comes back down. It wasn't a bug — just a guess, fixed in one click.

Remember, in three sentences

1. The app keeps your stock up to date on its own and drafts your supplier orders.
2. It assumes scheduled deliveries and orders happened on their date — which is why numbers move "on their own".
3. Your count always has the last word, and a reception that didn't happen cancels in one click.

Want one notch more detail? The Overview is the full map, and A typical week explains when to count without double-counting.