Inventory and stockout planner
By Toolspoke
Reads Shopify sales and stock each week, flags likely stockouts and slow movers, and writes reorder suggestions for a person to approve.
Needs a Toolspoke account. You choose which project it installs into.
- Shopify + Google Sheets + Slack
- Required integrations
- Runs on a schedule
- Mondays at 8am by default
- Post one message
- What its last step does
- Some actions can delete
- 4 of 34 actions in its tools
On this page
- The short version
- What Inventory and stockout planner does
- How it works
- What a weekly plan looks like
- Who uses Inventory and stockout planner
- What it connects to
- What it will never do
- When it runs
- How to set it up
- Make Inventory and stockout planner fit your store
- Compared with other options
- Questions
- Related agents
The short version
- What it is
- A ready-made Toolspoke agent that turns Shopify sales and stock into a weekly plan for whoever buys stock.
- What it reads
- Every variant's stock, 90 days of paid orders, and your supplier sheet for lead times and minimum orders.
- What it flags
- Products likely to run out, products that are not selling, and products too new to judge.
- What you get
- Rows in a Google Sheet and one Slack summary, each flag with the numbers behind it.
- How often
- Every Monday at 8am once you switch it on.
- What it never does
- Place or draft a purchase order, adjust stock, edit a product or change a price.
- What you need
- A Toolspoke account, a Shopify Admin API token, a Google account and a Slack workspace.
What Inventory and stockout planner does
Inventory and stockout planner is an AI agent that compares what your Shopify store has sold with what is on the shelf, and tells you every Monday what to reorder, what is about to run out and what is not selling. You decide what to buy.
Stock problems are slow to show and expensive to fix. A bestseller runs out while a supplier's lead time is three weeks, and a slow mover quietly ties up cash on a shelf for a year. Both are visible in the numbers, but only if someone does the sums for every product, every week.
A dashboard shows stock levels and sales separately, and leaves the sum to you. A spreadsheet can do it, until the person who built it leaves.
Inventory and stockout planner does the sum for every variant. It divides what is on hand by how fast it sells, compares the days of cover with the supplier's lead time from your sheet, and flags what is at risk. It shows the numbers behind each flag, so a buyer can check one in a minute and trust the rest.
In practice, you get a plan you can act on:
- Products that will run out before a reorder could arrive, out of stock first
- Products that are not selling, with the days of stock they hold
- A suggested order quantity where your sheet has a lead time
- The numbers and dates behind every flag
How it works
Inventory and stockout planner works in five steps each Monday: it reads stock, reads sales, works out how fast each product sells, compares that with your supplier sheet and writes the plan. All of it comes from the agent's written instructions, which you can read and edit after you install it.
Step 1: Read the stock
It lists every variant with its quantity on hand.
Step 2: Read the sales
It adds up the units sold per SKU over the last 90 days.
Step 3: Read your suppliers
It reads lead times and minimum orders from your sheet.
Step 4: Flag and suggest
It flags risks and suggests quantities only where a lead time is known.
Step 5: Post the plan
It adds rows to your sheet and posts one Slack summary.
It uses the same window every week
The window is the last 90 days, ending yesterday, and the post says so. Using the same window each week makes one week's plan comparable with the next. Cancelled and fully refunded orders are left out.
It works out days of cover
For each SKU it works out units sold per day over 90 days and over the last 30, then divides what is on hand by the recent rate. That is the days of cover. If nothing sold in the last 30 days it uses the 90 day rate. A product with under 30 days of history is marked too new to judge, not flagged.
It only suggests a quantity where it has a lead time
Shopify does not know your suppliers. So quantities come from the supplier sheet you provide: lead time in days and minimum order. The suggestion covers the lead time plus 30 days, less what is on hand, rounded up to the minimum order. A SKU that is not in the sheet is marked no lead time on record, and gets no quantity, not a guess.
It says what it cannot see
It cannot see open purchase orders, so every suggestion says to check them before buying. It also says when a recent rate looks like a spike, and that a 90 day average misses seasons. The limits are listed under what it will never do.
What a weekly plan looks like
A plan from Inventory and stockout planner is rows added to your Google Sheet and one Slack message. The message opens with the window and the counts, then lists the five products closest to running out, each with its days of cover and lead time.
Northwind
Channels
- # inventory
- # ops
- # buying
- # general
# inventory
Window 15 July to 12 October. 412 variants and 1,860 orders read. 6 to order soon, 9 slow moving.
Order soon (6)
- Linen shirt, M is out of stock and sold 12 in the last 30 days. Lead time 21 days. Suggested order 150, minimum 50.
- Canvas tote has 9 left, selling 3 a day: 3 days of cover against a 14 day lead time. Suggested order 180.
- Wool scarf, grey has 11 days of cover. No lead time on record, so no quantity.
Slow moving (9)
- Wool scarf, red has 240 on hand and sold 11 in 90 days: about 1,900 days of cover.
- Ceramic vase has stock and no sale in 74 days.
Check before buying
4 products too new to judge. Open purchase orders are not visible here, so check them before ordering.
- Order soon
Products whose stock will run out before a reorder could arrive, and products already out of stock that sold recently. Each has its days of cover, its lead time and a suggested quantity where the sheet allows.
- Slow moving
Products holding more than about six months of stock at the current rate, or with stock and no sale in 60 days. They are candidates for a promotion, a bundle or a stop on reordering.
- Check before buying
Products too new to judge, and the reminder to check open purchase orders, which the agent cannot see.
Why it sometimes gives no quantity
If a SKU is not in your supplier sheet, the agent has no lead time, and a quantity without one is a guess. It flags the risk and says no lead time on record, so you know what to add to the sheet.
If Shopify cannot be read, or the order history is cut short, it says how much it read and gives no advice for what it did not. A plan built on part of the data reads as a full one.
Who uses Inventory and stockout planner
Inventory and stockout planner suits anyone who decides what to reorder for an online store and does not have time to do the sums for every product. The examples use made-up names.
A store owner who buys stock too
Mira Okafor runs a four-person shop. She used to find out something had sold out when a customer wrote in. Now the Monday message tells her three weeks before.
An inventory manager with many SKUs
Tomás Reyes manages four hundred variants. The plan gives him the six that need action and the numbers for each, so he starts with a short list.
A finance lead watching cash tied up in stock
Jo Adeyemi wants to know what is not selling. The slow moving group shows the stock held and how many days it would last.
An operations lead with a supplier sheet
Imran Qureshi already keeps lead times in a sheet. The agent reads it, so the suggestions use his numbers, and anything missing from the sheet shows up as a gap to fill.
What Inventory and stockout planner connects to
Inventory and stockout planner connects to three tools: it reads Shopify, reads and adds rows to Google Sheets and posts to Slack. You connect each one yourself, and Toolspoke stores the connection encrypted, so the agent never sees the credential.
Shopify
RequiredSearch orders, products, variants, customers and draft orders, and adjust inventory.
Authentication: Admin API access token
Google Sheets
RequiredRead and write spreadsheet ranges, append rows, add sheets, and create new spreadsheets.
Authentication: Sign in with Google
Slack
RequiredSearch conversations and send messages to your workspace.
Authentication: Bot token
| Tool | What Inventory and stockout planner does | What it cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Reads variants with their stock, and paid orders in the window (list_variants, search_orders). | Place a purchase order: the connector has no action for one. It can adjust inventory and edit a product, and this agent's instructions forbid both. |
| Google Sheets | Reads your supplier sheet and adds rows to the end of the Recommendations tab (read_range, append_rows). | Delete a spreadsheet. The connector can overwrite or clear a range, and the agent is told only to add rows, never to change or clear one. |
| Slack | Posts one summary with send_message, to a channel. | Delete messages: the connector has no delete action. |
That the agent never adjusts stock or edits a product is an instruction to the agent, not a lock. Shopify's stock adjustment is a destructive action in the connector. For a lock, create a Shopify token with read access only, or switch the stock and product write actions off for the project. The access control guide explains how.
The activity log records each call, but for Shopify reads it keeps only that the call happened, not the orders that came back. The summary posted to Slack and the rows written to your sheet are kept.
Shopify returns an order's first twenty line items. The agent notes any order with twenty and says the counts for its products may be low.
What Inventory and stockout planner will never do
Inventory and stockout planner is told never to adjust stock, edit a product or change a price, and never to create, draft or send a purchase order. It recommends, and a person approves and buys.
- Adjust inventory, edit a product, change a price or a status.
- Create, draft or send a purchase order, or write to a supplier.
- Treat a sale made during a one-off promotion as normal demand without saying so.
- Forecast beyond the window.
- Overwrite or clear anything already in the sheet.
Why it keeps recommendations apart from action
A wrong stock number or an unwanted order costs real money and is hard to undo. The plan goes into a sheet and a Slack message, and nothing in the store or with a supplier changes until a person decides.
What it does with a sales spike
A promotion or a viral week can make a product look faster than it is. If the 30 day rate is more than double the 90 day rate, the plan says the recent rate may be a spike, and does not quietly order for it.
Why you may still want a lock
No instruction is a perfect lock. If you want certainty, use a read-only Shopify token, or switch off the stock adjustment and product edit actions in your project.
If something goes wrong
If Shopify cannot be read, post that once and stop. If the order history is cut short or a page of variants failed, say how much was read and give no advice for what was not. If the supplier sheet cannot be read, still post the flags, give no quantities, and say why.
These are written into Inventory and stockout planner's instructions. They guide the agent, but they are not a permission. What it is allowed to touch is set by the access you grant.
Inventory and stockout planner reads your store and recommends. Every purchase, stock change and price change stays with a person.
When Inventory and stockout planner runs
Inventory and stockout planner runs every Monday at 8am, but only after you switch its schedule on. It arrives switched off, so nothing runs and nothing is charged until you decide.
- Each Monday it reads stock and the last 90 days of paid orders.
- It adds rows to your sheet and posts one Slack summary.
- If Shopify cannot be read, it posts that once and stops.
- If the supplier sheet cannot be read, it still posts the flags and gives no quantities.
Each run uses model credit from your workspace balance, and a bigger catalogue or busier store costs more because there is more to read. The Shopify, Google Sheets and Slack calls themselves are free.
Your copy is an ordinary agent in your project. You can pause its schedule there, run it once on demand, change the day and edit its instructions. The agent's page lists recent runs and their cost.
How to set up Inventory and stockout planner
To get a weekly stock plan, add Inventory and stockout planner to a Toolspoke project, connect Shopify, Google Sheets and Slack, add your supplier sheet and switch on the schedule. It takes a few minutes, and nothing runs until the last step.
Step 1: Create a Toolspoke account or sign in
Choose Use this agent. If you are new, you will be asked to sign up first, and you come straight back to this agent afterwards.
Step 2: Add it to a project
Pick the project it should live in. You get your own editable copy, and you can see the three tools it brings before anything connects.
Step 3: Connect Shopify with a read-only token
In Shopify, create a custom app with read access to products, inventory and orders, and paste its Admin API token. Leave write access off: the agent does not need it.
Step 4: Make the supplier sheet
Create a Google Sheet with one row per SKU: the SKU, the supplier's lead time in days and the minimum order quantity. Add a tab called Recommendations for the agent to write to.
Step 5: Connect Google Sheets and Slack
Choose Sign in with Google and pick the sheet, then Sign in with Slack and approve the Toolspoke app. For a private channel, add the Toolspoke bot to it first.
Step 6: Switch on the schedule
The schedule arrives switched off. Run it once to see a plan straight away, check a few flags against Shopify, then switch it on.
Make Inventory and stockout planner fit your store
Inventory and stockout planner's instructions are plain English and you can edit them after you install it. Installing copies the agent, so your edits stay with your copy. Open the agent in Toolspoke and tell the builder what to change, and it rewrites the instructions.
Paste any sentence below into the builder chat, or say the same thing in your own words.
Treat a product as order soon when days of cover is below the lead time plus 14 days, not 7.
Suggest quantities that cover the lead time plus 45 days, not 30.
Use the same 90 days from last year as the sales window for products tagged winter, and say so in the post.
Leave out any product tagged discontinued or made-to-order.
Run every Thursday at 9 AM.
This changes when the agent wakes up, so the builder edits its schedule, not the instructions.
None of these edits needs more access or touches the Never rules. They change what Inventory and stockout planner is told, not what the connections allow.
How it compares to other options
Inventory and stockout planner beats the alternatives when you want the sums done for every product with the numbers shown, and loses to them when you need forecasting across seasons or purchase orders raised for you.
| Compared on | Inventory and stockout planner | Shopify's own reports | A spreadsheet you maintain | An inventory planning app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days of cover per product | Yes, every variant | Stock and sales shown apart | If you built it | Yes |
| Uses your supplier lead times | Yes, from your sheet | No | If you add them | Yes |
| Shows the numbers behind a flag | Yes, with dates | Yes | Yes | Usually |
| Says what it cannot see | Yes, such as open orders | No | No | Rarely |
| Raises purchase orders | No, a person buys | No | No | Often |
| Forecasts seasons | No, a 90 day window | No | If you build it | Yes |
| Setup effort | Connect three accounts | None | Hours at first | Days to import and map |
Shopify's reports are the better choice for a quick look at one product. They show stock and sales in separate places and leave the comparison to you, so a risk only shows when you look.
An inventory planning app is better when you need seasonal forecasts, multiple warehouses and purchase orders raised for you. Inventory and stockout planner is for the shop that wants a weekly list with the evidence, and wants to keep the buying decision.
Frequently asked questions
Can Inventory and stockout planner buy stock or change my inventory?
No. It is told never to adjust stock, edit a product, change a price or create or send a purchase order. The connections cannot place a purchase order at all. Shopify's connection can technically adjust inventory, so for certainty use a read-only token or switch that action off in your project (how access works).
Where do the lead times come from?
From a Google Sheet you keep: one row per SKU with the supplier's lead time in days and the minimum order quantity. Shopify does not know your suppliers.
What if a product is not in my supplier sheet?
The plan flags the risk and says no lead time on record. It gives no quantity, because a quantity without a lead time is a guess.
Does it know about open purchase orders?
No, and it says so. Every suggestion tells you to check open purchase orders before buying, so you do not order twice.
How does it handle a sales spike or a season?
It uses the last 90 days and says so. If the last 30 days sold more than double the 90 day rate, it says the recent rate may be a spike. It does not forecast across seasons, and it says that a 90 day average misses them.
Does it work with WooCommerce, Square or Amazon?
Not as shipped, because it reads Shopify. Toolspoke has a Square toolkit that reads orders and inventory counts, so you can ask the agent builder for a Square version. It needs its own instructions.
Is Inventory and stockout planner free?
It has no price of its own, and every Toolspoke plan includes agents. Tool calls cost nothing, but each run draws on your usage balance, and a bigger store costs more to read. Pricing has the details.
Find out what runs out before it does
Connect Shopify, add your supplier sheet and switch on the schedule. Your first plan lands on Monday at 8am.