A reorder point app for Xero inventory

What Xero's reorder point field actually does

In Xero, a tracked inventory item can carry a reorder point. It shows in your Products and services list, and that is where it stops. There is no notification when quantity on hand falls to or below it, no queue of items to action, and no purchase order raised for the supplier. The number is a note to yourself — useful only if somebody remembers to look.

In practice most small product businesses fill the gap with a spreadsheet, a weekly stock walk, or memory. All three fail the same way: they work until the week you are busy, and that is exactly the week you stock out of your best seller.

Choosing reorder points that hold up

Three numbers matter, and they are all derivable from Xero data:

• Sales velocity — how many units you actually sell per week, from your invoice history rather than gut feel.
• Supplier lead time — days between raising the order and stock landing. Ask your supplier for the honest number, not the brochure one.
• Safety stock — the buffer that absorbs a good week or a late delivery. One week of demand is a sane default.

Reorder point = weekly velocity × lead time in weeks + safety stock. Ten units a week, a fortnight's lead time, one week of buffer: reorder at 30. Set it lower and you are gambling; set it much higher and you are financing your supplier's warehouse.

Turning the number into an action

A reorder point is only worth having if something happens when it is crossed. That means three things running without you: stock levels checked on a schedule, one alert per breach — not a daily nag — and a purchase order drafted to the right supplier with the right quantity, ready for a human to approve.

This is precisely what ReorderPilot does on top of Xero. It syncs your tracked items, suggests reorder points from ~90 days of your own sales history (you confirm every number), watches the levels, and drafts the purchase order in Xero grouped by supplier — using each item's own cost and purchase account, leaving tax to your organisation's defaults. POs are created as drafts: you review, approve, and send them inside Xero. Nothing reaches a supplier without you.

What it costs

Dedicated inventory platforms start around $186–349 per month because they also do manufacturing, warehousing, and channel sync. If reorder points and purchase orders are the whole job, ReorderPilot is $19–39 per month with a 14-day free trial. See the five-minute setup guide for what connecting actually involves.