Alert staff when a SKU drops below your reorder threshold

Steps

1. Keep live stock counts in a Google Sheet (or export SKUs nightly from your POS into one).
2. Add a reorder_threshold column per SKU and a supplier email column if you want drafted emails.
3. In n8n, Zapier or Make, schedule a check that finds rows where quantity is at or below the threshold.
4. Send a Slack/email alert to staff with SKU, quantity, and threshold.
5. Optionally draft a supplier email (do not auto-send until a human approves) listing items to reorder.

What you need

Tools: Google Sheets or POS export + n8n/Zapier/Make + email or Slack. Inventory-below-threshold alerts are a common small-business automation pattern (see https://useomniai.com/n8n-automation-ideas-small-business/).

Costs: see each vendor's current pricing page.

What to watch

This is different from a restaurant inventory-variance alert (usage vs sales). Here you only care that on-hand quantity crossed a reorder line.

Don't auto-order from suppliers without a human check — bad counts create bad POs.

Tune thresholds after a week or two so you aren't flooded with false alerts.

Related recipes

• Batch-write product descriptions and image alt text
• Get a weekly inventory variance alert for your restaurant

FAQ