Safety stock

Safety stock is the extra buffer you keep to protect against spikes in sales or late deliveries. It is set in days of sales, not units.

How safety stock is used

Stockie turns safety stock into units using each variant's sales velocity, then adds it to the stock you expect to sell during the lead time:

reorder point = (lead time × sales velocity) + (safety stock × sales velocity)

When your available and incoming stock falls to the reorder point, the variant is flagged for reordering.

So safety stock decides when you are told to reorder. It raises the reorder point without changing the size of the suggested order.

Example

A variant selling 5 units a day, with a 14-day lead time and 30 days of safety stock:

• Lead time demand: 14 × 5 = 70 units
• Safety stock: 30 × 5 = 150 units
• Reorder point: 70 + 150 = 220 units

Because safety stock is in days, a fast seller holds more units of buffer than a slow one on the same setting.

Setting your default safety stock

Go to Forecast & replenishment → Manage settings → Reordering  and edit Safety stock on the Default settings card.

• It is a whole number of days, 0 or more. The setup wizard starts it at 30 days.
• Lead time plus safety stock has to stay below your restock to. If it does not, Stockie asks you to raise restock to or lower the safety stock before saving.

More safety stock means fewer stockouts and more stock on the shelf. Less means less cash tied up in stock, with a bigger risk of running out if sales jump or a delivery is late.

Safety stock per supplier or product

A supplier can carry its own safety stock, and individual variants can too. These are set under product & supplier overrides, and they take the place of your store default for the products they cover.

For how safety stock works alongside lead time and restock to, see Configuring reordering settings.