Moving off a retired inventory app without losing your reorder history

The problem

The app you used for stock and purchase orders is gone, and what you have left is an export. Supplier names, past orders, and the rules for when to reorder are in those files, but they are not a Monday list of what to buy. A working reorder list and a low-stock watch assume the system is still running. This job is the move itself.

What SI does

SI reads the export (CSV or spreadsheet) and lists suppliers, items, past purchase orders, quantities, and any reorder points or par levels that are actually in the file. It maps those into a simple sheet: who you buy from, what you last ordered, and a suggested reorder line you can edit. It flags fields the export does not contain, duplicate item names, and suppliers with no contact. It does not place orders. A common version of this is a Shopify store that exported Stocky before that app shut down and now has CSVs instead of a weekly system. The same steps apply to any retired inventory or purchase-order tool that left you a file.

Examples

The same job looks different in different businesses. These are illustrations, not client results.

• Shopify store after an inventory app shutdown

  The CSV dump still has suppliers and past purchase orders. SI turns that into a sheet grouped by supplier, and lists items whose reorder point never made it into the export.

• Specialty retailer

  A discontinued purchase-order tool left a spreadsheet of vendors and last order dates. SI groups items by vendor and marks vendors with no email or phone on the export.

• Wholesale distributor

  Several years of purchase-order lines are in one export. SI builds a per-item history of who was ordered from and when, so the buyer is not starting from a blank list.

What it takes to set up

The export folder, a note on which columns matter (supplier, SKU, on hand, last cost, reorder point), and one recent order you still trust as a sample. Setup is often a few days, mostly spent deciding what the new sheet must show each week. This is a weekly system from the files you already have, not a new inventory app.

Try it yourself

Paste this into your SI tool of choice and swap the [bracketed] parts for your own details. It asks SI to stop and show you before it does anything.

Read this inventory export [file]. List suppliers, items, past purchase orders, quantities, last costs, and any reorder points that are actually in the file. Build a sheet grouped by supplier with item, last order date, quantity last ordered, quantity on hand if present, and reorder point if present. Flag duplicate item names, suppliers with no contact, and fields the export does not contain. Do not invent reorder quantities. Pause and show me before sending, submitting, posting, ordering, or changing anything.