How low stock alerts work
A low stock alert fires when a quantity falls to or below its minimum threshold. It applies to both Consumables and Asset Stock.
Requirements
- Available on: Nova, Orbit, Odyssey, Cosmos
- Roles: Owner, Admin, Manager can set thresholds. Alerts appear in the notification centre for roles that can see the item.
Setting the threshold
- Go to Dashboard → Consumables (or Asset Stock) and open the item.
- Edit it and set the Minimum Threshold.
- Save.
The threshold is per item. There is no organization-wide default, because the right level depends entirely on lead time and usage.
When the alert fires
The alert condition is quantity at or below the threshold — not below it. An item with a threshold of 5 alerts when it reaches 5, not 4.
Conditions are evaluated on a schedule, so an alert may appear shortly after the movement that caused it rather than instantly.
How alerts reach you
| Channel | Plan |
|---|---|
| In-app notification centre | All plans |
| Weekly digest email | All plans |
| Daily digest email | Orbit and above |
| Immediate email for critical alerts | Orbit and above |
Find alerts at Dashboard → Notifications. Everything due across the organization — including low stock — is consolidated at Dashboard → Upcoming.
You get one alert per condition, not one per check. A persistent low-stock condition produces a single notification rather than a new one every evaluation.
Read state is per person. If you dismiss the alert, your colleagues still see it.
Choosing a threshold that works
Work backwards from how long replacement takes.
Ask: how many do we use in the time it takes to get more? That is your floor. Add some margin for a delivery going wrong.
An item you get through slowly but which takes six weeks to arrive needs a higher threshold than one you use constantly but can collect the same afternoon.
Tip If an alert fires and you have time to order calmly, the threshold is right. If it fires and you are already improvising, raise it.
Common mistakes
Leaving thresholds at zero. The alert then fires only once you have run out, which is not a warning.
Setting every threshold to the same number. Ten is generous for a rarely used specialist part and reckless for gloves.
Ignoring alerts because there are too many. That means the thresholds are wrong, not that the alerts are wrong. Fix the thresholds.
Assuming the alert reorders for you. It tells you. Ordering is still yours to do.
Troubleshooting
I'm not getting low stock alerts. Check the item has a minimum threshold above zero.
I'm not getting them by email. Every plan gets the weekly digest. Daily digests and immediate email for critical alerts need Orbit or above. Check your notification preferences too.
The alert didn't clear after restocking. The quantity has to be genuinely above the threshold, not equal to it.
I dismissed an alert and it came back. Alerts are deduplicated per condition, not permanently suppressed. While the quantity is still low, the condition is still true.
A colleague sees an alert I already dealt with. Read state is per person by design, so one person dismissing an organization-wide alert does not hide it from everyone else.
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