What is a lead time used for, and where do I set it?

A lead time is how many days a reorder takes to arrive, from placing the order until the stock is in your warehouse, ready to sell. nouz uses it to tell you what to reorder and by when. It drives the reorder planner on the Inventory tab of Insights, and the reorder alert.

Set it on the Products page, under Costs. The Reorder lead time card above the table shows the store's default, which counts for every product, and its Change button sets it. Every store starts with 30 days. To give one product its own, open one of its variants and fill in Reorder lead time under Shipping and stock. That covers all its variants, since they come from the same supplier. Empty the field to go back to the store's default. Only an owner or admin can change lead times.

The planner works out how many days your stock lasts, counting stock on its way too. Runs out is the day it is gone. Order by is that day minus the lead time, so new stock lands as the last unit sells. Suggested order covers the lead time plus 60 days of sales. Example: a product runs out on 30 November and its lead time is 20 days, so Order by is 10 November.

The lead time also decides when a product shows Restock now or Restock soon. A longer lead time puts a product on the list earlier. Changing a lead time moves no number on your P&L. It only changes the reorder plans. The Inventory page in the sidebar reports your stock but does not use lead times.

The alert “A product needs ordering” emails you once a product reaches its Order by day. It is off by default. Switch it on in Settings, Notifications, under Alerts, in the Stock group. It names a product again after two weeks if it is still due. The reorder point calculator does the same sum by hand for one product.