Evolution ERP Documentation

The Bin Re-order tool looks at your min/max bin levels for a branch and lets you generate the Purchase Requisitions (for purchased items) and Stock Shop Orders (for manufactured items) needed to bring stock back up to its maximum — now from a single “Generate Orders” button.

The suggested order quantity is Max − (available stock + everything already on the way), so items already covered by open purchase orders, shop orders or purchase requisitions won’t be re-ordered. That makes it safe to run the tool more than once in a day without double-ordering.

You can now optionally have all of that reorder activity nested under a single internal project — one project per branch, per day, referenced “bin reorder - <date>”. Every requisition and shop order you generate that day for that branch is attached to the same project, and each line is added to the project’s inventory, so reorder work can be tracked and costed in one place.

One-Time Setup (Administrator)

Before reorder projects can be created, an administrator nominates the internal contact and project category they should use. This is done once.

Go to Settings and open the Inventory tab.
Find “Bin Re-order Internal Project Account”. Start typing to search contacts and select the internal account you want reorder projects booked against (many businesses create a dedicated contact such as “Internal” or “Stock”).
Find “Bin Re-order Internal Project Category” and choose the project category to use for these projects.
Click Save.

Note: reorder projects are always created with the allocation method “Do not Allocate”, so they never tie up available stock.

The two bin-reorder settings under Settings → Inventory: Bin Re-order Internal Project Account and Bin Re-order Internal Project Category.

Where to Find It

Purchasing → Bin Re-order

Select a branch, then filter by code, description or category. Set the re-order quantity for the items you want to top up and choose a production method (Purchased or Manufactured) per item.

A results-per-page selector in the filter bar controls how many items are listed at once — 20 (the default), 50, 100 or 150 — so a large reorder run can be reviewed and processed in fewer pages.

A summary strip at the top of the screen counts the whole filtered result, not just the visible page: how many items are below their minimum, how many will be purchased, how many manufactured, and how many still have no production method (these cannot be ordered until a method is set). The counts update live as you change methods on individual items.

The summary strip — items below minimum, to purchase, to manufacture, and items with no production method.

The Bin Re-order screen (Purchasing → Bin Re-order): summary strip, branch selector, filters and the item list.

Categories are now nested. The category filter shows child categories indented beneath their parent, and selecting a parent category automatically includes every category filed underneath it. Pick a top-level category to sweep a whole area of stock in one go, or drill down to a single child category for a narrower list.

The category filter showing child categories indented beneath their parent.

Reading the “On Order” Column

Each item shows an On Order figure — the total quantity already inbound from open purchase orders, shop orders and purchase requisitions. This is the same supply the tool subtracts when it works out how much to re-order.

When an item has stock on order the figure becomes a link. Click it to open the On Order Detail window, which breaks the number down by source — listing each order’s type, reference and outstanding quantity — with an Open link through to the underlying purchase order, shop order or requisition.

The On Order Detail window — order type, reference, outstanding quantity and an Open link per source.

Generating Orders

Items with no production method can’t be ordered. The action bar offers two shortcuts — “Mark unspecified as Purchased” and “Mark unspecified as Manufactured” — which set every listed item that still has no production method in one click. Items where a method has already been chosen are never changed. This is especially handy for businesses that only purchase (or only manufacture): one click readies the whole page for ordering.

Below the item list you’ll find a single Generate Orders button, two “include” checkboxes and the job-nesting option:

Include stock shop orders (Manufactured) — when ticked, shop orders are created for the manufactured items.
Include purchase requisitions (Purchased) — when ticked, a requisition is created for the purchased items.
Nest under today’s bin-reorder project — ticked by default (see below).

Both include options are ticked by default, so a single click of Generate Orders raises both the shop orders and the requisitions needed. Untick one to skip that type. The button label updates live to show the quantities queued (for example Generate Orders (SO 12, PR 40)) and stays disabled until a branch is selected and there is something to order.

With “Nest under today’s bin-reorder project” ticked, the generated requisitions and shop orders are attached to that day’s bin-reorder project for the selected branch (creating the project the first time, reusing it after that) and each line is added to the project’s inventory.

Whole units vs. weights. Suggested quantities are rounded to whole units, except for items measured by weight (a Mass unit of measure), which keep two decimal places so fractional amounts can be ordered.

The generate controls below the item list: the Generate Orders button, the two include checkboxes and the “Nest under today’s bin-reorder project” option.

If the internal-project Account or Category settings are missing — or point at an account or project category that has since been deleted or made inactive — the screen shows a warning banner as soon as it loads, naming exactly what needs fixing, and the “Nest under today’s bin-reorder project” option is disabled. You can still generate requisitions and shop orders; they just won’t be grouped under a project until the settings are corrected.

Setting Bin Levels (Min / Max)

Re-order quantities are driven by the Min and Max bin levels held per branch on each item (Item → Purchasing tab → Branch Min/Max). The tool tops stock up to the Max, so a Max that is lower than its Min would silently under-order.

To prevent this, saving an item’s branch bin levels now blocks a Max that is lower than its Min and prompts you to correct the figures first.

Calculating Levels from Usage (Dynamic Min / Max)

Rather than setting every item’s bin levels by hand, the Dynamic Inventory Min / Max tool suggests a Min and Max for each item at each branch from the stock it actually used, and lets you save them one row at a time or all at once. It handles any size of catalogue: results come back a page at a time, and “Apply to all matching” covers every row the filters match, not just the page on screen.

Open it from Inventory → Tools → Dynamic Inventory Min / Max Tool. Viewing the suggestions needs Inventory access; saving levels needs Admin access to Inventory.

The Dynamic Min / Max tool for one branch, filtered to the rows that would change. The numbers match the steps below.

Summary tiles — how many rows the filters match, how many would change, how many go up or down (and how many of those drop to 0), and how many kept their existing levels. Click Will change to show only those rows.
Branch — pick a branch, or All branches to get one row per item per branch (a Branch column appears).
Calculation settings — the usage period (From / To), how many days of stock the Min and Max should cover, the Cutoff and the rounding. Click Calculate after changing these. The filters underneath (code, description, category, supplier, Only changes, Hide unused, Stocked items only) re-run straight away.
Keep manual minimums (on by default) stops the tool taking a Min you set by hand down to 0 just because the item was slow or unused in the period. Raise only never lowers an existing Min or Max. Rows held back by either option show a Kept flag.
Used — the stock that went out in the period through dispatches, invoices and shop orders. Click the figure to see the movements behind it (below).
New Min / New Max — the suggestion shows greyed in each box. Press Enter on an empty box (or double-click it) to take the suggestion, or type your own figure. The row saves as soon as it has a figure, filling the other box from its suggestion if you left it empty; a green tick confirms the save and Current updates. Enter and Tab move down the boxes, so you can work through a page from the keyboard.
CSV downloads every matching row with its usage, current, suggested and new levels. Apply to all matching… saves the suggestions on every matching row that would change, across all pages.

How the suggestion is worked out

Daily average = stock used ÷ days in the period. If the period starts before your first stock movement in Evolution, the days are counted from that first movement instead, so a new site isn’t averaged over months with no history. The line above the table always says which days were used.
Min = daily average × Min days; Max = daily average × Max days. Both are rounded to whole units, or rounded up to the step you choose (5, 10, 50… or the item’s Box Qty).
If the suggested Min is below the Cutoff, both levels are suggested as 0 (the item isn’t worth keeping on the shelf) — unless Keep manual minimums holds the existing level.
Hidden stock movements are ignored, and returns or reversals reduce the usage.

Clicking a Used figure lists the dispatches, invoices and shop orders behind it. Reversals show as negative and the total matches the grid.

Applying to everything that matches

Apply to all matching… first works out every row the current settings and filters would change, then asks you to confirm, showing how many go up, how many go down and the settings used. Large catalogues are saved in batches of 500, so keep the page open until it reports Done.

The confirmation before saving the suggested levels on every matching row.

Every change is recorded on the item’s history with the old and new levels and the branch, and a bulk run carries a reference so you can see what it changed. If someone changes a row’s levels after you click Calculate, that row is skipped rather than overwritten; calculate again to review it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many projects are created?

One per branch, per day. Generating purchase requisitions and shop orders for the same branch on the same day — even across several clicks — all nest into the one “bin reorder - <date>” project.

Can I still generate orders without a project?

Yes. Untick “Nest under today’s bin-reorder project” before clicking a generate button and the requisitions/shop orders are created loose, exactly as they were previously.

Why is the allocation method fixed?

Reorder projects exist to group internal stock top-ups, not to reserve stock, so they are always created as “Do not Allocate”.