A candle maker can buy wax locally but needs more time to replenish fragrance. One store-wide threshold is therefore too blunt: the buyer wants a higher safety threshold for the harder-to-replace ingredient and an email trail when it runs low.
Illustrative scenario: Quantities and thresholds below explain a possible policy, not a real merchant's purchasing performance.
Give the critical ingredient its own threshold
Suppose the shop has 12 kg of wax and 1.2 kg of fragrance available to use. It sets a global low-stock threshold of 5 and a material-specific threshold of 2 kg for fragrance.
| Material | Available to use | Effective threshold | Example assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wax | 12 kg | Global: 5 kg | Above its threshold |
| Fragrance | 1.2 kg | Material-specific: 2 kg | Below its threshold; review replenishment |
The material-specific value overrides the global value for fragrance. Choose each threshold using that material's unit, expected consumption, purchasing lead time, and safety margin. The numbers above are an example policy, not a recommended threshold for every candle shop.
Configure alerts in Soply
- Open Inventory rules, enable Low stock alert, set Global low stock threshold to the shop's chosen value, and save.
- In Raw Materials, open the fragrance material and set its individual threshold. Confirm wax remains on the global rule.
- Add the purchasing team's notification address in Notification emails, complete any verification shown, and use Test send. Up to 10 addresses can be configured. Adding or removing an address takes effect immediately and is separate from saving the global threshold.
- After the relevant stock change or alert check, open Low Stock Alert Logs. Filter by fragrance and inspect the available quantity, PER_MATERIAL threshold type, recipients, and Pending, Sent, or Failed email status.
Being below the threshold does not make stock appear or create a purchase order. Check the log and actual inbox before treating an alert as delivered; a test email is only a delivery check. The app can avoid repeated alerts while a material stays below its threshold, so do not expect a new email on every page refresh. If fragrance also limits a multi-level BOM, review the candle's calculated availability separately.
See Set up low stock alerts, Adjust raw material stock, and Calculate a multi-level candle BOM.
Real results depend on your products, stock, markets, store settings, and test conditions. Verify the setup in your own store.
Read the guides