The ordering system for independent retailers

Ordering, handled. Stock, sorted.

Every supplier has its own order day, cutoff, and delivery schedule. OnHand tracks all of it, tells your team exactly what's due today, and works out how much to order — so the shop stops running on one person's memory.

Due today Thu 26 Mar
3
Due
1
At risk
1
Critical
0
Missed
FV
Fresh Valley Produce
Cutoff 4:30pm · in 22 min
Critical
HB
Harbor Bakery
Cutoff 6:00pm · in 3h 52m
At risk
DM
Dockside Meats
Counted · sent 9:14am
On track
The problem

Right now, ordering runs on habit.

Independent stores don't have the buying-power software big chains use. In practice, someone senior just knows that Thursday is meat day, roughly how much bacon to order, and to double-check when the rep calls.

When that person is away, the process breaks. Orders get missed, or a junior staff member guesses — and over-orders, or under-orders.

OnHand's job is to make that knowledge live in the system, not in one person's head.

How it works

Four steps, every cycle.

No barcode scanners, no POS integration to set up — a tablet on the shop floor and a bit of dropdown configuration.

01

Dashboard

Opens to what's due today, with an urgency badge if a cutoff is approaching. Nothing due shows nothing — silence is the default.

02

The walk

Tap into a supplier's order and count stock on hand for every line, right from the shop floor — offline-tolerant if the wifi drops.

03

The suggestion

A deterministic quantity appears next to every count. A starting point, never a decision — always editable before sending.

04

Send

One explicit confirmation. If that supplier needs sign-off, it waits for a manager first — otherwise it goes straight out. Nothing sends itself.

The suggestion engine

Real math, not a guess — and never an AI's.

Every number is computed by a fixed, auditable formula. A store manager can always see exactly why a quantity is what it is.

suggested qty = avg daily sales × (cover days + buffer) − stock on hand

Time-aware cover

Order a day early because you're off tomorrow? OnHand knows there's extra real time to cover before the next delivery, and adjusts up — to the hour, not just the day.

Learns from every count

A new product starts on your forecast. The first real count backs out what actually sold and corrects it — no drifting for weeks on a bad guess.

Promotions get their own number

A special sells at a different velocity than full price — that shouldn't corrupt the everyday average. Promo lines track independently and revert automatically.

Miscounts get caught

Every count is checked against an estimate. Off by 20% or more, and OnHand won't let it order until someone confirms — catching the wrong-shelf mistake first.

No LLM decides a number, ever. The arithmetic is deterministic and auditable end to end. Reasoning on top — plain-English context, bounded adjustments — is a later, separate layer, and it will still never touch the number itself without a person seeing it first.

Built around how your store decides

Sign-off when it matters. Sent the way your supplier expects.

Live

Manager approval, per supplier

Flag any supplier as needing sign-off — the routine bread order can go straight out while the expensive meat order waits. A submitted order sits in the Approvals tab until a manager enters their PIN to approve it or send it back with a reason. No passwords, no logins — same shared-device simplicity as the rest of OnHand.

Coming soon

Emailed today, SMS on the way

Every order goes out today as a PDF and CSV by email, straight to your supplier or sales rep. SMS delivery to their phone is on the roadmap for suppliers who'd rather get a text.

Silent by default
Nothing due today produces no alert. OnHand only speaks up when something actually needs attention.
Always overridable
Every suggested quantity is editable before it's sent. Nothing is ever auto-ordered.
Fully audited
Every count, config change, and dispatch is logged with who and when — nothing here is inferred.

Built for the shop that can't afford a missed order.

OnHand is in active development with independent retailers. Poke around the live demo first — no setup, nothing real to break. If ordering runs on one person's memory at your store, get in touch after.

NB
Nick Bartle
Founder