Plain-English summary#
The Shopping List is your "what do we need to order" list. It fills up automatically when an ingredient drops below its low-stock threshold, and you can also add products by hand. Each line has a quantity, a priority (Critical / High / Normal / Low), and a supplier. When you're ready to buy, you can email the list to a supplier or turn selected lines into a Purchase Order in one step. As you buy and receive things, items move through Not purchased → Purchased → Purchased-received, so the list always shows what's still outstanding.
When you'd use this#
- Your daily/weekly reorder run — see everything that's low and needs buying, in one place.
- Turning "we're low on X" into an actual Purchase Order or a supplier email.
- Deciding what to buy first (Critical vs Low) when budget or delivery is tight.
- Tracking which ordered items have arrived (Purchased-received) vs are still on order (Purchased).
How to access#
- Main navigation → Shopping List (shopping-cart icon).
- Also listed in the Foodops navigation map.
If you don't see it: it's part of the inventory & purchasing tools, and access depends on your role. See the "greyed out / missing" question below.
Key concepts#
- Fills itself from low stock — the list adds ingredients that fall below their reorder point, so you don't have to remember what's low.
- Priority — Critical / High / Normal / Low, to order your buying run; change it per line or for several lines at once.
- Supplier per line — each item can have supplier options; you pick which supplier to buy from (this decides how POs are grouped and who gets the email).
- Status tabs — Not purchased / Purchased / Purchased-received: an item's journey from "to buy" to "arrived".
- Two ways out — a Shopping List line becomes either a Purchase Order or a supplier email; it isn't a purchase by itself.
Common questions#
Q: What is the Shopping List for in Foodops? A: It's your reorder list — the running list of items you need to buy. It fills itself from low-stock ingredients, you can add items by hand, set quantities/priorities/suppliers, and then either email it to a supplier or turn it into a Purchase Order.
Q: I can't find Shopping List in Foodops — where has it gone? A: It's in the main navigation as Shopping List (the shopping-cart icon), with the other purchasing tools. If it isn't there for you, it's almost always access/permissions rather than the feature being removed — Shopping List is part of the inventory & purchasing area, so a role without those tools won't show it. Ask an admin to check your role (see the next question).
Q: Why is Shopping List greyed out for my staff in Foodops? A: Access follows your role/permissions. Shopping List sits with the purchasing tools, so a staff member whose role doesn't include purchasing/inventory access will see it greyed out or hidden. An admin can enable it by giving that staff member's role access to the purchasing area. (If no one in your organisation can see it — including an admin — it may not be part of your plan; contact support.)
Q: How does the Shopping List know what to add? A: Automatically — when an ingredient drops below its low-stock threshold, it's added to the list (and an alert shows on the Dashboard). You can also add anything by hand with Add product.
Q: How do I turn the Shopping List into an order? A: Select the lines you want to buy and use Create Purchase Order — it previews a PO (grouped by supplier) and passes the items to Purchase Orders. Or Email the list to a supplier directly.