Everything here describes what the app actually does. If StockNest behaves differently from this page, the page is wrong, so tell us and we'll fix it.
Getting started
- Install from the Shopify App Store. There is no account to create: you sign in with Shopify.
- Home → Sync from Shopify. StockNest starts with an empty copy of your inventory, so nothing can alert until this first sync has run. A run page shows progress while your variants and locations are pulled in. After that, Shopify's stock updates keep the copy current, and a daily re-sync catches anything that was missed.
- Settings → Alert emails. Add up to five addresses, separated by commas. Without a recipient, StockNest still finds low stock but has nowhere to send it.
- Reorder points → Default. Set the quantity at which an item counts as low. The default is 0, which means only out-of-stock and negative-stock alerts. Then add rules for the items that need a different number.
- Home → Scan now to check everything straight away and see your first alert.
Where things live
| Page | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Home | Stock at a glance, Sync from Shopify, Scan now, recent runs |
| Inventory | Every tracked item at every location, with filters and reorder points |
| Bulk adjust | Change stock for many items at once, with a preview first |
| Reorder points | The default, scoped rules, and CSV import (Starter and above) |
| Runs | Every sync, scan, bulk adjustment and undo, with per-record results |
| Analytics | Tracked records, adjustments this month, run success rate |
| Plans | Your plan and what each plan includes |
| Settings | Alert recipients, Slack, digest schedule, forecasting defaults |
| About | Support contact, privacy policy and terms |
How alerts work
A stock change in Shopify triggers a scan within about a minute. A full scan also runs every hour as a backstop, and Scan now runs one on demand. Each scan sorts every item at every location into one of these:
- Low on stock: at or below its reorder point, and above zero. Needs a reorder point above 0.
- Out of stock: exactly zero. Alerts on every plan, even with no reorder point set.
- Negative stock: below zero, which usually means your counts have drifted. Starter and above.
- Running out soon: fewer days of cover left than you asked for. Pro only; see Forecasting below.
Each problem is alerted once. When the item recovers, the alert clears and StockNest can alert on it again if it drops later. If Email me when an item is back above its reorder point is on, you also get a back-in-stock notice.
Delivery. In Settings, choose whether alerts go out immediately, as a daily digest, or as a weekly digest at an hour you pick. Times are in your store's timezone. Back-in-stock notices are sent straight away whatever the schedule. Alerts go by email, and also to Slack on Starter and above.
Muting. Mute all alerts stops every message, including failure notices. Alerts raised while muted are not sent later.
Troubleshooting
"Alerts have nowhere to go"#
No alert recipient is set, so StockNest is finding problems but can't tell anyone. Add at least one address under Settings → Alert emails and save.
I'm not getting any alerts#
Check these in order:
- Has the first sync run? Home shows Sync from Shopify until it has.
- Is a recipient set, and is Mute all alerts off?
- Is a reorder point set? With the default at 0 and no rules, only out-of-stock and negative-stock items alert.
- Are you on a digest? On a daily or weekly schedule, alerts wait for the digest hour.
- Is the item tracked? Items whose inventory Shopify doesn't track have no quantity to watch, so StockNest doesn't list or alert on them.
- Have you already been alerted? See the next answer.
An item alerted once, then went quiet#
That's deliberate: each problem is alerted once, not on every scan. Once the item goes back above its reorder point the alert clears, and it alerts again the next time it drops. To get every open problem in every digest, turn on Include every open alert in each digest in Settings.
"Alert emails paused — you've used all N this month"#
Each plan includes a monthly allowance of alert emails: 300 on Free, 3,000 on Starter and 20,000 on Pro. Each recipient counts separately, so one digest to five people uses five. Once the allowance is used up, problems are still found and shown in the app, but they aren't emailed until it resets at the start of your next calendar month. Alerts that couldn't be sent go out on a later scan. Home warns you at 90%. Failure notices are still sent when the allowance is used up.
Negative stock isn't being alerted#
Negative-stock (drift) detection is on Starter and above. On Free, Home still counts negative records, but they aren't alerted. You'll see Drift detection is a paid feature under the count.
"Plan applies to first N records per run"#
A bulk adjustment changes at most 50 records per run on Free and 1,000 on Starter and Pro. If more records match, the preview says so and Apply acts only on the records it shows. Narrow the SKU filter and run the rest separately. In Set each item mode, the review step tells you how many of your edits will be skipped.
"Monthly limit reached — N skipped."#
You've used your plan's monthly stock adjustments: 500 on Free, 10,000 on Starter, unlimited on Pro. Only records that actually changed count, and undo doesn't count. The preview already takes what's left into account, so it shows how many records will really change. The allowance resets at the start of your store's calendar month, or you can upgrade.
"N records will go negative"#
The change you previewed would take those records below zero. Nothing has been applied yet. Check the amount, or narrow the filter, before you apply.
Undo skipped some records#
Undo restores each record only if its quantity is still what the run left it at. If anything changed it since, such as an order, a manual edit or another app, that record is skipped rather than overwritten, and the undo run lists it. A run that has already been undone, or changed nothing, can't be undone.
"A rule with exactly that scope already exists — delete it first to change it."#
Each scope can have only one rule. To change its numbers, delete the rule on Reorder points and add it again. Reorder points for a SKU at a location can also be updated from Inventory or by CSV import, which update the existing rule instead of refusing.
"You can have up to 500 rules."#
That's the per-store limit on reorder-point rules, including the ones created from Inventory and by CSV import. When an import or a bulk set reaches it, the rows over the limit are reported as not imported. Delete rules you no longer need, or use broader scopes such as a vendor or collection.
My CSV import was rejected#
The file needs a header with sku and reorder_point, plus location if you want to set a reorder point for one location only. Use the location's name, or leave it blank to apply at every location. Comma, semicolon and tab separated files all work. A row with a blank reorder point is reported as an error rather than read as 0, and each error gives its line number. The limits are 2,000 rows and 2 MB per file. Download a sample CSV on the Reorder points page to start from a file that works.
"Slack webhook must be a https://hooks.slack.com/ URL."#
StockNest accepts only Slack incoming-webhook addresses. Create an incoming webhook in your Slack workspace and paste the URL it gives you. Slack alerts are on Starter and above.
An item is missing from Inventory#
Run Sync from Shopify on Home. Items whose inventory Shopify doesn't track are left out on purpose, and items are removed when they're deleted, stop being tracked, or are disconnected from a location.
Days of cover is blank, or "No forecast yet"#
Forecasting is on Pro. After upgrading, open Settings → Forecasting and click Build 60 days of sales history. The forecast is then recalculated every night. An item with no sales in the last 30 days has no days-of-cover figure, because there's nothing to divide by.
An email saying "StockNest hit a problem"#
A background job, such as a sync, scan or bulk adjustment, failed on your store. StockNest keeps retrying automatically. Open the app to check: if the job was a run, its page under Runs shows the reason it failed.
Reorder points
The default applies to everything. Rules override it for a SKU, a product (all its variants), a collection, a vendor, a product type, products with a tag, or everything at one location, and most rules can also be limited to one location.
When several rules match an item, the most specific wins: SKU, then product, then location, then collection, then vendor, type or tag, then the default. A rule with several scopes has to match all of them. Each rule can also email up to five extra people about the items it covers.
There are three ways to set them:
- Reorder points → New rule, one rule at a time, with a product picker.
- Inventory: select rows, enter a number and click Apply to selected. This creates a rule for each SKU at its location, up to 200 rows at a time. Rows with no SKU are skipped.
- CSV import (Starter and above): preview the file, then apply.
Bulk adjust and undo
Bulk adjust has two modes. Same amount for all adds or removes one amount from every matching record. Set each item lets you type a new quantity per record. Either way, filter by SKU or tick Only items needing attention, then preview. Nothing changes in Shopify until you apply.
The preview shows how many records will change and their before and after values, and warns if any would go below zero. Apply runs in the background with live progress, then lists a result for every record. Only one bulk adjustment runs at a time. A confirmation dialog appears before applying, and you can turn it off in Settings.
Undo this run is on the run's page. It creates a linked undo run that puts each record back to its earlier quantity, unless the record has changed since. Run history is kept for 90 days.
Forecasting (Pro)
Forecasting tells you how many days of stock each item has left and when to reorder.
- Sales velocity is units sold minus refunds over the last 30 days, across all your locations. Per-location velocity isn't available.
- Days of cover is your stock divided by that velocity, recalculated nightly.
- Running out soon alerts fire when an item's cover drops below your threshold. Set a default in Settings (blank turns it off) and override it per rule on Reorder points.
- Suggested reorder is velocity × (lead time + cover days), minus what you have on hand. The default lead time is 7 days, and you can change it in Settings or per rule.
To forecast from day one, Build 60 days of sales history once in Settings. New sales are then counted as they happen. Rebuild sales history clears the stored history and pulls it again, and forecasts are blank until it finishes. For forecasting, StockNest stores only units sold per variant per day. It does not keep order numbers, customer names, addresses or prices.
Plans and billing
| Free | Starter | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-stock and out-of-stock alerts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Negative-stock (drift) detection | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Slack alerts | ✓ | ✓ | |
| CSV export and reorder-point import | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Forecasting | ✓ | ||
| Records per bulk adjustment | 50 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Stock adjustments per month | 500 | 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Alert emails per month | 300 | 3,000 | 20,000 |
Plans are billed through Shopify, so charges appear on your Shopify invoice. You choose monthly or annual billing on Shopify's plan screen. If you move to a plan without negative-stock detection or forecasting, those alerts are cleared and stop.
Uninstalling
Uninstall from your Shopify admin. Your stock in Shopify isn't touched. StockNest deletes everything it stored for your store when you uninstall: the inventory copy, reorder-point rules, alerts, sales history and run history. Export anything you want to keep first. What we keep and for how long is set out in the StockNest privacy policy.
Still stuck?
Email support@appnest.studio with your store domain. If it's about a run, include roughly when it ran. That's usually enough to find it.