How do small producers best manage inventory on OFN?

Support
1

Hello, everyone! :blush:

I’ve begun volunteering for a local food co-op, and we are setting it up on Open Food Network. What an amazing work by the team and community; we are loving it so far! One challenge we’re facing is how to control inventory for multiple small producers with lower-tier technology skills. Some have extremely limited stock, and updates have to be quite constant to prevent overselling.

I have gone through this website:https://community.openfoodnetwork.org/t/clarification-about-inventory-management-and-order-Servicenowcycles/775

So I pose this question: what is the most effective way to keep inventory correct and up to date? Is the assumption that producers are self-managing the inventory, or does someone central do it all? Any advice or tools to help make it simpler?

For us, it’s about trying to get the right balance of accuracy and ease, particularly for people who are inexperienced with the digital world.

Any responses would be helpful.
Thank you! :pray:.

2

Hi - welcome to the OFN Community.
I think your users questions will be more easily answered in the user guide. This guide is pinned to every user’s dashboard when they log into the platform.

The convo you link to above is not the one to follow! It is a conversation about the OFN ‘inventory’ feature. This is a very advanced inventory control feature, that is confusing to use, for smaller suppliers/producers. Most producers will never need to use this ‘inventory’ feature, and should ignore it - at least when they are getting started - to avoid confusion.

So, I’d direct producers/growers to their product management page to set and update their stock under the category ‘on hand’ amounts.

Detailed in the user guide here.