Your stock is expiring. Your inbox already knows.
Morning briefing via email: what’s expiring, P1 critical items, overnight AI actions, and today’s priorities. Lot numbers, values, and one-click actions.
The 8 AM message that pays for itself
Sarah owns an independent pharmacy in Columbus, Ohio. 2,100 SKUs. Last Tuesday, her email arrived at 7:02 AM.
The subject line: “11 lots expiring within 7 days. Total value at risk: $2,800.”
She clicked the first item — Tylenol Extra Strength, lot L2024-9183, 48 units expiring Friday. She called her McKesson rep, arranged a return (within the 14-day window), and marked the remaining items down 25% before opening.
By end of day, she had recovered $2,100 of that $2,800. The email took 10 seconds to read. The actions took 30 minutes.
Without it, that $2,800 would have been a Thursday evening discovery and a Friday morning write-off.
Three alerts that matter
Every alert has a number attached. That number is the money you will lose if you ignore it.
Expiry Alerts
Items approaching expiry with lot numbers, quantities, and value at risk. Tiered by urgency: 90, 60, 30, 7, 3 days. Each alert shows exactly how many dollars you stand to lose.
Low Stock Alerts
Products running below reorder level based on sales velocity, not arbitrary minimums. The system watches how fast you actually sell something and tells you when to reorder — and how much.
Anomaly Alerts
Unusual patterns: sudden sales drops, unexpected returns spikes, price mismatches between purchase and retail. The things a tired human would miss at 6 PM on a Thursday.
One message. Everything you need to start the day.
At 7 AM, your morning briefing email arrives. Not just expiry alerts — a complete operational snapshot. What the AI did overnight. What needs your attention. How yesterday performed against targets.
- P1 critical alerts — high-value items needing immediate action
- Overnight AI actions — auto-markdowns, transfers generated
- Yesterday's performance — waste rate, recovery rate, fill rate
- Today's action items — transfers to approve, orders to confirm
Morning briefing
Today, 7:00 AM via email
P1 Critical
8 dairy items expiring tomorrow. Action needed before noon.
Overnight AI actions
5 items auto-marked down. 2 transfer orders generated.
Yesterday
Waste: 1.4% (target: 2%). Saved 94% of at-risk stock.
Action items
3 transfers to approve. 1 purchase order to confirm.
Some things can't wait until morning
P1 critical alerts fire immediately — not at 7 AM. High-value stock expiring within 48 hours, cold chain breaks, compliance deadlines about to pass. These come as separate email + SMS notifications the moment the system detects the issue.
- High-value items expiring within 48 hours
- Cold chain temperature breaks detected
- Compliance deadlines (return windows closing)
- Stock-out on high-velocity items
Organic Valley Heavy Cream — 18 units
Expires tomorrow. Estimated value at risk: high.
Return window closing: McKesson order #7392
2 days left to initiate return. 14 items eligible.
End-of-day summary: what you saved, what you lost
Every evening at 6 PM (configurable), your daily digest arrives via email. How much waste was prevented. How much was recovered through markdowns. How many items were donated. The exact financial impact of every action taken that day.
- Waste prevented — items saved from expiry through markdowns, transfers, or returns
- Revenue recovered — actual sales from marked-down items
- Donations tracked — items routed to food banks with tax documentation
- Week-over-week trend — are you getting better or worse?
Daily digest
Today, 6:00 PM
Waste prevented
23 items
Revenue recovered
87%
Items donated
5
Waste rate
1.3%
Week-over-week trend
Waste down 18% vs. last week
How it works (it is not complicated)
Four steps. The first three happen while you sleep.
System scans
Every night, ShelfLifePro analyzes every lot across all your locations. Checks expiry dates against sales velocity. No human involvement — it runs at 2 AM when your staff is asleep.
Calculates risk
Each item gets a risk score: days to expiry × units remaining × unit value = money at risk. A lot of 48 units at $12 each expiring in 3 days scores higher than 200 units of $1 candy expiring in 30 days. Because $576 > $200, and Friday is closer than next month.
Sends alert
Email digest arrives at your preferred time — default 7 AM your timezone. Optional SMS for critical items. Sorted by value at risk, highest first. The most expensive problem is always line one.
You act
Mark down, return to vendor (click to see return window deadline), bundle with fast movers, or mark for donation. Every action tracked with recovery value. At month-end, you see exactly how much money the alerts saved you.
Alerts compared: the honest version
What you are actually choosing between
| Feature | ShelfLifePro | Manual Checking | Excel Reminders | Generic Software |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery channel | Email + SMS + Dashboard | Walking the aisles | You have to open it | Email (if configured) |
| Timing | 7 AM daily (configurable) | When you remember | When you open the file | Weekly batch (usually) |
| Lot detail | Lot number, quantity, location | If you write it down | If you entered it | Product-level only |
| Value calculation | Automatic — units × price | Mental math | If you built the formula | Not available |
| One-click actions | Markdown, return, bundle, donate | Walk to shelf, then decide | Copy-paste somewhere else | View only |
| Recovery tracking | Full — action + amount recovered | Not tracked | If you update it manually | Not available |
Works differently for every store type
Same engine, different outputs. Because a pharmacy and a seafood counter have the same problem (things lose value over time) but completely different solutions.
Pharmacy
Alert includes drug classification, return window deadlines for each vendor, and supplier contact info. For controlled substances, you get a separate flagged alert with regulatory requirements. Because missing a return window on a $2,000 lot of antibiotics is an expensive oversight.
Grocery / Supermarket
Department-wise breakdown: dairy, bakery, packaged goods, beverages — each with separate alert thresholds. Your dairy manager gets dairy alerts. Your packaged goods person gets packaged goods alerts. Nobody wades through 200 items to find their 15.
FMCG Distributor
See expiry risk across your entire retailer network. 30-day advance warning on potential returns so you can proactively swap stock or arrange markdowns before the retailer calls you frustrated. (They always call frustrated.)
Dairy & Bakery
Hour-level alerts for same-day products. Not "expiring today" — "expiring at 6 PM." That distinction matters when it is 2 PM and you have four hours to mark down 40 units of fresh bread versus finding out at closing that you have to throw it away.
Meat & Seafood
Temperature-aware expiry alerts that factor in cold chain time. A batch of salmon that spent 4 hours at 46°F doesn't have the same shelf life as one that stayed at 35°F. Alerts adjust accordingly — plus dehydration yield tracking so you know actual sellable weight.
Electronics & Durables
Stock aging alerts instead of expiry alerts. That pallet of last-gen headphones loses 2% of its value every week it sits unsold. Alerts flag slow movers before they become dead stock, track warranty windows, and trigger clearance pricing recommendations at the optimal moment.
Supermarket Chains
Chain-wide alerts with store-by-store breakdown. Your regional manager sees the big picture — which stores have surplus, which have shortage, where inter-store transfers would prevent waste. Individual store managers get their own focused alerts. Everyone sees exactly what they need.
Inventory alert FAQs
The questions everyone asks before signing up (and the honest answers)
What time do alerts arrive?
Default is 7 AM in your local timezone via email. Configurable to any time. Some store owners prefer the evening before (so they can plan the next morning). The system runs at 2 AM regardless — it just holds the message until your preferred delivery time. Optional SMS for items above a value threshold you set.
Can I get alerts for specific products only?
Yes. Set custom alert rules by category (only OTC medications), by supplier (only McKesson products), by value threshold (only items worth $50+), or by margin (only items with margin above 15%). Most users start with "alert me on everything" and then fine-tune after a week.
What if I have multiple locations?
You choose: one consolidated alert across all locations (good for owners who want the big picture) or per-location alerts sent to each store manager (good for chains where each manager handles their own stock). Or both — the owner gets the summary, each manager gets their location.
Does this work with the POS?
Yes. When you click "Mark down 20%" from an alert, the new price is live at the register immediately. No second step. No "update the price in the system." The cashier scans the item, the discounted price appears. This matters because the gap between "I decided to mark it down" and "the price is actually changed" is where money leaks.
What is the minimum plan for alerts?
Starter plan ($29/month) includes expiry alerts and low stock alerts via email. Anomaly detection (unusual pattern alerts) requires the Enterprise plan. Most stores start on Starter and upgrade when they see the ROI — which usually takes about two weeks.
Can I get SMS alerts?
Yes. SMS alerts are available on all plans for critical items (configurable threshold). By default, items above $100 in value-at-risk with less than 7 days to expiry trigger an SMS in addition to the email digest. You can adjust both the value threshold and the days-to-expiry threshold.
Stop finding expired stock on the shelf. Find it in your inbox first.
Start your 14-day free trial. First alert arrives tomorrow morning.