Predictive Ordering takes the hard work out of ordering stock by using your previous sales, upcoming budget, existing stock on hand and a little bit of AI magic to give a very accurate forecast on what you and your team should order. It’s a smart stock assistant who knows your menu, your pace, your budget and most importantly does this all at lightening pace to save you time on creating orders.

Whether you’re prepping for the weekend, restocking after a big event, or managing seasonal changes, Predictive Ordering helps manage your stock levels so you don’t need to worry about over-ordering or running short.

Getting Started

Before you start using Predictive Ordering, you’ll need a few things set up:

Sales data in Loaded via a POS integration, or entered manually if you’re on a non-integrated plan.
Sales Budget entered for the period you are ordering for. Enter your Budget here.
Your stock items set up and ready to go in Loaded, with the correct Ordering Unit. Add and manage your stock items here.
Use Loaded’s default Stocktake templates - Food, Beverage or Other, or create custom Stocktake Templates for your venue that you can predict orders from.

How does it work?

When you start a new Predictive Order, Loaded will analyse your past sales, budgeted sales for the upcoming period, current stock on hand and minimum stock levels to suggest what you’re likely to need, and how much.

1. Calculate a Predicted Order

Enter the details below to calculate a Predicted Order:

Stocktake Template: Choose the Stocktake Template you want to base the Predicted Order on.
- You’ll see our default Food, Beverage and Other Stock templates, or read how to create custom Stocktake Templates for your venue.
Previous Sales: select the period of historic sales you want to base the predicted order on. This might be the past month, a big sports match last year or the week leading up to Christmas.
Order stock until: You might be ordering fresh produce for the week, or dry goods for the month, so enter the date you want to order stock for.
Buffer: Want to make sure you don’t run out of anything? Or think upcoming weeks might be slower than historic sales? Add or remove a buffer percentage to the order.

2. Check your Predicted Order

Once you’ve calculated the order, there’s a couple of things you can check and edit before you generate Purchase Orders:

Stock on Hand: this is your current stock on hand level as of today. You can manually enter a stock count by clicking the field and entering the value you have on hand.
Minimum Stock Levels: Enter or edit the minimum stock level you want to have on hand for a stock item. You can adjust minimum stock levels during the order process to suit what’s happening in your venue. If you’re not using Minimum Stock Levels, just adjust the “Enforce minimum quantity on hand toggle” off.
Quantity to Order: You can edit the Quantity to Order if you want to order more or less of what we think you need. Quantity to Order is calculated as whichever is higher of:
- Predicted Usage minus Stock on Hand; OR
- (Minimum Stock Level plus Predicted Usage) minus Stock on Hand

A couple of other points to note:

Unit: The Stock on Hand, Predicted Usage and Quantity to Order values are all calculated using the Ordering Unit set for that stock item.
Predicted Usage: click on the value in the Predicted Usage column to see how we’ve calculated it based on your previous sales data.

3. Create & Edit Purchase Orders

Once you’re happy with the Predicted Order, scroll to the bottom and click ‘Review Order’. You’ll then go to the Edit Order screen where you can review:

Supplier: check and adjust if necessary the Supplier you’re going to order each item from
Estimated cost: review the estimated cost of each stock item so you can see how much the order will cost you.
Unit & Quantity: make any final adjustments to the Unit and Quantity before you send the Purchase Order.

FAQs

Can I change the predicted Quantity to Order?
Yes, absolutely. Think of Predictive Ordering as your starting point and you then have full flexibility to update the Quantity to Order on the Predicted Order page, or the Edit Purchase Order page.
What’s the buffer % setting for?
The buffer lets you add or subtract a percentage from the predicted usage. This is handy for busy periods, conservative ordering, or winding down seasonal stock. Enter this setting before you calculate the order.
Can I still use Predictive Ordering if I haven’t completed a Stocktake?
Yes, if there’s been no stocktake of a stock item in the past 60 days, the Stock on Hand for that item will show as 0.00 and we’ll predict the quantity to order based on your past sales.
How do I update the Minimum Stock Level of a stock item?

There’s a couple of ways you can update the Minimum Stock Level: 1. Predicted Order page: click into the Minimum Stock Level column to update. 2. Manage Stock Item: from Stock > Manage > Stock Items, open the Stock Item and update the Minimum Stock Level.
How do I know which Suppliers I am ordering from?
Once you’re happy with the Predicted Order, you’ll progress to the Edit Order page where you can review and finalise what Supplier you’re ordering each stock item from.
Will Predictive Ordering take into account sent and outstanding purchase orders?
No, Predictive Ordering can only check existing stock on hand received via AI Invoice Processing or received Purchase Orders to calculate the Predicted Usage.
How do I know how much the Predicted Order will cost?
From the Predicted Order page, you’ll be taken to the Edit Order page where you can see the estimated cost for each stock item.
Does Loaded round the Quantity to Order?
Yes, Loaded will round the Quantity to Order UP to the nearest whole number of the Ordering Unit.
What if a new stock item has been created in Loaded after my most recent Stocktake?
Then the Stock on Hand for that item will show as 0.00. You can update this on the Predicted Order page to enter how much of that stock item you currently have on hand.