Upload a supplier list
How it works
- Upload a list. Drop a supplier's Excel or CSV export in, add the supplier name and the date the list was issued.
- It is stored. The file becomes a dated snapshot for that supplier. Re-uploading the same supplier and date replaces the snapshot instead of duplicating it.
- It is compared. The app diffs it against that supplier's previous snapshot and flags what moved.
- Reports are produced. Four reports (New Products, Out of Stock, Price Drops, Inventory Variations) plus an Excel file, an HTML file and a dashboard.
Inventory Web — how to use it
What this is
Inventory Web compares a supplier's current stock list against the previous one and tells you what changed: what is new, what has run out, what dropped in price and what shifted in quantity.
One person runs the app on a machine or server. Everyone else just opens a browser tab pointed at it — there is nothing to install. Several people can use it at the same time for different suppliers, and the activity log records who uploaded and deleted what.
Adding a supplier and taking a second reading
- Go to Upload.
- Type the supplier's name. New names are created automatically — just type it. Returning suppliers appear in the dropdown as you type.
- Set the snapshot date to the date the list was issued, not today's date. This is what the app uses to order snapshots.
- Drop the Excel or CSV file in and press Upload and compare.
- The first upload just stores a baseline — there is nothing to compare it to yet. Reports start with the second upload for that supplier.
Column detection
The app reads the header row and matches column names automatically. Blank means auto-detect.
- SKU:
sku,item #,item number,product code,part number,style - UPC:
upc,ean,barcode,gtin - Name:
name,description,product,title - Price:
price,cost,unit price,list price,sell price,rrp - Quantity:
qty,quantity,on hand,stock,inventory,available qty - Availability:
availability,status,in stock,stock status
If a supplier uses odd headers, open Advanced — override detected columns on the Upload tab and type the exact column name.
The four reports
- New Products — the product appears in the current list but was not in the previous one.
- Out of Stock — the product was stocked before and now has zero quantity, or its availability now reads as out of stock.
- Price Drops — the unit price went down compared with the previous snapshot.
- Inventory Variations — the stock quantity changed (up or down) while the price stayed the same.
Each product is reported once
When a product qualifies for more than one report, it is classified in this priority order:
Out of Stock > New Product > Price Drop > Inventory Variation
So a newly listed product that is also out of stock counts as Out of Stock only, and the four report totals never double-count a product.
Discontinued and Price Increases
These two are deliberately outside the four reports. A product that vanished from the list may simply be a supplier dropping it — or a data problem. A price increase is not usually something you act on. They are shown as clearly marked EXTRA sections so you can see them without them skewing the flagged totals.
Re-uploading the same date
Uploading the same supplier and the same snapshot date again replaces that snapshot. It does not create a duplicate, and it does not create a second baseline. Use this to correct a bad file.
Deleting a snapshot
Snapshots can be deleted from the Suppliers history panel or from the Dashboard's snapshot history. Deleting the most recent snapshot makes the previous one current again. This cannot be undone.
Your data
Everything lives in a local SQLite file on the machine running the app. Uploaded files are not sent anywhere else and the app works with no internet access. Back up that SQLite file — it is the whole database.
Signing in
If the person running the app has set a password, you will be asked for it before anything else. Nobody can see or change supplier data without it.