This template applies the four-block method: THE THINGS, THE LINKS, THE STATES, THE NUMBERS, to inventory management. Rather than an empty outline, it's a template already filled in for a spare-parts workshop: each line shows the expected level of detail, no more, no less.
To adapt it, keep the structure and change the content: your item categories, your unit of management (piece, linear metre, pack of 24), your replenishment flow. If an entity in the example doesn't apply to you: purchase orders, say, delete the line: a good specification only describes what you actually track.
Once filled with your own words, this text serves two purposes: a brief for a developer, or a description submitted as-is to Blueprint Maker, which turns it into an application plan you validate, then a generated application: database, screens, dashboard and demo data.
The template to copy
My business: agricultural equipment repair workshop, 5 people. I manage a stock of about 800 spare-part references. THINGS tracked: - Items (reference, description, purchase price, quantity in stock, alert threshold, location) - Suppliers (name, contact, usual delivery time) - Stock movements (date, type in or out, quantity, reason) - Purchase orders (date, amount, expected delivery date) LINKS: - An item has a main supplier. - A stock movement concerns an item. - A purchase order is placed with a supplier and contains items. STATES of a purchase order: draft, sent, partially received, received, cancelled. NUMBERS to see every morning: - Total stock value - Items below alert threshold - Movements over the last 30 days - Orders awaiting delivery
Adapting this template to your inventory
- Unit of management: if you count in metres, batches or packs rather than pieces, say so in the item fields ("quantity in linear metres", "pack of 24"), the generated structure reflects it.
- Multiple locations: single warehouse? Remove the location field. Several storage zones? Keep it, or add a "Location" entity with a link "an item is stored at a location".
- No purchase orders: many businesses only track ins and outs. Remove the Purchase order entity and its states, the template stays complete with three entities.
- Perishable or dated stock: add an expiry or receipt date on the item or movement, and an indicator "items expiring within 30 days" in the NUMBERS block.
- Stay on operational tracking: compliant invoicing and accounting have their own dedicated tools, this specification stops where they start.