Stockroom vs Inventory Planner for purchasing
Inventory Planner by Sage is a forecasting tool with purchase orders attached: three forecast methods, open-to-buy budgets, Amazon and multi-store planning, on a quote based on the inventory you manage. If you buy for a Shopify store, Stockroom covers the purchasing job free, inside your admin, and does the parts Inventory Planner leaves to you: incoming stock in Shopify, receiving that updates Shopify on its own, and landed cost written back to your products.
Creating purchase orders
Inventory Planner starts a PO from its replenishment table. Stockroom starts one from wherever the need shows up.
| Feature | Inventory Planner | Stockroom |
|---|---|---|
| Runs inside your Shopify admin | A separate app with a connector | Yes |
| Start a PO from reorder suggestions | The replenishment table | A buy plan grouped by supplier |
| Start a PO from a customer order | No | From the order page, or add to an open draft |
| Import a whole PO from CSV | Yes | Yes |
| Create at POS by scanning | No | Yes |
| Create from an AI assistant | No | Claude, ChatGPT and others over MCP |
| Freight, fees and discounts on the PO | Yes | Per line or per order |
| Ship one PO to several locations | A premium beta | Yes |
| Approval before ordering | Draft to open | Optional |
| Your own PO number format | The next number only | Yes |
| Notes per line | Not documented | Supplier-visible or internal |
| Attach files to the PO | On the outgoing email | On the PO itself |
| Your product metafields as PO columns | Custom fields | Up to 20, two on the PDF |
| Team comments and @mentions on a PO | No | Yes |
Sending the PO to the supplier
Both email a templated PDF with your logo. Stockroom tells you what happened next.
| Feature | Inventory Planner | Stockroom |
|---|---|---|
| Email the PO from the app | From a system address, reply-to yours | Yes |
| PDF with your logo and a format per supplier | Yes | Yes |
| Send from your own domain | No | Early access |
| Know when it was opened | A sent list | Yes |
| Supplier confirms and adds tracking on a link | No | No login for them |
| PO lands in the supplier’s own Shopify store | No | Stockroom Network |
Receiving the delivery
Inventory Planner receives into its own record and offers a button to push the stock to Shopify. Stockroom receives straight into Shopify.
| Feature | Inventory Planner | Stockroom |
|---|---|---|
| Incoming quantity shows in Shopify | Not documented | On mark ordered |
| Received stock lands in Shopify | A button per PO, if Shopify is master | On receive, at that location |
| Partial deliveries | Yes | Yes |
| Receive by barcode scan | The barcode field | Admin, POS and a phone camera |
| Receive in Shopify POS | No | Yes |
| Accept or reject units | Not documented | Yes |
| Receive more than was ordered | Not documented | Yes |
| Invoice number and total on the delivery | A reference field | Yes |
| Read the invoice photo to fill in the counts | No | Stockroom AI |
| Receive from an AI assistant | No | Over MCP, with a preview first |
| Undo a receive | Until it is synced | Yes |
| Print barcode labels for what arrived | No | Yes |
| Return goods to the supplier | No | With a credit note |
What the goods cost you
Both allocate freight into unit cost. Stockroom writes the answer to the Shopify product when you say so.
| Feature | Inventory Planner | Stockroom |
|---|---|---|
| Freight and fees allocated into unit cost | By value | By value, quantity or weight |
| Update the product’s cost and price in Shopify from the PO | Not documented | You confirm each push |
| Selling prices reviewed after a cost change | Margin metrics only | Price review report |
| Landed cost on every delivery | Yes | Snapshotted per receipt |
| Payment status on the PO | No | Unpaid, partial, paid |
| Owed to suppliers report | No | Yes |
Reordering and reports
Forecasting is Inventory Planner’s whole reason to exist. Stockroom covers the reorder job for one store and reports on the suppliers too.
| Feature | Inventory Planner | Stockroom |
|---|---|---|
| Reorder points from your sales | Three forecast methods | Nightly |
| Buy plan grouped by supplier | Yes | Lowest-cost supplier flagged |
| Low stock alerts | Yes | Email and Slack |
| Supplier on-time and lead-time report | Average lead time | On-time and lead time |
| Landed cost report | No | Yes |
| Bills into QuickBooks | POs, not bills | With MyWorks Sync, paid |
What Stockroom adds
What a PO in Stockroom does that Inventory Planner leaves to you once the order is placed.
- It lives in your Shopify admin. Purchase orders, receiving and reports open inside Shopify, next to the products and orders they are about. There is no second system to log into or keep in sync.
- Shopify shows what is coming. Mark a PO ordered and the incoming quantity appears on the product in Shopify and POS. Inventory Planner tracks on-order stock inside its own screens.
- Receiving updates Shopify on its own. Receive in Stockroom and the stock lands at that location in Shopify. There is no button to remember and no master-system setting to check first.
- Receiving happens where the boxes are. Scan at the desk, at the till in Shopify POS, or with a phone camera. Reject what is damaged, record the invoice, undo a wrong count.
- Shopify’s cost keeps up. After a receive, Stockroom shows the landed cost per unit and writes it to Shopify’s cost per item when you confirm.
- Prices keep up with costs. The price review report shows where a cost rise ate your margin and suggests a new price you can push to Shopify.
- Suppliers can answer. Open tracking on the email, a confirmation link with no login, tracking added by the supplier, and a Network delivery into a supplier’s own Shopify store.
- It works from your AI assistant. Connect Claude, ChatGPT or another assistant over MCP and ask it to draft a PO or receive a delivery. Stockroom shows a preview before anything moves.
- The bill reaches QuickBooks. MyWorks Sync posts each PO and bill into QuickBooks. Inventory Planner pushes purchase orders only.
Where Inventory Planner is the better fit
Inventory Planner is a planning layer, and a deep one. Stockroom does not try to match this.
- Forecasting depth. Three configurable methods, seasonal fallbacks for new products, stockout correction, and open-to-buy budgets that scale a PO to the money available. Stockroom’s nightly reorder points are simpler by design.
- Many channels and warehouses in one plan. Several Shopify stores, Amazon FBA and FBM, Walmart and more, with transfer recommendations between warehouses. Stockroom plans for one Shopify store.
- Bundles and assemblies in the forecast. Component demand is derived from bundle sales across every channel in the plan. Stockroom raises a build when a finished good runs short and puts the components it needs on the buy plan, from one store’s sales.
- Supplier modelling. Tier prices, minimums, units of measure, per-warehouse lead times and cost comparison across suppliers. Stockroom has all of these too, which is why there is no Suppliers table on this page.
- A planning layer over another inventory system. Connectors for Cin7, Brightpearl, Linnworks, ShipBob and others, so it can sit above a warehouse system that does the receiving.
Questions we get
Does Inventory Planner receive stock into Shopify?
Only when you press the button. Receiving is recorded in Inventory Planner, and each PO has an Update stock action that pushes the change to Shopify. Its own documentation says to use it only if Shopify is your master inventory system. Stockroom writes the received stock to Shopify as part of the receive, at that location.
Does Inventory Planner show incoming stock in Shopify?
Nothing in its documentation says it writes Shopify’s incoming figure. On-order quantities are tracked inside Inventory Planner. Stockroom writes incoming to Shopify when you mark a PO ordered, so the product page and POS show what is coming.
Can I use Stockroom with Inventory Planner?
Not comfortably. Both raise POs and both want to record receiving, so you would keep two sets of orders in step by hand. If you need Inventory Planner’s forecasting across several channels, keep it and use its POs. If you buy for one Shopify store, Stockroom covers the job on its own.
How does Stockroom forecast?
Every night it works out a reorder point per product from your sales and lead times, then builds a buy plan grouped by supplier with minimums and pack sizes applied and the cheaper supplier flagged. It does not offer Inventory Planner’s method choices, seasonal models or open-to-buy budgets.
What does Inventory Planner cost?
The main product is quoted per account, based on the volume of inventory you manage, and the price is not published. The separate Inventory Planner Essentials app on the Shopify App Store is $119.99 a month for a single warehouse. Both as read on 11 September 2026.
What does Stockroom cost?
Purchase orders and receiving are free, and they stay free. That is the core of the app. As Stockroom grows into deeper inventory management, the advanced end of that will be paid, along with hands-on onboarding and priority support. Pushing your POs and bills into QuickBooks is a paid MyWorks Sync subscription.
Try it on your next order
Install free, create one PO, email it, and receive it when it lands. Nothing in Inventory Planner is touched.