Expiry date tracking and notifications

Purpose

1.1. Automatically monitor inventory expiry dates for all perishable foods, beverages, and ingredients specific to Anhui cuisine.
1.2. Ensure timely notifications to staff, kitchen managers, and suppliers to prevent wastage, loss, and food safety violations.
1.3. Enable proactive supply chain reordering and stock rotation by analyzing upcoming expiries.
1.4. Support regulatory compliance for food safety standards in Anhui restaurants by recording expiry action logs.
1.5. Centralize tracking of various inventory items across multiple branches or storage locations.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. Scheduled daily or hourly inventory scans to check for items nearing expiry within a predefined time window (e.g., 7, 3, 1 days remaining).
2.2. Manual item entry or update in POS/inventory system with expiry date attached.
2.3. Automated imports from supplier invoices with expiry data.
2.4. Supplier shipment receipt with batch-level expiry details.
2.5. Threshold breaches (e.g., more than X% stock set to expire within Y days).

Platform Variants

3.1. Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: SMS API — send expiry alerts to staff mobiles; Configure 'Send Message' with inventory message template, dynamic phone numbers.
3.2. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Email API — automate scheduled expiry notifications; Use 'Send Email' with custom templating/recipient lists.
3.3. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Incoming Webhook — post expiry warnings in #inventory-alerts; configure using webhook URL with item, date, location details.
3.4. Microsoft Teams
• Feature/Setting: Teams Incoming Webhook — deliver policy-compliant expiry pings in group channels; use message cards for structured info.
3.5. Telegram
• Feature/Setting: Bot API — send expiry messages to channel/group; configure 'sendMessage' with food item, days to expire, call-to-action.
3.6. Google Sheets
• Feature/Setting: Sheets API — inventory expiry log; auto-update rows/cells and trigger expiry-check scripts.
3.7. Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Workflow Rules — generate tasks and alerts for expiring inventory; use Process Builder for dynamic assignments.
3.8. Zoho Inventory
• Feature/Setting: Custom Functions — trigger expiry reminders via zoho.mail or SMS integration; perform expiry-based stock adjustment.
3.9. Monday.com
• Feature/Setting: Automations — set up time-based expiry notification recipes for item columns.
3.10. Airtable
• Feature/Setting: Script Automation — run daily expiry scan and send grouped notifications to relevant users.
3.11. SAP Business One
• Feature/Setting: Alerts Management — configure expiry alerts for stock items; export to notification channels via API.
3.12. Oracle NetSuite
• Feature/Setting: SuiteFlow Workflow — detect and escalate near-expiry inventory cases.
3.13. Microsoft Power Automate
• Feature/Setting: Scheduled Cloud Flow — extract expiry items and route to email/SMS/Teams.
3.14. Odoo
• Feature/Setting: Automated Actions — identify expiring lots; batch email staff and update inventory notes.
3.15. HubSpot
• Feature/Setting: Workflows — auto-create expiry tasks or reminders linked to contacts/deals.
3.16. Notion
• Feature/Setting: Database Automation — trigger expiry-based updates and in-app banners.
3.17. WhatsApp Business API
• Feature/Setting: Template Message — send expiry alerts with interactive reply options.
3.18. PagerDuty
• Feature/Setting: Event Trigger — escalate urgent expiry events to incident management.
3.19. Brevo (ex Sendinblue)
• Feature/Setting: Transactional Email API — schedule and batch expiry notifications to multiple recipients.
3.20. Zoho Cliq
• Feature/Setting: Bot message — post expiring inventory in team chats, include quick-claim action.
3.21. Shopify
• Feature/Setting: Admin API — update product tags/status with expiry proximity and send alerts to warehouse teams.
3.22. Freshservice
• Feature/Setting: Workflow Automator — create expiry-based tickets for actions/responsible staff.

Benefits

4.1. Minimizes product loss and reduces cost of spoilage for Anhui cuisine-specific raw ingredients.
4.2. Enhances food safety compliance and simplifies regulatory audits for Anhui restaurants.
4.3. Improves traceability on supply chain for quality controls.
4.4. Frees up staff time from manual checks through reliable, multi-channel notification automation.
4.5. Supports multi-location management and centralized monitoring.
4.6. Strengthens supplier relations by enabling timely reorders and feedback loops.