Smart Ordering

Smart Ordering is where a branch asks the warehouse for what it needs, follows the order until it arrives, and counts it in. The order opens with the quantities already filled in from your order history, so most days you check the numbers and send. Mihwar doesn’t count what is on your shelf — the pattern of your orders already shows how fast each item goes. Head office keeps the item list, the suppliers and the settings that decide how big a suggestion is.

A branch’s order for tomorrow, from sending it to counting it in
BranchSends the orderThe quantities are already filled in.
WarehouseApproves itIt can approve less than you asked for.
WarehousePicks and packsYou can cancel until picking starts.
WarehouseSends itA driver brings it, or you collect it.
BranchCounts it inLine by line, on the phone.
If the warehouse can’t send it, it rejects the request and writes why. If a line arrives short or damaged, you mark it as you count.

Find your part

Sending your branch’s order

Your order is one screen with every item and a quantity already filled in. You check it, change what is wrong, and send it to the warehouse — not to a supplier.

  1. Open it

    On your branch’s home screen, find the Today’s request card and tap Request from warehouse. It reads Start today’s request while an earlier request is still open. In Smart Ordering you can also use Start today’s request on the Overview, or the Replenish tab. If you look after more than one branch, you choose the branch the first time and the phone remembers it.

  2. Check the numbers

    The items that are due soonest are at the top, and some carry the tag Urgent. Each row shows the item, the Recommended number and an Order box that starts at the same number. To take every suggestion at once, tap Accept all recommendations. To start from what you ordered last time, tap Reorder my last request.

  3. Change what is wrong

    Tap the minus or plus button, or type a number in the Order box. Tap Why? on a row to see where its number comes from. To find an item, type in Search items. An item left at 0 is not sent.

  4. Add a note, or change the day

    Tap Order details & notes to write a note for the warehouse. The line at the top shows the delivery date — tap Change to pick another day.

  5. Send it

    Tap Send request (12) at the bottom; the number is how many items will go. If a number is far from its suggestion, Mihwar asks Why this quantity? for that item. Pick a reason, or tap Skip this or Skip all — a reason helps the next suggestion and never stops you from sending. The request opens with the status Queued.

Is it time to order? When your branch has no open request and its last one was 7 days ago or more — or it has never sent one — the Today’s request card says Today’s request is due, and how many days it is overdue. On the Overview, head office sees Branches due to order.

An item ran out? Tap the flag on its row (Report out of stock), add a note if you like, and tap Report. Anyone on the crew can. It tells Smart Ordering that the item ran out at your branch, so the next suggestions allow for it. It does not send anything to the warehouse.

How the quantities are suggested

Mihwar does not count what is on your shelf. It looks at past orders — your branch’s own requests, and the history head office brings in — and works out how much one order should bring.

  • What your branch needs each day, worked out from those orders.
  • Times the days one order should last — see below.
  • Plus a safety margin — 15% unless head office chose another way.
  • Rounded up to whole packs, and never below the item’s minimum order.

How many days an order lasts. If your branch orders an item on a regular rhythm, Mihwar uses that rhythm. If not, it uses the item’s own Order frequency (days), then your branch’s setting, then the company’s — 7 days unless head office changed it. A rhythm Mihwar finds counts for at most 14 days; a number someone set counts in full, up to 30.

Where a row’s number comes from. Tap Why? and the panel names the source and shows How it adds up — a day’s need × the days it covers, the safety margin, the rounding — ending on the number the row shows. The row itself says so when the number is a guess:

  • Learned forecast for your branch: Mihwar has learned this item from your branch’s own requests. The row has no note.
  • The whole chain’s forecast, at your branch’s share (the row says Your branch’s share of the whole chain’s forecast — it learns as you order): until Mihwar has learned your branch, it takes the forecast for the whole chain and gives your branch its part — its share of the requests for this item over the last 90 days, or an even share while your branch hasn’t asked for anything. How it adds up shows the chain’s number and your share.
  • Based on your order history: the plain average of recent orders of the item — your branch’s own when the imported file named your branch.
  • Still learning … — using a category estimate: your branch has little history for this item, so Mihwar borrows from similar items and from the other branches. Treat the number as a guess.
  • Starting estimate — no history yet, adjust to your branch: there is nothing to learn from yet. Recommended shows a starting figure, but the Order box stays at 0 until you set it, even after Accept all recommendations.
  • AI off and Manual mode — enter the quantity yourself: head office set this item to give no suggestion. You type the quantity.
  • History only — no AI model: this item uses only the plain average.

Under the item’s name a short line says In line with your usual, or how far the number is from your average and why — Ramadan, an Eid, a holiday coming, a weekday pattern, a promotion you told Mihwar about. It also shows your last request and your usual quantity per day.

A new branch starts from an even share of the whole chain’s numbers; an item other branches order but yours never has starts from a starting figure, and an item nobody has ordered from similar items in the same category. As your branch sends requests, Mihwar learns its own pattern. The learned forecast already knows Ramadan, the Eids, holidays and your busy weekdays; for an item with no history of its own, head office can add an extra percentage for Ramadan and Eid. Mihwar learns from what you ask for, not from what arrives, so a short delivery does not make the next suggestion smaller.

Head office chooses, item by item, how Mihwar suggests — Prediction mode on the item: Auto (ML + fallback) learns your branch’s pattern and falls back to the plain average when it has little to learn from; Historical only always uses the plain average; Manual (no AI suggestion) makes no suggestion.

When a number looks wrong:

  • Type your own number. The order is yours — nothing makes you take a suggestion.
  • Tap Why? to see the reason, then Override to go to the box. If you change a number by more than a fifth and by more than 2 units, Mihwar asks Why this quantity? — the choices are Event / catering, Stockout last week, Spoilage and Other (which asks you to write a few words). Your answer teaches the next suggestion.
  • On a row with a learned forecast you may see Service level (How sure should we be?): 80%, 90%, 95% or 99%, each with its quantity. A higher level asks for more, to be safer. It changes the Order box until you type a number yourself.
  • An item ran out: tap Report out of stock on its row.
  • A promo or an event is coming: a branch manager taps Tell us about an upcoming promo or event in the Why? panel, names it and says how much extra demand to expect. It is saved for that branch, and the numbers are worked out again.
  • Every number is small, or every row says Starting estimate: Mihwar has little history. Ask head office to bring in recent order history (Importing data).

Head office sets how big a suggestion is. The owner opens Smart Ordering settings:

  • Service level: how sure you want to be of not running short. Higher means bigger suggestions.
  • Safety buffer method: Fixed — flat buffer (+15%) or Statistical — sized from demand swing.
  • Waste allowance: extra for spoilage and loss in preparing.
  • Order frequency (cover days): how many days an order lasts when the item has no rhythm of its own.
  • Ramadan uplift and Eid uplift: the extra percentage for items with no history yet.
  • Default forecasting mode for new items: the Prediction mode a new item starts with.
  • Your weekend: the days your customers order like a weekend; the suggestions plan for them. It starts as your country’s — Friday and Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf, Saturday and Sunday elsewhere — and Use your country’s weekend puts it back. It isn’t the days you’re closed: those are in your organization’s settings.

A branch can follow its own service level and cover days (Ordering overrides), and an item its own. The item’s setting wins over the branch’s, and the branch’s over the company’s. See Organization & branches. How the forecast differs from the AI that writes documents is in AI in Mihwar.

Orders that repeat

  • Reorder my last request — on the home card and in the order. It opens the order with the items of your last request, at today’s suggested quantities. Items that weren’t on it go back to 0.
  • A standard cart — your branch’s own list of its usual items. In the order, open Order details & notes, tap Save this list as my standard cart, name it, and say when it applies: Standard, Weekday, Weekend (your weekend, as head office set it), Ramadan or Promo. It is saved when you send the request. Next time, Mihwar picks the cart that fits the delivery date (Auto-selected) and marks its items Standard cart. Tap Change to pick another cart or Start fresh, and Manage saved carts to rename or delete one. A cart remembers which items you usually order, not how many — the numbers still come from the suggestions. A cart belongs to one branch.
  • Repeat orders (head office) — under More, Repeat orders keeps supplier orders that make themselves (New repeat order): the supplier, where it is delivered — a warehouse, or a branch for items that come straight from a supplier — the items and how many, and when it comes round: every day, every week on the days you pick, or every month on a day, at a time on your organization’s clock. Each time, Mihwar makes the supplier order, with your note for the supplier and a day to deliver by (that day plus the supplier’s lead time). Each order either Waits for approval or Is approved at once — either way nothing goes to the supplier until someone sends it, and the people concerned are told. Make one now makes an order straight away and leaves the schedule as it is. When a time comes and the order can’t be made — the supplier was turned off, an item was removed from the catalog — the card says why, head office is told, and it tries again the next time.

Only head office sees Repeat orders, and only with the right to approve orders. A repeat order is never a branch’s request to the warehouse: a branch’s order is always the one the branch sends itself.

Following a request

Open a request any time: tap it on the Today’s request card, or open Transfers in Smart Ordering. Transfers is a board with a column for each step — Requested, Approved, Preparing, In transit and Delivered. Tick Show closed to see requests that were cancelled or rejected. Each branch sees only its own requests. On the Overview, the numbers Open requests, Arriving today and Arriving this week take you there too.

On the request’s own page, the status says where it is:

  • Queued — waiting in the warehouse’s queue (Warehouse & deliveries). You can still Edit request and Cancel request.
  • Approved — the warehouse accepted it. Under a quantity you may see approved: 20 when it approved less than you asked for. You can only Cancel request; to change the numbers, cancel it and send a new request.
  • Picking and Packed — the warehouse is getting it ready. You can no longer change it or cancel it. Ask the warehouse.
  • In transit — on its way, or collected by your branch. Now Confirm receipt appears (see counting a delivery in).
  • Received — you counted it in. The warehouse confirms the final quantities and closes it.
  • Fulfilled — closed. Nothing more to do.
  • Rejected — the warehouse can’t send it. The page shows Their reason: …, which the warehouse had to write.
  • Cancelled — you cancelled it.

What you can still change, and until when. You can edit a request until the warehouse approves it, and cancel it until picking starts. To edit, tap Edit request: every quantity becomes a box. Change them and tap Save changes, or Discard. You can’t set every quantity to 0 — cancel the request instead. To cancel, tap Cancel request and then Yes, cancel it; the warehouse sees that it was cancelled, and it can’t be undone. If the warehouse started while your page was open, Mihwar says The warehouse has started on this request — ask them for any change.

When the warehouse sends it, the Arriving card on your home screen shows the arrival time and the driver’s name, and the Pipeline strip shows what is expected over the next 14 days. The warehouse can also record Collected by the branch when someone from your branch takes the goods along: it counts as sent, with no driver. If the driver marks it delivered, the page says so — you still count it in. The driver’s side is in Warehouse & deliveries.

Counting a delivery in

Counting in opens only once the request is In transit — sent by the warehouse, or collected by your branch. Before that, the request page tells you where it is. Only your branch can count it in, and only once: a second try says This delivery is already checked in.

  1. Open it

    On your home screen, open the Arriving card and tap the request listed under Today. Or open the request and tap Confirm receipt. The screen shows one item at a time.

  2. Count the line

    Sent is what the warehouse sent. The How many arrived? box starts at that number. If it is right, leave it — it says Same as sent. If not, type the real number or use minus and plus; the line says how many fewer or more than sent. A line the warehouse approved short is not a problem: you count against what it sent.

  3. Mark what happened

    When the number is different, Mihwar marks the line Short or Over by itself and Looks right turns grey. If something is Damaged, or a different item came instead (Substituted), tap that yourself. For any mark but Looks right you can add a note and photos.

  4. Go on, then finish

    Tap Next line for each item. A line you leave alone is saved as arrived exactly as sent. On the last line tap Finish receipt. If everything is right, tap All looks right at the top — it sets every line to what was sent and takes you to the last line (it asks first when you had already counted or marked something) — then Finish receipt.

  5. After you finish

    A short message says Checked in., or on how many items there was a difference. If Labels is on and you may print, the next screen is Print labels for this delivery; tap Skip labels to leave it. You are back on the request, which now says it was received.

If the warehouse didn’t send an item, its line says The warehouse didn’t send this one. Photos and notes stay on the request for the warehouse to read. You can’t change a count after you finish; if you notice a mistake later, tell the warehouse team.

When something is missing or wrong

There is no separate report to fill in. Marking a line Short, Over, Damaged or Substituted as you count the delivery in is the report. A line marked Looks right is not a problem.

  • A follow-up opens at your branch, one for the whole delivery, named like Delivery problem at Olaya: 2 of 8 lines. It lists each line — Short: …, Damaged: … — and asks to check the delivery against the order (Follow-ups).
  • The warehouse is told and answers on its Receive discrepancies screen: it was their mistake, or they sent it all (Warehouse & deliveries). The warehouse can’t close your request until it has answered. The answer lands on your follow-up, and the person who looks after it at your branch is told The warehouse answered.
  • If the warehouse sends again what was short or damaged, it comes as a new request that links back to the original. You count it in the same way.
  • The next suggestion doesn’t shrink. Mihwar learns from what you asked for, so a short delivery does not make the next suggestion smaller.

Items that come straight from a supplier

Head office can set an item’s Fulfillment source to Supplier direct, for example napkins from a packaging company. In your order, that item’s row carries the tag Supplier direct. An item set to Both still goes through the warehouse.

No warehouse in your company? (At setup: No, each branch orders directly.) Then every item goes straight to its supplier — the order says There’s no warehouse: each item goes straight to its supplier. The day head office adds a warehouse under Locations, items go to it again, except those set to Supplier direct. A sample warehouse never takes a real branch’s order, and a real branch is never offered the sample’s practice items.

  • Branch managers can send them. When you tap Send request, Mihwar splits the order: the warehouse items become the request to the warehouse, and each supplier’s items become an order to that supplier, for your branch, approved at once. You find it under Supplier orders; how it reaches the supplier is in Warehouse & deliveries.
  • Crew and supervisors can’t send them. They see Some items go direct to a supplier at the top of the order, and those items stay out of Send request and its number — your warehouse items still go (with no warehouse, nothing goes: a manager sends them). A manager sends the rest.
  • No supplier linked to the item? The order lists it under No supplier for these yet and leaves it out of Send request; everything else still goes. Ask head office to link a supplier to the item.

Items and suppliers

Only head office changes the items, the suppliers and the settings. Branch managers and crew read the lists and order from them; they don’t change them for every branch.

Items. Open Items under More in Smart Ordering; the page is called Catalog. It lists what your branches can order.

  • Adding. Add Item takes the SKU (the item’s code), the Item name, the Unit — kg, case, box, bottle, or one you type — and the Category. While the catalog is empty, Build my catalog opens Build your catalog: one line per item, no spreadsheet. Or bring the items in with an import, which also creates your suppliers.
  • What the number depends on. Pack size — a suggestion is always a whole number of packs; Minimum order qty — never below it; Lead time (days); Order frequency (days); and under Order intelligence overrides the item’s Prediction mode, Service level and Waste factor. How they change a suggestion is in how suggestions are made. Branches count in the Unit; Supplier orders in and Base units per supplier unit are only for the quantity written on a supplier order.
  • Where it comes from. Fulfillment source is Warehouse (default), Supplier direct or Both (see items that come straight from a supplier). Supplier records links the item to its suppliers.
  • Every branch orders every active item. There is no list of which branch orders what: each item is a row in every branch’s order, and a branch sends only the rows it sets above 0. To take an item out of everyone’s order, archive it.
  • Archive, restore, delete. Archive item hides an item from new orders and keeps its history; Restore item brings it back. Delete — for the owner and admins — removes the item for good, with its order history and forecasts. It can’t be undone.

Suppliers. Suppliers (under More) lists everyone you buy from: name, e-mail, phone, address, lead time and notes. Add supplier creates one; link it to its items from the item. A supplier that already has orders is switched off instead of deleted, and those orders keep its name. How an order reaches a supplier is set per supplier and is described in Warehouse & deliveries.

The order history the suggestions learn from

Mihwar learns from three things:

  • What each branch asks for. Every request a branch sends becomes part of that branch’s history for each item in it — what it asked for, not what arrived.
  • History head office brings in. A file of past orders from Import, and the supplier orders you close (they are written to the history too). This history is for the whole chain; it has no branch column.
  • “We ran out”. A flag on a row (Report out of stock) or a checklist step set to record it.

The file itself — what it needs, the four steps, undoing it — is in Importing data. Open History (under More) to see the imported files and the rows. Anyone who can see Smart Ordering can read it; head office removes a bad file with Delete batch, which takes back that file’s rows only.

Managers and head office can see how well the suggestions are doing on Predictions (under More): how many items have a learned forecast, how far off the forecasts usually are, and which items need more history. Refresh AI snapshot makes fresh forecasts now. When the forecast can’t run, Mihwar suggests from the plain average of your history instead, and says so with a banner: Using fallback estimates.

Where Smart Ordering connects

  • Warehouse & deliveries — sending your order puts it in the warehouse’s queue by itself. From there the warehouse moves it step by step, by hand: approve, pick, pack, send, close (Warehouse & deliveries). A driver can bring it (the driver’s screen).
  • Follow-ups — when you mark a line short, over, damaged or substituted, one follow-up opens for the delivery, by itself (Follow-ups).
  • Quality — every delivery you count in, marked or not, opens your branch’s Per delivery inspections, if it has any, once for each delivery (Quality).
  • Labels — after you count a delivery in, Labels offers use-by labels for what arrived (when Labels is on and you may print); the use-by comes from each item’s shelf life. You can skip it (Labels).
  • Checklists — a checklist step set to record that an item ran out tells Smart Ordering, like the flag on a row does (Checklists).
  • Reports — head office reads the ordering numbers for every branch (Reports). Bringing in order history is by hand (Importing data).
  • The other apps — the whole list of what opens by itself is in How the apps work together.

Who is told what

  • The warehouse’s team — when your branch sends a request (New request from …), changes it or cancels it, and when you check a delivery in with nothing marked, so they close it.
  • Whoever asked, and the branch’s managers — when the warehouse approves the request (naming what it lowered) or turns it down, with its reason.
  • The branch’s team and whoever asked — when the request is on its way (with the arrival time when there is one), when that time changes, when someone from the branch collected it at the warehouse, and when the driver delivered it: Check it in now.
  • Whoever looks after the delivery’s follow-up at the branch — when the warehouse answers a delivery problem: The warehouse answered.
  • The warehouse team — when a branch marks a delivery short, over, damaged or substituted, so it can answer.
  • Anyone who can see Smart Ordering — About to run short, when the forecast says an item will be needed within 3 days and no request or supplier order has it yet.

Head office hears about a branch’s deliveries only when the warehouse has no team of its own. Nobody is told what they did themselves. Alerts reach the bell and the phone, and e-mail where a person turned it on, each in their own language (Alerts).

Who may do what

  • Crew and supervisors — send and follow their branch’s requests, edit a request while it is queued and cancel it until picking starts, count a delivery in, report an item out of stock, and save carts. They read the items and the suppliers but can’t change them, and they can’t send items that come straight from a supplier.
  • Branch managers — everything above, and send items that come straight from a supplier, tell Smart Ordering about a promo or an event for their branch, and look at Predictions.
  • Head office (the owner and admins) — see every branch. They keep the items, the suppliers, the order history, the repeat orders and the settings, and read the ordering report. The owner opens the Smart Ordering settings.
  • The warehouse team works the requests branches send; it doesn’t send a branch’s order. Drivers see only the deliveries given to them (Warehouse & deliveries).

Each branch sees only its own requests; a manager of two branches sees both. Your administrator can change who can do what under Roles.

Questions

The Send request button is grey.

Every quantity is 0 — raise at least one. Or the only items above 0 come straight from a supplier and you can’t send those: crew and supervisors can’t. A branch manager can.

Every row says Starting estimate, or the numbers are small.

Mihwar has little or no history for those items. The Order box stays at 0 on a starting estimate, even after Accept all recommendations: type what you need. Ask head office to bring in recent order history (Importing data).

The order says “Nothing to forecast yet”.

Your company has not added any items yet. Head office adds them — Add Item, Build my catalog or an import — and brings in its order history (Importing data). Then your order fills in.

Why is this number bigger than last time?

Tap Why? on the row. The line under the name says how far the number is from your average and why — Ramadan, an Eid, a holiday coming, a promotion. It also changes when head office changes the settings, or when your branch’s rhythm changes the days an order should last.

I can’t edit or cancel my request.

You can edit a request only while it is Queued, and cancel it while it is Queued or Approved. Once the warehouse is picking, ask the warehouse. After approval, to change the numbers, cancel it and send a new request.

The warehouse approved less than I asked for.

Nothing is wrong. The line shows approved: 20, and you count the delivery against that. If you still need the rest, send a new request for it.

Confirm receipt is missing, or counting in won’t open.

It opens only once the request is In transit. Until the warehouse sends it, or records that your branch collected it, the request page shows where it is. It also won’t open again once you have counted it in.

Looks right is grey on a line.

The count is different from what was sent. Choose what happened — Short, Over, Damaged or Substituted — or type the sent number back.

I counted a delivery in, but no follow-up opened.

A follow-up opens only when at least one line is marked Short, Over, Damaged or Substituted. Lines marked Looks right don’t count.

An item I need isn’t on my order.

Every active item in your company’s catalog is on the order. If the one you need is missing, ask head office to add it, or to restore it if it was archived.

Can I order for another day?

Yes. Tap Change on the line at the top of the order and pick the delivery day.

I tapped Send request twice.

Only one request is made: with the same numbers, the second tap gets the first request back. If you changed a number in between, it is a new request — cancel the one you don’t need.

Does Mihwar count what is on my shelf?

No, and you never type a stock count. Your orders already show how fast each item goes, and the suggestions come from that.

Does my order go to a supplier?

No, it goes to the warehouse. Only items head office marked Supplier direct go to a supplier, and a branch manager sends those.

I can’t see Reports, Repeat orders or Import, or I can’t change an item.

Those are head office’s. Branch managers and crew read the items and suppliers but don’t change them for every branch. Ask head office.

I have no signal.

Sending an order and counting a delivery in need a signal. The order you were making stays on the phone for 3 days, so what you typed is not lost (Mihwar on your phone).

The pricing page says the Free plan has no AI ordering. Do I still get suggestions?

Yes. Your order opens with suggested quantities on every plan; they come from your order history. A plan without predictions doesn’t include the Refresh AI snapshot button on Predictions: it shows Plan limit and offers Open billing.