> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mathership.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Automations Overview

> Use Mathership automation tools to query data, generate reorder suggestions, and speed up daily operations

# Automations

Mathership automation tools help you work faster by turning inventory, order, and stock data into actionable recommendations.

Use Automations to ask operational questions, review reorder suggestions, prepare draft orders, and manage stock-related actions from one place.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="AI Assistant" icon="robot" href="/en/restaurants/automation/ai-assistant">
    Chat with the Mathership AI to query inventory, orders, stock movements, and reorder suggestions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Reorder Suggestions" icon="lightbulb" href="/en/restaurants/automation/reorder-suggestions">
    View automatically generated reorder recommendations for ingredients that need attention.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What Automations help with

Automations are designed to support daily restaurant operations.

They can help you:

* Find low-stock or critical ingredients
* Review recent orders
* Understand inventory movements
* Compare data across companies in your organization
* Get reorder suggestions
* Prepare draft orders
* Snooze or dismiss reorder recommendations
* Review operational data without manually searching through multiple pages

## Available automation tools

### AI Assistant

The AI Assistant lets you ask questions about your inventory, orders, and reorder suggestions in plain language.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Inventory insights" icon="warehouse">
    Ask about stock levels, storage units, movements, low-stock items, and inventory value.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Order overview" icon="clipboard-list">
    Review recent orders, open orders, vendor history, and order spending.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Reorder support" icon="lightbulb">
    Get reorder suggestions, prepare draft orders, and manage suggestions directly from chat.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

You can use the AI Assistant to:

* Ask inventory questions
* Review order history
* Get reorder suggestions
* Create draft orders
* Compare data across companies
* Continue previous conversations
* View structured responses such as tables, metric cards, charts, comparisons, and reports

See [AI Assistant](/en/restaurants/automation/ai-assistant) for the full guide.

### Reorder Suggestions

Reorder Suggestions are automatically generated recommendations that tell you which ingredients need to be ordered, how much to order, and when.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Know what to order" icon="lightbulb">
    See which ingredients need attention based on current stock and recent consumption.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Plan by vendor" icon="truck">
    Review suggestions grouped by vendor and storage unit.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Act directly" icon="check">
    Adjust quantities, make an order, snooze, dismiss, or reopen suggestions.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

Mathership calculates suggestions based on reorder configurations set on each ingredient.

The calculation can take into account:

| Input               | What it means                                                  |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Current stock       | On-hand quantity in the configured storage unit                |
| Review period       | The window in days used to calculate average daily consumption |
| Lead time           | How many days it takes for an order to arrive                  |
| Safety stock        | How many days of buffer stock to keep on hand                  |
| Min. order quantity | The smallest quantity that should be included in an order      |

See [Reorder Suggestions](/en/restaurants/automation/reorder-suggestions) for the full guide.

## Common workflow

A typical automation workflow looks like this:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Check operational status">
    Open the **AI Assistant** and ask about low-stock items, recent orders, or stock movements.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review reorder suggestions">
    Open **Reorder Suggestions** to see which ingredients need to be ordered.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check quantities">
    Review the suggested quantities, current stock, consumption, and coverage.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Adjust where needed">
    Change suggested quantities before creating an order.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a draft order">
    Use the assistant or reorder suggestion detail panel to create a draft order.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review and send">
    Review the draft on the orders page before sending it to the vendor.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Creating a draft order through Automations does not send the order automatically. You still review and send it from the orders page.
</Note>

## AI Assistant scope

Before sending a message in the AI Assistant, choose which data the assistant should work with.

| Scope            | What it covers                                                               |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **This company** | Inventory, orders, stock, and suggestions for the currently selected company |
| **Organization** | Data across all companies that belong to your organization                   |

<Note>
  The Organization scope is only available if your company belongs to an organization.
</Note>

Switching scope starts a fresh conversation. Previous conversations remain available in the conversation list under the scope they were created with.

## Reorder suggestion statuses

Reorder suggestions can have different statuses depending on what has happened to them.

| Status    | Meaning                                               |
| --------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| Pending   | Suggestions that need action                          |
| Snoozed   | Suggestions postponed until a future date             |
| Dismissed | Suggestions permanently removed from the current list |
| Ordered   | Suggestions marked as ordered                         |

Use filters on the Reorder Suggestions page to switch between statuses.

## Actions and confirmations

Automation actions always require confirmation before they are executed.

Examples include:

| Action             | What happens                                               |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| Create draft order | Creates an order draft that can be reviewed before sending |
| Snooze suggestion  | Postpones a reorder suggestion until later                 |
| Dismiss suggestion | Removes a suggestion from the pending list                 |
| Reopen suggestion  | Moves a snoozed or dismissed suggestion back to pending    |

If an action completes successfully, Mathership shows a confirmation message.

If an action fails, Mathership shows an error message explaining what went wrong.

## Best practices

* Set up reorder configurations for important ingredients
* Use realistic lead times and safety stock values
* Review suggestions before creating orders
* Check current stock and consumption before confirming quantities
* Use the AI Assistant for quick operational questions
* Use the Reorder Suggestions page for detailed review and actions
* Review draft orders before sending them to vendors
* Check the inventory ledger if stock numbers look wrong

## Limitations

Automations work with the data available in your Mathership account.

They do not:

* Access data outside Mathership
* Send orders automatically without confirmation
* Guarantee perfect calculations in every situation
* Replace manual review for important ordering decisions
* Fix missing ingredient, vendor, product, or mapping data automatically

<Warning>
  Automations can make mistakes if the underlying data is incomplete or incorrect. Always review important suggestions, draft orders, stock values, and financial information before acting on them.
</Warning>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The AI Assistant cannot answer my question">
    Check that:

    * You selected the correct company
    * You selected the correct scope
    * The relevant data exists in Mathership
    * Your question is clear enough
    * You have permission to view the requested data
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="No reorder suggestions are appearing">
    Check that:

    * The ingredient has at least one reorder configuration
    * The review period is set to a value greater than zero
    * There is consumption history for the ingredient
    * The status filter is set to **Pending**
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A suggestion reappears after dismissing it">
    Dismissing removes the suggestion from the pending list, but it does not prevent a new suggestion from being generated if stock remains low.

    Delete the reorder configuration if you want to stop suggestions permanently for that ingredient.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A draft order was not created">
    Check that:

    * At least one item has a quantity greater than zero
    * The vendor product linked to each item still exists
    * You have permission to create orders for this company
    * A required delivery location has been selected
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The numbers look wrong">
    Check:

    * Current stock
    * Recent inventory movements
    * Consumption history
    * Reorder configuration values
    * Storage unit selection
    * Ingredient and product mappings
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related pages

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="AI Assistant" icon="robot" href="/en/restaurants/automation/ai-assistant">
    Ask questions about inventory, orders, and reorder suggestions in plain language.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Reorder Suggestions" icon="lightbulb" href="/en/restaurants/automation/reorder-suggestions">
    View and act on automatically generated reorder recommendations.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ingredients" icon="carrot" href="/en/restaurants/inventory/ingredients">
    Manage the ingredient data used for stock levels and reorder calculations.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Order History" icon="clipboard-list" href="/en/restaurants/ordering/order-history">
    Review previous, draft, and scheduled orders.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>